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Steve Martin's avatar

Much thanks for this condensed version.

You are as intellectually humble as you are erudite — and good at finding inconvenient patterns beneath the sound and fury of the latest updates of fairy dust.

Cheers from Japan.

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Linda Hagge's avatar

Joshua, N. S. Lyons over at The Upheaval has a piece today about nationalism that made me think about what you said here today and yesterday. Another connection is Iain McGilchrist's magisterial book The Matter with Things, which posits that modern society has become so left-brain dominant that it is no longer capable of empathy, but only bean counting and bureaucracy.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

A few people have recommended the N.S. Lyons piece so I just read it. Thanks for sharing.

Lately it seems like everyone is telling me to dive in McGilchrist, which I know I need to to - I'll add it to the pile of things I know I need to read.

With regard to the lack of empathy, I've also read that it may be attributed to calcification of the pineal gland (our north star for consciousness). When I started investigating how this calcification occurs, some of the potential contributing factors *may* include aluminum, fluoride, glyphosate, and electromagnetic waves. If true, this would make sense given how ubiquitous these elements are in modern life.

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Dr. K's avatar

One has always feared the triumph of the SJs and that is what we are seeing...

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oliver marks's avatar

I've read both posts, and what currently comes to mind is that the very transactional Trump's actions in 2025 are very analogous to a federal USA inc classic corporate reorg, aiming for the technocratic blueprint as the desired corporate future state...

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Thanks, Oliver. FWIW, I intentionally try to stay non-partisan in these analyses, so people can engage with the evidence without tribal baggage getting in the way. The patterns often - in fact, usually - transcend the left/right divide entirely.

Since you brought it up, I've seen evidence pointing in multiple directions - some suggesting DJT's awareness and resistance to these systems, others hinting at deeper continuity regardless of who's in office.

As I explored in my piece about the technocracy, these plans were clearly in motion at least a century before the current administration - this corporate governance framework has been (slowly) evolving for generations. Remember, the Fabian Socialists use the tortoise as their logo to signify slow, gradual change:

https://x.com/jstylman/status/1770428541282177225

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Mimi Alberu's avatar

I've been following Patrick Wood's writing on technocracy, but his starting point is much more recent.

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oliver marks's avatar

I'm definitely in the 'continuity regardless of who's in office' non partisan camp. IMO local tribal political baggage is a deliberate distractor from the globalist Fabian tortoise slo mo evolution you mentioned....not unlike the problem/reaction/solution opportunities afforded by financial crises and warfare. US population pendulum swung from the feckless Harris to the Trump 'solution'...

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Looks like we're watching the same movie, Oliver.

Your point about the population pendulum swinging between apparent opposites is spot on. It creates the illusion of meaningful change while the underlying systems continue their evolution. The oscillation between the left/right nonsense may, in fact, serve the stability of the larger structure - like how a pendulum's movement, while appearing dynamic, is actually core to the perfectly stable system.

If technocracy is the real concern (which I believe it is), then the distractions and day-to-day fighting around some real issues (war, economy) and other manufactured ones (culture wars, political appointments) serve a huge purpose - keeping us distracted and divided while the larger transformation proceeds unnoticed.

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John Garn's avatar

We can't forget that the pendulum swinging between the parties is what keeps us hypnotized.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Bingo. United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

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Navyo Ericsen's avatar

I read the entire thing yesterday.

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Richard Beard's avatar

I tead the 12k word one - did not seem to long to me. Thank you!

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Gary’S's avatar

“The corporate transformation was step one; I believe the technocratic takeover is the endgame.” And (arguably) fascism — the union of state and corporate power — has been the long intermediary agenda.

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oliver marks's avatar

Regarding 'fascism', the term was originally entered into the Encyclopedia Italiana by Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who stated that “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” Benito Mussolini would later popularize the quote by his muse Gentile.

'Described by himself and by Benito Mussolini as the "philosopher of fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for Italian fascism...'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Gentile

It pays to look at how the various fascist entities evolved just over 100 years and a generation ago. For me the Italian fascist philosophies are far more analogous to recent world politics and globalization than the 30's German National Socialists, whose history has been warped by Hollywood 'story tellers'

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Kristine Backes's avatar

Thanks for the condensed version, and for doing what I expect might be tedious and time-consuming work for the long version.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

The research has been rolling on this within my "study group" for about 2 years. A conversation I had a couple of weeks ago inspired me to finally write it up. Thanks for reading.

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S. Anderson's avatar

I'm thinking your longer piece would be excellent for a book group, especially since people don't have as much time to read books anymore, and the publication process involved in putting out a book means that books have a hard time keeping up.

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Debbie Lerman's avatar

Thanks for the summary Josh (I admit I did not have time to read the article yesterday) and for the fascinating research and analysis!!!

This article from N.S. Lyons today seems to dovetail nicely with yours, although it does not go as deeply into "conspiracy" territory as you do. Both interpretations of how the U.S. --and all Western countries -- have become corporations are worth considering.

https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/love-of-a-nation/comments

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Hey Debbie, thanks for checking this out. And, for sharing that N.S. Lyons piece - just read it and there's definitely *some* overlap in our thinking, however, I wouldn't say we reached the same conclusion. He's focused on how America feels like a corporation in how leaders relate to citizens (a take I quite enjoyed, btw), whereas I was tracking how I think it *may* have legally transformed into something corporation-like through documented changes. The Ramaswamy/Musk quotes he highlights are pretty telling though - that view of America as either a competitive market or sports franchise fits perfectly with the corporate structure I was exploring.

FWIW, I didn't think my piece was conspiratorial (but then again, I'm a conspiracy theorist, haha). Like you, I try to follow paper trails, in this case the Congressional records and court decisions. When documenting how the transformations happen through formal legal channels over generations, it feels less like a tin foil hat approach and more about witnessing tangible evolution hiding in plain sight.

Of course nation-states are real with huge implications for all of us living inside them. That said, these days I'm far more interested in that supranational layer sitting above it all - the one that seems to operate regardless of which country or party is in power. They appear to move without loyalty to geography, ethnicity, or any moral code we'd recognize - just loyalty to one another while the rest of us become collateral damage through their maneuvering and periodic resets.

If you find time for the longer version, I'd be curious what you think. I wrote this one for my mom who I knew would inevitably call asking to explain.

BTW, just read your piece today. Great stuff, as usual.

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Debbie Lerman's avatar

Haha I put "conspiratorial" in quotes to indicate that it is not, in fact, conspiratorial :)

I was thinking that if the country has been run as a corporation for over a century, then the attitudes discussed by Lyons make even more sense. Also, he traces certain attitudes re nationalism/globalism to the upheavals of the world wars, which makes sense to me. And you trace the impetus for the legal changes back to the Civil War, which also makes sense.

Your article also made me think about that study that showed no matter what percentage of the population supports any given policy, it has a 30% chance of getting implemented, which means the electorate has a near zero impact on what the elected officials do. If that was going on for 100+ years, it would be a natural result of the corporatization of government.

I, too, am far more interested in the supranational layer, which is where all the important "conspiracies" happen!

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Ah, got it - the quotes around "conspiratorial" make much more sense now! 😊

That 30% stat is fascinating - I hadn't heard that specific study but it perfectly illustrates the disconnect. You're right that it's likely a natural outcome of the corporate structure. It sort of feels like the electoral version of the Milgram experiment - we keep pushing the button thinking we're influencing outcomes when the real decisions are happening elsewhere.

The historical timing may go further back, but it's undeniable that the Civil War created the financial desperation. And, Lyon's right that the world wars created the ideological framework - both leading to different aspects of the same transformation. Next time I see you we should have a longer conversation about nationalism and the masonic dualities as they relate the first part of the 20th century. There's a fascinating thread there.

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Quay1's avatar

1869. The illegal passage of the Fourteenth Amendment was the touchstone. All else came from that. Find a book on Amazon. The Sovereign States, Notes of a Citizen of Virginia. Was written in the early 1950’s. By James Jackson Kilpatrick. The government showed up and persuaded him not to publish any more copies. He sold the rights and the government showed up at the publisher and made them destroy the plates. Copies survived and it is back in print thanks to state citizens who made it happen. Get it. Read it. You will understand more.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

I had a whole thing about the 14th Amendment, but ended up cutting it to keep the essay more focused - I also didn't want to get too sidetracked or open up that particular debate, but I think you're right that it's connected to these transformations.

The book recommendation sounds intriguing - especially that publication history. I'll definitely check it out, thanks.

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Dr. K's avatar

Debbie, I was going to link in Lyons' piece from today, but, as always, you are ahead of me! It is definitely complementary from a somewhat different viewpoint. But all worth reading and considering together.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Complementary, indeed.

I'm glad I'm now turned on to Lyon's writing.

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Roundball Shaman's avatar

“Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you that you could be anything in the free republic of America?”

Such a pleasant fantasy. Or, in its once-harmless looking but actually harmful innocence it seemed to be. Fact is, not everyone can be anything they want to be in America. And even much less so today than before. And as any sane person knows, America is anything but a free republic. It isn’t, unless you believe the being ruled by a small group of hidden persons and forces constitutes a free republic.

Governments – like Corporations – at heart are fictions. Nothing more. There is no organic or of objective reality to them. They are mental concoctions fueled by people who believe in them and empower those fictions with their thoughts, actions, and deeds.

The United States Incorporated has been a Corporation for a long time. But as already stated, both Government and Corporations are legal fictions anyway so it doesn’t really make that much of a difference to We the People in the end. And how are both Government and Corporations always run? What is their goal and mission statement? Why do they exist at all? Again, in the same way together: Everything they do is for the good of Government and Corporations and little-to-nothing they do is going to be of any help or benefit to anyone else. And if Government and Corporations do happen to benefit by coincidence something or someone other than themselves? They would consider that to be just a form of unintended collateral damage.

“With the addition of digital surveillance and now, artificial intelligence, we're witnessing the activation of this long-prepared system. What started as a subtle governance shift has evolved into an all-encompassing digital control grid...”.

This is the logical and inevitable destination for a Nation and World when power-mad entities seek benefit only for themselves at the expense and to the violation of everyone else and they are allowed to grow more powerful and out of control. Every new development and invention that comes along will become weaponized by Government and Corporations to be used as a weapon against We the People. And they have become masters at this and are always looking to find more ways and more toys to do so.

“Your identity exists in two forms: the living, breathing you and a paper "legal person"...”.

Your true identity is as a divinely-inspired living being that is totally unique for all of Time. The contrived paper version of ‘you’ is just as empty of authenticity as forms of Government and Corporations. All three of these things are essentially the same – made-up identities that are given existence through mass and widespread belief that they exist as real things. One could call them mass delusions in a sense.

“Academics will likely tear my analysis to shreds...”.

Many academics are some of the most close-minded, limited-thinking and egotistical beings you will ever encounter. If you want to find good answers a good start to your quest to avoid as many ‘Academics’ as you can. And in many cases, believe the exact opposite of what they are saying.

“... a navigation map showing how these separate domains connect to form a larger system... revealing how they interconnect to form a comprehensive architecture that shapes our perceived reality.”

Our perceived reality is in fact (you guessed it) – more contrived fabrications. Universe and all things and life forms in it are all made of energy – Divine Energy if you choose to look at things from a spiritual point of view. Shamans call our Apparent World a Dream World. Why? Because we literally dream it up. There is no objective reality to it even though our senses lie to us that there is such a thing to it. Everything ‘of substance’ is made of sub-atomic particles. And these particles are literally almost entirely empty of objective substance (‘stuff’). It’s all energy that vibrates at different rates to give things a different appearance to our limited capable sensory range.

Quantum Physics teaches that everything is an energy wave until it is ‘observed’. And who is observing? All of us are. And thus, everyone one of us literally observes the energy into what we perceive it to be.

In short, Universal Energy is our clay. And we are the artists that shape that ‘clay’ into what we choose to see and believe about it.

We can choose to see and know The Real. Or we can live out our Earthly lives... 'Living in a Fantasy' (as the old Leo Sayer song goes).

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

I prefer ‘You Make Feel Like Dancing’ :-)

Thanks for the comment, Shaman. Insightful, as always. I’ll be thinking about this one for a bit.

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Hugh's avatar

I think you wrote that well and I agree with you.

Here in Australia the corporatization is even more clear. In 1973 during the Whitlam government we had a subtle change to the constitution, a new coat of arms from the lion & unicorn to the emu & kangaroo, and the parliament was registered in the USA as a corporation. As far as I'm aware most of the government functions are also corporate "for profit" enterprises, such as police and border force.

Many of us are in the process of taking ownership of our 'straw man' identity and becoming unincorporated, for the reasons you've described.

Great article on the most important subject. Please don't be humble or self-deprecating, you're on track - keep expanding the subject with articles like this.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

Thanks for sharing your experience from Australia - I appreciate the confirmation from your perspective.

I wasn't familiar with those specific 1973 changes under the Whitlam government. Fascinating that Australia's transformation was so explicit with the changes. Did anything else happen around that time to trigger them? I've read theories that Australia may function as something of a puppet state, which would explain why - along with places like Canada and New Zealand - it seemed to serve as a testing ground for the globalists during Covid. The authoritarian response there was eye-opening and may make more sense in light of what you're describing.

It's also super interesting to hear about people reclaiming their unincorporated status there. If you have any resources about that process or Australia's corporate transformation that you'd recommend, feel free to drop in the comments. I'm hoping people will share ideas so we can all get smarter.

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ExcessDeathsAU's avatar

>Did anything else happen around that time to trigger them?

Establishment of Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG) located in Australia's central desert - run by the CIA, NSA, NRO. It is critical for all US middle eastern and Pacific adventures - drone strikes, surveillance, clandestine operations, etc. because it is located in the Southern Hemisphere and used for low-altitude satellite communications.

The treaty(tm) was signed in 1966 and the base was operational in 1970 and currently protected by thousands of US marines on permanent rotation. This is the rotten heart of our vassal state status.

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Hugh's avatar

Thanks for appreciating my comment Joshua.

It's like many things, we know what's going on quite well yet haven't put the particular paradigm together so as to explain it to others.

Re the changes to Australian 'ownership' since 1973 I can't offer much. Here's an interesting insight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umVj5XQYAi8

You'll be aware of "reconversion" i.e. legally rejecting the corporate ownership of your strawman under maritime jurisdiction via the undisclosed subterfuge of your "berth certificate", then completing the legal process and declaration that you are the "living soul".

As far as I know at the moment, the mechanism to do so is under the guidance of Anna von Reitz. Her life's journey and current life's work is complex and deep. Here's her website https://annavonreitz.com/

Here in Australia the good souls working with her inspiration and ongoing guidance are the Terra Australis States Assembly. Their website has the Australia specific documentation for anyone on this land to begin the process of reconversion. From "at sea" in the maritime jurisdiction to standing in truth on the soil of the land.

https://terraaustralisstatesassembly.com/

I hope this is helpful.

Take care and keep safe,

Hugh

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India like the country's avatar

I appreciate the condensed version but plan to read the original in full at some point. I have heard a lot of this elsewhere over the years but I appreciate the blow by blow account backed up with primary sources. I started reading the long version the other day and then life overtook me. Have you considered making an audio recording of your longer pieces for those of us who are slow readers and have a hard time keeping our attention focused on a screen that long but who greatly appreciate your thought process and your ability to articulate complex topics? 🙏🏼

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

I've got no plans to do an audiobook, however, the Substack app has an audio function. I use it in the car all the time.

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The 4th Doctor's avatar

Since I'm not seeing others mention it; it's worth noting Substack analytics doesn't appear to accurately capture readers' completion when they use the audio feature. At least, it doesn't from my observations.

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Joshua Stylman's avatar

I don't pay much attention to the Substack analytics. I don't do this for a living - mostly, I'm just trying to get these ideas out there for feedback, knowledge sharing, camaraderie, etc.

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Courageous Lion's avatar

Check this one out written in 2008. The truth is getting out! Read what it says about it. I put up an expose of it on my page. https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Poisonous-Tree-Mel-Stamper/dp/0595524966

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Courageous Lion's avatar

https://www.courageouslion.us/p/fruit-from-a-poisonous-tree The book that is mentioned here get's into your subject matter extremely deep,

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Ty's avatar

You know who else has two different identities? The Lord in the Bible written as both Lord and LORD. LORD in all capital letters is very common in the Old Testament.

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MissRuth's avatar

You are absolutely right. As an avid reader of things worth reading, there is so much most people don't know and wouldn't dare to believe. And it's happening in real time, every day. America a big old corporation, very old. Most people don't know the half of it and don't want to know . . .

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jacob silverman's avatar

very interesting stuff -- both versions . I want to come back and read the whole thing. I like how you point out that it is not specifically logical deduction but rather a compiling of subjective impressions. I just put up a piece called "Investing by Men in Vests"!!!!#

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