that everything in the modern Western world, from mathematics to nuclear families to pumpkin-spice lattes, is racist; that intelligence is a meaningless and unquantifiable concept;

https://malcolmpollack.com/2022/01/15/on-mass-formation-in-the-here-and-now/ 

https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/

To participate in polite society today – or, to put that more accurately, to be able to keep your job, get a college degree, or avoid being deplatformed from most media – we are expected to go along with things that most people know in their hearts are simply not so: that sex and race are purely social constructs; that men can become pregnant and bear children; that biology and heritability have nothing to do with human traits, and with their statistical distribution in populations; that cultures and peoples can be mixed and jumbled together at random without affecting the cohesion and stability of formerly homogeneous societies; that “equality” means that people cannot vary in talents, abilities, and aptitudes; that the greatest threat to American society is “white supremacy”; that everything in the modern Western world, from mathematics to nuclear families to pumpkin-spice lattes, is racist; that intelligence is a meaningless and unquantifiable concept; that when different identity groups perform differently on qualifying tests for education and employment, those tests should simply be discarded; that for nations to control their borders is inherently immoral; that the interests of criminals trump those of law-abiding citizens; that parents should have no say in how their children are educated; that members of various, designated groups are not to be considered responsible agents; that the way to deal with rising crime is to stop arresting people; that the 2020 election was squeaky-clean; that the January 6th protest was an assault on a par with Pearl Harbor and 9/11 (while the three-day siege of the White House by BLM and Antifa, in which hunrdeds of officers were injured, and the First Family had to be evacuated, was not); that the protests of that summer were “mostly peaceful”; and no end of other obvious falsehoods and absurdities.

dead tzadikim

   In prayer, people ought to turn to God alone. Not to God through tzadikim saints or any intermediator. Even in the merit of tzadikim. If you think about the times of the prophets, there was a sort of clarity that one should worship and pray to God alone. Not through any intermediator. The modern equivalent of worship of idols is worship of dead tzadikim. [Or even live tzadikim]. 

  If they are tzadikim or not? is a good question. But worship is due to God alone. And the religious world is the opposite of worship of God. They worship dead tzadikim,-- all the rituals none withstanding.

And even if no one listens to the Gra, I still am obligated to warn people. [The Gra is not at all like the insane religious world. They use Torah as weapon to hurt secular Jews.

 Torah can guide people to the right way. It can guide one to Objective Morality. [That is the Oral and Written Law]]. But what makes this impossible to tell people is that the Dark Side has hijacked it. The Sitra Achra has taken over the religious world. So one can and must still learn and keep Torah, but far away from the religious  who have been taken over.

Rav Nahman did hint to this to the degree of warning us about Torah scholars that are demons in the Le.M vol I:12 but still in his time this problem had not extended outwards.  

However it would be possible to recommend the great Litvak yeshivot like the Mir in NY or any of the great yeshivot based on the Gra in Israel. However this is also an "ify" kind of answer, because things are not so simple even in the best of places. At least they teach authentic Torah. But the Sitra Achra can reach even there.   

There is something "off" about the religious world and I can not tell what it is. And I dare not speculate. [(At least it is clear that the religious worship dead people. Not God. That much  is easy to see. But is that the whole problem? Who knows?)] 

And even if no one listens to the Gra, I still am obligated to warn people. At least I have said what is clearly the case and anyone with the slightest bit of common sense can see this, still when people refuse to pat attention, I have fulfilled my obligation. 

[The Gra is not at all like the insane religious world. They use Torah as weapon to hurt secular Jews.

every word of Torah [the Written Law and the Gemara ] is worth as much as all the other commandments

The approach of the Gra is that every word of Torah [the Written Law and the Gemara ] is worth as much as all the other commandments put together. But what diminishes the effect of learning Torah is when it gets mixed up with other stuff. It as healthy as a fudge sundae mixed with a tiny bit of cyanide at the bottom. So while Torah would be a correction to all kinds of strange notions going around nowadays, still at present, even learning Torah can not help. Torah can help only when it is authentic. 

It is odd how Torah got to be a means of making money

 It is odd how Torah got to be a means of making money when it seems clear that it was meant to be a "for the sake of Heaven" kind of thing. I might not think this so odd if not for the commentary of the Rambam on Pirkei Avot where he says the heads of the yeshivot that claim it is a good deed to give them money are lying. [That is not on the first time that mishna is brought there. The first time is in the first chapter. But later it is brought again כל המשתמש בתגא חלף [who ever uses the Torah passes away] and there the Rambam says that comment.

That comment of the Rambam was the cause of the first arguments against him during his lifetime. That argument is not well known. The second argument against him was because of the Guide for the Perplexed. That one seems to have bee more wide spread since it included the Baali HaTosphot and also Rabbainu Yona [author of the Gates of Repentance]. Later Rabbainu Yona realized his mistake and in fact repented and thus we have the classic Musar book Gates of Repentance. [There are four classics: חובות לבבות שערי תשובה, אורחות צדיקים מסילת ישרים.]

Review ten times

 One of the important ideas I gained in Shar Yashiv [a great Litvak yeshiva of Rav Shelomo Freifeld] was the idea of review ten times. [That is review of every paragraph or chapter, or what ever subdivision is the most applicable for that subject. E.g.Tospho t.]But I did not apply this idea much at all. I felt so lacking in background information that I used to do review twice and go on. This never got me into the depths of Torah learning, but at least I covered some ground.

[This sort of approach of review of each paragraph many times helps in Physics. In terms of Tosphot, I find doing the same Tosphot day after day more helpful.]

My dad I think will never get credit for the infrared telescope and laser communication between satellites. [I know about the later because he took me to his lab at TRW and I saw it]

 I realize that being smart and being talented are not the same thing. For though my dad was smart, but certainly no genius IQ. But when it came to inventing stuff he was a genius. [Which clearly he will never get credit for.] The first was the infrared telescope. [At least for that in fact he did get the credit in Life Magazine. (note 1)But that is totally forgotten about today. When they launched the James Web Telescope [which is an infrared telescope], no one even bothered to mention who invented the infrared telescope. Next was the X-ray satellites launched for the USA space program. [Even though here I am guessing. For my dad did in fact invent the Copy-Mate Machine using x-rays to make a super sharp  copy machine. (not sure how that worked). But then he was snatched up by TRW in 1965 until to make their x ray satellites. [Those were the first spy satellites.] Then after that he made laser communication between satellites--also at TRW until the TRW satellite program  itself was shut down because of two moles that were selling the technology there to the KGB. [That was made into a movie the Snowman and the Falcon]

[And though I am no where as smart or talented as he was, I still try to walk in his path and combine that with the path of the Gra and Rav Shach of straight Torah. That is Torah with Derech Eretz.

(note 1) It is good that Life Magazine article was published with my father's photo. My dad's mother said she would have given ten years of her life just to see that picture. That seems to be the only bit of credit that will ever be known.