Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, filed legislation to ensure public and charter school libraries are free from inappropriate materials. Senate Bill 1208 would require each public school district and charter school to submit an inventory of their library materials to the State Department of Education each year.

In a statement today, Hamilton said, “Children are too often exposed to material that is explicit and not age appropriate, and the last place that should be occurring is in our state’s schools.

“This legislation would put safeguards in place to not only ensure that students are protected from reading or viewing inappropriate content, but that the school districts are held accountable for the availability of such materials,” Hamilton added.

Hamilton’s bill would require schools to have written policies for reviewing the educational suitability and age-appropriate nature of any material in a library, and for receiving and responding to complaints regarding books and materials in libraries.

Parents can hope that this bill swiftly moves through the Oklahoma Legislature. It should have been in place decades ago. Parents are encouraged to contact their House and Senate Representatives in support of this common sense. You can find your elected legislators and track bills at this link.

In many districts, it would be easier to take a selfie with Fort Knox gold than find out the details of what material is available to minors, vulnerable children, in their local school libraries.

SB 1208 can be considered during the 2024 legislative session, which begins Feb. 5.

,Bill Would Require School List of Materials
Click on this headline to read the full report at Tulsa Today.

Yet another form of group think/counter mass formation.

Since the fall of 2022 I have been struggling to describe a behavioral group dynamic that I keep observing which is operating within the “medical freedom movement”, and have used the historic term “Jacobin” (referring to one particularly brutal phase of the French revolution) to define a process which commonly tears apart almost all resistance movements. This natural process is actively exploited by opponents using methods such as “Bad Jacketing”; accusations of controlled opposition and the like, to sow mistrust and accelerate fragmentation.

But recently I have discovered more modern terms for the process. Moral outbidding and its consequence – Purity spirals, and “Othering”. These terms and the social behaviors which they describe are related to group think as well as to counter mass formation, but carry their own nuances.

Last night I allowed myself to remain on a podcast with a defrocked UK surgeon for 2.5 hours of the most aggressive, accusatory interview I have ever had. Bad on me. It started off with the surgeon telling me that a lot of people hated me (I should have just left then), and then proceeded to a series of accusations and purity tests which I was told to answer with yes or no, and then berated if I gave an answer which failed the host’s purity standards.

It was like a rollup of almost all of the hater memes that I have been subjected to over the last three years. With the notable exception that in this instance at least I was not accused of being a mass murderer. I did my best to stay calm, but did resort to calling out BS at a couple of points.

Afterwards, having blown the evening on this abusive exercise, I resorted to my go-to defense mechanism of intellectualizing what just happened. Thinking back over the experience, what I found particularly intriguing was that I had lead off the interview by mentioning the rise of purity spirals in these splinter hate groups, but the host just ignored that point rather than following up with the obvious question.

---

What the heck is a purity spiral?

Purity Spiral: Urban Dictionary A social ratchet effect within a community. A process of moral outbidding, unchecked, which corrodes the group from within, rewarding those who put themselves at the extremes, and punishing nuance relentlessly.

A purity spiral can contain all of these things, but it is defined by the fact that it takes place in a defined community or society, where being purer-than-thou is always being rewarded, and holding a divergent, ‘less pure’ opinion is normally punished, a dynamic which leads to an inevitable escalation as only the most extreme can ‘win’.

After Louise denounced Nike as bourgeois, the village fell into a purity spiral where first Nikes, then all sneakers, then all shoes, and later, socks, were burnt on a pyre by the villagers.

Foot amputations followed in the Spring.

Near as I can tell, the terms “moral outbidding” and “purity spiral” can be traced back to a 2020 UnHerd essay and a BBC broadcast by Gavin Haynes, with the curious title “How knitters got knotted in a purity spiral. A process of moral outbidding is corroding small communities from within”. The following is an abstract of key insights described in that essay.

Like “Mass Formation”, “Moral outbidding” and “Purity spirals” are new terms reflecting group dynamic insights, and are not (yet) used by mainstream modern psychology. The closest accepted term in psychology which I can find is “Moral grandstanding”, which is related to another newer term which has gained wide acceptance because it fits this type of social dynamic – “Virtue signaling”, commonly used in reference to a behavior pattern most often seen in members of the liberal/progressive or left wing of the US political spectrum.

Writing in “Psychology Today”, Sandro Galea M.D. poses “The Challenge of Moral Grandstanding. When the wish to look good prevents us from truly doing good.”

KEY POINTS

Here are three other related concepts which are useful in understanding the purity spirals that are occurring in various subgroups and cliques. All of these are actively exploited by chaos agents and professional PsyWar infiltrators such as the UK’s 77th Brigade:

Emotional appeal is a persuasive technique that relies on descriptive language and imagery to evoke an emotional response and convince the recipient of a particular point of view. An emotional appeal manipulates the audience’s emotions, especially when there is a lack of factual evidence. 

Gang Stalking (Cyber) is a form of cyberstalking or cyberbullying, in which a group of people target an individual online to harass them through repeated threat threats, fear inducing behavior, bullying, teasing, intimidation, gossip and bad jacketing.

Sophistry is the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving. It is a technique often used by corporate media and factcheckers.

---

Which leads us to Othering

“Othering” is a phenomenon where individuals or groups are defined, labeled and targeted as not fitting in within the norms of a social group. This is a tactic used by the deep state, politicians and the media. Chaos agents as well as propaganda are used to create a sense of divide. This influences how people perceive and treat those who are viewed as being part of the in-group versus those who are seen as being part of the out-group. This can happen on both a small and very large scale.

Those individuals and cliques/cults that are caught up in promoting purity spirals fail to recognize that, by constantly pushing group think further and further from objective, documentable reality, they are playing right into the hands of chaos agents and propagandists. As these groups are driven by the psychosocial dynamics of moral outbidding, their increasingly strident positions become divorced from the objective, observable truth which the majority of the populace can perceive in their own daily lives. In turn, this process makes these cliques and cults easy targets for those who employ the PsyWar tactic of “Othering” to delegitimize not just the radicalized splinter group, but also those in adjacent communities which share common objectives with the clique/cult which has become consumed by the dynamics of a moral outbidding purity spiral.

It becomes a trivial propagandist exercise to lump fringe extremes with the protest movement which birthed them, and thereby delegitimize all concerned.

Action items:

• Recognize moral outbidding, purity spirals, gang stalking, the use of emotional appeals and Othering.
• Avoid falling victim to these psychosocial forces and processes
• Call out others who are (perhaps unwittingly) deploying these strategies and tactics, and point out the damage that they are doing to their greater (shared) objectives by falling victim to those who intentionally provoke these processes to promote divisiveness and fragmentation

About the author: Robert W. Malone MD, MS is the inventor of mRNA & DNA vaccines, RNA as a drug. Scientist, physician, writer, podcaster, commentator, advocate and a believer in fundamental freedom of speech. You may become a free or paid subscriber to his Substack at this link. Malone’s frequent emails are treasured here on arrival for abundant facts, wisdom and humor. A previous post on Tulsa Today by Dr. Malone titled PsyWars: Fifth Gen. Warefare & Sovereignty is a reproduction of his public speech to the Pandemic Strategies Conference in Stockholm, Sweden on January 21, 2023 which is recommended and, we believe, of great significance for Americans seeking to understand the current narratives of continual crisis.

For prior related essays in this series, please see the following

J’Accuse! A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing in the hands of the uninformed

SEP 13, 2022

Mission Creeps: Culture Warriors that Cry Wolf, One cause of political movement overreach

DEC 30, 2023

MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS or… mass hypnosis- the madness of crowds

DEC 09, 2021

Don’t be Brain Dead In other words, think for yourself

FEB 26, 2022

Administrative State: bad training -> bad decisions “Forming, storming, norming and performing” consensus drives towards Groupthink

AUG 16, 2022

,Purity Spirals Incoming!
Click on this headline to read the full report at Tulsa Today.

Today, legendary singer, songwriter and producer Lionel Richie announced in a statement the extension of his Sing A Song All Night Long tour with very special guests and one of the best-selling bands of all time, Earth, Wind & Fire. Produced by Live Nation, the 2024 13-date run of shows kicks off on Thursday, May 23 in Knoxville at Thompson Boling Arena, with stops in Jacksonville, Memphis, Kansas City, Columbus and BOK Center in Tulsa on Friday, June 7. 

Tickets go on sale Friday, January 19 at 10AM and will be available online at www.bokcenter.com.

VIP: The tour will also offer a variety of different VIP packages and experiences for fans to take their concert experience to the next level. Packages vary but may include premium tickets, access to the pre-show VIP lounge, limited edition tour posters, specially designed VIP gift items and more. For more information, visit vipnation.com.

The 2024 dates follow a highly successful 2023 sold-out 20-date run of the Sing A Song All Night Long tour which made its way through North America with stops in Chicago, Boston, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and more.
 
2023 was another pivotal year for music icon Lionel Richie, who has sold over 125 million albums. He was recently inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, won the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library Congress and was honored at Kennedy Center Honors. Richie has served as a judge on ABC’s “American Idol,” for the past six seasons and will return for its 7th season, set to debut in February 2024.
 
With over 100 million albums sold worldwide and an impressive nine GRAMMY® Awards, Earth, Wind & Fire has cemented their lasting impact on popular music as they continue to inspire new audiences and thrill those who have been with them from the beginning. Most recently, the legendary musical group earned their 27th career GRAMMY® nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance as a featured artist on Victoria Monét’s song “Hollywood.” These two iconic artists have now sold a combined quarter billion albums worldwide.
  
SING A SONG ALL NIGHT LONG 2024 TOUR DATES:
Thu May 23 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena
Sat May 25 – Jacksonville, FL – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
Tue May 28 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena
Wed May 29 – Memphis, TN – FedEx Forum
Fri May 31 – Orlando, FL – Kia Center
Tue Jun 04 – San Antonio, TX – Frost Bank Center
Thu Jun 06 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
Fri Jun 07 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
Sun Jun 09 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
Wed Jun 12 – Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center
Thu Jun 13 – Columbus, OH – Schottenstein Center
Sat Jun 15 – Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
Sun Jun 16 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena

,Sing A Song All Night Long
Click on this headline to read the full report at Tulsa Today.

The debt of the United States of America now exceeds $34 trillion, and– for the first time in American history– the government has to borrow 100% of the money needed to fund regular operational expenses of $1.5 trillion.

What a sad and disturbing mess! New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is setting up a bi-partisan debt commission to work on ideas to get our fiscal house in order. “The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt,” Johnson said during his first speech from the speaker’s dais in the House chamber. “We know this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences—if we don’t act now—are unbearable.”

I truly hope this panel of members bears some fruit, but if you think about it, the entire Congress is already a commission that should be dealing with the financial mess staring us in the face. Imagine a sinking ship with all the crew just standing around saying let’s debate some ideas to save the ship!

The time for action has come—and drastic action at that. The first budget deal between the Senate Democrats and the House Republicans doesn’t appear to indicate much progress.

Governance without a shutdown is good, but keeping spending at current levels we can’t afford, without borrowing even more money isn’t much of a strategy. Our small business would be bankrupt if I followed such a strategy.

The election season starts now, and hopefully the American people will demand an actual plan to fix our finances from the Senate, the House and our next President.

About the author: Mike Mazzei, CFP®, MPAS®, is the President of Tulsa Wealth Advisors. A Certified Financial Planner professional, and Master Planner Advanced Studies, he created The Financial Freedom Process to help individuals leverage their wealth in order to help them achieve their lifetime visions. Mike is a former Oklahoma State Senator (Dist. 25 in Tulsa) & OK Sec. of Budget. He is the proud husband to Noel and father to 5 great kids.

,US Debt Crushing Economy
Click on this headline to read the full report at Tulsa Today.

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,Thinking and Believing
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,Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Damning Testimony
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,OU to Unravel Past in Anadarko Basin
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