Finding My Place Between Reality and the Tin Foil Crew.
Jordan, you have to be categorised - some honest thoughts (it's been a while).
I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but as we witness the cringe-worthy, painfully woke Paris Olympics and, in Australia, the overwhelming support for The Matildas—who are supposed to represent women but are far from it (with over 50% being homosexual)—or consider that breakdancing display in the once-cherished green and gold Australian colours, it all feels damn out of touch.
Reflecting on Australia’s Past
I can’t help but think that Australia, as a country, lost its peak long ago.
Back in the 1990s, when I was a kid, sports were just sports, and schools were simply schools. You proudly sang the national anthem and learned about the country’s history without being burdened by guilt or shame from colonization. There was no forced narrative of segregation—you were simply taught to be Australian, regardless of your skin colour.
Boys were boys, girls were girls. Sure, there were a few oddballs, but they usually found their way without needing to be coddled or have their feelings constantly spotlighted.
Now, at 33, although I think differently from most, I am not overly “tin foil-hatted.”
The Shift in Values
What is a “tin foil hat”? It’s a colloquial term used to describe someone overly concerned with conspiracy theories. This seems to go hand in hand with folks who think Australia has lost its way—people I increasingly cross paths with.
But for me, at the end of the day, I’m just a middle-class Australian. I grew up in Tasmania, went through the public school system, and played a ton of sports—pretty normal for a ’90s millennial growing up in Australia.
I didn’t attend some dingbat hippie school disconnected from reality. You know, the kind where kids aren’t taught anything useful, don’t wear uniforms, and end up as social oddballs who struggle to fit in.
I agree that the school system in the West is becoming increasingly concerning. However, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to guide their thinking from home as a parent while also exposing them to the broader society through the school system.
I’ve seen people suggest avoiding the public or private school system altogether, but you don’t want to raise an oddball who lacks social skills and can’t manage the diverse spectrum of personalities and viewpoints. Still, I get the urge. Values are shifting quickly.
The COVID-19 Tipping Point
In my home state Tasmania, the only “centre-right” government in Australia openly supports men in women’s bathrooms and the YES vote for segregation in the recent referendum. Universities are left-wing socialist hellholes, and I can’t help but feel that something fundamental has shifted.
My dad, a retired public education teacher who now teaches part-time, regularly updates me on the new curriculum and diversity training he has to do. To think about the boomers, who were the architects of peak Australia in my mind, now being bossed around by young DEI (Didn’t Earn It) coordinators dictating what they have to teach—it’s concerning. How are those kids going to turn out?
The stark contrast between the social environment I experienced as a student in the 1990s and my experience as a professional today has shaped my views. Recognising the shift in values and narratives was only possible through personal experience.
The COVID-19 fiasco was the tipping point for me. Unlike many, I couldn’t just go along with it. It got to me, and I spoke out against those who defended it, leading to the life-altering decision to leave Australia. I still can’t wrap my head around how things have gotten this way or how people can think as they do.
Even now, living in Argentina, I find it hard to engage with anyone who resonates with the socialist, woke, COVID-19, left-wing agenda that’s become so prevalent. I think they’d probably feel the same about me, and it honestly limits my circle of friends.
Moving Forward
Still, as I scroll through X algorithm-curated content, I sometimes wonder, is this all too “tin foil hat,” even for me? Doomsayers, skin colour obsession, men’s dating advice that portrays all women as evil unless they’re sent straight from heaven to you, and health accounts terrified of a vegetable, beer, or a late night—it’s all a bit much.
I know it’s mostly content farming for views, but it’s popular and gets serious traction. I’m trying my best to limit that stuff as I learn more about what clicks with an audience, but I can understand how it ropes people in.
At first, I got obsessed with these commentators around the COVID-19 time. My disappointment with people fueled my interest, and I was hooked on absorbing as much of their content as I could—podcasts, books, you name it.
When I look back, how could I not have? I suddenly found myself under an authoritarian government making decisions during the prime of my life, with the public strictly complying with bizarre, human rights-abusing policies.
Where Does This Leave Me?
To be honest, I’m sick of the whole trend I’m supposed to comply with being in my outcast situation. I’m still drawn to bits of this extreme content, but that’s dramatically reduced in recent times. The best advice I have now is to take a big step back from it all; never go all-in or see anyone as a messiah. I’ve noticed people doing this, and they’re not the people I want to hang out with.
Focus on what matters—your relationships, your health, and your happiness—away from screens and people content farming.
At the end of the day, I’m still a middle-class Australian who was lucky enough to grow up during a relatively sensible time. When things became nonsensical, I was fortunate enough to be in a position, financially and lifestyle-wise, without debt or dependents, to do something about it. You can still do it, regardless of your situation, or you can position yourself sensibly in the market to do so.
Basically, for me, it all comes back to—you can take the boy out of middle-class 1990s Australia, but you can’t take middle-class 1990s Australia out of the boy.
That normal middle-class upbringing in the Australian public school system was crucial for my outcomes and thinking today.
In my mind, you need that normal upbringing to go from not wearing a “tin foil hat,” to wearing one (during COVID), to stepping away and trying my best only to consume small parts of the “tin foil hat” crew today.
It’s a strange cycle, but I like that I can change my mind and not be focused on one category or way of thinking. To me, the biggest danger is when people’s thinking doesn’t evolve.
The way I sum it up for myself is that I’m just a normal bloke doing very unusual things that most people don’t have the guts to do. The ones who do can be serious oddballs with whom I generally have very little in common at the end of the day.
Has Australia And The West Lost Its Way?
I think so. But you can think this and still be a semi-normal, rational-thinking human without aligning yourself with the whole package of some particular political category or mindset.
A great podcast I’ve listened to recently was with
on Modern Wisdom—I highly recommend my audience check it out. In summary, he was let go from the nationally cherished ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) for an article he wrote. I quite like the way he sums himself up, as he doesn’t fit into any political category—and emphasizes that this is the best way to be.I can relate to this, as the left loves to label you a certain way. I particularly noticed this when the Bloomberg Argentina crew unfollowed my X account due to recent tweets against socialism, in favor of the free market and Javier Milei.
I come from a time of capitalist prosperity in Australia, and when I arrived in Argentina, I quickly recognised the economic troubles. I saw the heavy government involvement in economic policy, extreme workers’ rights, more public holidays than any other country, and extreme public spending and social welfare handouts. So, I started tweeting in favour of the elected leader, mainly due to his anti-government stance, hoping he could fix a broken state bankrupted by these left-leaning socialist policies. Suddenly, I’m considered politically dangerous by (MSM) Bloomberg, to the point where they can’t associate with my account.
I must be doing something right, and I’m not stopping anytime soon.
Thanks for reading.
Jordan - Geólogo Trader 🇦🇺
Coming up on Geólogo Trader 🇦🇺:
Monthly mentor podcast with Trader Ferg next week—if that suits him.
I’ll be reviewing some of the stocks I’ve mentioned in the publication since its inception—are they still worth the punt?
I’ll also share my pick of the Argentine mineral explorers for the upcoming drill season in Argentina.
Plus, any portfolio changes and options for income trades.
Final note: I hope some of you made some money since the last article, ‘My Most Bullish Stock.’ It’s not often that an opportunity like that comes along, and I take a position that extreme.
The stock is up +40% since the article, and it’s fair to say that due to my lack of options for income trading, this is a welcome sight.
Hi David, I’d agree with most all of that as an Aussie who lived through it too.
The one bit I’d suggest isn’t correct would be “Everyone is still fully on board with “staying up to date” with vaccinations despite all the data…”
From what I’m seeing, it would be about 10% that is still conned and they are mostly the elderly. Pretty much anyone that you see swanning about with a mask outdoors, plus a few of their mates. 😉
What I see instead of that is the majority known they were fooled, or felt they had no choice due to work requirements and regret their decision immensely.
We thankfully realised the psyop very early on and with 3 young kids, set about a plan B and C if lockdowns/mandates impacted us much as purely coincidental seachangers having moved to coastal, regional NSW 6 months before this broke out. We avoided any shots and even had gained a Government exemption to travel unvaxxed to my wife’s homeland of Albania to continue schooling the kids. We had everything set when they did instigate a one month school closure where we live but thankfully, they dropped it after that and we didn’t end up going. Homeschooling 3 x 6yo boys isn’t as easy as you might imagine 🤣
It’s clearly a very sensitive subject to be a family amongst the <10% that completely avoided it and we have seen a ~600% rise to people we know that have been diagnosed with cancer in any other 2 year period. Ironically, those same people would not dream of it being vaxx related. We haven’t asked them, but you can just tell, they haven’t considered it at all.
The thing I am seeing however is friends that have realise they have fecked up, but do not want to be reminded or even offered treatments that the same clinicians that were proven right from day one. They were adamant on social media we all needed to “do what’s right for the greater good” and now seem they’d rather bury their heads in the sand and accept their fate, than consider treatment of possibly reversing the damage the vaxx has inflicted upon them and their children. I suspect that’s the hardest thing of all…accepting that they got their kids vaxxed and now, their kids will know what they did, if they proceed with a weeks long treatment. It’s quite bizarre but human nature never ceases to amaze me.
In summary, I’d suggest 90% of people have to some extent realised it was BS. 20% of those know that it was sinister, not just an accidental overreaction. A “pandemic”. The question is, how many will be fooled into going through this again the next time they inevitably try it? I am guessing 30% but with the mainstream media mass influence, possibly a little more.
Interesting times indeed! And yes, we are surrounded by dumb fecking people. All we can do, is protect our family and seek to capitalise on the stupidity to make the protection more robust and sustainable for decades.
All the best.
Very well said mate. It sounds like we have gone down a similar path since 2020.
I was initially drawn to the "tin foil hat" crew when I was trying to make sense of the response to covid.
I couldn't understand the views of the average person in Australia (and it still doesn't make sense to me) - people absolutely lost their minds over a virus with an IFR of 0.2% (i.e. killing 2 in 1000 people) and an average age of death of 85.
I feel very at odds with the views of the average Aussie to this day, it honestly feels like I am living in an alternate reality...how can people be so stupid!? Everyone is still fully on board with staying "up to date" with vaccinations despite all the data coming out on myocarditis in males aged 12-30, and they do not question whether the vaccine even works. I mean, how can you tell when you still get covid after being vaccinated?
To highlight the absurdity of traditional vaccines vs the mRNA gene therapy: do we take a 6 monthly Polio booster vaccine, and yet STILL get Polio? "But it's only a mild case of Polio, so that's how we know the vaccine works". Absurd.
People are either a lot stupider than I thought, or a lot more easily manipulated. Anyway, that isn't going to change anytime soon.
As I say, trying to make sense of people's behaviour during the last 4 years pushed me into the "tin foil hat" space, but that comes with its own risks. A lot of these types are caught in their own echo chambers, and either fall into their own cognitive biases or deliberately create extreme content for clicks.
I think that's really solid advice you give: have no messiahs, think critically and with nuance, look after your family, focus on your health. Also a good idea to completely avoid mainstream media IMO, haven't watched it for 2.5 years personally.