Christian Detective

Matthew Zbrudzewski, Catholic. Author. Recovering Charismatic.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@SteveSkojec It’s funny because it’s true. Eating homemade is challenging when living alone. I remember having to make a batch of something and eat it for days. God forbid if you weren’t in the mood by day 3 😂

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@PaxAeterna @randomrecruiter Thank you for saying so.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@catholicpat Amen!

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@ZeldaAGabriel Idk. Something suspicious about that girl. Just can’t put my finger on it 😂

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

A fascinating read. It really makes me think

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

I don't know how many people realize that if Elon Musk pulls off what he's building, it will be the biggest social reset in human history.

To understand why, you need to understand a concept almost nobody really gets: rent.

Yesterday I was talking about it with someone. I told them something simple: the moment a rent sets in, whatever kind it is, it gets paid for. Not necessarily in dollars. It gets paid for in stagnation.

So what is a rent?

A rent is income that doesn't come from the value you create, but from the position you hold. You don't win because you're better. You win because nobody is allowed to come and beat you.

The mechanism is almost always the same. A company succeeds. Then, instead of continuing to innovate, it goes for regulatory capture: licenses, standards, quotas, approvals, lobbying. It turns its lead into a wall. And behind that wall, new entrants can't get in.

But they're the ones who innovate. They're the ones who drive prices down, raise quality, create new wealth. When you block them, nothing dramatic happens. Nothing happens at all. Prices stop falling. Quality stalls. The pie stops growing. And when the pie stops growing, the only way to get richer is to take someone else's slice.

This is the point almost nobody sees: what people blame on "capitalism" (frozen inequality, a broken social ladder, the feeling that the game is rigged from the start) are the effects of that stagnation. The symptoms of rent. Not of capitalism. Capitalism is competition. Rent is its negation.

Now, Elon Musk.

He said that by 2036, money won't matter anymore. Most people read it as science fiction. I read it as an implicit critique of our entire monetary system.

His reasoning: AI and robots will produce more than we can possibly consume. So prices will collapse. Deflation, not inflation.

And this is where it gets interesting. For decades, the role of central banks has been to stabilize prices. In practice: to stop them from falling. Yet in an economy that innovates, the natural direction of prices is down. Look at what a computer cost thirty years ago.

Preventing prices from falling was the worst thing we could have done. Because it created an entire generation of rentiers. People who got rich not by creating something, but by owning something at the right time. An apartment. A plot of land. An asset shielded from falling prices by money printing and by rules that choke supply.

In a world not captured by the state, house prices would be extremely low.

And who would stay rich? The people who keep creating value. The ones whose wealth comes from the valuation of their company, because their company keeps innovating. Wealth you have to re-earn every single year.

That's where Elon's line really makes sense. In a world of deflationary abundance, human life would look like a video game. Or a game of chess.

If you're good and you start at the bottom, you can rise very, very fast. In a few years.

If you're bad and you inherit the inertia of a position you don't know how to maintain, against people who keep innovating, you fall very, very fast too.

No more rent. No more entitlement. Just your ability to create value, put back on the line every day.

It would be the greatest equalizer in human history.

Not equality of outcomes imposed from above. Equality of the playing field, imposed by abundance.

I think Elon Musk is reinventing the rules of capitalism. Or rather, bringing them back to their original form: the Austrian school. Real capitalism. Value creation as the only legitimate source of wealth.

And at the end of the road, something neither rent nor redistribution has ever achieved: the end of poverty on a global scale.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@CarmeliteAnna I make it with scrambled eggs. Fry some green onions in butter then add the cheese and finally eggs. It’s delicious

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@TheTrekCentral A really sad day. He was a part of my favorite franchise of all time. He was such a huge presence of joy and optimism on screen. He will be missed

[The Catholic Traveler @MountainButorac]

As is often the case in breaking news, the truth slowly comes out.

Today we learn directly from the organizers of the TLM pilgrimage that when they could not get Saint Peter’s basilica… “permission was sought and gained for a Prelatial (Pontifical) Low Mass in St Mary Major.”

So unlike what so many bloggers, podcasters, journalists, and rage baiters claimed, this was NOT a last-minute change but something that was known since August.

Respect to those who have already corrected what they previously posted and shame on those who have not.

I’ll also note, since I shared early on that events on their official website were still incorrect a day before the pilgrimage began (and many of these same people, including a priest involved said I was lying about that when it was updated the following day) the organizers also said this… “The SP website was based on what happened last year. The problem was that as things were confirmed, very late in the day, they were contirmed as being different trom what they expected, and the website was not updated. So I now understand.”

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@JoshLStephenson ⭐️

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@JennMGreenberg No way…I can’t finish it

[David Fish @DavidFish7]

The bronze serpent challenges both iconoclasts and iconodules.

The iconoclasts must wrestle with God commanding people to look at an image which is somehow connected to Christ. (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14-15)

Iconodules must reckon with the fact that veneration of the bronze serpent did turn into idolatry over time and Hezekiah was right to destroy it. (2 Kings 18:4)

Images are not absolutely evil nor are they absolutely good. Sensitivity is needed to know if images are helpful or harmful.

The church must use wisdom and cultural contextualization to determine the role images should play in the devotional life of each individual and congregation.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@FatherChrisVor1 This post is why they pay you the big bucks 😉

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

@DChronicleTales Yes!

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

What a great story. Loved it!

[D Chronicles Tales @DChronicleTales]

My grandfather owned forty acres of pasture, and every spring he walked the perimeter fence line with a bucket of used motor oil and a stiff paintbrush.

He ignored eighty cedar posts along the meadow, but he thoroughly soaked the eighth post in the corner where our land met the state forest.

When I was fourteen, I asked why that single post smelled like heavy machinery all summer.

He didn't smile. He shoved the oily brush back into the bucket and tapped my chest with two fingers.

"Iron tastes bitter to them, but used oil burns their gums," he said, staring into the dark pines. "Don't ever lean your back against that post."

**The Eighth Post**

I took that to mean there was something in the woods I'd rather not meet, and I stayed off the post for the next twenty years.

He did the fence at dusk, every time. I remember that because it was the only chore he did with a flashlight in his hand, even in June when it was light until almost ten. At the eighth post he'd stand with his back to the house, look at the pines for a minute, and click the flashlight twice. Then he'd go in for supper.

Grandpa Arvid died in March, at eighty-eight. He'd been in the same farmhouse in northern Michigan for his whole life. After the funeral, Dad and I spent three weekends sorting the barn, and when April came, the fence had to be walked. Somebody had to do it, and Dad's knees are bad.

So I took the bucket and the brush. I'd watched it done so many times that my hands knew it. Seven posts in, the oil was running down my wrist and I was mostly thinking about my back.

At the eighth post I noticed what I'd never seen as a kid, because I'd always been told to stay back. On the side facing the forest, at about hip height, there was a square plug of cedar, a little darker than the rest, flush with the wood. The oil had soaked into it so thoroughly that the seam looked like part of the grain....

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

By applying Christian forgiveness and having a Boaz mindset a man can redeem his wife’s past and build a new fruitful future together.

[Adriana Flowers 🌸 @Adriana19Flower]

This is what I keep saying, especially to Christian men; the only way men have been able to accept marrying women with very promiscuous pasts is through the power of denial.

This denial, however, has become much more hard for men to continue having due to the rise of social media and porn. You see, if it was a man in the 80s-90s marrying a deeply promiscuous woman, he could just easily not think about the things she did before him.

As long as he put those thoughts away very deep in his mind, he could keep the marriage going as best as he could (even if she ended up divorcing him anyways).

Now we have the internet though. We have videos, only fans, we have social media, and we have red pill and anti-feminist awareness that is growing as we speak. This awareness can no longer be hidden or minimized by bad faith actors whether they are from church or from secular society.

This is why it’s fruitless to keep blaming men for why marriages and birth rates are so low. You can only tell men for so long to be in denial of the depravity and destruction that the feminist sexual revolution has inflicted upon our entire western society. This was always unsustainable and was bound to fall apart. Now even the church, wife-guys have a very hard time denying these things. They don’t know how to convince men to be in denial anymore because even they are having a hard time doing so.

So where exactly does modern society go from here after all the damage done by feminism?

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

I am not Catholic. But propagating conspiracy theories that conservative American Catholics have a secret plan to take over the US and destroy our system of government is as offensive as suggesting that conservative American Jews do.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

Been to 7, including both of my state’s most popular.

[Josh Barzon @JoshuaBarzon]

Have you been to your State‘s most popular attraction?

[The Catholic Traveler @MountainButorac]

Good grief.

Again, I attend the TLM in Rome with the ICKSP and with the FSSP when I'm in the States. I have attended this TLM pilgrimage many times over the years. I am NOT a journalist or blogger who gets paid to rage. I am, however, someone who has been organizing pilgrimages like this for decades and knows exactly how the Vatican and the churches work.

The news over the last few days is that the TLM pilgrimage Mass was not allowed in Saint Peter's Basilica, that the Vatican threw together an event to block them, that the group was denied entry into the basilica to pray, and that they were only allowed one hour at Saint Mary Major at the last minute, with no photos.

Let me break this down...

Celebrations for the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis were being planned as early as 2021. Meetings took place with Pope Francis in 2022 to discuss the events. In January 2025, the Italian government met with Vatican officials to plan the events. In January 2026, Vatican News referenced planned events to take place throughout the year. So despite what some are saying, the Franciscan event that is happening today was not thrown together to block this Mass at the last minute. In fact, this event coincides with a huge event that starts tomorrow in Assisi, where 5,000 people have registered and which Pope Leo was originally scheduled to attend.

When the organizers requested the Mass for this day, they were told the altar was already reserved and offered another day or another location. They chose another location, Saint Mary Major. No scandal.

As for the procession, the group was not banned from entering. They were not allowed to process in. They could not carry their flags and banners and would have to enter through security like everyone else. If you check the photos, you'll see that the line at that time was over an hour long. So if they arrived at their scheduled time of 1 p.m., it would have been difficult to get through security and across town in time for their 3 p.m. Mass.

👏🏻 Props to the PR people who positioned the group for a photo in front of the walls set up for construction of the Nativity scene instead of moving them over a few feet for an unobstructed view of the basilica! 👏🏻

Last year, we were able to process in because there was a dedicated entrance for the Jubilee with very little wait. Anyone could process in (unfortunately), which is why we ended up with some inappropriate processions. But that was an exception during the Jubilee. Normally, groups cannot just process beyond the piazza, as was the case today.

As for the Mass at Saint Mary Major, they allow one hour for Mass. I have been here with cardinals leading pilgrimages of hundreds of people. Do you know how much time they were allowed for Mass? One hour. Saint Mary Major says on their Mass reservation form and in their confirmation emails that private groups are allowed one hour. Could they have made an exception? Sure, but they don't usually for cardinals bringing busloads of people, so why would they here?

And for the photos during Mass, permission to use a professional photographer has to be requested well in advance. Did the organizers know this and make the proper request? I don't know. Professional photos on Vatican property, including Saint Peter's Basilica, Saint Peter's Square, Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, and the Scala Santa, require special permission. I've been making these requests for years. It's simple, but getting a reply takes time. It is the Vatican, after all. So perhaps they did not have permission or even ask for permission.

There is plenty to question in the Church, but if you're not looking for clicks, this looks more like poor planning and poor communication, possibly on both sides, than some grand conspiracy.

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

I don’t care if it was cynical not. To have a President publicly embracing Catholic Bishops and their praying over him is a huge win for Catholicism over anti-Catholic bigotry. There was a day when this wouldn’t dare be done by a US President for fear of backlash. I will take this as a win

“What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.” - Philippians 1:18

[Christian Detective @ChristianD5881]

This post makes me wonder how many Christians have fallen victim to this strategy and gave up on their faith

[Mike Shelby @grayzoneintel]

Following the latest disclosures from @DataRepublican, I see many conservative and right wing influencers saying that the way to defeat a Color Revolution is through public awareness.

Color Revolutions don't depend on secrecy. It's a form of POPULAR revolution, meaning they need the masses on board. IT'S NO SECRET. Defeating secrecy helps us understand the threat, but that alone will NOT stop what's coming.

Color Revolutions run on ORGANIZATION. It's not the secrecy that matters, it's the connective tissue of people, money, and strategy that force a decisive phase and tipping point.

So it's the organization -- the act of getting individuals organized into groups that can be mobilized -- that you have to target.

And you do that through counter-organization.

REMEMBER: The crux of ALL revolutionary and counter-revolutionary strategy is to organize yourself and disorganize your opponents.

The Viet Minh perfected this strategy with what they called Dau Tranh, or struggle or political struggle.

It had three lines of effort, two of which are of supreme importance:

Action among your own people. The total mobilization of propaganda, motivational, and organizational measures to build, organize, and sustain yourself.

Action among the enemy’s people. The total propaganda effort to sow discontent, defeatism, dissent, and disloyalty among the enemy’s population.

Organize yourself and disorganize your opponents.

That's the strategy to win. That's how you defeat an organized effort to topple a government. The side that is better organized and wins greater support is going to win.

Next Tuesday night, I will livestream and hold a Spaces here to discuss this in greater detail and provide a path to defeating this burgeoning Color Revolution movement. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.