RANGE Magazine-Winter 2019-The Woozle Effect, Gaslighting, & The

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habitats, watersheds, and wildlife populations from these fires is orders-of-magnitude worse The Woozle Effect, than the most crazily incompetent grazing or any logging the Forest Service would ever allow. This is entirely because activists and the Gaslighting, public were taught for generations, then cul- turally gaslighted—for money—with outdat- ed American Romantic Period nonsense & the Cost of BS about unrestrained wildness; sublime, unbri- Even Winnie the Pooh came to realize his own foolishness. dled passion (example: the more horrid the Words & photos by Steven H. Rich. destruction, the more “sublime”); and Native Americans as “noble savages,” i.e., scattered, instinctive wildlife. he genuine scientific term “woozle one is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a This stuff gets continually revised, effect” describes continued, mindless common technique of abusers, dictators, nar- achieving maximum human and environ- or dishonest recycling of old non- cissists, and cult leaders.” The term derives mental damage. Think of Thoreau’s original Tsense. Example: Radical groups trot out the from the 1940 film “Gaslight,” wherein an evil writings about a “middle landscape” of live- same old bibliographies of false anti-livestock husband attempts to drive his new wife stock and lumber camps, etc.—if you can claims in lawsuits—every citation a woozle— insane by manipulating her reality. Beef and find any now. It’s purged from the Internet. all predicting environmental catastrophe. If lamb producers are entangled in multigenera- His words are tortured and changed by doc- ranchers don’t expensively refute them, over tional gaslighting, while their Green abusers trinaire revisionists until “politically correct and over, judges and media, lacking biological use endless woozles. Guess what? Beef and Thoreau” now will say anything. That’s the understanding, believe them. Woozles are process the anything-humans-do-defiles- imaginary creatures. The idea comes from the nature notion follows. How do you think children’s book “Winnie the Pooh,” where Native Americans like being gaslighted out

Pooh, “a bear of very little brain”—but of great VIA INTERNET of their ancestors’ achievements? heart and high principles—leads his tiny The following is from a published Op-Ed friend Piglet, circling ’round a tree, finding I wrote last summer. “Unlike us, even children ever more “woozle tracks” in the snow, getting in the West’s ancient and early historic native more scared with each revolution, until they cultures knew that optimizing plant spacings learn that all the tracks are their own. determines nature’s fate—abundance or dis- Radicals sell malicious woozling as envi- aster. Wider-spaced trees can’t ignite each ronmental defense, despite scientific proofs of other. Sunlight reaches soils. Biodiversity necessary habitat, watershed, and other ecosys- increases 90 percent-plus. With great sophisti- tem healing that only skillfully managed live- cation, Native Americans used the tools they stock can provide. Ungrazed national parks in had. They, like nature-based cultures world- seasonal rainfall areas feature decreased biodi- wide, dedicated tremendous resources creat- versity and fields of nonnative annuals after up ing explosions of biodiversity, wildlife, food to 98 years of “rest.” So obviously, removing plants and perennial streamflows, while keep- livestock can’t fix soil health problems, woody ing fires small and short, thus protecting their species’ strangleholds and their fire conse- families. They lit small, ‘patchy’ ground fires quences in rest-degraded/eroded soils like Hurting people while lower fuel moistures prevented explo- regenerative grazing can. sive fire behavior. This thinned forests and Ranch families, too, are collateral damage. and nature for cash, created firebreak meadows.” Radicals know their own revenue streams knowingly, speaks more We can’t “light burn” our way out of this depend on scaring inexperienced donors and hellish cycle now. It’s going to require logging, collusion with governments having woozle- to “little” principles and lots of it, and prescribed grazing. At the time, I based policies. With genuinely ignorant “little” hearts. called on the public, media, educators, politi- activists, “very little brain” is an excuse, sort of. cians and activists to “become wildfire-com- Hurting people and nature for cash, knowing- lamb don’t cause heart problems, butter is far petent and end this mess.” ly, speaks more to “little” principles and “little” better for hearts than margarine, and genetics Green-group executives absolutely know hearts. Truly subtle woozles—they are, after influence cholesterol levels far more than diet all that. You can’t study nature-related disci- all, information constructs—can possess the does. Inflammation from sugar is the prob- plines without learning that pre-European- very souls of vulnerable, angry victims. That’s lem. Also, cows don’t eat fish—Greens actual- contact America was a native human-created what radicalization is. ly claimed that. landscape from sea to sea. They’re intention- Gaslighting was defined in Psychology As I write, vast forest areas in California ally gaslighting little children and their teach- Today as “a tactic in which a person or entity, and other western states are burning severely, ers—the whole culture—in order to destroy in order to gain more power [thus, money], catastrophically. USDA-Rocky Mountain rural communities so that they, wielding vast, makes a victim question their reality.... Any- Research Station claims that the harm to soils, inherited cultural momentum, can “recreate”

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Canyonlands National Park, this part aka “The Needles big Russian thistle This “Mother of the year” (two calves) was framed. Strange, radicals cite old BS, patch.” Obviously, after many “livestock free” decades, park soil biology still hoping to ban cow pies. Do cows eat fish, fish eggs, cause “dung fires,” etc.? Are favors nonnative annuals and bare ground. Skilled ranchers optimize the dry washes really “critical fish habitat”? Are “abusive grazing” and “proper timing, frequency, intensity of grazing and animal impacts to lift soils out of grazing” the same thing? Repeated false claims should be stamped “woozle” and this dead end. banned, “with prejudice,” from past/future court and NEPA deliberations.

a fantasy world that never existed—to get acres and consuming thousands of homes are deeply believed. paid and have an easy life with lots of out- not natural. If the public knew this, things When I was a young environmental con- doors’ time. They hang out in places that would change. Mega-big-money players are sultant, formally commenting on environ- haven’t burned yet. Westerners are living in using these frauds to control vast public mental impact statements and assessments the fiery, degraded consequences of that anti- resources. There aren’t words for how it feels that would completely ruin clients’ lives if not human fantasy. This horror happens when after explaining for 30 years. I’m using new refuted, I would have often used the following humans hate each other and stop managing language, hoping it triggers free thoughts. You in those comments: “The amount of energy intelligently. gotta try. Pray it’s not too late to implement necessary to refute bullshit is an order of mag- Because of gaslight groupthink, people sit all the planet-saving soil/ecosystem discover- nitude bigger than to produce it.” It’s called the there passively while it happens...to other ies we already know actually work. There are Brandolini Principle. It underestimates the people. When it happens to them, the poor, a big bunch of gaslit woozles in the way. As problem. The only thing that breaks the spell brainwashed victims just sigh and say, “I guess Pooh would say, those are the very worst cast by gaslit woozles is direct experience with fire’s natural in forests.” Gigantic, uncontrol- kind. They’re made of unexamined, old, old nature, under the guidance of folks who know lable, sterilizing blazes with huge fire-torna- irrationalities, with their hooks deep into the behavioral languages of many creatures, dos throwing burning trees into millions of people’s loves and loyalties, and they are including plants and fungi. It’s called “going

Cryptogam soil crust fails again—for 68 years. This crust-woozle is an old Pre-catastrophic fuel load. Once started in this mess, crowning wildfires can’t standby in anti-rancher NEPA and lawsuit pleadings. If this soil environment be stopped without favorable winds and, hopefully, rain. They must be actually did “favor establishment of native grasses,” they wouldn’t be rare and immediately suppressed. Federal funding practices based on multi- endangered here. generationally gaslighted woozles encourage letting fires grow.

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The next woozle-caused fire will be MUCH worse: fire-killed trees fall, fuel Beetle kill: Navajo Lake, Utah. For more than 100 years, all real foresters loads (see aspen resprouts) rebuild. Next fire? Vast tonnages of heavy fuels have known this happens when tree stands get too thick. Trees must drown burn for hours in close soil contact. Result? Catastrophic soil sterilization, attacking bark beetles in sap. When water-competition makes “soil “hydrophobic” (rain-proof) soil crusts, catastrophic flooding, mass erosion, drought,” trees can’t defend themselves. ruined habitats and lost potentials. Gaslighted public can’t see for smoke of burning woozle-BS.

native.” It’s loving nature and people enough “village ranch” that governments had forced observations, only conclusions. They to experience continued epiphanies like onto them. They created miracles of environ- “observed” things like “overgrazing” in “Wow!” “Cool!” That lets you recognize the mental and cultural healing. places where no cows had been for many nature pattern. It’s how people get free. Eric and I taught several Holistic Man- years. Eric reexplained the difference again My friend Eric Schwennesen saved a lot of agement classes with Tommie Martin, now and sent them off. Result? More conclu- kids’ lives and healed nature in Somalia, a Gila County, Ariz., supervisor. We repeat- sions, with some exceptions. Typically, it Chad, Mali, Pakistan, and many other coun- edly said: “Please don’t just believe us. Learn took three sessions before classes could tries. He courageously fought off entrenched to see and measure, collaborate, plan and observe, not just recite woozle-speak. I woozle-culture bureaucrats to make Interna- monitor.” In one exercise, Eric gave classes assigned that exercise many times with the tional Aid Agency-sanctioned spaces for pas- notebooks on both ranch lands and same result. By the third repetition, some toral herding peoples. They needed to ungrazed areas and sent them out to make class members were pretty angry and mum- rediscover holistic principles behind their observations. When we called them in, Eric bled things like, “Damn, I paid all that ancestors’ ecologically successful, migratory checked their work. All those professionals, money to get indoctrinated.” lifeways and then adapt them to the one big many with advanced degrees, had zero The very best way to get free is to learn

Postfire flood. Years later, big storms still send massive floods. This one carried Grass and flowers next to water hole. Ill-planned grazing makes large trees and boulders, stripped branches and downcut streambed downstream. “gradients” where forage plants die out. Here, they grow inside the “water lot” Fire reached 80,000 acres. Woozle-think ordered three rangers to let it burn— fence, built to exclude cows at times. Wildlife easily go over and under. It’s when it was only three feet wide. been vandalized by woozle-possessed radicals. If not for livestock, the water wouldn’t be here.

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“Wildland Fire-Use Fire”—still barren, two years later. Over 90 percent of Which side do wildlife like? Radicals ignore issues like forage quality for ignition? Agency drip torches, in June, when strong winds blow. Surprise, it wildlife. Elk, deer, pronghorns, etc., much prefer “regrowth” after livestock escaped! Only the worst kind of woozle-think creates policies “of very little graze. The old gray stuff would starve them to death. brain”—and much less heart.

scientific range and forest monitoring. I call communication versus manipulation. don’t fix it. Tune it up till it sings! You’ll find it “land language.” This holistic process You’ll find your “enemies” love nature as that only open, curious, hardworking, smart, includes insects and their species, bird much as you do. You’re outdoor people. You kind, collaborative people can actually heal species and sign, small and large animal can bless each others’ lives. When you under- anything. Mean people are “stuck on stupid.” species and sign (yep, snakes and lizards, stand land language, you will find that only They love woozles, gaslighting and BS. That’s too), plant and animal age and condition real, competent ranchers and people who love because they’re possessed...by some really profiles, plant spacings, bare or covered learning can heal the range. Only real, nature- nasty specimens. They need outdoor time ground, live plant species, cover, water cycle knowing loggers and people who love learn- with wise friends. Lots of it. n and mineral cycle condition, and more. It’s ing can heal fire-prone forests. You’ll see, best done in groups containing ranchers, together, that removing livestock from over- Steven H. Rich is a public-land rancher, loggers, government staff, university people, grazed areas helps, but only for a while. Then writer, consultant, educator, and advocate for regenerative agriculture and preservation and environmentalists. Our classes did that wildlife leaves and things get worse. Paying of rural cultures. He can be reached at after discussing things like the inverse rela- attention to land language over time will [email protected]. tionship between trust and control and open reveal this. If land is not overgrazed, though,

Wild turkeys, loving life. Farm pasture: plenty of nutritious alfalfa and Brief rain sends floods after fire. This blaze totaled 500,000 acres. Such huge insects. Though irrigated fields are “not natural,” the turkeys, deer, elk, etc., fires never happened prior to policies based on Romantic Era philosophy— don’t care—at all. Still, there are crazy woozles programmed to end all not science. Native Americans and rural-raised federal officers didn’t allow human activity. gigantic fuel loads to build. Gaslighting has stripped this memory from public awareness.

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