Funny I was just watching one of his other lectures a few minutes ago. The looters are the people who, in Bezemenov's analogy, get shot in the end. The only thing different about Atlas Shrugged is that society collapsed SO quickly and completely that there could be no normalization. The crisis was the end in itself... or the beginning?

These lectures took place when I was around 8 years old. I obviously did not watch them until recently. Kids of my age in the final years of the Cold War, we certainly knew Russia/USSR was the enemy, that they had no freedom and a dictatorial government. We knew nothing about Communism or why it was bad, we just believed it because, as tough as it is to believe, there was a society around us, even in the K12 schools, that cautioned how evil it was (though again they never explained why, or any details of what Communism actually was). So if I did see this lecture back then I probably would have completely dismissed it, and that's what society has done. I was thinking about Atlas Shrugged when watching his lecture. I was wondering when it all started. At the opening of the novel they were already deep into the destabilization phase. I wondered, in the Atlas Shrugged universe, when/how did this start? Probably the same way it happened in the real world, after all the novel is set in an unspecified future.

But back to the point of his lecture (and it's pertinence to my original question), I don't believe the looters were the KGB agents, just like the members of the media, most teachers and professors, the "useful idiots", they're not themselves Marxists, they've been caught up in the propaganda game. The stupid teachers you refer to are useful idiots, pawns in a larger game. So are the looters. Some are evil by design, some are well-intentioned but corrupt. Out of corruption, demoralization, inferiority, jealousy, malevolence, take your pick. What I do learn from Yuri's lecture is that it's actually a moot point. They were the useful idiots causing destabilization of a society (either as a direct or side effect) from what we believed to be honest attempts to do good. That's where the rest of us bear responsibility. We didn't listen because this happened so slowly it was like the proverbial frog in boiling water. I had a pretty good education myself. Maybe in the 80s and early 90s when I was in school, there were, looking back at things, very possibly subtle undercurrents of CRT. And yet we learned about US History, we were well-educated in English, literature, math, Chemistry, Physics, Biology. In one of my World Cultures / History class we were taught about what Communism really was. We always pledged to the flag, we took school field trips to Independence Hall, Jockey Hollow & Valley Forge, Washington, D.C. We were given pocket Constitutions on the 200th anniversary of the ratification. While there might have been some CRT bubbling under the surface, it is nowhere even close to the blatant depravity (and as a social liberal I don't use that word lightly) and obvious subversion seen today.

TL;DR My conclusion after watching the Bezmenov lecture today is that whether Rand's looters were intentionally malevolent or not is almost a moot point. Useful idiots are useful idiots.

I found it doubly interesting that of all the things, at the end of Yuri's lecture, the cure/prevention was a belief in a higher power that propaganda could not break.... sounds like a mystic to me :)

Having just watched on YouTube again" KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov warns America" of the now almost complete plan to brainwash America into destroying itself, I believe stupd teachers have trained our kids according to this plan, clueless of teh outcome. They have taught them the ways of Marxism/Stalinism as good. They have turned them against laws, wulres, parents. Tehy have not allowed them to know who they even are, sexually or intellecturally! This was a Soviet program, but the Biden/Soros team with Obama, have pushed it for its final stretch! Listen to the video. I had seen it before, but forgotten it, but I also have the Communist Party USA handbook from several years ago, which pretty much said teh same, less eloquently. It was based on the book "Brainwashing in Red China" which I also possess. Kids have beend one wrong, but no excuses, as my Existentialism prof. used to say. They, to some extent cand read, as did I.

Then again, Taggart had that mental breakdown at the end, maybe forced to witness what he got everyone into. Too late by then of course.

I think that encompasses it well.

The looters have to force the non looters to willingly let them loot. Its a power struggle, and the looters dont care what the results of their thoughts and actions are- just whether they get power. For me, that is EVIL.

They can be both.

The looters are malevolent. Those who support and protect them are so devoid of self that they are easily gas lit into defending and supporting the very means to their violent ends. I spent a tortuous 7 hours total attending a local Board of Commissioners hearing in my small rural town yesterday to find out just what the hell goes on at these meetings where five elected county commissioners (we do not have any other town government) pass resolutions that basically bound us legally to the decisions they make as the governing body for the County. A woman who I have previously identified as a master manipulator, and social metaphysician in the past (and now I add grifter to her list of vile monikers) appeared before the "Board" to ask for a "cushion" advance of $120K as a "petty cash fund" for her $1.2 Million ARPA grant because she has already burned through the $200,000 advance she received on January 1, 2023 to use to pay for the hand outs she is giving away to the "community" with her "organizations.". Now, this is federal money given to our county ($10 million total, yeah, let that sink in, $10 million) for ARPA the American Recovery Protection Act, or Covid money. That program is supposed to end Sept 2023, but wait, there's more, the Inflation Recovery Act promises the money will keep flowing in until 2025. I have also learned that this woman earns $68K/yr from these funds to "disperse help that heals her soul" to the community. She has turned out little quiet retirement hamlet into a mecca for the homeless and we are now overrun with parasites coming from the left coast and I have also found out that since she arrived in our town in 2017 she was fired from running a telecom into the ground, and has gotten cuddly with the local GOP who have their fingers in every one of these organizations slurping up those Biden Covid Bill dollars. We are so fucked as nation, from the counties up to DC and the only way to deal with these parasites is to overthrow them. They are all malevolent and those who have zero sense of self and feel that they need to apologize for being alive and having made a success of their lives are just as guilty as the destroyers who are tearing it apart. They are all evil. No excuses, no mercy. What I learned yesterday is that they are all evil, GOP and Dems alike because this town is allegedly a RED 2A loving county, and yet, we are so rife with corruption and being perverted into a leftist haven of welfare it is astonishing and yet oooh, they are all soothing their souls giving working Americans money away to the drug addled, disease riddled, purple haired and multiple pierced feral savages invading our town. I asked that the oh so santicmonious snake oil saleswoman who runs these programs have her disbursements audited because her rate of spending will have her exhausting her grant within 6 months, before the next grant date opens and it set her off like a roman candle. The entire Board squirmed in their seats and all of this told me everything I needed to know. America is gone and there is only way out of this. Be prepared.

Finally this Satanic activity is coming to light.
Once awake you will never go back to sleep.
As a nation and as a humans we all need to support children.

Hi CaptainKirk, I don’t know anything about her. I will look into her and after I will respond with some knowledge.

Thank you Katrina, these people will stop at nothing to push the country into madness.

Read “One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol 2”. First book I had to stop reading it was so damned dark…

Is human nature malevolent?
(Human Actions, certainly can be)

I think that's the same question.

But I feel the looters are a shield, used by the elites to divide/conquer and to justify things.

The SHEEPLE that align behind them are 99% manipulated/brainwashed or in a Mass Formation.

I TRULY believe you can ONLY Fault the people who COMPREHEND that taking from the productive people, against their will, and redistributing it actually causes great harms... And then they decide it's worth the harm that it does... For some "equality/equity/social bs"... THOSE people are malevolent.

Wanting to help the down-trodden is a part of human nature. Expecting people to stand up, and do it on their own, is ALSO human nature. Dr. Jordan Peterson makes the point. We need BOTH of these groups... Working together, to create the best of society.

But when ONE SIDE becomes all-powerful... Well, NAZI's were socialists, Communists. All murderers.
And Capitalism, despite it's flaws, tends NOT to kill it's customers.
until Governments get involved.

Power without the ability to Stand Up to it... Is the problem Regardless of which side it is on.

Dobrien, what do you think of Whitney Webb and her many interviews (and books) detailing this stuff?

I'll add a reminder to think about Rand's idea of "the sanction of the victim." The evil ones gain power from the inaction and the support of the rest of us.

To keep things interesting, look at Eddie Willers. Is he good or evil? How do we know? What lie does he tell right on the first page of the novel?

I think its utterly amazing what effort people will put into their fraud. I just have to wonder why they don't just use their energy to do something productive...

Is the person a private citizen or a government lackey? If the former they might be guilty primarily of laziness. Public stewards, however, can not be given such leeway: their malfeasance damages all of society.

My thought is that it depends on the individual in question. Those elected I believe are actively evil and intending the destruction of America. But those that vote for them are mostly well intentioned idiots or was the term useful idiots the correct term?

Dobrien, here's a link to that story. It makes me want to go postal.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/washing...

I always thought the characters of Shrugged were meant to be signposts for the reader, warning what to watch for, written as exaggeration to make the warnings more visible. I was wrong. She meant them to reflect real, live pieces of slime, no exaggeration necessary. They walk among us and we can't tell who is what without a voting record or donation record. Take a page from their book and go gray. Spend time researching every candidate (if you still vote) and watch the council meeting and school board meetings like a hawk.

The ones putting on the clown show in public are incompetent. The puppeteers behind the scenes are evil.

Just after Trump failed to beat the cheat that deprived him of a second term, me dino recalls an emotional Chuck Schumer stating that Trump should not be allowed "to be president ever again!"
(I paraphrased up to what I put into quotation marks).
Why did the concept of Deep State investments in Chinese business ventures just pop into me dino's head?

I believe that incompetence LEADS to malevolence.

If your incapable of comprehending something, simply destroy it...like capitalism or freedom.

Atlas Shrugged, like 1984 and Brave New World were not supposed to be "How to" guides

they were meant as warnings

Many parallels of today and Rand’s novel that is evident with the phrase Atlas Shrugged now non-fiction.I have read your comments as well as your post. You are missing a very Key component and so was Ayn Rand in her incredible novel. In regards to whether they were altruistic or evil.
Think Jeffery Epstien as a perfect example. He was working with Ghislaine Maxwell they were working for the MotherWEFs spy agencies Mosad & and C_A and likely protected by the FBLie. It was a Blackmail operation. Certainly Politicians but Society influencers and scientists were the main targets. The list of notable people on his flight logs riding on his plane called the Lolita Express is a who’s who of celebrities. Lolita was a main character in a book she was a victim of a pedo file. The scientists were compromised and their research was stolen at the minimum. He had many Professors come to the island , then he would send the young girls to socialize with them . Being videotaped they would determine what girl the researcher was attracted to. The mark would then be offered a research grant , but they would then be asked to take the girl on as an intern. Once installed she would steal the research info and pass it back to Maxwell or Epstien. Of note his plane had traveled to Ukraine at least a couple of Dozen times to human traffice Eastern European women. Epstein was not the only game in town it just happens to be someone that normies like yourself are aware of. There are likely dozens of blackmailers around the country. Once compromised these people do as they are told , period. Example …Washington State just passed a law allowing the state to take and hide Children who have been convinced to be trannies by the Groomers, from their Parents. No one in their right mind would thinQ that is reasonable legislation. Those that passed that garbage are totally controlled.

I'm not trying to make a blanket statement. On the whole I think you're right. I also wasn't trying to make a direct comparison between fictional politicians and real ones, though there are enough similarities. I think the corruption is endemic in the two party system. Maybe I'm naive but I do believe that most people who enter public service do so for the right reasons. But the temptations of money and power in DC is like the Ring of Power. Too many Elendils, not enough Frodos.