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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Study: Heaviest social media users enjoy hurting others

A new study of almost 500 college-age students has found that the heaviest users of social media routinely had personalities that tended to enjoy hurting and denigrating others.

A fascinating study of 472 university students tracked their usage on two top platforms for 18-to-24-year olds: Snapchat (2.64 hours per day) and Facebook (2.28 hours per day). Researchers found that users displaying addictive behavior were also more likely to be motivated to be cruel and callous and to use others for personal gain.

“Our results demonstrate that individuals who have a greater preference for these types of rewards display greater problematic use of both platforms,” write the researchers, who note that these traits are also associated with narcissism and psychopathy and have previously been correlated with addictive internet use. They write that social media sites unwittingly “cater to people who seek rewards from being cruel, such as through cyberbullying or various aggressive online behaviors.”

Not only does this study confirm the general behavior of the bulk of all Twitter users, which has become a cesspool of slander, character assassination, and hate, it also describes the behavior of the many trolls one routinely sees commenting on websites (including Behind the Black). Too often such anonymous individuals show up throwing out comments whose only purpose is to either disagree, argue, or insult others. It requires on my part a lot of monitoring to keep such childish behavior off of this website, and this study helps to explain why it happens.

The study also provides some guidance on what adults should be doing to prevent this behavior in their children. It is a bad thing to let young children play on social media endlessly. Their use of computers and smart phones must be monitored, and their use must be disciplined, to teach children to think independently from the social media trends that can easily overwhelm them

Hat tip Ace of Spades.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • Alex Andrite

    Mr. Z., I have an animated video, ~2.30, which portrays this exactly. How can I share it with you, etc. ?
    A.

  • hondo

    The rise of the beta bully

  • Cotour

    Related / Twitter: WALKING ARM IN ARM WITH OJ?

    I personally always liked O.J., never saw him in terms of black or white.

    He bridged the race gap long, long ago.

    (Then the “Incident”, I assume he is still looking for the perpetrators?)

    What does he think about this Kappernick / BLM, major league sports negotiated and mandated team / group kneeling before the national anthem during professional sports?

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1286428203683176448

    Why does it matter?

    Personally, like him today or not for all of the reasons that exist, O.J. is and was a very prominent figure in the sports world, an undisputed champion on the field, he has without doubt been there. He has been there and he is now a spectator and he has his unique perspective.

    And what do I take away from this little Twitter video is that, 1. O.J., (like I) does not like nor think it appropriate this kneeing before the anthem and supplanting politics over our national anthem, and 2. I have really never heard O.J. speak contemporaneously on any particular subject at any length and what I got from his little speech was that O.J. is an intelligent, well thought out and a well spoken person.

    What does it mean? I just think that this now Kappernick / BLM mandated group / team kneeling is purposefully disrespectful and manipulative and to say the least inappropriate, before, during or right after the National Anthem. This is the fundamental and systematic and symbolic destruction of the patriotic American psyche, the systematic destruction of American unity. This is the intro to the no borders, no nationality Globalist mentality, and that is where professional sports is going and it is based in pandering to the Globalists and primarily to China and its 1.5 Billion per$on audience potential.

    Ask yourself: What is the goal of the Likes of Kappernick and BLM? They are both Marxist in their philosophy, what is the goal of Marxism? The destruction of Capitalism. Its really very simple and its going on right under your nose under the banner of “fairness” and “equality”. You like being defrauded?

    So when your confused, when you have doubt, just follow the money and you will find the truth.

    Take from this what you will, just my observations.

  • Cotour

    Follow up:

    Why would the Kappernicks and the BLMs, the Marxists of the “Neo” world, look to destroy Capitalism in favor of the Globalist model? Isn’t it Capitalism that is enriching them? If they destroyed it would that not destroy their golden goose? Capitalism is generating Billions of dollars for them.

    Todays Marxists are once, maybe twice removed from reality and most have or are currently enjoying a very comfortable life in the delusion that this is the way things really are naturally, all supplied exclusively by Capitalism. They believe that true and proper Marxism has never been able to be applied and made to work in the world. They believe that the previous failures of true Marxism and true Socialism where everyone is “Equal” and everyone shares “equally” and “Fairly” in everything has never been allowed to properly express itself.

    They are in real terms “limousine” Marxists and are self delusional and idealistic, just like their street rabble children of privilege violent domestic terrorist enforcers of fear, to the point where they have become a danger to themselves and by extension to you and everyone else in the world.

    In other words these newly minted “elites”, these new millionaires and Billionaires, these spoiled children of abundance and the streets and peace due to the existence of the Constitution and Capitalism paradoxically threaten all that enriches and protects them.

    Self delusion, ignorance and hubris threatens us all now.

  • Phill O

    Not a surprise here.

    If one can be anonymous, there are no limits to the depth of degradation one will stoop to.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Studies confirming what I already knew.

    The main reason I am not a facetwit user.

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