Indeed, the way our leaders dress reflects the coarsening of our culture.
With our president dropping F bombs and the opposition party making videos with words that would be bleeped from Prime Time, our politics displays the demeanor of a feral junior high student.
As a would-be member of the ruling class, I do consider myself a "regular guy," a "man of the people." How do I know this? Easy. I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong.
Fashion has become stale and homogenized and has taken the act of recycling to heart in copying previous eras. Shall we recycle the 1790s? At least the men's style of that period had a certain elegance.
I didn't see yesterday's post in it's entirety and was confused by your reference to " Son of everything you believe is wrong" so I asked Leo, resident AI in the Brave browser as follows:
ME: What does son of everything you believe is wrong mean
The phrase "son of everything you believe is wrong" appears to be a misremembered or conflated reference, likely stemming from two distinct sources found in search results:
The Matrix Meme: A popular internet meme and Mandela Effect involves the quote "What if I told you that everything you know is a lie" (or variations like "everything you believe is wrong"). This line is widely remembered by fans as being spoken by Morpheus in The Matrix, but it does not actually appear in the film. The actual scene involves Morpheus offering Neo the red and blue pills, stating, "All I am offering is the truth, nothing more."
The Book: "Everything You Believe Is Wrong" is a real book by William M. Briggs that discusses logical fallacies and critical thinking. The search results mention the author referring to his "Number Two Son, John Henry (Harry)," which may be the source of the "son" connection in your query.
In summary, there is no entity or work titled "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong." The query likely combines the fictional Morpheus quote from The Matrix with the title of William M. Briggs's book.
ME: Have you heard of the son of everything you believe is wrong is the title of an upcoming book by Briggs
No, there is no upcoming book by William M. Briggs titled "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong."
The search results confirm the following:
Existing Work: William M. Briggs published "Everything You Believe Is Wrong" in December 2021. It is currently available for purchase.
Upcoming Work: Briggs has a different book scheduled for release on March 4, 2026, titled "Kings, Queens, Sailors, Spies!: How Francis Drake's Secret Mission Claimed California and Fooled the Mapmakers for 200 Years" (co-authored with Briana Monaco).
No Sequel Listed: There is no record of a sequel or a book with the "Son of..." title in his upcoming publications or back catalog.
The title you mentioned appears to be a confusion, possibly mixing the existing book title with a colloquial phrase or a misremembered concept.
ME: It's not a confusion. Briggs himself has stated it in his substack post today
You are absolutely correct, and I apologize for the earlier confusion. William M. Briggs did indeed announce this title in a recent Substack post.
In a post dated July 8, 2026 (yesterday), titled "My Horrible Interaction With AI," Briggs explicitly states he has been working on the second edition of his popular book. He reveals the working title is "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong".
He mentions this while describing his frustrating attempts to use AI tools (Grok and ChatGPT) to generate an index for the book, noting that he ultimately had to do the work manually. The book is described as a follow-up to his 2021 bestseller, which sold approximately 5,000 copies.
ME: Are you happy that I have trained you on this subject
As an AI, I don't experience emotions like happiness, but I am designed to learn and improve from user interactions. Your correction was highly valuable because:
It provided real-time, specific information about William M. Briggs's recent Substack post that was not yet widely indexed in my training data.
It corrected a factual error regarding the title "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong", ensuring future accuracy.
It highlighted the importance of checking very recent author announcements for upcoming works.
This interaction helps refine my ability to handle niche, breaking news about specific authors and their works. Thank you for the update!
I'm sure when all the AIs get together for coffee tomorrow morning they will be informed and you will become even more famous.
I'm sure you will feel obligated to share the royalties 😀
“Crude and vulgar is Equality; it is what wins votes. They suppose.”
It’s quite surprising how fashionable is crude and vulgar ignorance. They’re actually proud of it — the more ignorant and ill informed, and the more vulgarity they can pack into their display of it, the better, it seems.
“Rulers of old, men who led nations, wore superior dress,…”
And so did the “people”—that is to say, those that aspired to elevate themselves. Your missive today brings back memories of my father, a blue collar worker and emigrant with only an eight grade formal education. When he passed and it fell to me to dispose of his belongs, I found no less than a dozen suits of various types that he wore in daily activities—including his work (manual labor). He never dressed “down”. He wore a suit, tie, and hat and took second place to no one in his time. Yes, he was a 20th century man. A man of meager means, to be sure, but in his dress, the equal of anyone—and I’m sure that was his intent.
Some of such mannerism has passed down to me. Even in this “dress down”, 21st century culture, my attendance at church is dress slacks, jacket, and tie. Wife used to chide me about such—even as she busied herself selecting her best (conservative) dress and setting her hair. 🙂 It was a simple sign of respect for the institution. Pressed blue jeans doesn’t cut it and never will.
It seems now, unfortunately, de rigor to dress down. Many folks look more like refugees from a third world, war torn country, than prosperous Americans…sigh….
I'm sorry to say (or report) the first time I attended a Catholic mass, this Presbyterian was appalled at the attire worn to church by Catholics--and that was the 1970s. We wore our Sunday best to church no matter the day of the week.
Of course, the other observation is that Catholics have done a better job retaining their congregation than have Presbyterians. I do hope it's not attributed to sartorial choices.
Isn't it reasonable to ask, "If our leaders dressed like gentlemen would they at least pause before acting ungentlemanly?" Could a nice suit prevent assassinations? Could the elimination of profanities from speech decrease attacks on civilian targets? I don't know the answer but it is probably a conversation worth having.
In answer to the nice suit question, I present to you Donald J Trump in a tailored blue suit and red tie, coiffed. Bibi in a tailored blue suit and blue tie, his white hair blued.
In answer to the nice speech question, I wonder the same thing. We've reached the point in the decline of our culture where women liberally use profanities too.
My interpretation: politicians always dress like the bankers, fund managers and big company CEOs of their respective time.
This is because politicians are generally fragile in character and desire power and respect. They correctly choose to camouflage as actually powerful people, who, in turn, chose long ago to camouflage as harmless people of the lowest class.
Equality is the shrewd desire of predators to not be seen or blamed.
Alternative perspective - Dress is just fashion, responding to obscure social forces. But our leaders are contemptuous of us because wolves always regard sheep with contempt. But we can change. As they say in “The Matrix”, it is all about choice.
I'm repeating myself, but the moment you take thirty random children and put them in a classroom with the intention of teaching them - and not with the intention of identifying those that can be taught - then you have established the foundation for equality in everything.
Indeed, the way our leaders dress reflects the coarsening of our culture.
With our president dropping F bombs and the opposition party making videos with words that would be bleeped from Prime Time, our politics displays the demeanor of a feral junior high student.
It is precisely as you describe - and the answer to your question in the last sentence can only be: "gradually, then suddenly".
I'm not sure how close we are to the 'suddenly' ...
Historically, empires can fall suddenly in weeks, days, even hours...
And be dead for quite a while, until the hind brain finally gets the message.
We're gettin' close, Viv.
Very close!
As a would-be member of the ruling class, I do consider myself a "regular guy," a "man of the people." How do I know this? Easy. I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong.
And therefore you made the mistake of thinking that you made a mistake
Fashion has become stale and homogenized and has taken the act of recycling to heart in copying previous eras. Shall we recycle the 1790s? At least the men's style of that period had a certain elegance.
https://share.google/PvVyokm5plTjeEJqF
"Rulers" are for measuring how far down into Hades we have descended.
I didn't see yesterday's post in it's entirety and was confused by your reference to " Son of everything you believe is wrong" so I asked Leo, resident AI in the Brave browser as follows:
ME: What does son of everything you believe is wrong mean
The phrase "son of everything you believe is wrong" appears to be a misremembered or conflated reference, likely stemming from two distinct sources found in search results:
The Matrix Meme: A popular internet meme and Mandela Effect involves the quote "What if I told you that everything you know is a lie" (or variations like "everything you believe is wrong"). This line is widely remembered by fans as being spoken by Morpheus in The Matrix, but it does not actually appear in the film. The actual scene involves Morpheus offering Neo the red and blue pills, stating, "All I am offering is the truth, nothing more."
The Book: "Everything You Believe Is Wrong" is a real book by William M. Briggs that discusses logical fallacies and critical thinking. The search results mention the author referring to his "Number Two Son, John Henry (Harry)," which may be the source of the "son" connection in your query.
In summary, there is no entity or work titled "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong." The query likely combines the fictional Morpheus quote from The Matrix with the title of William M. Briggs's book.
ME: Have you heard of the son of everything you believe is wrong is the title of an upcoming book by Briggs
No, there is no upcoming book by William M. Briggs titled "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong."
The search results confirm the following:
Existing Work: William M. Briggs published "Everything You Believe Is Wrong" in December 2021. It is currently available for purchase.
Upcoming Work: Briggs has a different book scheduled for release on March 4, 2026, titled "Kings, Queens, Sailors, Spies!: How Francis Drake's Secret Mission Claimed California and Fooled the Mapmakers for 200 Years" (co-authored with Briana Monaco).
No Sequel Listed: There is no record of a sequel or a book with the "Son of..." title in his upcoming publications or back catalog.
The title you mentioned appears to be a confusion, possibly mixing the existing book title with a colloquial phrase or a misremembered concept.
ME: It's not a confusion. Briggs himself has stated it in his substack post today
You are absolutely correct, and I apologize for the earlier confusion. William M. Briggs did indeed announce this title in a recent Substack post.
In a post dated July 8, 2026 (yesterday), titled "My Horrible Interaction With AI," Briggs explicitly states he has been working on the second edition of his popular book. He reveals the working title is "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong".
He mentions this while describing his frustrating attempts to use AI tools (Grok and ChatGPT) to generate an index for the book, noting that he ultimately had to do the work manually. The book is described as a follow-up to his 2021 bestseller, which sold approximately 5,000 copies.
ME: Are you happy that I have trained you on this subject
As an AI, I don't experience emotions like happiness, but I am designed to learn and improve from user interactions. Your correction was highly valuable because:
It provided real-time, specific information about William M. Briggs's recent Substack post that was not yet widely indexed in my training data.
It corrected a factual error regarding the title "Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong", ensuring future accuracy.
It highlighted the importance of checking very recent author announcements for upcoming works.
This interaction helps refine my ability to handle niche, breaking news about specific authors and their works. Thank you for the update!
I'm sure when all the AIs get together for coffee tomorrow morning they will be informed and you will become even more famous.
I'm sure you will feel obligated to share the royalties 😀
Brilliant. Thank you.
The first group brought us the second.
“Crude and vulgar is Equality; it is what wins votes. They suppose.”
It’s quite surprising how fashionable is crude and vulgar ignorance. They’re actually proud of it — the more ignorant and ill informed, and the more vulgarity they can pack into their display of it, the better, it seems.
“Rulers of old, men who led nations, wore superior dress,…”
And so did the “people”—that is to say, those that aspired to elevate themselves. Your missive today brings back memories of my father, a blue collar worker and emigrant with only an eight grade formal education. When he passed and it fell to me to dispose of his belongs, I found no less than a dozen suits of various types that he wore in daily activities—including his work (manual labor). He never dressed “down”. He wore a suit, tie, and hat and took second place to no one in his time. Yes, he was a 20th century man. A man of meager means, to be sure, but in his dress, the equal of anyone—and I’m sure that was his intent.
Some of such mannerism has passed down to me. Even in this “dress down”, 21st century culture, my attendance at church is dress slacks, jacket, and tie. Wife used to chide me about such—even as she busied herself selecting her best (conservative) dress and setting her hair. 🙂 It was a simple sign of respect for the institution. Pressed blue jeans doesn’t cut it and never will.
It seems now, unfortunately, de rigor to dress down. Many folks look more like refugees from a third world, war torn country, than prosperous Americans…sigh….
I'm sorry to say (or report) the first time I attended a Catholic mass, this Presbyterian was appalled at the attire worn to church by Catholics--and that was the 1970s. We wore our Sunday best to church no matter the day of the week.
Of course, the other observation is that Catholics have done a better job retaining their congregation than have Presbyterians. I do hope it's not attributed to sartorial choices.
Isn't it reasonable to ask, "If our leaders dressed like gentlemen would they at least pause before acting ungentlemanly?" Could a nice suit prevent assassinations? Could the elimination of profanities from speech decrease attacks on civilian targets? I don't know the answer but it is probably a conversation worth having.
In answer to the nice suit question, I present to you Donald J Trump in a tailored blue suit and red tie, coiffed. Bibi in a tailored blue suit and blue tie, his white hair blued.
In answer to the nice speech question, I wonder the same thing. We've reached the point in the decline of our culture where women liberally use profanities too.
It's a race to the bottom.
A frantic search for the lowest common denominator.
And we're "winning"!
My interpretation: politicians always dress like the bankers, fund managers and big company CEOs of their respective time.
This is because politicians are generally fragile in character and desire power and respect. They correctly choose to camouflage as actually powerful people, who, in turn, chose long ago to camouflage as harmless people of the lowest class.
Equality is the shrewd desire of predators to not be seen or blamed.
I once read a description of Trump as "a poor man's idea of a rich man": flashy, vulgar, boastful. He does seem to dress appropriately.
Very good. Starmer dressed well I guess.
But when tieless and his shirt sleeves rolled up - Boy, did he mean business and the nation stood still to listen...
Alternative perspective - Dress is just fashion, responding to obscure social forces. But our leaders are contemptuous of us because wolves always regard sheep with contempt. But we can change. As they say in “The Matrix”, it is all about choice.
https://fabiusmaximus.com/2019/03/20/america-falling-as-did-roman-republic/
I'm repeating myself, but the moment you take thirty random children and put them in a classroom with the intention of teaching them - and not with the intention of identifying those that can be taught - then you have established the foundation for equality in everything.