Oh, I love this so much, Tonika! Thank you for sharing your wonderful gathering. I especially love seeing you and Mary with your beautiful, effervescent smiles. And thanks for the heads-up on no Indian Summer talk. 🤭 I wasn't aware, and I've lived in America (can I still call it America??) all of my life.
I too find your account to be encouraging! I am practicing medicine in the loony leftist blue part of WA state, where colleagues are getting their COVID boosters and love that The WA state DOH is bucking any new CDC recommendations so that everyone of any age can get the holy jabs. It’s depressing. I continue to struggle with whether to speak up—and mostly haven’t. The few times I have it hasn’t gone well. Please keep doing your thing! It gives me hope.
I’ll do my best! I like that you speak up when you can because it gauges the temperature and I truly hope soon you’ll find the feedback loop has shifted. Youre in a very tough state for that. WA is not joke. As bad as CA.
Yes Chris Bray described CA in a way that I think applies to the Blue zones of the west coast pretty well: "Dark time, but not a dark life" in a Substack post dated 9/22/25. WA has a great big budget deficit, but our Gov wants to blame everything on Trump. The county where I live also has a deficit, but they keep putting in roundabouts ... and they are going to cut the Sheriff Dept's staff. Sigh ... thank you for doing what you do.
Tonika, I turned off all Substack emails a few days ago so I missed this the other night when we were texting and you asked for my flyer. But funny that same night I also wrote a post and used the phrase Indian summer too. (I am allowed to but you are racist, just so you know). This whole piece, or rather your heart and mind, and (therefore) your writing is so beautiful. I will be sharing it when I publicize the Sane/CJHF event... <3
I'm so glad you wrote this Tonika. You know I would love to have been there. I'm not American but I'm sure the changes are similar. We used to make fun of politicians as national sport once!
I feel so blessed that the techbros allowed a few dissidents the chance to talk online a bit longer. I really appreciate you all.
Great. Just on substack. Not released for global distribution yet. I really like the song. I'm gunna start open Mike stuff with just a guitar coz I'm done with the isolation of the internet release stuff as my only outlet. Need to get in peoples faces and feel the awkward vibes of being the pathological conspiracy nut.
Fuck yes. It’s so therapeutic! I did something like that with the clown show. Mine is way more tame compared to your stuff but I think it had effect nonetheless.
I love, love, LOVE this!!! And thank you for sharing the pic of you guys together. I was really hoping someone got some with you, CJ, and Hugo—and what a bonus to have Mary (and your co-conspirating clown, I believe?) in there, too!!
It’s so funny because this morning, I woke up with the idea that CJ’s conversations could start a nationwide, maybe even worldwide, movement of community conversations. I can’t think of anything more important at this moment in history, and it is a way of enacting this pledge I believe could indeed save the world:
I was trying to explain to my friend of nearly 20 Years (who’s 50th bday I was missing to be there. lol) how it was that I came to think of you also as a friend. What a thing, eh? “Well,” I said “ I think over multiple sincere exchanges in the online realm we just came to like how the other person showed up”. I think that’s the shortest true thing I can say. But maybe it’s even simpler: We find each other. We found each other during the Covid times. We always find each other. Keepers of the flame. Lovers of life.
The best part of the night was meeting your crew. Diane was a Marvel. Connector of the highest order. Marta, what a lovely being. Mary!!
Embodiment matters. Sharing air. Sharing hugs. It matters. Thank you for welcoming us in your home, friend. 🙏❤️😊
So well said, friend. I’ve also had trouble calling people I’ve met online “friends” - how can you refer to someone you’ve never seen face to face as a friend? How can we know we’re not talking to bots? Or even worse, some FBI catfish? 😂 I kid, I kid, but also, not really, I’m sure there’s a list somewhere with all our names on it. 👀 well I know how we know- we meet in person. I have officially met over a dozen in real life or over zoom. This morning, I got a voicemail from Dr. Monica Hughes from The Mariarchi Years stack who is responsible for pointing me in the direction of my alternative cancer treatment in Coley’s Toxins and she told me she’d be driving my way sometime in late October. How cool is that?!?
I never made it out to the NAAS meet-ups. There were always too far away for me to attend. But I am hopeful that maybe one day I get to meet Helen in person too. And she is across the pond! 😂
Anyway, it was a real delight to have some big hugs and look at your smiling face. I just know there will be a next time and we’ll get to talk without a time limit.
Feel the same in every respect Tonika. Have met so many lovely people in NAAS (including Helen!) and in this crazy life, in general. Friends in every corner of the world…and… hungrier than ever to deepen the roots where I am. This next year is going to be formative… for many of us, I think. This morning I saw a fresh stand of young autumn ferns in the understory where a mow had happened not long ago. It’s like getting a fresh start, if you’re an autumn fern, just with a much shorter runway until winter comes. They gave me some hope. 😊
So BEAUTIFUL! Is that the same Brian with whom we had that loving 'argument' on my Eisenstein article? Glad that you've determined that he's a real person because he seemed almost too gracious to be true ;-)
And you got Mary there and Marta! Lucky you and lucky them! What an auspicious start to the MAA-powered tour of CJ and Hugo.
Hahaha! Tis I 😊. Tonika Will attest that you were one of two people I expressed hope would be in attendance. Matthew Crawford being the other. Getting to meet Mary was too much. Love how she shows up. What a treat it would have been to embody with you and talk!! I would so look forward to that. I’m committed to another trip. May our paths cross before long Tereza! 😊❤️
Wish that I had been there! And meeting you would certainly have been an incentive! I'm hopeful also that our paths cross, Brian. I feel certain they will before long.
It must be the same Brian! Hopefully he can chime in here to attest. Feeling very lucky, T.
Language is strange, isn’t it? How one word can mean something to some people, then gets usurped and, agreed, down right inverted! It used to be that gay meant happy, then it meant someone who is a homosexual, now it means fake. ‘Lame’ used to be a slur. Now we use it constantly, but can’t use “retarded” (it’s maddening when talking with music people and you’re simply trying to communicate that the end of the song has a retaaaaard- and yes, that’s how I pronounce it so it’s not misconstrued). But words are just words. You can use nice words and be hurtful. You can call someone a fire hydrant and it might land deeper than calling them an idiot.
Sorry, what a tangent. And who am I talking to?!! You’re like the language sommelier (a word I recently learned that I know have gotten to use three times in a week!)
I’m fascinated by language and am a lover of neologisms and puns and all things wordsmithy. I know you get into etymology so you might appreciate this: I was teaching ESL class at the school yesterday and I had some Arab speaking kids, straight off the boat, no English skills at all. We were doing an assignment and the mystery word was chalk. (Trying to explain what that was without having chalk on hand was not easy.) At one point the girl asks “Tebeshar?” and I was like Yes! Tebeshar! That’s chalk! And the only reason I knew that is because chalk in Bulgarian is “tebeshir.” 😎
Oh and I think that Indian summers are the only good thing that gets attributed to indigenous dwellers of Turtle Island. 'Indian givers' is the height of inversions.
It would be great if CJ Hopkins and Hugo come to Canada, "Homeland" isn't borders, it is our connection to this Earth and to each other, For All Our Relations. S
I encourage you to organise a meet up in Canada, Suzanne. Encourage people from different walks of life to come together. I’m sure if CJ had the bandwidth he would come, but in the end, he is only one man. We each gotta do that which is ours to do. And each of us can encourage more of these conversations on a local level.
Nothing tops human connections and some gatherings are pure magic like Indian Summer itself the perfect place between extreme seasons where there's just enough warmth and cool.. seems fitting the stars aligned with Mother Nature for your event .. you look fabulous too! <3
Thanks for the expansive reporting on what sounds like a beautiful night. I'm with you, this is the way forward. And how lovely to see those pics. So glad Mary flew in for it. XOX
You're an excellent writer too, Tonika! Thanks for sharing your personal experience in such an honest, yet eloquent way. And great photos from the event!
Tonika, this is really uplifting, and just what I needed to hear today, after having had IRL discussion with very old (in more ways than one) friends, who think differently, yesterday over lunch. I came away discouraged, but now that I read your account of your CJ and Hugo event, and your take-a ways, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a place to start, and you helped me see that we really do have more in common than I have failed to recognize of late, especially when it comes to the things in life that matter most, i.e. love and life itself, and friendship that has lasted over 40 years through thick and thin in spite of how the would-be rulers of the world have tried their damnedest to take it from us. Thank you, and keep on keeping on doing all the weird and crazy things you do. You're an inspiration.
I’m so tickled to hear you had the hard convos with old friends. That’s how we’ll move the needle, one convo at a time. Thanks for the kind words, Ronnie! 🤗
CM, it’s happening! And I think more and more DO want it. I often feel a relief when I encounter someone who I know held a firm covid stance soften up aa if they were given permission to let go of their neurosis. It’s going to be ok, in the end. As the saying goes, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.
Oh, I love this so much, Tonika! Thank you for sharing your wonderful gathering. I especially love seeing you and Mary with your beautiful, effervescent smiles. And thanks for the heads-up on no Indian Summer talk. 🤭 I wasn't aware, and I've lived in America (can I still call it America??) all of my life.
Big hugs to you, lovely human being! XOXO
I too find your account to be encouraging! I am practicing medicine in the loony leftist blue part of WA state, where colleagues are getting their COVID boosters and love that The WA state DOH is bucking any new CDC recommendations so that everyone of any age can get the holy jabs. It’s depressing. I continue to struggle with whether to speak up—and mostly haven’t. The few times I have it hasn’t gone well. Please keep doing your thing! It gives me hope.
I’ll do my best! I like that you speak up when you can because it gauges the temperature and I truly hope soon you’ll find the feedback loop has shifted. Youre in a very tough state for that. WA is not joke. As bad as CA.
Yes Chris Bray described CA in a way that I think applies to the Blue zones of the west coast pretty well: "Dark time, but not a dark life" in a Substack post dated 9/22/25. WA has a great big budget deficit, but our Gov wants to blame everything on Trump. The county where I live also has a deficit, but they keep putting in roundabouts ... and they are going to cut the Sheriff Dept's staff. Sigh ... thank you for doing what you do.
🙏
Tonika, I turned off all Substack emails a few days ago so I missed this the other night when we were texting and you asked for my flyer. But funny that same night I also wrote a post and used the phrase Indian summer too. (I am allowed to but you are racist, just so you know). This whole piece, or rather your heart and mind, and (therefore) your writing is so beautiful. I will be sharing it when I publicize the Sane/CJHF event... <3
Hahaha! Indian summers for the win! I’ll go check out the post now. And you bet I’ll be reading your reflections on the CJ/HF event!
I'm so glad you wrote this Tonika. You know I would love to have been there. I'm not American but I'm sure the changes are similar. We used to make fun of politicians as national sport once!
I feel so blessed that the techbros allowed a few dissidents the chance to talk online a bit longer. I really appreciate you all.
And I appreciate your TG! Yes, this is a global issue, not just America. I see you released a new jam. Gonna check them tube a here in a little bit!
Great. Just on substack. Not released for global distribution yet. I really like the song. I'm gunna start open Mike stuff with just a guitar coz I'm done with the isolation of the internet release stuff as my only outlet. Need to get in peoples faces and feel the awkward vibes of being the pathological conspiracy nut.
Fuck yes. It’s so therapeutic! I did something like that with the clown show. Mine is way more tame compared to your stuff but I think it had effect nonetheless.
Sounds wonderful, what a great thing to organize. 💖
🙏
I love, love, LOVE this!!! And thank you for sharing the pic of you guys together. I was really hoping someone got some with you, CJ, and Hugo—and what a bonus to have Mary (and your co-conspirating clown, I believe?) in there, too!!
It’s so funny because this morning, I woke up with the idea that CJ’s conversations could start a nationwide, maybe even worldwide, movement of community conversations. I can’t think of anything more important at this moment in history, and it is a way of enacting this pledge I believe could indeed save the world:
• https://x.com/NCIUniversity/status/1966924840855892184
The full video is a must-watch/share, too:
• https://x.com/aanon55/status/1966685718824001963
Great video and I’m down for the pledge. 🙌
I’m looking forward to hearing all about your event too, Margaret! ❤️
Thanks again for the connect, you’re so damn awesome!
What. A. Treat. IRL FTW.
I was trying to explain to my friend of nearly 20 Years (who’s 50th bday I was missing to be there. lol) how it was that I came to think of you also as a friend. What a thing, eh? “Well,” I said “ I think over multiple sincere exchanges in the online realm we just came to like how the other person showed up”. I think that’s the shortest true thing I can say. But maybe it’s even simpler: We find each other. We found each other during the Covid times. We always find each other. Keepers of the flame. Lovers of life.
The best part of the night was meeting your crew. Diane was a Marvel. Connector of the highest order. Marta, what a lovely being. Mary!!
Embodiment matters. Sharing air. Sharing hugs. It matters. Thank you for welcoming us in your home, friend. 🙏❤️😊
So well said, friend. I’ve also had trouble calling people I’ve met online “friends” - how can you refer to someone you’ve never seen face to face as a friend? How can we know we’re not talking to bots? Or even worse, some FBI catfish? 😂 I kid, I kid, but also, not really, I’m sure there’s a list somewhere with all our names on it. 👀 well I know how we know- we meet in person. I have officially met over a dozen in real life or over zoom. This morning, I got a voicemail from Dr. Monica Hughes from The Mariarchi Years stack who is responsible for pointing me in the direction of my alternative cancer treatment in Coley’s Toxins and she told me she’d be driving my way sometime in late October. How cool is that?!?
I never made it out to the NAAS meet-ups. There were always too far away for me to attend. But I am hopeful that maybe one day I get to meet Helen in person too. And she is across the pond! 😂
Anyway, it was a real delight to have some big hugs and look at your smiling face. I just know there will be a next time and we’ll get to talk without a time limit.
Feel the same in every respect Tonika. Have met so many lovely people in NAAS (including Helen!) and in this crazy life, in general. Friends in every corner of the world…and… hungrier than ever to deepen the roots where I am. This next year is going to be formative… for many of us, I think. This morning I saw a fresh stand of young autumn ferns in the understory where a mow had happened not long ago. It’s like getting a fresh start, if you’re an autumn fern, just with a much shorter runway until winter comes. They gave me some hope. 😊
😍A very hopeful image indeed!
So BEAUTIFUL! Is that the same Brian with whom we had that loving 'argument' on my Eisenstein article? Glad that you've determined that he's a real person because he seemed almost too gracious to be true ;-)
And you got Mary there and Marta! Lucky you and lucky them! What an auspicious start to the MAA-powered tour of CJ and Hugo.
Hahaha! Tis I 😊. Tonika Will attest that you were one of two people I expressed hope would be in attendance. Matthew Crawford being the other. Getting to meet Mary was too much. Love how she shows up. What a treat it would have been to embody with you and talk!! I would so look forward to that. I’m committed to another trip. May our paths cross before long Tereza! 😊❤️
Wish that I had been there! And meeting you would certainly have been an incentive! I'm hopeful also that our paths cross, Brian. I feel certain they will before long.
I attest! We’ll see you before long, Brian! ❤️
It must be the same Brian! Hopefully he can chime in here to attest. Feeling very lucky, T.
Language is strange, isn’t it? How one word can mean something to some people, then gets usurped and, agreed, down right inverted! It used to be that gay meant happy, then it meant someone who is a homosexual, now it means fake. ‘Lame’ used to be a slur. Now we use it constantly, but can’t use “retarded” (it’s maddening when talking with music people and you’re simply trying to communicate that the end of the song has a retaaaaard- and yes, that’s how I pronounce it so it’s not misconstrued). But words are just words. You can use nice words and be hurtful. You can call someone a fire hydrant and it might land deeper than calling them an idiot.
Sorry, what a tangent. And who am I talking to?!! You’re like the language sommelier (a word I recently learned that I know have gotten to use three times in a week!)
I’m fascinated by language and am a lover of neologisms and puns and all things wordsmithy. I know you get into etymology so you might appreciate this: I was teaching ESL class at the school yesterday and I had some Arab speaking kids, straight off the boat, no English skills at all. We were doing an assignment and the mystery word was chalk. (Trying to explain what that was without having chalk on hand was not easy.) At one point the girl asks “Tebeshar?” and I was like Yes! Tebeshar! That’s chalk! And the only reason I knew that is because chalk in Bulgarian is “tebeshir.” 😎
Oh and I think that Indian summers are the only good thing that gets attributed to indigenous dwellers of Turtle Island. 'Indian givers' is the height of inversions.
It would be great if CJ Hopkins and Hugo come to Canada, "Homeland" isn't borders, it is our connection to this Earth and to each other, For All Our Relations. S
I encourage you to organise a meet up in Canada, Suzanne. Encourage people from different walks of life to come together. I’m sure if CJ had the bandwidth he would come, but in the end, he is only one man. We each gotta do that which is ours to do. And each of us can encourage more of these conversations on a local level.
Nothing tops human connections and some gatherings are pure magic like Indian Summer itself the perfect place between extreme seasons where there's just enough warmth and cool.. seems fitting the stars aligned with Mother Nature for your event .. you look fabulous too! <3
Thank you, Pamela! Pure magic is right.
Thank you!
Thanks for the expansive reporting on what sounds like a beautiful night. I'm with you, this is the way forward. And how lovely to see those pics. So glad Mary flew in for it. XOX
One of these days, I hope to breathe the same air as you, Kathleen. 🧚
Same here, Tonika!
You're an excellent writer too, Tonika! Thanks for sharing your personal experience in such an honest, yet eloquent way. And great photos from the event!
🙏 appreciate your kind comment, Noel! I emailed you some more photos before I saw that you had replied here. Sorry for doubling up.
Tonika, this is really uplifting, and just what I needed to hear today, after having had IRL discussion with very old (in more ways than one) friends, who think differently, yesterday over lunch. I came away discouraged, but now that I read your account of your CJ and Hugo event, and your take-a ways, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a place to start, and you helped me see that we really do have more in common than I have failed to recognize of late, especially when it comes to the things in life that matter most, i.e. love and life itself, and friendship that has lasted over 40 years through thick and thin in spite of how the would-be rulers of the world have tried their damnedest to take it from us. Thank you, and keep on keeping on doing all the weird and crazy things you do. You're an inspiration.
I’m so tickled to hear you had the hard convos with old friends. That’s how we’ll move the needle, one convo at a time. Thanks for the kind words, Ronnie! 🤗
Well I dare say I am feeling some FOMO! And also that I am thrilled to hear this is happening. I want this, too. Hopefully more and more of us do, too
CM, it’s happening! And I think more and more DO want it. I often feel a relief when I encounter someone who I know held a firm covid stance soften up aa if they were given permission to let go of their neurosis. It’s going to be ok, in the end. As the saying goes, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.
I love all of that!! And would you believe I have never heard that expression before?!
One of those that always stuck with me! Sounds like we found the vision statement for our Apocalyptimist Club. 😂
T-shirts pls!
Wonderful! I wish I could have been there! Perhaps another time?
I have a feeling the universe will cross our paths one day.
I'm rather positive about that probability too!
I'm still thinking one of these years we should try and have a gathering of like minded people at a "Red Pill Expo" here in South Dakota.
Yes, I was interested in that last year— if cancer hadn’t sucked out all my funds, I would have come.
We will have to keep an eye out for when they have another here.
Yes, keep me posted!