Jaakko Vazha-Kareli

Where does the name GTFO Handbook come from? Every business needs a tagline, and for my business Sovereign Landing, the tagline is "Go Lightfooted". When my friend Rasbelin heard it, he quipped that a better tagline for a business like this would be just "GTFO". That thought stayed with me, and I put that idea into practice with the name of this book. If you live in your country of origin, chances are that you are heavily exploited by people who seem to think they somehow own you, and that the fruits of your labor belong primarily to them. You do the work, and they enjoy the benefits - in the name of fairness! If you make the mistake of pointing out that it's all getting rather unfair, they're quick to tell you to learn your place, to STFU and to GTFO. The GTFO Handbook is about giving them exactly what they want (or to be more precise: what they ask for). There really is no need to fight any of them! One of the best things about location independence is the ease of dealing with this leftard NPC crowd, especially their retarded comeback to any criticism of their ever-crazier policies of exploitation and violent coercion: When you live in a country where people like this are in power, you feel you have to spend endless amounts of energy in trying to convince them to "come back to their senses". I see so many people trying to desperately figure out ways to somehow convince the violent expropriators that their socialist dreams are killing the country, and if they continue exploiting the productive people, the country will go to hell. They cannot be convinced, because they actually WANT all of the destruction that is now happening. Their idea of building a better world requires first destroying the old, and they are getting exactly that. You don't have to stay stuck in those endless, desperate political fights (that you will never win!). When they tell you to GTFO, you can just give them a simple reply: At first, you'd think that the violent expropriators might react like this: In my experience, the truth is much worse: they're simply happy with the thought of you leaving! That "processing" part never seems to happen, and their "if you don't like it" noise is just an automated knee-jerk reaction to their world view being challenged: there's no actual thought behind it. They aren't really bothered by productive people moving away, because the combination of the fiat money printer and the democratic "welfare" state DOES provide them with the real option of living endlessly on debt (until it doesn't, but the NPC is unable to think that far). From their point of view, you moving abroad just works: these annoying ideas challenging their socialist paradise just go away. Their problem is solved, so why be angry? For those with even half of a functioning brain, the conclusion from this is obvious: this can't end well… I discuss what all of this means in my book, especially part 5 (how and why to ignore politics):

GTFO Handbook – Table of Contents | Sovereign Landing

In a previous post, I wrote about how the left is no longer the left - but why should anyone care what they think, or label themselves as? It's important to make the distinction between the "old" and the "new" left because at their time, the old left was rational, and the majority of the current people actually agree with the views of the old left - even if they are a bit misguided. If you told most people that everyone has to be responsible only for themselves and the "society" should not intervene if they get in trouble, they would not agree with you - at all! Where the old left, and the average person of today are misguided, was confusing the society with the state. That's not important for the point here though. The point here is two-fold: 1. The new crazy left is using the facade of the old rational left to manipulate people and to derail any sensible debates. 2. Trying to argue purely libertarian viewpoints lands to deaf ears for most people, but these points remain equally valid to those "deaf" people - a different approach is required. With any intellectual integrity, it has to be recognized that all of the even potentially valid points of the old left died with the Soviet Union. Even in, let's say early 1970s, these discussion would have been quite different, and purely theoretical - with liberty-minded people in the minority against an army of intellectuals. Now, 50 years later, we know for a fact that the general leftist direction for societies is simply doomed. Previously that was clear only to some through theory. Now it's clear both in theory and practice, with indisputable historical evidence. The problem is that when the USSR died, the ideology of the left didn't die with it - they were forced to re-invent themselves. Now we're in a situation where the new left has hijacked the rational image and some talking points of the old left. Even though all of it has now been proven to be invalid, it is still very useful for them in sowing discord. It's an intellectual weapon to divide people according to old battle lines that in reality have ceased to exist long ago. That doesn't stop them from trying, often successfully, in exploiting the tribal nature of people and in doing so, painting themselves as the vanguards of all that is good and holy - even though all they are now able to advocate for is violent control of their fellow human beings. We need to see through this charade and call the new left as what they are - pure advocates of state coercion through violence! They have absolutely no policy goals that can be reached without the threat of violent intervention in the affairs of free people acting voluntarily between themselves. There's nothing good or holy in that! That remains true even if all of their stated end goals might first sound like something everyone would want. But if violence and coercion is the requirement to get there, then we should get there in some other way. We need to recognize and call out this requirement of violence behind everything that they demand! Just pointing this out at the beginning of every debate completely disarms their primary attack: painting everyone who is against their policies, as cold, selfish sociopaths who would only critize anything the left wants because "they are bad, and the left is good". When you point out that in this false dichotomy, the "good ones" are actually demanding violence, their mask drops. I've yet to encounter a leftie that can really argue against this in any way, or even wants to do so. Many of them actually PREFER violence as the answer - they've just been really good at hiding this fact! When you point this out, you will not REFORM the leftie - you REVEAL them. None of this will change the mind of the extremist, but it will do something much more important - it reveals the new left as what they are to EVERYONE ELSE. Then, after the hijacking of "all that is good and holy" by the violent coercionists can be ended, a new question can be asked among reasonable people: How do we provide all of those good things to people, without resorting to violence? That's a much better conversation to have!

I've never been a fan of Discord and only used it when there was no real choice (some tech support chats and Midjourney), but this is now getting out of hand... is this because of EU bureaucrats or something else? I can't access any group chats (Alby groups are a real loss!) without doing KYC, which will definitely not be happening... anyone else getting this? I'm so glad Nostr exists!

The left is no longer the left The world of the past was divided into two different political sides: the left and right wings. Left-wing people generally didn’t own much and had to work for a living. Right-wing people had perhaps more resources and usually didn’t need to resort to entry-level jobs or manual labor. That was the main political divide of the industrial age, and while we still try to apply these same labels to current political thought, they don’t really make that much sense anymore. The “right-wing” people are increasingly more dependent on the entry-level jobs, if they can even find one. The culture and thinking of the “non-left” people perhaps hasn’t changed that much: their circumstances have shifted greatly, but the underlying ethos is still based around three basic things: 1. Common sense 2. Personal responsibility 3. Improving your lot in life by working hard Those same ideas weren’t foreign to the left either. If you went back to the heyday of the industrial age, let’s say the 1950s, and talked to any random “leftie”, they would probably agree with you on all of those points. They would probably even be offended if you just hinted that they didn’t see those as being the foundation of a good life and a healthy society. That definitely can’t be said of the “left” of today. They will get absolutely triggered if you start talking to them about hard work or personal responsibility. That shared foundation has been replaced by other values, such as: - The absolute, non-negotiable top priority is women's rights, although genders don't exist - More important than women's rights are gay rights - ...therefore Islam is best, and muslim rights are the top priority - All cultures are the same, except their own, which is the worst - Single race - human race! Just say no to the white ones... and the other ones too if they "act white" - The more unlike the non-existent white culture the other cultures are, the better - All immigrants are the same, and it's racism to criticize their living permanently on unemployment benefits because they work so hard - In the class struggle of the working class, saying that people should work for a living is hate speech - Violence is justified only when it is used to right a wrong: you not having what you think you should have - Words are violence and theft is "social justice" - Violence is bad and disagreements should be resolved by debate, except when the other party doesn't agree with you - Because words are violence, responding to words with violence is justified I know what some will say – “those are just your purposely twisted version of the real, actually noble goals and values and nobody actually thinks like that!” But then nobody actually should think like that, and we see the opposite every day. Not just in the way they think and speak, but in the way they act. I won’t go into details here because if this isn’t obvious to you at this point, I don’t think I can change that. The “industrial age left” used to be honorable, hard-working people, just with an emphasis on having societal safety nets instead of purely individual responsibility. They were still perfectly rational – what you could call the “common sense left”. The current “left” has very little in common with the thinking of those people – in fact, if an old and new leftie met, the new leftie would probably dismiss the old one as a “far-right extremist” in under a minute. Therefore I don’t even like to call these people “the left”. The division between the left and the right no longer makes any sense. They are just empty labels on both sides. There is the “new left”, with their severe challenges with logic, and therefore with reality in general (I have theories on why this is, but that’s a topic for another time). Then there are everyone else, who just want to get on with their lives without getting bogged down by all kinds of craziness (whatever the “left” has cooked up that day). These regular people are constantly being labeled as “far-right” whenever they make the mistake of publicly having common sense. It’s all getting so very tiring. A bunch of crazies have hijacked the brand of the old left, and are using the old (now irrelevant) political divisions as a weapon against normal everyday people. Don’t let them get away with that – just hold on to your common sense and don’t be scared by the lies they cook up to make you conform to their demands. If you can’t ignore them, ridicule them! That won’t make them change their mind, but it does something far more important – it allows you to get on with your life!

Why the name Vazha-Kareli? There's a bit of a story behind this name - 12 characters in the name, and it took almost 20 000 characters to write out why I chose it. This is the most important part of that story. THE ESSAY THAT SOLVED A PAINFUL RECURRING PARADOX Throughout my location independent journey, I’ve been struggling with a question: how do I balance where I’m from, with where I’m at? With Europe in such a decline, and especially Finland being so far down a dark path that living in my home country is not even a consideration - did that mean that should I try to become something I perhaps am not, something that I haven’t been, and try to forget and diminish where I’m from? That didn’t feel right. Even though I didn’t yet know to put it in those words, what I needed to do was to figure out the relationship and correct balance between cosmopolitanism and patriotism. I felt I was neither, and yet I was both - for years, it felt like quite a paradox indeed, and it bothered me. Then again, paradoxes are a great way to gain deep insight into the nature of reality, if they can be resolved. It was Georgian writer Vazha-Pshavela that solved this paradox for me, and so I took up Vazha-Kareli (more on the Kareli-part later) as my pen name to honor him and his home country of Georgia. It is a Christian country surrounded by foreign threats on almost all sides, a country that has suffered even more than Finland has, but it always comes back victorious and stays true to its heritage. Even if Europe falls (I don’t think that will happen, but many European countries are in danger), the European culture will have a safe haven in the mountain citadel of Georgia. I wish more of Europe was as proud of its culture as Georgia is, and I hope we can nudge Europe to that direction. ALL CULTURES ARE NOT THE SAME Though that echoes the sentiment behind "Make Europe Great Again", I’m not a huge fan of that meme. The MAGA movement, despite being critical about government, is still fully a statist ideology. However, the overarching European civilization used to be great, is great no longer, and holds the potential to be great once more - it just currently has this problem of "confused identity", and is severely out of balance. Currently, Europe doesn’t even recognize that there is something to balance - but Vazha-Pshavela did - way back in 1905, when he wrote his essay "Cosmopolitanism and Patriotism". It starts with these powerful words: ---- “Some people think that true patriotism excludes cosmopolitanism. This is a mistake. Every true patriot is cosmopolitan and every genuine cosmopolitan is a patriot.” ---- I certainly don’t feel patriotic in the traditional way, in the blind, tribalistic and aggressive sense. I don’t get kicks when a Finnish sports team does well in some competition. Yes, technically they are "my people", but what does that mean really? Personally, I just fail to see the point of such things - sorry. At the same time, "full-on cosmopolitanism" makes equally little sense to me. Whenever I travel abroad, I normally feel quite distinct from the people in those other countries - sometimes very distinct. I am not them, and they are not "my people" - they are separate and different, despite the fact that we are still more alike than different. When I meet other Finnish people, I feel much more similar with them - we certainly share the same culture and see the other cultures through the same lens. Does that mean I should then be a patriot? Perhaps not. I don’t feel particularly patriotic towards the current "version" of Finland I see. Yes, historically, Finland has been a great country, and Finnish people are a great nation of strong people - but when I look at what the country of Finland has now become, I see only shadows of past greatness. I am extremely patriotic in a cultural sense - I think the Finnish culture is truly great and through many objective metrics, it really is one of the best cultures in the world. It needs to be cherished, preserved and developed further. It deserves to be kept alive. THE WESTERN SELF-LOATHING IS KILLING US As the very opposite of that, in contemporary Finland I see mostly just the corrosive versions of cosmopolitanism and globalist ideals. The state is force-feeding us ideologies that are very destructive to the true national spirit and the strength of the nation and its culture. That is exactly what Vazha-Pshavela warns about: ---- “The person who negates their country while labelling themselves cosmopolitan is maimed by illusions. Even though this person may present themselves as a lover of the noblest feelings, such a person is unconsciously an enemy of humanity.” ---- That’s just chillingly accurate. The globalist ideals are wreaking havoc in Europe, as our so called "elites" are destroying our societies (in reality, they are just parasites and have nothing to do with "elite"). Through their endless self-loathing, they see every other culture as superior, wanting to destroy their own - whether they do so unconsciously or knowingly, the end result doesn’t change. Perhaps this false cosmopolitanism can be described with another name: internationalism. I’m not sure if they are 1:1 the one and the same, but the problems seem to be the same. Whatever you call it, Vazha-Pshavela continues: ---- “May God protect us from this pseudo-cosmopolitanism, which would require everyone to deny their place of birth. This kind of cosmopolitanism means rejecting one’s very self.” ---- This madness must stop. TRUE DIVERSITY INSTEAD OF GREY MASS MONOCULTURE I wish to see the world as truly, literally “MULTI cultural”, meaning that there should be multiple DIFFERENT cultures. The cultures don’t stay different unless they are allowed to develop in their own separate areas. Currently in the world, there are around 200 of such areas, called "countries". I’d prefer to see at least 10 000 different areas, each with their own flavors of different, separate and distinct cultures - with active, positive and voluntary interaction between them. That would be true cultural richness, unlike the grey mass monoculture we’re being told we must conform with. Having all of those different areas doesn’t even require "dismantling" the current system of countries, as it might be enough to just have more independence among the different areas within those. Unlike some destructive ideologies, we don’t need to tear down the old to build something new. The essay ends: ---- “Every nation seeks freedom and the means to rule itself independently. The separate development of nations is the condition for the development of all humanity.” ---- Never have truer words been written! Thank you, Vazha-Pshavela! ------------ This story doesn’t end here… This isn’t a simple name. To uncover everything it means, the story takes a turn into what felt like a surreal, dystopian alternate reality. From there I continue by further exploration of my uneasy relationship with modern Finland, and trace back my ancient bloodline right to the center of Karelian and Finnish history. Read more here:

Why the name Vazha-Kareli | Sovereign Landing