The situation we're in reminds me of late stage communism. Not the Glorious Revolution, not Stalinism, but late stage communism, when almost no-one actually believed the story, no-one expected to ever see Workers' Paradise, and yet bureaucrats enforced conformity (because those were the orders, they were paid to do it, and it wasn't their job to actually evaluate any of it), and everyone else conformed because they couldn't see a feasible way out. Few people were jailed, and there were no (political) executions. But say a wrong thing, and you'd be out of a job. Very few people believed the story, and yet it continued for a couple more decades due to sheer inertia.
And I fear that this is what awaits us. Boosters every six months. No-one expects the virus to be eradicated, and no-one thinks it's all that dangerous, either, but hey, rules are rules. If you don't conform, then you're out of a job and maybe even given a short prison sentence. If you don't vaccinate your kids, then you lose custody. Nah. Better conform. After all, most people don't suffer particularly serious side effects. Sure, the stuff might shorten your life, but so would poverty. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse. It would be awfully nice if it collapsed this winter, but it's perfectly possible it'll take decades.
This is exactly right. I wake up every morning thinking about the DDR, but also in a hopeful way: How one day it just fell apart, because the obvious absurdities were too great. Our best hope, the thing we must try to do, is hasten that moment, by mocking them, isolating them intellectually, revealing them for the frauds that they are. Just always hitting them anew every day, no matter how impassive they seem, until the collapse.
Fauci and Walensky are now selling shot #1 and #3, while also announcing #4 is expected for release in March. Israel is already selling or getting ready to sell the original version as #4.
They have already reached levels of absurdity that their only defense is censorship and trying to criminalize criticism.
Mandated boosters will wake up too many frogs before the boil.
This is what it was created for. To substitute for the loss of the Euopean Ghettoes in the wake of the French revolution, as in the Ghettoes the ruling rabbis had it so much easier to control the Jewish populations subjected to them. As this loss was permanent, they created their world Ghetto, Israel.
I think the change will happen like the quote from Earnest Hemingway: “How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The question is how close are we to the tipping point?
I've considered that possibility (gosh, can it happen already?!), but unsure where the tipping point will be. I DO notice a shift in thinking/expression by previous believers, now that it has been shown the vax doesn't stop infection, sickness or transmission, and now that boosters are being discussed. Perhaps like religion, people are ok with some rituals and playing along (in their respective cultures), but once it starts demanding your children, your lives and lifestyle beyond the benefits--you wake up. I dunno. We are two years into this nearly, and it still hasn't ended.
Unforetunately I think you have identified one possible tipping point. If children are seen to be harmed for no real benefit, I think that would do it.
It fell apart amidst a world that contained relatively free cultures like the US, Canada, Australia et al. Today they're all gone, save for a few holdout southern states. Florida and Texas aren't riding the world's rescue in the way the US et al rescued East Germans from Soviet communism.
liberal democracy isn’t everything. much of the world isn’t part of this system, and there are alternative regimes. i agree it’s not the same scenario, but there is still - there always is - an outside.
Where do 'Smart Cities' fit into your worldview on conspiracy. Because there are current efforts all around the world to introduce the infrastructure for these, which I prefer to call 'Surveillance Cities'.
I have been thinking that the study of Chinese history might be useful to understand changes that overcome a rigid bureaucratic state. (I am not a scholar of Chinese history.) As best I understand it, they are only changes from the outside.
The issue with the DDR is the USSR had to pay their bills. The cost of buffer states became too great and once funding was cut a nation against itself had to fall. That the place was absorbed for cheap labor and land was a saving grace for the soon to be starving populace
In short, corona mania has become a sort of culture that everyone just kind of accepts. Until some other force comes up against it, it'll continue under its own momentum. Why did the hippie look of the 70's come to be replaced by the preppy khakis and plaids of the 80's? The culture just moved on. Folks got tired of the former, and the latter appeared fresh and new.
Obviously a disease is a somewhat different matter, but the same forces will be operative. Yes, fear is a strong motivator, but this can last only so long. I'm from San Francisco and moved to Boston in 1995, now living in Mexico City. I'm 60 and got covid in July. A week's headache and a few days of fever from this "deadly" virus and that was it. I'm the only person my family in California knows personally who's had it.
As more and more folks have stories like mine (which are the VAST majority), folks, especially the young, will start to realize that this hysteria is just that: irrational hysteria. The weight of this is becoming all too ridiculous.
And it's obviously far divorced from Science. What actual data does anyone have on Omicron? Almost none. Yet politicians are lurching into motion to impose even more draconian measures based on pure fear and political expediency. People are beginning to wake up to this. They're also beginning to wake up to the fact that the definition of "fully vaccinated" is more than a mere two shots, and will change every 6 months. Fewer are willing to sign up to a vaccine subscription model than the two shots and done model.
I'm thinking this panic can't last more than another year. Covid fatigue is setting in, and I think it's setting in hard. Literally everyone is getting tired of this increasingly ridiculous drill.
Yes this is exactly it. Corona mania has transformed into some sort social etiquette into the culture. Being vaccinated - for many - is like wearing a suit at work. You are one of the normal people. And bureaucrats have always loved implementing pointless regulations, and now people have sadly given them mandate it implement really invasive stuff. And of course this culture will wear off eventually, but the politicians will be the last to know this.
I certainly hope you are correct, Kim. And congratulations on surviving the bug. So far I see little sign that the trends you describe are taking root. The paranoia and fear is escalating, as can be seen in places like Austria and Australia.
The precedent you cite is a hopeful one, but our species also has other much darker precedents when it comes to mass psychosis. I pray that yours is the scenario that prevails.
Totally agree, and I think the one bright hope is that under a federalist system (as long as we have it), we have states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, and to a degree Alabama and Indiana, that essentially are done with it all (or have been for a while). That will only further illustrate how ridiculous this all is, when (gasp) life has gone on without masks or vax's etc, and people still get married, children are born, old folks die, and random folks die in car wrecks or from Covid...but life goes on. Btw, notice the most resistant states (and regions within states) and people, culturally, are the Scots-Irish, per usual.
I live in New Hampshire where it's covid crazy in the southern areas infected by MA residents but go to the Lakes region a lot during the summer. It's easy to spot outsiders from MA or NY because they are wearing their face diapers. Locals not so much!
Anyway, I went to South Carolina for a 1 week golf trip the beginning of October and 100% forgot about covid. Almost zero masking anywhere anf bars and restaurants full. I think the freedom feeling happened mainly because of not seeing people in face diapers all day. Actually, the feeling was so nice I'm considering moving there if/when I lose my job due to the jab mandate.
Good points Ricky. Ironic though that both Scotland and Ireland have totally swallowed the covid propaganda while England remains *relatively* more rational. I suppose all the best Scots and Irish decamped for America while they had the chance :-)
I agree with your thrust personally but confess to being discouraged by what I see around. I live in small-town Veracruz where even in pueblitas in the coffee hill country with only 500 inhabitants it is common to see people walking outside with masks, or on their burros, or alone in their cars. Even the officials pushing these silly things used to point out that wearing them outside isn't necessary, let alone in the middle of nowhere with super-fresh mountain airs.
And I read that Mexico just passed a law to begin creating digital passports similar to the social credit score apps already being used by well over a billion people in India plus god knows how many more in China already.
This isn't about a disease. The disease is a real-world event but a pretext for political machinations on a world wide scale. Unfortunately most of us - because we are reasonable, decent people - cannot stomach this notion and so are waiting for it all to go away.
I pray every day that it will go away but suspect we are entering a period similar to what happened to Russia and that it will be several generations before the pendulum swings again.
That said, there is a great irony afoot: although the Great Reset we hear rumors off may end up ushering in a new 'techno-fascist' age as many fear, the fact is that we are long overdue for a Great Reset of sorts, indeed it is inevitable. Things cannot keep going on the way they were since too many facets of our world had overtaken our governance systems. Transntional cultural and commercial interchange happens now at the speed of the latest meme on Youtube. International trading laws supersede local or national jurisdictions as per UCC going back decades (indeed back to the Roman Empire where the code was first put into being).
Furthermore, in the developed West the gap between the believed representative republics or democracies or commonwealths etc. and the reality had widened to the point of being no longer maintainable. Simply put, corruption was far too endemic and our countries were no longer what we were telling ourselves and our children they were.
Note I say 'were.' Because the old normal is never coming back. There will indeed be a New Normal, but hopefully we don't all let the Technocrats dictate at the point of a needle what the new normal will be. Although right now it looks like that is what is going to happen. We may not be able to believe that a new totalitarian era is upon us, but neither could any of the Russians in 1915. They had the highest standard of living of any peoples in the West - including the peasants and serfs - and would have laughed at you if you had warned them that in a few short years one in three of them would be dead of forced starvation, limbs being severed, execution and exile. But they all would have been wrong.
Well, I don't disagree with you. But one of the joys of Mexico is that the government here is too incompetent to really be able to manage any kind of "social credit score" system. Heck, they can't even keep motorcycles from running red lights in CDMX, or get cars to give the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks.
As for the mask thing, I'm a little puzzled by it. Education here is much worse than in the states, but the USA isn't exactly a shining star when it comes to science education either. I'm constantly telling folks that there's no covid transmission outside, at least under ordinary conditions. Also lots of folks put the masks on for show. It's not uncommon to go into a small store and everyone suddenly dons their mask. I usually just tell them it doesn't matter to me and that I've already had covid. Most then just take them off.
As for a Great Reset, there will be one when the U.S. government debt problem comes home to roost. That will be a society-changing event. But the timing is of course totally unknowable. It's been a long time in the making, and could well go on for many more years. Or it could be triggered by the now rapidly-rising USA inflation.
I’ll visit you in hospital. Actually I likely won’t. But I wish you luck. 295,000 people have died of COVID in Mexico. Almost 1 in ten with COVID have died in Mexico. A much more modest number have died from drinking and driving or killed others. Might as well decriminalize that while your at it.
I'm not sure I understand your point. Masking somehow would prevent this? Some other point?
Mexico does much more to prevent covid than the USA. Every store, restaurant, theater, etc, takes your temperature prior to entering. You must apply hand sanitizer and walk across a disinfectant mat too. Masks are required. If this stuff was so effective, then what you write wouldn't have happened, would it?
Mexico has had about the same per-capita death rate as the USA. And it shares one of the top co-morbidities, namely a big obesity and diabetes problem.
"295,000 people have died of COVID in Mexico." Should read:
"295,000 people have died with COVID in Mexico."
As with most other places, the vast majority of people who have died in Mexico have co-morbidities. Mexico City is quite dirty with bad air in many barrios. Many Mexicans drink 2 litres of Coca Cola a day, eat badly raised meat and so forth. It's a wonder more didn't die.
In any case, it's simply not true to say that so many died of Covid implying that without it they would still be alive. The vast majority of covid deaths have happened to people slated to die within the next year or two anyway.
Death rates are rising again with booster waves, but that's another story.
Yes, and due to the internet, the whole thing will likely collapse much faster than late stage communism. Yes, there's censorship and mainstream media is pretty one-dimensional, but it's far from airtight. You have Substack, you have podcasts, and even the Youtube AI is pointing me to a bunch of clips critical of vaccines these days.
The more nonsensical it is the easier it seems to pull over the eyes of the public... the lies so great they couldn’t possibly be believed to be lies? “They” wouldn’t do that to “us”? We desperately want to believe in a Daddy that is “good” and project “Him” onto an ideology rather than a person. So no one need ever be held accountable. Until it gets REALLY bad and we pin it on ONE and refuse to learn the collective lesson?
I don't think that the Second World collapsed because the absurdities were too great. They actually weren't. The absurdities of the First World are just as great - such as the various inherent flaws of democracy - and people don't necessarily mind.
There are multiple reasons why the Second World imploded, but absurdity is among the main ones.
Technology speeds things up, for sure. But it doesnt determine the direction. When I was at school in the late 80's and early 90's, before the Internet existed, we were taught leftist talking points. Technology just sped things up a great deal.
29,000 Canadians have died of COVID. That might play into the fear a little. One day your neighbour is alive and then she isn’t. And people say, yes she was 42, but probably going to die anyway. And that would be true I suppose if you had planned on killing her - but otherwise no. She would have pleasantly been and would be actually still alive. So that definitely concerns people.
In Poland the Communist Party had lost the people after they took on western loans in the mid 70s and were of course caught out on the repayments. A society of plenty became one of little within 7 years or so. And then you had General Jaruzelski martial law, the West (mainly the US) subsidizing dissent and the Solidarity Trade Union which mingled with all those forces.
The analogy with late-stage communism is wrong on many counts. In the totalitarianism (tyranny, for short) of yesteryear, the screws were loosening since the end was nigh; now, they are being continuously tightened since there is a new beginning in the offing. From relative freedom (liberal democracy, if one cares to be imprecise) the white world (usage intentional) is about to enter the age of tyranny never seen before, and enabled by the available and soon-to-materialize sci-fi technology. Bentham´s panopticon is the blueprint, writ large; that is why "lockdown" has come into its global own. The masses will be just that, and move in "lockstep" (Rockefeller Foundation, 2010). The Lockean paradigm has run its course since it could only be propped up by firmly held beliefs; morals, and personal integrity. Leviathan beckons, ready to pounce on the last remains of human spirit - clearly, this is not the end but a beginning. There will be the equivalent of Red Pioneers/Communist Youth cadres, and there will be many of them. I can see them rising and on the ready, looking forward to their Brave New World. Literally dehumanized, godless but WEF-happy. Once again, the good thing is on its hind legs while the horror is only shaping up. There is no waking up from the nightmare - on the contrary, we are wading in.
The one thing that is different about the US is the second amendment. Too many people have guns. The Nazis and the Communists took away the guns first. This would be very difficult in the US. This was the significance of the Rittenhouse verdict. The trial was to take away the moral right of self-defense. The jury thought otherwise. People understand what a big step this would be on a large scale, and have held back. But it is still there and both sides know this.
It still had a massive chilling effect on the ability to defend yourself. The other lesson despite his acquittal was that were he not a blemish-free model citizen, who acted impeccably, which is a really hard thing to do when a mob is trying to kill you, and if he didn't have millions of dollars in legal fees donated to him, he would be in jail for the rest of his life.
And they are still after him, trying to have him removed from the college he attends, civil suits and possible federal prosecution.
It was a win in some ways, but still a huge loss in many other ways that do not bode well for the future.
The horror (sounds like Holdomor) needs our permission to operate. And it does not have it. It would also need competence of its administrators which it also doesn't have.
I agree. I know so many who are furious at leadership. I'm sure those in power here in the US are now afraid of their subject citizens. Ammunition is in short supply because of 2 years of strong demand. Also, the allegiance of the police is NOT to the state.
Years ago, I was in Germany explaining the second amendment to German colleagues. "We are armed to protect ourselves from the government."
You may be right, but I refuse to accept it as a certainty and will continually work to undermine such a system. I trust that everyone who reads this substack and other similar sites will do the same. Cheers and Fight On Friends.
It's tough to maintain your sanity as, on the hand, I don't want to wish ill on other people but those same people are zealously celebrating any ill upon my "kind", demanding reprehensible policies from their government and almost certainly won't change their minds until the vaccines produce serious consequences that can't be ignored.
Simultaneously, I have people I care about who bought into the lies and got themselves vaccinated.
Biden is America's Chernenko. Let us hope we are as close to transformation and that it comes with a similarly low level of violence. There will be a price to be paid though.
I spent seven weeks in a former Soviet state once, and although people there said that the years preceding and after the breakup of the Soviet Union was a very difficult time, I recently told a couple of relatives that I would consider such a scenario an acceptably soft landing for the United States.
You are so right - and it's the "inertia", with so much weight behind it now in academia, that for reasonable people a university is a dangerous and foreign place. I cannot teach or even be a tutor now in a psychology department that has gone mad. The irony of it all.
You could also easily argue that the current situation is reminiscent of the installation of the bolshevik regimes (I wouldn't call them communist). The late stages of the bolshevik era was marked by the sentiments you're describing, but that's not the case now. Now, people who push the covidian narrative are genuine fanatics, akin to bolshevik who pushed Second World totalitarianism.
Like the bolshevik era, however, covidianisms-wokeism is used by opportunists who are and will be exploiting whatever it brings and offers.
Good points - I guess there's no absolute equivalent from the 20th Century, but we can, from all the examples of totalitarianism, revolutions and counter-revolutions, draw some fundamental truths about human nature, the desire to control and the propensity to be controlled. As a psychologist this is my next big project.
Right. One must resist the urge to look for historical parallels and make the assumption that things will develop the same way as in the past. You have to try to predict the future based on how things are likely to develop in light of the factors that exist today.
As to the propensity to control and be controlled, you're probably right.
Check out the HBO documentary on Chernobyl. I found it fascinating bec I saw it through the same lens you describe. EVERYONE knew what they were saying was BS, but they kept saying it anyway. A reactor meltdown is an extreme and specific case, but it's the same concept in EVERYTHING.
Avoiding the truth ... creates hell.
Truth returns, the worm turns, and the same cycle begins anew.
I'm not sure why you think you've angered anyone? Because you don't think this is a vast conspiracy?
It obviously isn't. I wish it was, at least then I could marvel at the sheer brilliance and organizational fortitude of the conspirators. No, I agree that its part of the corporate-academia-government bureaucracy thinking.
I used to come from that world. I was employed at an American corporate and essentially lived my professional life guided by Policies and Guidelines and whatever else they had rules for. Over time, this becomes a way of life, and a way of viewing life
When I became an entrepreneur, first I was jarred by how there were no guidelines, no rules. Just me. Then, as I became good at my job (I run a B2B company) I learned how to exploit those bureaucracies, game regulatory agencies, and capitalise on these organizational idiocies. It has gained me significant wealth, but turned me very cynical, and I am not optimistic about the next 5 years of covid life
What you are describing is absolutely and 100% reality. Its worse than a conspiracy unfortunately, because of its hopeless, vapid banality.
One thing I've noticed is that there becomes a set of "anti-Covid" orthodoxies which invoke a lot of anger when they're challenged or someone mentions an alternate view. It's human nature I guess. We need to avoid the same trap the Covid hysterics (and anyone dedicated to any point of view) fall into. We should remember we're not about fossilized theories but keeping open minds and revising our views based on data and facts.
I agree with open mindedness 100%...but in my experience data (while it's what it is) is fundamentally unreliable, depending upon how may hands it has gone through and who is funding it. And facts...well they're not supposed to change, are they? That said, I think that everything should be challenged all of the time...so...
Agreed, figuring out the truth is a process. Cumulative information that adds up to conclusions. Constantly learning, questioning, and challenging. I think it's important to keep an open and humble mind and be able to recognize and admit when we're wrong. I think what happens too often is we land on a conclusion and we begin to identify with it to the point that any challenge to it becomes a threat to ourselves - our intelligence, our wisdom, our identity itself. We have to be careful to avoid that and recognize that the truth is outside of us and doesn't belong to us - we only seek it out and recognize it. Don't be dogmatic but humble when forming and stating theories.
The data are never perfect. You can only aim for "fit for use". The worst thing you can have is biased data, and once a piece of data becomes an indicator, pressure to control the signal follows.
I suspect "this" refers to rejecting the alternate orthodoxy view that this is all a grand conspiracy run by (choose one: Illuminati, Bill Gates, Lizard People, George Soros, Priory of Sion, The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, Comet Pizza, etc).
it seems a little premature to reject the parts that all those things play in how this plays out. I have long said the world is run on paedophilia, and I continue to feel this true. I do however take seriously alternate views and add them to the equation. I certainly hearted this essay, and admit it's got a tremendous message of truth in it.
I like to be challenged continuously as Candis said above
i have no problems with disagreement or anything, it’s no fun to post to echo chambers anyway. i just find the anger that these specific disagreements provoke unusual and amusing.
???? They have behavioral scientists and trials testing public opinion all the time. How to best word things, how to best publicize things, denial, revision, acceptance. Literally templates and millennia of experience with toying public opinion to decide what ideology is most suited to rule the public, which is moral collectivism. Billions of doses don’t just get created in a few weeks of discovery of a genetic sequence of a purported virus, it takes preparation to scale up. Just like wars don’t just happen overnight, soldiers are strategically placed on the borders. If anyone studies the funding streams or “follow the money” you will realize it’s the same collective political class entrenched in NGOs to pharmaceuticals to military to media to educational to big tech world. Go look up any board of directors or regulators and they all cross pollinate in serving the same high level agencies and organizations. All one needs is funding and installing of people. Conformity is the norm, we are herd animals. I’m not sure why people keep thinking that owning trillions of dollars worth of wealth in the form of land, multinational supranational organizations and corporations is incapable of affecting the public. Your food supply, your ad agencies, your banks are all monopolized: it’s literally the same owners at the top. From the inter parliamentary union, to Chatham house, trilateral commission, council of foreign affairs, bilderberg group. If two teenagers in an online video game can conspire to successfully scam people by schemes involving spoofed events or false purchases, it’s hard to not comprehend the nature of corruption where no “investigation team” or studies are ever accepted into the truth and it’s always “I can’t answer that, xyz agency did it” just like 9/11. I find the incredulity in disbelief of human ability to plan things and execute with contingency plans quite sad. Considering one needs a certain modicum of intellect to preserve dynastic wealth and political power, leaving things to chance while acceptable is unlikely something anyone would do with sufficient wealth power and intellect. Sure the public response is variable but that doesn’t mean something can’t be within the parameters of the strategic objectives set out for any set of agendas. You don’t need to succeed right away. You can fail and try again, and that is what anyone with the scientific method does, inclusive of a/b testing the population with macroeconomic policies that are destructive.
Happens to a lot of people, even those with pretty pedestrian life experiences. My take on it is that human society is based on myths. In our pluralistic society those always prove to be false in some fundamental ways upon serious examination. You accept those myths when young, that's how humans work. When you learn they are false later in life the resulting state of mind we call "cynicism".
I have wondered about what the "solution" would be. Does it mean "regime change" where the regime is the post WWII techo-bureaucratic state? If so, how would this unfold? It seems to me that people trying to build parallel institutions are doing the most productive work.
this is exactly right. we need another thing to happen. containment is causing such massive disruption that I think there are good chances it will even spawn its own demise, in the form of a second, greater crisis. supply chain chaos is a candidate, waiting at the margins.
I have a front row seat to the supply chain crisis. I sit pretty far upstream and have visibility to primary and basic materials. Its really ugly, and 100% a self inflicted problem caused by ephemeral containment measures
No. Global supply chains are extremely resilient and adaptable but were never designed to handle a systemic introduction of obstacles like this, at every level. Covid containment has infected everything. Industry is not immune. I could write 20,000 words about this. And because supply chains are truly global, the bottlenecks can be anywhere on earth, if that makes sense. For example, China zero Covid policy means that docking container ships need to have their entire crews tested before they berth. If a case is detected, the boat is sent back offshore for 2 weeks or until it shows up with a new crew. Just think of the domino effects of this.
Consider also Australia for example. They were a fortress yet still are heavily reliant on exports of basic materials. Just imagine the nightmare flight and vessel crews have to endure every time they are in an Australian port.
As a v. healthy 68 y old, I expected another ~30 years, tempered of course by this declining world resource availability. But I'm content with a fairly simple life, as indeed we had in the 1950s/60s/70s in the UK.
Two sinister points which have surely been debunked by those familiar with the pharma industry ...
a) The 'conspiracy theory', maybe from Mike Yeadon, that the vials are numbered 1, 2 or 3. Karl Denninger dismissed it as implausible on today's knowledge but I doubt he's looked at 100 random vials.
Or was Pf. just calibrating the dose to see what gave the best ratio of immunity to side-effects? If the USA has a million MDs and more nurses, ~10,000 must be sympathetic enough to help a sceptic get hold of some empty vials.
b) The strange lack of non-GM jabs in Europe and N. America. I think India, China and Russia may have five non-GM products between them. Are governments/pharma desperate to genetically modify us? I assume it's the cheapness (= profit) that appeals, even the glamour?
Interesting comment, but I am not clear on one point. The solution from whose perspective? The bureaucracy or those trying to get out from under it? Are you suggesting something so big the bureaucracy would be seen to fail without any way of regaining face?
The best defense against an entrenched bureaucracy drunk on its own importance is clearly written legislation that leaves no doubt to as intentions, limitations, and application. Boundaries are then created and the rule making and regulations arising from such reflect the legislators' intentions and not the bureaucrats' dream of bettering society.
Constitutional law is only about two questions: 1) who has the power? and 2) what are the limits on that power? The rest is details. You must also have a judiciary that will have the confidence to be independent to enforce those limits.
Since the judiciary has no enforcement arm, its decisions must be scrupulously just. Too late for the modern judiciary, they are seen as hopelessly partisan.
I suppose I'm just recounting from history. Most societal cataclysms birthed these institutions, which typically in their first generation or two served their societies very well. By the 3rd and 4th, decay had well and truly set in and we are where we are.
I see what you are saying now. I hope we do not need something akin to WWII to move us to a better path. So many of our systemic problems are "own goals" from the governing elites. They must be seen to fail totally before ordinary people are open to something new. (Not unreaonably, because there is always a possibilty that the something new is worse.)
This is the post that converted me to a paid subscriber. There is so much wisdom about how academic and lefty organizations operate. As someone who worked in (American) academia for 20 years I can't tell you how true the following statement is: "Wokeness is also self-radicalising, in the way that many university-incubated ideologies turn out to be. Administrators or department chairs are constantly in danger of being outflanked on their left, and so they must adopt and endorse the most radical line to maintain their position"
Well said - and true from someone who has worked in the Australian academic setting as well. Not only admin and department heads, but all staff - admittedly I've been out of the system for a few years now, but I can only imagine it's much worse.
I too left academia a few years ago, almost 7 in fact. The writing was on the wall. My wife persisted in an 'academic support' role (ie pointless administrator) and lost her job there in the recent waves of redundancies. Meanwhile, this august institution has just hired a 'Senior Advisor (Gender affirmation)' at an obscenely high salary. The priorities are hilarious. Meanwhile colleagues a decade after achieving phd's were competing for 'new investigator' grants and labs getting defunded all over the place.
Shocking (or maybe not so shocking) - I shudder to think what sort of people are these places now churning out. My children are more pragmatic than academic and didn't go through the system, but I don't think you need an 'insider' to realise what a clown show academia has become (at least in the social sciences - I've done some work with departments in the hard sciences and they do seem to be more or less 'getting on with it' despite the social wokeness around them). Anyway, enjoy the freedom Mike of not being in that environment!
I appreciated the notion that one can never be woke enough which suggests an impossible end. If institutions collapse from the spiral it will be a good reawakening. The woke religion can't satisfy the human spirit, I think and hope.
I am near the sunset of a long American academic career. Thirty years ago when I was on faculty at a "Public Ivy" I recounted to a bright grad student that I saw the "politically correct" pathway the university had adopted has always turned out badly in history. She noted the difference this time is that we are now pursuing the correct policies rather than the wrong policies of the past. Not sure what she thinks today.
I am currently a senior faculty at a relatively large public university in Texas that has being going woke as fast as it can. Many of my students are not on board though. (Example, when I poll for support of 2nd amendment, it gets 85% support. When I poll for support of concealed carry on campus, it gets about 70% support) When our Governor (Abbott) dropped the mask mandate, the University immediately complied as much of our funding comes from the state. We have no vax mandate, but the University pushed hard for everyone to get a vax and to mask. We have been in face to face classrooms for about 10 weeks now (no social distancing), and masks are optional. I do not wear one. About 20-25% of my students wear a masks - the University still pushes for wearing masks.
We held an in person faculty meeting about 6 weeks ago, and while being the oldest, so presumably the most at risk, I was the only one that did not even take a mask. Most kept masked except when eating, and I noticed it was hard to have a conversation around a large table with those wearing masks as we can't use lip reading to fill in what is not audible, or is muffled by the mask. But it seems most faculty cannot apply their advanced math and stat skills to seeing how little risk they have.
The University publishes a Covid Dashboard. Over the last week, 7 cases have been reported (from a population of about 40,000). For the entire semester to date, less than 250. This is no doubt an underestimate, but if students want extensions on HW, or accommodation for missed exams they will need to report so there is an incentive to report (and I believe it is University Policy to report).
The University may try to backdoor a mask and vax program via the Federal contractor rules. Hopefully the recent court successes against OSHA mandates can also apply or be used as a template to stop that.
So, Abbott's no mask, no vax rules were enough to get our University closer to sanity and he is not pushing as hard as DeSantis. The woke stuff marches on . . .
Australia here I believe all teachers in all states are now mandated here. The only one of my son’s teachers who was noticeably absent after the mandate date was his Science teacher which I thought very appropriate. I emailed her and said I supported her. We have a lot of homeschool networks being set up now. Largely by cancelled teachers but also there is a high demand by parents to get their kids out of the mainstream mindset including vaccination mentality.
Last week I had a call with my cousin in your great state. She asked me how things are going in the free state of Texas. Their son teaches at a university in Idaho and had even less restrictions. They are considering relocating to Idaho, but hoping it does not get that bad.
I'm grateful to be an Idahoan. My husband and I were just talking yesterday about the difference in how states have dealt with all of this. We haven't worn masks for many, many months except in medical facilities. Life actually feels fairly normal.
Thank you for not allowing hysterical conspiracies to guide the discussion . I would add that this is more sinister than an individual actor. If it were one actor you could “remove” them and it would end. This is going to take years if not decades to change.
I've often thought that maybe the world needs a new religion, but one that's carefully designed instead of evolved. Perhaps such a thing is impossible, but it seems like a lot of woke/covid/climate hysteria (which often bears so much resemblance to religious conviction) is fueled by a search for meaning, and confirmation that you are a good, moral person.
What if people could get that confirmation via some other path? I'm not saying necessarily a revival of the Christian church, although by the start of the 1900s it seems to me that Christianity had burned off most of the zealotry and zeal its adherents showed in earlier centuries and was perhaps on balance a force for good (not if you were gay, granted, but I mean overall for the whole population). I'm thinking here about something entirely new.
>> I've often thought that maybe the world needs a new religion, but one that's carefully designed instead of evolved.
This is it. You're looking at it. You got what you wanted. A secular religion, carefully crafted by the most highly-educated experts complete with ritual, dogma, heretics, and shibboleths.
Eugyppius just mentioned it, at the very top of this article: Wokeness + Containment.
This is exactly what you're asking for. Do you like it?
Oh, wait, is this not "really carefully designed?" Did we not do it right, so it doesn't count?
I think the point to learn here is after you create an idea you don’t control it. I’d be very hesitant to move away from something that works. I think we need to have more humility and not try and recreate huge belief structures.
Move away from what, exactly? The people most susceptible to this stuff already moved away from classical religions a long time ago, and now appear to have found a new one. There's nothing to move away from, there.
Also despite the supposedly uncontrollable nature of these things, Wokeism is to a large extent a designed ideology. Its central tenets haven't radically diverged from the CRT laid down in academia. I'm sure it's diverged a bit and will continue to do so, but the basic combination of "white men bad + women good" has been stable for years, even though it took decades to emerge. Arguably communism was also a designed ideology that more or less held its form as Marx intended for many decades.
Fair enough. I guess I worded that poorly. I think what I am trying to say is it needs to be more bottom up than top down. I don't think it can be architected.
All religions in history started as bottom-up social movements, Christianity included. All become top-down once they accumulate power. Until then, they're all nice people meeting in someone's living room playing guitars. Every single one. Christianity included.
You are definitely on to something, as an Atheist it is clear that we got a "monkey's paw" wish fulfillment - as Atheism became mainstream, so too in it's wake did a number of hysterias follow which likely have roots in people no longer being tethered to a code of conduct, a sense of belonging, or a promise of "Sky Cake" (Youtube Patton Oswalt on Sky Cake).
I think what the Atheist movement got wrong is believing in rationality. There aren't enough atoms in the universe to fully compute the game of chess or the game of go (if you stored each state per atom). You think we can rationally determine the world that has infinite degrees of freedom? Science/rationality provides insight but can not be a basis for life.
Nietzsche famously said "God is dead." By this he meant that science had advanced and modern society no longer needed religion as a moral guide. He was cynical (smart?) enough to be skeptical of liberal democracy. One of his claims was that Western morality, valuing honesty, was precisely what had led to the downfall of religious faith (e.g. modern investigators having revealed it for the tissue of legends that all religions are). He was prescient (pessimistic?) enough to predict that this relentless questioning of values, a search for truth, would turn to the secular values of culture that had replace religious dogma. These too, would eventually fall. The end product? Nihilism, the rejection of all values, even of scientific truths.
This, perhaps, is part of the process of centuries-long cycles in human society. We have a long history of ups and downs. I'd guess we are well on the downward spiral right now. I'm sure man has a future, but what type, or on what schedule, I really don't know. I doubt anyone does.
Nietzsche is many things to many people; perhaps I'm reading too much into him, but I think I've summarized him quite well. Pretty good foresight for a man who's been dead 121 years, and wrote nothing after 1889...
Sure there is. "One Size Fits All" is a Frank Zappa album from 1975 🤡
I agree, if by within oneself, it is the individual that chooses the ideas he lives by, usually by happenstance or unconsciously, ideally by voluntary exposure to the marketplace of ideas, and least desirably, by coercion.
Agree there are no "collective solutions" but these shouldn't be confused with a shared belief system.
Memes like religions seem to have a strong inoculating effect against subsequent religion-type memes (I'm convinced this is partially what they're evolved for); I don't have a single Christian neighbor that doesn't see right through the covid biofascism narratives.
Yes, the population representative of the "traditional American right" largely seems to be the greatest current ally of personal freedom and Constitutional rights. That natural liberties are divinely-ordained is an important element of this.
Yes, blaming it all on the WEF, Gates, et al always struck me as kind of a cope. A handful of bad actors can theoretically be removed or distracted: it's difficult, but possible. A distributed network of tens of thousands of petty tyrants is impossible to defeat in that manner.
It's also harder on social cohesion: recognizing that this is happening, in part, because everyday people are pushing for it means recognizing that Karen the covidian down the street is partly responsible for this. People don't like having to see their neighbors as enemies.
I confess I don't know what is happening in the world, only that it is very abnormal. I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed. I've heard many theories, some plausible and some crazy. Rather than judging or rejecting, I've placed each theory on my "WTH is Going On" shelf for safe keeping.
Two things can be true at once. The insane response to the virus can be a consequence of a mass formation or a kind of global group think (irony noted 'cause there's very little thinking involved) and at the same time the "elite" can be taking advantage of the current crisis...amplifying and extending it even...to bring about their vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a central bank digital currency, and some kind of supranational global control of the little people.
I imagine you've heard Mattias Desmet speak about mass formation. I listened to his full interview on Jerm Warfare in September (unfortunately, I can find only a small excerpt now). He says that there are basically three groups in a mass formation: 30% are true believers, 30% are in opposition, and 40% are in the middle and don't really believe but go along to get along. He believes the 40% are reachable and, thus, we in the opposition should speak out and speak often.
One comment that Desmet made really stuck with me. He said historically the 30% who are in opposition are always a disparate group that devolves into infighting which dilutes their influence. They may have the power to stop or reverse the mass formation, but they are distracted by their own disagreements.
I would caution everyone to heed that warning.
We lose our power to effect real change by arguing over what is happening. The truth is we don't really know what is happening or all the forces at play. We may never know. But we don't have to agree on details or theories to oppose the crazy Covid authoritarian response.
WRT to Schwab and the globalists...we can argue over their ability to pull off their evil plans, but we can't argue about their plans. They've been very transparent. A year ago, I thought Schwab was a clown. Now, in light of the continued and expanded authoritarian crackdowns and increasing censorship, I'm a bit more inclined to think there is more going on than a mass formation in response to fear of a virus.
When news of the viral outbreak in China first broke, I thought it would be a problem for the United States. I fully expected my government to quell fear (keep calm and carry on). They threw gasoline on the fire instead. For me, that was the first red flag.
We accomplish nothing by fighting over theories. We need to fight them.
" I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed"
I did exactly the same the past 20 months and I come to the same conclusion that we have to fight this insanity without arguing between us for the plans and the purposes behind this.
It’s the “Fourth Turning”. Last fourth turning was WWII. There are four 20 year (more or less) generations (birth, growth, decline, death) in a historical cycle…just like like the four seasons (spring (birth), summer (growth), fall (decline), winter (death).
I have thought about this post and read all the comments. There is much I don't understand. I'm troubled with how the tyrants are acting even when faced with recent data. It seems there is something greater they are working towards, that allows them to ignore facts that are being reported.
A few known facts:
1) Children are not harmed by Covid, they barely get sick. Yet they all need to be vaxxed, from birth.
2) The "vaccines" are failing .Yet everybody needs to get vaxxed some more.
3) People are dying and being harmed by the "vaccines". Yet, the unvacced need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
4) Reports pregnant vaxxed women, are giving birth to stillborn children at 29 time higher then just a year ago. Yet, all women need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
5) If you are unvaxxed you loose liberty, even to the point of being jailed in your own home or concentration camps. The solution to that is to get vaxxed, even when number 3 and 4 are well known.
6) Your chance of living when getting covid is 99.7%; population wide. Yet, get vaxxed or else. If you have been vaxxed see number 2 above.
They want everybody vaxxed, when they know the "vaccines" are worthless, kill people and are killing them slowly by harming the recipients immune system. Why?
It is easy to speculate there is something bigger happening. I'm very open to different theories. If you (the reader) are not, then you are not practicing critical thinking.
In other words: the situation does not make sense, the sinister kabal conspiracy would explain a lot, ergo it's the kabal. Let's rephrase it: the omnipotent aliens from space would explain everything, ergo it's the aliens.
One of the main points this essay is trying to establish is that essentially there are no "them" as a unified coherent entity. There are a lot of disparate people that converged on the same ideology due to social forces that are essentially out of their control. Here are some of them: fear, desire to conform, cognitive dissonance...
Don't get me wrong: a lot of people are using the situation for their selfish (and evil) gain. But they do not control it.
It is very important to realize that in social situations people do not react rationally. You go with the group, you believe the myths, you beat the drum. I was in such a situation when a lot of people around me just totally turned bonkers. Thankfully it did not involve hurting people.
> then you are not practicing critical thinking
Agreed. However, I do not necessarily expect to find exhaustive answers. Which is not to say we should not try to search for them.
[Just to make it clear: I intentionally do not address any of your facts directly. This is not what this comment is about]
I think there are many, "theys" if you will. I don't think there is one and only one conspiracy. As the author's post was trying to communicate. I do think it very possible there was an original event triggering conspiracy. I'm very open to that.
Currently, I think there are multiple conspiracies working. And I do mean conspiracies. People working together for nefarious ends.
Lastly, and oddly, common people are trapped into believing that the unvaxxed are the cause of continued cases and death. That the pandemic caused people to lose their jobs, when in fact it was government driven action. That we have high energy prices and supply chain issues because of a virus, when again, they are caused by government action. Sadly, some of those common people are becoming tyrants ready to do harm to their fellow human beings.
Lastly, thank you for your excellent thoughts. I will read what is at the link.
Which is nowadays mostly global, due to the American cultural and political hegemony.
Once they cohered on the "zero-covid" approach it was game over. The question is why and how did they end up with that approach?
The early canary in the coalmine for me (I realized that only retroactively) was Israel's lockdown that started on March 15, 2020. Israeli elites are very sensitive and well-attuned to global elites (just notice at how they are the first ones to mask, lock-down, vaccinate, and booster.)
Here is something I might be willing to concede given enough facts: there might have been powerful people who ignited the situation just to shake things up and see if they can "profit" as the result. They could not count on or plan for any particular outcome, though.
Such people must fit a certain profile: since the possible downside of such a shake up might be pretty dire, the situation they are already in should be rather untenable. Or that they somehow would be able to isolate themselves from the fallout (e.g. China). Just a thought.
But again, the fact that they might have started it does not mean that they could plan on any foreseeable outcome. I believe that's what Eugvyppius is trying to illustrate with his drawing.
Two millennia past, Paul (once Saul of Tarsus, a Roman Citizen, and unfettered murderer of Christians) wrote from Nero's prison in Rome to the Church in Ephesus "For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." The devil is an opportunist. We are helpless against him, if we stand alone.
Regarding the watchmaker. A bit off-topic, but I do appreciate your reference.
What looks to be designed by a mind, is designed by a mind. It is not fallacy, unless proven to be so. So the theory; the watch, is always designed by watchmaker, has never been disproven and thus, not a fallacy. Whereas, it can be observed 100% of the time that a watch is designed by a watchmaker. As of today, the theory of the watchmaker stands.
you are right, don't fall for that guy's nonsense. Only the most naive can explain what's happening by calling it incompetence. It requires a 2 digit IQ to do this, at this point. No fallacy in seeing the truth as it is. some people are born to be losers and sheep, they will never accept the truth.
Not sure what you mean. The fallacy is not that the watch (and any watch) is made by a watchmaker, but the analogy. The world is not a watch. A social movement (or social psychosis) is not a computer or a business partnership.
BTW, I am a theist (which is a fancy way of saying that I believe in God.) I do not have rational arguments for my belief, though. And I certainly do not subscribe to the watchmaker argument as a proof or clear evidence of the existence of the Deity.
Here is another analogy (which is *not* a proof of anything, it is just an attempt to steer you into a different way of looking at things): you do not expect a cow to understand math. Why would you always expect humans to understand extremely complex issues? After all, our brain is still finite. There must be a limit.
Love this conversation. We don't have any clear evidence of a Deity, agreed. But is life evidence of design by a mind? Not conclusively, but I will keep an open mind on that topic.
Oddly, this dovetails with the SARS-Cov-2 virus. There is ample evidence it is designed by a mind or multiple minds. That is the starting point for the following speculation: Was it released by accident then covered up? Was it released on purpose but designed to look like an accident? Was the appearance of the virus by design or coincident then used for purpose? I have suspicions, but I'm remaining open to anything.
Lastly, I don't expect humans to understand complex issues. Most don't have the time or energy to even try. That is why they view the world in very granular concepts. Example: The experts tell us XYZ, therefore they must be right. That is a very granular response to an impossibly complex world. One I held 20 months ago. But, not any longer.
>There is ample evidence it is designed by a mind or multiple minds.
Seems that pretty much everybody agrees on that
Whichever one of the theories is true they are all damning to the unholy alliance of Science and State. I am not even sure which is worse - the gain of function research hypothesis or the bio-weapon hypothesis. At least according to the latter people had some clear purpose.
>One I held 20 months ago
Hm, for me the ultimate red pill was the Russia collusion. Not the politics per se, but how a lot of sane and normal people totally bought it. That firmly defenestrated me through the Overton window
you believe in God in 2021? rofl dude the irony is gigantic on you. you talk to other people about fallacies while you believe in the boogy man in the sky lol. so brainwashed
The challenge is the “population wide” assumption. We lose our humanity when we dismiss the vulnerable. In Ontario, Canada, several old age homes lost their entire population of residents to COVID in massive internal outbreaks. Literally hundreds died (ex: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/canadian-nursing-home-reels-from-death-of-half-its-residents-bobcaygeon). And they died gasping for breaths. A horrible death. But the population wide numbers are hugely reasonable and workable here - so to speak. In developing countries, much is made of a shorter life expectancy from birth - often as worrying as 50 to 55 years of age. But the reality is that infant mortality is astronomical while if a child lives to age 5, life expectancy from 5 is not dissimilar to developed nations. We must do more in these more vulnerable nations to support pediatric medical needs. When we acknowledge how little risk there is from COVID and how pointless containment is, we do so from the perspective of privilege. Those that have died of COVID, the 800,000 across the US, 29,000 in Canada, 300,000 in Mexico (to tackle North America essentially), it is as if we are also dismissing those who died in old age homes begging for breaths, or the infants in poorer countries who never make it to age five but had they survived would not only have lived to a competitive age but might also have discovered a cure for leukaemia or written extraordinary poetry. There must be some consideration to all these fantastical and many beautifully crafted posts that they are written all by people still alive, not on a ventilator or deep in grief for having lost a close friend or family member to COVID. No matter how informed we are, the Holocaust is always more raw to a Jew. The horrors of ALS always more raw to somebody who has cared for somebody who has intimately witnessed the injustice of the disease. A healthy academic discussion around the tyranny of containment from a group absolutely free and healthy to do so and less vulnerable can sometimes sound like people complaining about the existence of a unwieldy wheelchair ramp to access their university library when they don’t have the experience of relying on one. The discussions here are impressive and I mean no disrespect. Instead I am just reminded some that empathy is not a liberal work or a woke word but a decent human characteristic.
One thing I think is that the bandwagon is so far down the road it simply cannot reverse. The narrative that the vaccines are going to cure the pandemic is the motto and don’t you dare disagree with it. If you vaccinate everyone then there is no control group and no one to prove the vaccines aren’t effective.
The first two sentences can explain what most common people might think. But I don't accept that as an excuse from so called experts, who look at the data and can see what is happening. What are they up to? Your last sentence tries to answer, that question. Eliminate the control group. I think it is the motivation of many people who do know the facts about "vaccine" harm.
"periodic ritual entertainment of false moral outrages and protests."
From my perch it is the virtue signaling on social media that appears to have cratered the ability to think logically for so many honest hearted people.
The urge, and the provision of means to engage in it, has existed since the dawn of civilization.
What we have NEVER had before is a potentially endlessly-iterative generator of opportunities that work faster than an individual human brain.
There is no arguing that we've gone too far. We don't even need destructive AI. We've created reinforcement and punishment systems that move faster than us. It's a cyclotron spinning too fast to get off of.
Well, I guess this all makes me glad that I'm mostly "self-educated". I might not be able to "hold my own" with an "intellectual", but I trust my common sense, *life experience* and "street smarts" more than just trusting books, lectures or "cultural trends". I am also willing to listen to and/or read opinions about subject matter I may not understand or know much about and make a determination based on the combination of that information and my "gut instinct." I'm not sure if this comment is really in context with what your article is about, but some of us "hicks" out here trust our gut. If something being peddled on the world's stage or in universities just seems really "bad" for society... we reject it. Thanks for continuing to welcome people like myself to read and ponder your great articles Eugyppius.
Most of the ‘Science’ being sold to you about Corona containment isn’t technically difficult, just poorly written, and with a little effort most people will have no problems understanding it. Trusting your gut is good. Very often it takes a PhD to be wrong in the most profound ways.
Well said. The 'science' isn't hard, the powers that be is just trying to convince us that it is. I think applies to the natural sciences in general. I think there seems to be a concerted effort to convince people that the so-called STEM is difficult and not for the peons (compared to the "easy subjects" like the social sciences and humanities), that it takes a brilliant and educated mind to understand "science". This obviously plays into how this "pandemic" plays. Why else would people like Dr. Fauci be still respected despite being wrong so many times.
I get along with anyone who uses that many "quotes". Wish we had more "hicks" like you in Chicago area. If you tell someone here to "trust your gut", they might just run away, or they would sit there and nod but deep down they would know that you are lying. But if you say something like "trust the *system" or "trust the *process*" it will put them at ease. Let's all keep wearing our masks to hide how uncourageous we are, shall we?
I think you will appreciate this saying, "The louder he spoke of his virtues, the faster we counted our spoons." I too go with my gut instinct more often than not.
Really well-thought out, and helpful. Thank you. I've never been a conspiracy person for the simple reason that humans generally aren't that smart or clever, and someone will always snitch. That's not to say they don't ever happen - they absolutely do. But they almost inevitably come apart or fail. And this also matches much of my experience working in and outside of governments.
It still leaves me with the question = so what do we do? How do we bring this to an end? I think that wokeness and phenomena like that eventually destroy themselves from the inside out. And Corona containment may as well. But I've got little kids and I'm out of patience with how it's ruining their lives. How do we accelerate the demise of this phenomenon?
99% of my rage is directed towards the BS my 9 and 7 year old are having to do. I have lived my life and in my 40s I can tolerate the world being a mess for a few years. I cant handle them losing theirs though and I am besides myself with helplessness about it
A conspiracy doesn't have to be successful or clever to exist. There is no doubt that major business and political players worldwide are conferring and cooperating in their COVID efforts. That they're idiots doesn't mean they're not doing so.
Colluding, yes, and working toward similar ends with incentives (show me the incentives, I'll show you the outcome). But that's different than a dark conspiracy to control mankind. I also don't doubt some humans exist that want to control mankind - that's existed in every era. But I find it to be an unsatisfying and unrealistic explanation of what has been happening.
Perhaps even the DAVOS crowd is simply imagining they're steering the chaos. The train raced by, they jumped on and now imagine they're the engineer. Even if so, lunatics with a lot of power can do a lot of damage. There may be a thousand plans, but its the ones with the biggest backing that have the most influence, including influencing the other, lesser plans.
Same boat--"fighting" it is great, but hard to do with kids involved (i.e. I have to keep my mouth shut at their school and put up with the covid shenanigans)--and it's not like we have a lot of alternatives in L.A., except homeschool which is almost worse. I am navigating our course day by day, and making some interesting decisions around all of it---not ones I ever thought I would make.
The conversations my wife & I routinely have now, where we say, "we never ever would've considered this prior to March of 2020" are almost every day now. It really shocks us, but it's become necessary. I won't subject our kids to any more of this past May of next year, period.
Yes, it is and it is the opposite of how to win this war. However, what we are talking about here is the obstacle of having kids, whose lives are more important to me than batting back at a kindergarten teacher. I would be ripping them away from friends they've had for years, a school they love, their teams only to bring them home and do the dreaded Zoom again. You can wax philosophical about how fighting would teach my kids better things, that they might not have much of a life in the future if I don't fight, and that I am teaching them to "go along" which is horrible, but that's not quite right. I've explained it all to them. We talk a lot of They have been magnificent in their understanding, flexibility and ability to see that what I have chosen for them is not compliance, but a work-around until such time as we can do better than that. I do my fighting in other ways and I personally do not care who disowns me. But I do not want that for them.
All of us with small children that see through the current narratives struggle with how to respond. We constantly struggle w/ the best way. It's not easy to balance our needs with those of our kids, and I really want to keep them out of all this as much as possible. This isn't my 6 and 4-year old's fight, it's the adults. So I think we all have to figure out what makes sense in our own worlds. Ours may eventually involving moving somewhere else, to escape all the mandates.
Why is homeschool worse? Homeschool has great outcomes for kids. You don't necessarily have to do it alone - there are usually homeschool coops in your area, often with credentialed teachers involved.
I say that only because to me it implies isolation and screens. I agree that it has good academic outcomes, but all my boys really want is to be around other kids and play sports. Believe me, I have considered it, but am probably also in the wrong place for good homeschools. If I have no other choice, I will make it work, but for now, I am taking it day by day (no mandates in their school yet) and not arguing with anyone. When I heard the Kindergarten teacher say to me, "the only way out of this is to get everyone vaccinated, I said, "Absolutely!" and kept walking. I realized I don't have to fight everyone and I have a higher purpose (kids). What are the odds I will change anyone's mind at this point anyway?
It definitely doesn't have to involve isolation and screens. In many school districts homeschool students can play on school or other organized sports teams, or sometimes they organize their own. You might be surprised if you investigate what's available. The good thing about homeschooling is you can make it look like you want it to.
I think it's important to challenge statements like those made by the kindergarten teacher. "I respectfully disagree" would be a good response, if for no other reason than to show him/her that not everyone agrees with his/her belief. Isn't that what this entire blog was about? If we don't speak up, we're part of the problem.
Of course it's important. It's everything, and it's the only thing that will save us, if that's possible. It pains me not to. But you aren't taking into account the consequences of that as it pertains to children. As I have already said in this thread, it's one thing for me to take the brunt of the response--insults, gossip, defriending, termination, etc. but it is another to subject a 9-year old to that. If there were a school around the corner that had a different stance, we'd go there. But there's not. Not anywhere in this state, and we cannot up and move to Texas. I will still fight in every way I can, but I will not put my children through a different kind of hell in the meantime. With all due respect, if you are not in the same situation, it's probably best not to give advice.
Re: About your kids wanting to play sports. I can't tell you what is true in other states but in Florida it has been decided that homeschooled students have a right to participate in extracurricular activities. They also have a right to take advantage of special services offered to classroom students such as testing for learning disabilities, meeting with a speech pathologist and such. Most state constitutions are clear that free and equal education is a right of the children in that state. That is not limited to classroom learning time.
I've commented on this typically great plague chronicle post earlier but just have to add something. I'm reading Robert Kennedy's new book, "The Real Anthony Fauci", and though I'm only in the first chapter, my blood is boiling. The high level worldwide collusion to actively suppress alternatives to the mRNA shots, which began in the spring of 2020, is real, is continuing, and is truly frightening. While perhaps just one of many plans, it is one backed by enormous power and has had correspondingly enormous consequences, the biggest being the loss of millions of lives. This ongoing plan is not one of incompetence. It is intentional evil by real people in real positions of power. I cannot recommend Kennedy's book enough. Read it and pass it on to others.
We need to think every hypothesis. What you bring in the table is of great value in so many levels.
You should also be able to accept that not all of your articles will be on the right track. Shouldn't you ?
Here is my issue.
"These failures are too consistent to be accidental: The system is too large and unwieldy to act according to coherent strategies and basically lurches from one failure to the next. It is only good at sustaining itself and enforcing compliance."
This STILL looks wrong to me.
If 'it' (a system too big to be controlled but small enough to be defined in an article /s ) was lurching from one failure to the next at some point it would come to a pair of moves that would take it out of existence. Especially if the moves are so nasty to so many people.
You can't expect us to believe that the system is moving randomly by a decentralized group of bureaucrats and at the same time it keeps maintaining the zero-covid illusion goal target perfectly aligned in a mirror opposite of biologic reality do you ?. You can't make us believe that there are so many people that can't read or search information.
The element you are not covering is a VERY tightly controlled group of people: the mass media,, social media and at least one famous search engine.
He who controls them , controls the narrative, and this is not covered in your article.
Now if you want me to believe that all these not-real-journalists that work in these institutions are not controlled that will be a hard sell.
Again back and forth is necessary here but this is not a random walk.
the ‚system‘ is optimised for self-preservation above all, so it will be unlikely to accidentally unplug itself. though cf. places like the DDR, which did in the end self-immolate through the sheer force of bureaucratic perseverance.
media messaging, i agree, can be highly coordinated. this doesn’t mean it is controlled by any single person, or even a confined group of people.
we see before us the emergence of spontaneous order in a complex system. there is agency here, but it isn’t *human* agency, nobody is running this.
friend you want us to believe that a random network of non-cooperating bureaucrats all around the world managed to randomly perfectly fall into a system that works with self preservation that makes no mistakes ... managed to undo all policies ... supress the entire wests 'human rights'... then you left out the highly controlled media operation which influenced citizens, bureaucrats and low-iq politicians alike ... and then you want to us ignore this coordinated propaganda engine in favor of random creation of order out of chaos ?
You may want us to believe that but you have not done the groundwork in the arguments above to prove so.
Calling perfect arising of order out of chaos is a nice story but that is SO RARE that we should not see that happen in million of lifetimes. This is the reason why the molecules in the air don't go in one corner of the room,
They could.
It is just not very probable.
Your previous theory with lines of conspiracy was great.
This one is statistically improbable and you will have to bent it to even more statistically improbable arguments to get it look correct.
1) The system makes mistakes all the time, even in self-limiting ways. What do you think my ongoing series of posts about the UKHSA efficacy statistics is about?
2) I have written thousands and thousands of words about the origins of containment policies and how they were implemented, by whom, and why, at which stages. This is the work you claim I haven’t done.
3) Spontaneous order in complex systems isn’t rare, it is observed all the time. It is in fact pervasive in human culture and markets. Human systems develop suprahuman agencies and strategies that nobody controls or even fully understands. In much the same way, relatively simple organisms like ants, guided entirely by chemical signals with no understanding of agriculture or mycology, build elaborate underground fungus farms.
3) Yes, ants do this but the part you are missing out is that they have evolved through millions of years of trial and error a set of biological setups that allow them to do ONLY that. They don't do 'other' elaborate organizations of chaos AND that, they ONLY do that. So it is determistic once the biological setup is there.
This was on their part advantageous for their evolution.
Coming up with ie Twitter is one thing, evolving the genetic predisposition to imitate each other is another and, building a meme that lasts 20 months suppressing all liberties in the west is completely another,
Then how much pervasive it is a system and for how long given that it supresses the will of so many people is another story alltogether.
2) Your work is fantastic, that is why I follow you, but that work is NOT connected with the above article. You just drop a phrase WITHOUT having connected the dots at every step on the way. Yes we know what wokeism is, but. there are plenty of countries in Europe that are not as much wokist as you think and they are still taken down by the new appartheid system through oppresion of controlled goverment and media blackout.
1) The mistakes alone should have broken the system on day 14. The reason it hasn't is because of the Media, search engines and these are controlled. These are the backbone that keeps the con going. It is not the self organizing bureaucrats. They just pop up and follow up a couple of days until a new media frenzy fear re-ignites them a new direction.
The Media are what keeps the con together going pushing fear in some and keeping information away. Its not self organization arising out of chaos in the face of suppressing all human rights.
I think there is a major piece of the puzzle you need to consider and incorporate: "the elites". The people who tacitly (and not-so-tacitly) steer the media and the bureaucracy. Those are the ones who influence the spontaneous order.
Here is an post from the earlier days of the epidemic I mentally marked at the time and now found again. It's from Robin Hanson at "Overcoming Bias" (apropos, he is the co-author of The Elephant in the Brain):
What I see in that post is that "the elites" converged on zero covid approach. Which at the time meant lock-downs. But "elites and experts don’t speak with a unified voice" - they had different ideas on how to achieve zero covid.
Extrapolating to today - they do have a focal point to rally around, which is the "vaccine".
I wasn't aware there was so much arguing about the last post. I guess I didn't read the comments thoroughly enough.
Your point here is fine, but I think you're swinging to the other extreme; there are indisputably individual actors and discrete organizations that are opportunistically using the current macrosocial conditions to consolidate power and advance agendas. The WEF, Bill Gates, and Soros probably didn't release COVID on the world as part of an elaborate James Bond Villain scheme, but they are 100% seizing the reins of specific social forces acting within the crisis to advance globalist totalitarian goals.
The problem a lot of your readers apparently have, is they are incapable of placing probability weights on potential realities. I put 10% weight on what Alex Jones says, and maybe 70% weight on your story, and the remainder on some other stories. Problem solved, now I can go about my day thinking that both you, and Alex Jones may be right, but that it's much more likely that you are right. If I see smallpox or some horribly deadly variant released, or a massive die off in the vaccinated, I'll adjust my view and reweight toward Alex Jones.
Interestingly in favor of your view: the Russians are apparently building a Corona regime every bit as repressive as a US blue state. Certainly the Russians are not in on a globalist depopulation program, yet their bureaucracy goes in the same direction, under similar incentives.
I suggest reading, Dissolving Illusions by Suzanne Humpries, MD, for the last chapter on Forgotten Cures. We don't need to fear small pox. Just spend $50 bucks now, and you'll be prepared.
Thanks for that. We had ordered tincture of a different purpurea, sarracenia, after learning about it from the Kate Daley podcast. But it’s hard to find and when you do, expensive. Having a strong background in herbal medicine, I had wondered if echinacea purpurea would have a similar effect. It’s far easier to source, in fact it’s everywhere. And ACV… Who knew? A great source, thanks again.
The situation we're in reminds me of late stage communism. Not the Glorious Revolution, not Stalinism, but late stage communism, when almost no-one actually believed the story, no-one expected to ever see Workers' Paradise, and yet bureaucrats enforced conformity (because those were the orders, they were paid to do it, and it wasn't their job to actually evaluate any of it), and everyone else conformed because they couldn't see a feasible way out. Few people were jailed, and there were no (political) executions. But say a wrong thing, and you'd be out of a job. Very few people believed the story, and yet it continued for a couple more decades due to sheer inertia.
And I fear that this is what awaits us. Boosters every six months. No-one expects the virus to be eradicated, and no-one thinks it's all that dangerous, either, but hey, rules are rules. If you don't conform, then you're out of a job and maybe even given a short prison sentence. If you don't vaccinate your kids, then you lose custody. Nah. Better conform. After all, most people don't suffer particularly serious side effects. Sure, the stuff might shorten your life, but so would poverty. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse. It would be awfully nice if it collapsed this winter, but it's perfectly possible it'll take decades.
This is exactly right. I wake up every morning thinking about the DDR, but also in a hopeful way: How one day it just fell apart, because the obvious absurdities were too great. Our best hope, the thing we must try to do, is hasten that moment, by mocking them, isolating them intellectually, revealing them for the frauds that they are. Just always hitting them anew every day, no matter how impassive they seem, until the collapse.
Fauci and Walensky are now selling shot #1 and #3, while also announcing #4 is expected for release in March. Israel is already selling or getting ready to sell the original version as #4.
They have already reached levels of absurdity that their only defense is censorship and trying to criminalize criticism.
Mandated boosters will wake up too many frogs before the boil.
Israel has also locked itself down from all outsiders so in fact the whole country, rather than just Gaza, has become a prison camp.
This is what it was created for. To substitute for the loss of the Euopean Ghettoes in the wake of the French revolution, as in the Ghettoes the ruling rabbis had it so much easier to control the Jewish populations subjected to them. As this loss was permanent, they created their world Ghetto, Israel.
I don't know that history but it sounds about right.
I always thought Israelies were shrewd and smart. That might still be true but they clearly are not immune to irrational fears and mass psychosis.
I think the change will happen like the quote from Earnest Hemingway: “How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The question is how close are we to the tipping point?
This is exactly what Italian blogger and chemist Ugo Bardi says following Seneca - growth is slow but collapse is sudden.
Don’t tell that to the Roman Empire.
I've considered that possibility (gosh, can it happen already?!), but unsure where the tipping point will be. I DO notice a shift in thinking/expression by previous believers, now that it has been shown the vax doesn't stop infection, sickness or transmission, and now that boosters are being discussed. Perhaps like religion, people are ok with some rituals and playing along (in their respective cultures), but once it starts demanding your children, your lives and lifestyle beyond the benefits--you wake up. I dunno. We are two years into this nearly, and it still hasn't ended.
Unforetunately I think you have identified one possible tipping point. If children are seen to be harmed for no real benefit, I think that would do it.
"How one day it just fell apart"
It fell apart amidst a world that contained relatively free cultures like the US, Canada, Australia et al. Today they're all gone, save for a few holdout southern states. Florida and Texas aren't riding the world's rescue in the way the US et al rescued East Germans from Soviet communism.
Unless there's a new Reagan.
liberal democracy isn’t everything. much of the world isn’t part of this system, and there are alternative regimes. i agree it’s not the same scenario, but there is still - there always is - an outside.
Where do 'Smart Cities' fit into your worldview on conspiracy. Because there are current efforts all around the world to introduce the infrastructure for these, which I prefer to call 'Surveillance Cities'.
Like they'll know how many times you go to the toilet.
But it would all be OK if you owned your own data ;)
I have been thinking that the study of Chinese history might be useful to understand changes that overcome a rigid bureaucratic state. (I am not a scholar of Chinese history.) As best I understand it, they are only changes from the outside.
The issue with the DDR is the USSR had to pay their bills. The cost of buffer states became too great and once funding was cut a nation against itself had to fall. That the place was absorbed for cheap labor and land was a saving grace for the soon to be starving populace
In short, corona mania has become a sort of culture that everyone just kind of accepts. Until some other force comes up against it, it'll continue under its own momentum. Why did the hippie look of the 70's come to be replaced by the preppy khakis and plaids of the 80's? The culture just moved on. Folks got tired of the former, and the latter appeared fresh and new.
Obviously a disease is a somewhat different matter, but the same forces will be operative. Yes, fear is a strong motivator, but this can last only so long. I'm from San Francisco and moved to Boston in 1995, now living in Mexico City. I'm 60 and got covid in July. A week's headache and a few days of fever from this "deadly" virus and that was it. I'm the only person my family in California knows personally who's had it.
As more and more folks have stories like mine (which are the VAST majority), folks, especially the young, will start to realize that this hysteria is just that: irrational hysteria. The weight of this is becoming all too ridiculous.
And it's obviously far divorced from Science. What actual data does anyone have on Omicron? Almost none. Yet politicians are lurching into motion to impose even more draconian measures based on pure fear and political expediency. People are beginning to wake up to this. They're also beginning to wake up to the fact that the definition of "fully vaccinated" is more than a mere two shots, and will change every 6 months. Fewer are willing to sign up to a vaccine subscription model than the two shots and done model.
I'm thinking this panic can't last more than another year. Covid fatigue is setting in, and I think it's setting in hard. Literally everyone is getting tired of this increasingly ridiculous drill.
Cheers,
Kim G
Roma Sur, Mexico City
Yes this is exactly it. Corona mania has transformed into some sort social etiquette into the culture. Being vaccinated - for many - is like wearing a suit at work. You are one of the normal people. And bureaucrats have always loved implementing pointless regulations, and now people have sadly given them mandate it implement really invasive stuff. And of course this culture will wear off eventually, but the politicians will be the last to know this.
I certainly hope you are correct, Kim. And congratulations on surviving the bug. So far I see little sign that the trends you describe are taking root. The paranoia and fear is escalating, as can be seen in places like Austria and Australia.
The precedent you cite is a hopeful one, but our species also has other much darker precedents when it comes to mass psychosis. I pray that yours is the scenario that prevails.
Totally agree, and I think the one bright hope is that under a federalist system (as long as we have it), we have states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, and to a degree Alabama and Indiana, that essentially are done with it all (or have been for a while). That will only further illustrate how ridiculous this all is, when (gasp) life has gone on without masks or vax's etc, and people still get married, children are born, old folks die, and random folks die in car wrecks or from Covid...but life goes on. Btw, notice the most resistant states (and regions within states) and people, culturally, are the Scots-Irish, per usual.
I live in New Hampshire where it's covid crazy in the southern areas infected by MA residents but go to the Lakes region a lot during the summer. It's easy to spot outsiders from MA or NY because they are wearing their face diapers. Locals not so much!
Anyway, I went to South Carolina for a 1 week golf trip the beginning of October and 100% forgot about covid. Almost zero masking anywhere anf bars and restaurants full. I think the freedom feeling happened mainly because of not seeing people in face diapers all day. Actually, the feeling was so nice I'm considering moving there if/when I lose my job due to the jab mandate.
Good points Ricky. Ironic though that both Scotland and Ireland have totally swallowed the covid propaganda while England remains *relatively* more rational. I suppose all the best Scots and Irish decamped for America while they had the chance :-)
How interesting! But actual Scotland and Ireland have gone mad. What gives?
I agree with your thrust personally but confess to being discouraged by what I see around. I live in small-town Veracruz where even in pueblitas in the coffee hill country with only 500 inhabitants it is common to see people walking outside with masks, or on their burros, or alone in their cars. Even the officials pushing these silly things used to point out that wearing them outside isn't necessary, let alone in the middle of nowhere with super-fresh mountain airs.
And I read that Mexico just passed a law to begin creating digital passports similar to the social credit score apps already being used by well over a billion people in India plus god knows how many more in China already.
This isn't about a disease. The disease is a real-world event but a pretext for political machinations on a world wide scale. Unfortunately most of us - because we are reasonable, decent people - cannot stomach this notion and so are waiting for it all to go away.
I pray every day that it will go away but suspect we are entering a period similar to what happened to Russia and that it will be several generations before the pendulum swings again.
That said, there is a great irony afoot: although the Great Reset we hear rumors off may end up ushering in a new 'techno-fascist' age as many fear, the fact is that we are long overdue for a Great Reset of sorts, indeed it is inevitable. Things cannot keep going on the way they were since too many facets of our world had overtaken our governance systems. Transntional cultural and commercial interchange happens now at the speed of the latest meme on Youtube. International trading laws supersede local or national jurisdictions as per UCC going back decades (indeed back to the Roman Empire where the code was first put into being).
Furthermore, in the developed West the gap between the believed representative republics or democracies or commonwealths etc. and the reality had widened to the point of being no longer maintainable. Simply put, corruption was far too endemic and our countries were no longer what we were telling ourselves and our children they were.
Note I say 'were.' Because the old normal is never coming back. There will indeed be a New Normal, but hopefully we don't all let the Technocrats dictate at the point of a needle what the new normal will be. Although right now it looks like that is what is going to happen. We may not be able to believe that a new totalitarian era is upon us, but neither could any of the Russians in 1915. They had the highest standard of living of any peoples in the West - including the peasants and serfs - and would have laughed at you if you had warned them that in a few short years one in three of them would be dead of forced starvation, limbs being severed, execution and exile. But they all would have been wrong.
Well, I don't disagree with you. But one of the joys of Mexico is that the government here is too incompetent to really be able to manage any kind of "social credit score" system. Heck, they can't even keep motorcycles from running red lights in CDMX, or get cars to give the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks.
As for the mask thing, I'm a little puzzled by it. Education here is much worse than in the states, but the USA isn't exactly a shining star when it comes to science education either. I'm constantly telling folks that there's no covid transmission outside, at least under ordinary conditions. Also lots of folks put the masks on for show. It's not uncommon to go into a small store and everyone suddenly dons their mask. I usually just tell them it doesn't matter to me and that I've already had covid. Most then just take them off.
As for a Great Reset, there will be one when the U.S. government debt problem comes home to roost. That will be a society-changing event. But the timing is of course totally unknowable. It's been a long time in the making, and could well go on for many more years. Or it could be triggered by the now rapidly-rising USA inflation.
Anyway, cheers and thanks for the chat!
*3 months.
Hi, Kim :)
I’ll visit you in hospital. Actually I likely won’t. But I wish you luck. 295,000 people have died of COVID in Mexico. Almost 1 in ten with COVID have died in Mexico. A much more modest number have died from drinking and driving or killed others. Might as well decriminalize that while your at it.
I'm not sure I understand your point. Masking somehow would prevent this? Some other point?
Mexico does much more to prevent covid than the USA. Every store, restaurant, theater, etc, takes your temperature prior to entering. You must apply hand sanitizer and walk across a disinfectant mat too. Masks are required. If this stuff was so effective, then what you write wouldn't have happened, would it?
Mexico has had about the same per-capita death rate as the USA. And it shares one of the top co-morbidities, namely a big obesity and diabetes problem.
"295,000 people have died of COVID in Mexico." Should read:
"295,000 people have died with COVID in Mexico."
As with most other places, the vast majority of people who have died in Mexico have co-morbidities. Mexico City is quite dirty with bad air in many barrios. Many Mexicans drink 2 litres of Coca Cola a day, eat badly raised meat and so forth. It's a wonder more didn't die.
In any case, it's simply not true to say that so many died of Covid implying that without it they would still be alive. The vast majority of covid deaths have happened to people slated to die within the next year or two anyway.
Death rates are rising again with booster waves, but that's another story.
Corona madness will stop when the people stop it.
Yes, and due to the internet, the whole thing will likely collapse much faster than late stage communism. Yes, there's censorship and mainstream media is pretty one-dimensional, but it's far from airtight. You have Substack, you have podcasts, and even the Youtube AI is pointing me to a bunch of clips critical of vaccines these days.
The more nonsensical it is the easier it seems to pull over the eyes of the public... the lies so great they couldn’t possibly be believed to be lies? “They” wouldn’t do that to “us”? We desperately want to believe in a Daddy that is “good” and project “Him” onto an ideology rather than a person. So no one need ever be held accountable. Until it gets REALLY bad and we pin it on ONE and refuse to learn the collective lesson?
I don't think that the Second World collapsed because the absurdities were too great. They actually weren't. The absurdities of the First World are just as great - such as the various inherent flaws of democracy - and people don't necessarily mind.
There are multiple reasons why the Second World imploded, but absurdity is among the main ones.
The question is: who will be our Günter Schabowski or Harald Jäger? :)
Technology speeds things up, for sure. But it doesnt determine the direction. When I was at school in the late 80's and early 90's, before the Internet existed, we were taught leftist talking points. Technology just sped things up a great deal.
29,000 Canadians have died of COVID. That might play into the fear a little. One day your neighbour is alive and then she isn’t. And people say, yes she was 42, but probably going to die anyway. And that would be true I suppose if you had planned on killing her - but otherwise no. She would have pleasantly been and would be actually still alive. So that definitely concerns people.
welcome to our Brigade 77 friends
In Poland the Communist Party had lost the people after they took on western loans in the mid 70s and were of course caught out on the repayments. A society of plenty became one of little within 7 years or so. And then you had General Jaruzelski martial law, the West (mainly the US) subsidizing dissent and the Solidarity Trade Union which mingled with all those forces.
I visited Poland in 1989 btw. Was 'interesting'.
The analogy with late-stage communism is wrong on many counts. In the totalitarianism (tyranny, for short) of yesteryear, the screws were loosening since the end was nigh; now, they are being continuously tightened since there is a new beginning in the offing. From relative freedom (liberal democracy, if one cares to be imprecise) the white world (usage intentional) is about to enter the age of tyranny never seen before, and enabled by the available and soon-to-materialize sci-fi technology. Bentham´s panopticon is the blueprint, writ large; that is why "lockdown" has come into its global own. The masses will be just that, and move in "lockstep" (Rockefeller Foundation, 2010). The Lockean paradigm has run its course since it could only be propped up by firmly held beliefs; morals, and personal integrity. Leviathan beckons, ready to pounce on the last remains of human spirit - clearly, this is not the end but a beginning. There will be the equivalent of Red Pioneers/Communist Youth cadres, and there will be many of them. I can see them rising and on the ready, looking forward to their Brave New World. Literally dehumanized, godless but WEF-happy. Once again, the good thing is on its hind legs while the horror is only shaping up. There is no waking up from the nightmare - on the contrary, we are wading in.
The one thing that is different about the US is the second amendment. Too many people have guns. The Nazis and the Communists took away the guns first. This would be very difficult in the US. This was the significance of the Rittenhouse verdict. The trial was to take away the moral right of self-defense. The jury thought otherwise. People understand what a big step this would be on a large scale, and have held back. But it is still there and both sides know this.
It still had a massive chilling effect on the ability to defend yourself. The other lesson despite his acquittal was that were he not a blemish-free model citizen, who acted impeccably, which is a really hard thing to do when a mob is trying to kill you, and if he didn't have millions of dollars in legal fees donated to him, he would be in jail for the rest of his life.
And they are still after him, trying to have him removed from the college he attends, civil suits and possible federal prosecution.
It was a win in some ways, but still a huge loss in many other ways that do not bode well for the future.
The horror (sounds like Holdomor) needs our permission to operate. And it does not have it. It would also need competence of its administrators which it also doesn't have.
I agree. I know so many who are furious at leadership. I'm sure those in power here in the US are now afraid of their subject citizens. Ammunition is in short supply because of 2 years of strong demand. Also, the allegiance of the police is NOT to the state.
Years ago, I was in Germany explaining the second amendment to German colleagues. "We are armed to protect ourselves from the government."
You may be right, but I refuse to accept it as a certainty and will continually work to undermine such a system. I trust that everyone who reads this substack and other similar sites will do the same. Cheers and Fight On Friends.
It's tough to maintain your sanity as, on the hand, I don't want to wish ill on other people but those same people are zealously celebrating any ill upon my "kind", demanding reprehensible policies from their government and almost certainly won't change their minds until the vaccines produce serious consequences that can't be ignored.
Simultaneously, I have people I care about who bought into the lies and got themselves vaccinated.
Biden is America's Chernenko. Let us hope we are as close to transformation and that it comes with a similarly low level of violence. There will be a price to be paid though.
I spent seven weeks in a former Soviet state once, and although people there said that the years preceding and after the breakup of the Soviet Union was a very difficult time, I recently told a couple of relatives that I would consider such a scenario an acceptably soft landing for the United States.
Boosters every 3 months now 😂 I’m not sure I can withstand decades.
You are so right - and it's the "inertia", with so much weight behind it now in academia, that for reasonable people a university is a dangerous and foreign place. I cannot teach or even be a tutor now in a psychology department that has gone mad. The irony of it all.
You could also easily argue that the current situation is reminiscent of the installation of the bolshevik regimes (I wouldn't call them communist). The late stages of the bolshevik era was marked by the sentiments you're describing, but that's not the case now. Now, people who push the covidian narrative are genuine fanatics, akin to bolshevik who pushed Second World totalitarianism.
Like the bolshevik era, however, covidianisms-wokeism is used by opportunists who are and will be exploiting whatever it brings and offers.
Good points - I guess there's no absolute equivalent from the 20th Century, but we can, from all the examples of totalitarianism, revolutions and counter-revolutions, draw some fundamental truths about human nature, the desire to control and the propensity to be controlled. As a psychologist this is my next big project.
Right. One must resist the urge to look for historical parallels and make the assumption that things will develop the same way as in the past. You have to try to predict the future based on how things are likely to develop in light of the factors that exist today.
As to the propensity to control and be controlled, you're probably right.
I'm putting a request in for this (northern) winter. Thanks.
Check out the HBO documentary on Chernobyl. I found it fascinating bec I saw it through the same lens you describe. EVERYONE knew what they were saying was BS, but they kept saying it anyway. A reactor meltdown is an extreme and specific case, but it's the same concept in EVERYTHING.
Avoiding the truth ... creates hell.
Truth returns, the worm turns, and the same cycle begins anew.
I was thinking similarly ...
If anyone is offended by this article --- who cares.
I'm not sure why you think you've angered anyone? Because you don't think this is a vast conspiracy?
It obviously isn't. I wish it was, at least then I could marvel at the sheer brilliance and organizational fortitude of the conspirators. No, I agree that its part of the corporate-academia-government bureaucracy thinking.
I used to come from that world. I was employed at an American corporate and essentially lived my professional life guided by Policies and Guidelines and whatever else they had rules for. Over time, this becomes a way of life, and a way of viewing life
When I became an entrepreneur, first I was jarred by how there were no guidelines, no rules. Just me. Then, as I became good at my job (I run a B2B company) I learned how to exploit those bureaucracies, game regulatory agencies, and capitalise on these organizational idiocies. It has gained me significant wealth, but turned me very cynical, and I am not optimistic about the next 5 years of covid life
What you are describing is absolutely and 100% reality. Its worse than a conspiracy unfortunately, because of its hopeless, vapid banality.
i got a series of angry emails, which I’ve learned is predictable when I say things like this.
One thing I've noticed is that there becomes a set of "anti-Covid" orthodoxies which invoke a lot of anger when they're challenged or someone mentions an alternate view. It's human nature I guess. We need to avoid the same trap the Covid hysterics (and anyone dedicated to any point of view) fall into. We should remember we're not about fossilized theories but keeping open minds and revising our views based on data and facts.
I agree with open mindedness 100%...but in my experience data (while it's what it is) is fundamentally unreliable, depending upon how may hands it has gone through and who is funding it. And facts...well they're not supposed to change, are they? That said, I think that everything should be challenged all of the time...so...
Agreed, figuring out the truth is a process. Cumulative information that adds up to conclusions. Constantly learning, questioning, and challenging. I think it's important to keep an open and humble mind and be able to recognize and admit when we're wrong. I think what happens too often is we land on a conclusion and we begin to identify with it to the point that any challenge to it becomes a threat to ourselves - our intelligence, our wisdom, our identity itself. We have to be careful to avoid that and recognize that the truth is outside of us and doesn't belong to us - we only seek it out and recognize it. Don't be dogmatic but humble when forming and stating theories.
So well said!! Thank you!
Preach it!
The data are never perfect. You can only aim for "fit for use". The worst thing you can have is biased data, and once a piece of data becomes an indicator, pressure to control the signal follows.
When you say "this", what do you mean? Expanding beyond Covid? Talking about conspiracies? Tackling Wokeness in general?
I suspect "this" refers to rejecting the alternate orthodoxy view that this is all a grand conspiracy run by (choose one: Illuminati, Bill Gates, Lizard People, George Soros, Priory of Sion, The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, Comet Pizza, etc).
yes, this is what i mean.
I can tell you for sure that (as eugyppius says) when dealing with bureaucracies you should never assume intent over incompetence.
it seems a little premature to reject the parts that all those things play in how this plays out. I have long said the world is run on paedophilia, and I continue to feel this true. I do however take seriously alternate views and add them to the equation. I certainly hearted this essay, and admit it's got a tremendous message of truth in it.
I like to be challenged continuously as Candis said above
i have no problems with disagreement or anything, it’s no fun to post to echo chambers anyway. i just find the anger that these specific disagreements provoke unusual and amusing.
get used to it I guess. It's either that or avoid the search for truth. I think I know which one you will aim for.
also anger is a useful emotion. It's gotten a bad rap lately, but I think it'll be making a comeback soon.
???? They have behavioral scientists and trials testing public opinion all the time. How to best word things, how to best publicize things, denial, revision, acceptance. Literally templates and millennia of experience with toying public opinion to decide what ideology is most suited to rule the public, which is moral collectivism. Billions of doses don’t just get created in a few weeks of discovery of a genetic sequence of a purported virus, it takes preparation to scale up. Just like wars don’t just happen overnight, soldiers are strategically placed on the borders. If anyone studies the funding streams or “follow the money” you will realize it’s the same collective political class entrenched in NGOs to pharmaceuticals to military to media to educational to big tech world. Go look up any board of directors or regulators and they all cross pollinate in serving the same high level agencies and organizations. All one needs is funding and installing of people. Conformity is the norm, we are herd animals. I’m not sure why people keep thinking that owning trillions of dollars worth of wealth in the form of land, multinational supranational organizations and corporations is incapable of affecting the public. Your food supply, your ad agencies, your banks are all monopolized: it’s literally the same owners at the top. From the inter parliamentary union, to Chatham house, trilateral commission, council of foreign affairs, bilderberg group. If two teenagers in an online video game can conspire to successfully scam people by schemes involving spoofed events or false purchases, it’s hard to not comprehend the nature of corruption where no “investigation team” or studies are ever accepted into the truth and it’s always “I can’t answer that, xyz agency did it” just like 9/11. I find the incredulity in disbelief of human ability to plan things and execute with contingency plans quite sad. Considering one needs a certain modicum of intellect to preserve dynastic wealth and political power, leaving things to chance while acceptable is unlikely something anyone would do with sufficient wealth power and intellect. Sure the public response is variable but that doesn’t mean something can’t be within the parameters of the strategic objectives set out for any set of agendas. You don’t need to succeed right away. You can fail and try again, and that is what anyone with the scientific method does, inclusive of a/b testing the population with macroeconomic policies that are destructive.
>turned me very cynical
Happens to a lot of people, even those with pretty pedestrian life experiences. My take on it is that human society is based on myths. In our pluralistic society those always prove to be false in some fundamental ways upon serious examination. You accept those myths when young, that's how humans work. When you learn they are false later in life the resulting state of mind we call "cynicism".
I find people from former USSR are the most clear eyed nowadays.
Iol
I have wondered about what the "solution" would be. Does it mean "regime change" where the regime is the post WWII techo-bureaucratic state? If so, how would this unfold? It seems to me that people trying to build parallel institutions are doing the most productive work.
No, not regime change. The solution is, oddly enough, a bigger crisis. Covid-19 wasn't big enough.
this is exactly right. we need another thing to happen. containment is causing such massive disruption that I think there are good chances it will even spawn its own demise, in the form of a second, greater crisis. supply chain chaos is a candidate, waiting at the margins.
I have a front row seat to the supply chain crisis. I sit pretty far upstream and have visibility to primary and basic materials. Its really ugly, and 100% a self inflicted problem caused by ephemeral containment measures
Do you think such a crisis was going to happen at some point and it just needed a trigger?
No. Global supply chains are extremely resilient and adaptable but were never designed to handle a systemic introduction of obstacles like this, at every level. Covid containment has infected everything. Industry is not immune. I could write 20,000 words about this. And because supply chains are truly global, the bottlenecks can be anywhere on earth, if that makes sense. For example, China zero Covid policy means that docking container ships need to have their entire crews tested before they berth. If a case is detected, the boat is sent back offshore for 2 weeks or until it shows up with a new crew. Just think of the domino effects of this.
Consider also Australia for example. They were a fortress yet still are heavily reliant on exports of basic materials. Just imagine the nightmare flight and vessel crews have to endure every time they are in an Australian port.
When every ill-conceived intervention breeds new problems, it can't be far off. Were approaching peak interventionism
On resource and energy crises see:
surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com
or
peakprosperity.com
and James Kunstler's blog.
As a v. healthy 68 y old, I expected another ~30 years, tempered of course by this declining world resource availability. But I'm content with a fairly simple life, as indeed we had in the 1950s/60s/70s in the UK.
Two sinister points which have surely been debunked by those familiar with the pharma industry ...
a) The 'conspiracy theory', maybe from Mike Yeadon, that the vials are numbered 1, 2 or 3. Karl Denninger dismissed it as implausible on today's knowledge but I doubt he's looked at 100 random vials.
Or was Pf. just calibrating the dose to see what gave the best ratio of immunity to side-effects? If the USA has a million MDs and more nurses, ~10,000 must be sympathetic enough to help a sceptic get hold of some empty vials.
b) The strange lack of non-GM jabs in Europe and N. America. I think India, China and Russia may have five non-GM products between them. Are governments/pharma desperate to genetically modify us? I assume it's the cheapness (= profit) that appeals, even the glamour?
Interesting comment, but I am not clear on one point. The solution from whose perspective? The bureaucracy or those trying to get out from under it? Are you suggesting something so big the bureaucracy would be seen to fail without any way of regaining face?
The best defense against an entrenched bureaucracy drunk on its own importance is clearly written legislation that leaves no doubt to as intentions, limitations, and application. Boundaries are then created and the rule making and regulations arising from such reflect the legislators' intentions and not the bureaucrats' dream of bettering society.
Constitutional law is only about two questions: 1) who has the power? and 2) what are the limits on that power? The rest is details. You must also have a judiciary that will have the confidence to be independent to enforce those limits.
Since the judiciary has no enforcement arm, its decisions must be scrupulously just. Too late for the modern judiciary, they are seen as hopelessly partisan.
I suppose I'm just recounting from history. Most societal cataclysms birthed these institutions, which typically in their first generation or two served their societies very well. By the 3rd and 4th, decay had well and truly set in and we are where we are.
I see what you are saying now. I hope we do not need something akin to WWII to move us to a better path. So many of our systemic problems are "own goals" from the governing elites. They must be seen to fail totally before ordinary people are open to something new. (Not unreaonably, because there is always a possibilty that the something new is worse.)
It is mass brainwashing, Nazi style.
This is the post that converted me to a paid subscriber. There is so much wisdom about how academic and lefty organizations operate. As someone who worked in (American) academia for 20 years I can't tell you how true the following statement is: "Wokeness is also self-radicalising, in the way that many university-incubated ideologies turn out to be. Administrators or department chairs are constantly in danger of being outflanked on their left, and so they must adopt and endorse the most radical line to maintain their position"
thanks so much for your support ChrisC
Well said - and true from someone who has worked in the Australian academic setting as well. Not only admin and department heads, but all staff - admittedly I've been out of the system for a few years now, but I can only imagine it's much worse.
I too left academia a few years ago, almost 7 in fact. The writing was on the wall. My wife persisted in an 'academic support' role (ie pointless administrator) and lost her job there in the recent waves of redundancies. Meanwhile, this august institution has just hired a 'Senior Advisor (Gender affirmation)' at an obscenely high salary. The priorities are hilarious. Meanwhile colleagues a decade after achieving phd's were competing for 'new investigator' grants and labs getting defunded all over the place.
Shocking (or maybe not so shocking) - I shudder to think what sort of people are these places now churning out. My children are more pragmatic than academic and didn't go through the system, but I don't think you need an 'insider' to realise what a clown show academia has become (at least in the social sciences - I've done some work with departments in the hard sciences and they do seem to be more or less 'getting on with it' despite the social wokeness around them). Anyway, enjoy the freedom Mike of not being in that environment!
I appreciated the notion that one can never be woke enough which suggests an impossible end. If institutions collapse from the spiral it will be a good reawakening. The woke religion can't satisfy the human spirit, I think and hope.
One of your best, please write more like this and continue to expand beyond Corona-centric material.
I am near the sunset of a long American academic career. Thirty years ago when I was on faculty at a "Public Ivy" I recounted to a bright grad student that I saw the "politically correct" pathway the university had adopted has always turned out badly in history. She noted the difference this time is that we are now pursuing the correct policies rather than the wrong policies of the past. Not sure what she thinks today.
I am currently a senior faculty at a relatively large public university in Texas that has being going woke as fast as it can. Many of my students are not on board though. (Example, when I poll for support of 2nd amendment, it gets 85% support. When I poll for support of concealed carry on campus, it gets about 70% support) When our Governor (Abbott) dropped the mask mandate, the University immediately complied as much of our funding comes from the state. We have no vax mandate, but the University pushed hard for everyone to get a vax and to mask. We have been in face to face classrooms for about 10 weeks now (no social distancing), and masks are optional. I do not wear one. About 20-25% of my students wear a masks - the University still pushes for wearing masks.
We held an in person faculty meeting about 6 weeks ago, and while being the oldest, so presumably the most at risk, I was the only one that did not even take a mask. Most kept masked except when eating, and I noticed it was hard to have a conversation around a large table with those wearing masks as we can't use lip reading to fill in what is not audible, or is muffled by the mask. But it seems most faculty cannot apply their advanced math and stat skills to seeing how little risk they have.
The University publishes a Covid Dashboard. Over the last week, 7 cases have been reported (from a population of about 40,000). For the entire semester to date, less than 250. This is no doubt an underestimate, but if students want extensions on HW, or accommodation for missed exams they will need to report so there is an incentive to report (and I believe it is University Policy to report).
The University may try to backdoor a mask and vax program via the Federal contractor rules. Hopefully the recent court successes against OSHA mandates can also apply or be used as a template to stop that.
So, Abbott's no mask, no vax rules were enough to get our University closer to sanity and he is not pushing as hard as DeSantis. The woke stuff marches on . . .
Loved hearing your experience at the Texas University. Thanks so much for sharing
I'm in Washington state - we still mostly teach from home and do all meetings by zoom.
Unvaxxed losers like me can't come on campus - only able to teach online (but I'm grateful they didn't fire me like many other faculty)
Australia here I believe all teachers in all states are now mandated here. The only one of my son’s teachers who was noticeably absent after the mandate date was his Science teacher which I thought very appropriate. I emailed her and said I supported her. We have a lot of homeschool networks being set up now. Largely by cancelled teachers but also there is a high demand by parents to get their kids out of the mainstream mindset including vaccination mentality.
I sympathize! Similar status, marooned on a small island near Mordor in Wa. State. Home to our esteemed governor and many pillars of Group Think Inc.
Can you at least see the Eye of Sauron atop the appropriately named "Space Needle"?
If I stand on a step ladder and use a really good telescope...YES!!!;)
Last week I had a call with my cousin in your great state. She asked me how things are going in the free state of Texas. Their son teaches at a university in Idaho and had even less restrictions. They are considering relocating to Idaho, but hoping it does not get that bad.
I'm grateful to be an Idahoan. My husband and I were just talking yesterday about the difference in how states have dealt with all of this. We haven't worn masks for many, many months except in medical facilities. Life actually feels fairly normal.
I was on the UNC campus a few weeks ago. The students were mostly masked, even outside. They will make good slaves.
Thank you for not allowing hysterical conspiracies to guide the discussion . I would add that this is more sinister than an individual actor. If it were one actor you could “remove” them and it would end. This is going to take years if not decades to change.
agree unreservedly. this is a much harder nut to crack.
It's all about the darkest aspects of human nature and the herd mentality. Sadly we are in a stampede and may be headed for the cliff.
The conductor?
The Quarterback??
:)
I've often thought that maybe the world needs a new religion, but one that's carefully designed instead of evolved. Perhaps such a thing is impossible, but it seems like a lot of woke/covid/climate hysteria (which often bears so much resemblance to religious conviction) is fueled by a search for meaning, and confirmation that you are a good, moral person.
What if people could get that confirmation via some other path? I'm not saying necessarily a revival of the Christian church, although by the start of the 1900s it seems to me that Christianity had burned off most of the zealotry and zeal its adherents showed in earlier centuries and was perhaps on balance a force for good (not if you were gay, granted, but I mean overall for the whole population). I'm thinking here about something entirely new.
>> I've often thought that maybe the world needs a new religion, but one that's carefully designed instead of evolved.
This is it. You're looking at it. You got what you wanted. A secular religion, carefully crafted by the most highly-educated experts complete with ritual, dogma, heretics, and shibboleths.
Eugyppius just mentioned it, at the very top of this article: Wokeness + Containment.
This is exactly what you're asking for. Do you like it?
Oh, wait, is this not "really carefully designed?" Did we not do it right, so it doesn't count?
Where have I heard that before?
I think the point to learn here is after you create an idea you don’t control it. I’d be very hesitant to move away from something that works. I think we need to have more humility and not try and recreate huge belief structures.
Move away from what, exactly? The people most susceptible to this stuff already moved away from classical religions a long time ago, and now appear to have found a new one. There's nothing to move away from, there.
Also despite the supposedly uncontrollable nature of these things, Wokeism is to a large extent a designed ideology. Its central tenets haven't radically diverged from the CRT laid down in academia. I'm sure it's diverged a bit and will continue to do so, but the basic combination of "white men bad + women good" has been stable for years, even though it took decades to emerge. Arguably communism was also a designed ideology that more or less held its form as Marx intended for many decades.
Fair enough. I guess I worded that poorly. I think what I am trying to say is it needs to be more bottom up than top down. I don't think it can be architected.
All religions in history started as bottom-up social movements, Christianity included. All become top-down once they accumulate power. Until then, they're all nice people meeting in someone's living room playing guitars. Every single one. Christianity included.
You are definitely on to something, as an Atheist it is clear that we got a "monkey's paw" wish fulfillment - as Atheism became mainstream, so too in it's wake did a number of hysterias follow which likely have roots in people no longer being tethered to a code of conduct, a sense of belonging, or a promise of "Sky Cake" (Youtube Patton Oswalt on Sky Cake).
I think what the Atheist movement got wrong is believing in rationality. There aren't enough atoms in the universe to fully compute the game of chess or the game of go (if you stored each state per atom). You think we can rationally determine the world that has infinite degrees of freedom? Science/rationality provides insight but can not be a basis for life.
+1 for the Go analogy.
Nietzsche famously said "God is dead." By this he meant that science had advanced and modern society no longer needed religion as a moral guide. He was cynical (smart?) enough to be skeptical of liberal democracy. One of his claims was that Western morality, valuing honesty, was precisely what had led to the downfall of religious faith (e.g. modern investigators having revealed it for the tissue of legends that all religions are). He was prescient (pessimistic?) enough to predict that this relentless questioning of values, a search for truth, would turn to the secular values of culture that had replace religious dogma. These too, would eventually fall. The end product? Nihilism, the rejection of all values, even of scientific truths.
This, perhaps, is part of the process of centuries-long cycles in human society. We have a long history of ups and downs. I'd guess we are well on the downward spiral right now. I'm sure man has a future, but what type, or on what schedule, I really don't know. I doubt anyone does.
Nietzsche is many things to many people; perhaps I'm reading too much into him, but I think I've summarized him quite well. Pretty good foresight for a man who's been dead 121 years, and wrote nothing after 1889...
meta's working on it
Very insightful.
Sure there is. "One Size Fits All" is a Frank Zappa album from 1975 🤡
I agree, if by within oneself, it is the individual that chooses the ideas he lives by, usually by happenstance or unconsciously, ideally by voluntary exposure to the marketplace of ideas, and least desirably, by coercion.
Agree there are no "collective solutions" but these shouldn't be confused with a shared belief system.
Memes like religions seem to have a strong inoculating effect against subsequent religion-type memes (I'm convinced this is partially what they're evolved for); I don't have a single Christian neighbor that doesn't see right through the covid biofascism narratives.
Yes, the population representative of the "traditional American right" largely seems to be the greatest current ally of personal freedom and Constitutional rights. That natural liberties are divinely-ordained is an important element of this.
By "memes," I'm referring to social memetics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
https://empathy.guru/so-whats-a-v-meme/
Yes, blaming it all on the WEF, Gates, et al always struck me as kind of a cope. A handful of bad actors can theoretically be removed or distracted: it's difficult, but possible. A distributed network of tens of thousands of petty tyrants is impossible to defeat in that manner.
It's also harder on social cohesion: recognizing that this is happening, in part, because everyday people are pushing for it means recognizing that Karen the covidian down the street is partly responsible for this. People don't like having to see their neighbors as enemies.
Great point!
There are definite reasons! Many of them. We agree.
I confess I don't know what is happening in the world, only that it is very abnormal. I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed. I've heard many theories, some plausible and some crazy. Rather than judging or rejecting, I've placed each theory on my "WTH is Going On" shelf for safe keeping.
Two things can be true at once. The insane response to the virus can be a consequence of a mass formation or a kind of global group think (irony noted 'cause there's very little thinking involved) and at the same time the "elite" can be taking advantage of the current crisis...amplifying and extending it even...to bring about their vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a central bank digital currency, and some kind of supranational global control of the little people.
I imagine you've heard Mattias Desmet speak about mass formation. I listened to his full interview on Jerm Warfare in September (unfortunately, I can find only a small excerpt now). He says that there are basically three groups in a mass formation: 30% are true believers, 30% are in opposition, and 40% are in the middle and don't really believe but go along to get along. He believes the 40% are reachable and, thus, we in the opposition should speak out and speak often.
One comment that Desmet made really stuck with me. He said historically the 30% who are in opposition are always a disparate group that devolves into infighting which dilutes their influence. They may have the power to stop or reverse the mass formation, but they are distracted by their own disagreements.
I would caution everyone to heed that warning.
We lose our power to effect real change by arguing over what is happening. The truth is we don't really know what is happening or all the forces at play. We may never know. But we don't have to agree on details or theories to oppose the crazy Covid authoritarian response.
WRT to Schwab and the globalists...we can argue over their ability to pull off their evil plans, but we can't argue about their plans. They've been very transparent. A year ago, I thought Schwab was a clown. Now, in light of the continued and expanded authoritarian crackdowns and increasing censorship, I'm a bit more inclined to think there is more going on than a mass formation in response to fear of a virus.
When news of the viral outbreak in China first broke, I thought it would be a problem for the United States. I fully expected my government to quell fear (keep calm and carry on). They threw gasoline on the fire instead. For me, that was the first red flag.
We accomplish nothing by fighting over theories. We need to fight them.
https://odysee.com/@jermwarfare:2/dissenting-voices-are-important:b
" I've gone down a number of rabbit holes over the past year and a half and consulted sources that I would have otherwise eschewed"
I did exactly the same the past 20 months and I come to the same conclusion that we have to fight this insanity without arguing between us for the plans and the purposes behind this.
It’s the “Fourth Turning”. Last fourth turning was WWII. There are four 20 year (more or less) generations (birth, growth, decline, death) in a historical cycle…just like like the four seasons (spring (birth), summer (growth), fall (decline), winter (death).
I have thought about this post and read all the comments. There is much I don't understand. I'm troubled with how the tyrants are acting even when faced with recent data. It seems there is something greater they are working towards, that allows them to ignore facts that are being reported.
A few known facts:
1) Children are not harmed by Covid, they barely get sick. Yet they all need to be vaxxed, from birth.
2) The "vaccines" are failing .Yet everybody needs to get vaxxed some more.
3) People are dying and being harmed by the "vaccines". Yet, the unvacced need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
4) Reports pregnant vaxxed women, are giving birth to stillborn children at 29 time higher then just a year ago. Yet, all women need to get vaxxed and the reset need number 2 above.
5) If you are unvaxxed you loose liberty, even to the point of being jailed in your own home or concentration camps. The solution to that is to get vaxxed, even when number 3 and 4 are well known.
6) Your chance of living when getting covid is 99.7%; population wide. Yet, get vaxxed or else. If you have been vaxxed see number 2 above.
They want everybody vaxxed, when they know the "vaccines" are worthless, kill people and are killing them slowly by harming the recipients immune system. Why?
It is easy to speculate there is something bigger happening. I'm very open to different theories. If you (the reader) are not, then you are not practicing critical thinking.
Joe, I am assuming that the majority of people who seriously read this blog are grappling with the facts you mention.
>There is much I don't understand
Ditto
> It seems there is something greater they are working towards
Who are "they"? It seems (I can't read your mind, so correct me if I am wrong) that you are falling into the Watchmaker fallacy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy.
In other words: the situation does not make sense, the sinister kabal conspiracy would explain a lot, ergo it's the kabal. Let's rephrase it: the omnipotent aliens from space would explain everything, ergo it's the aliens.
One of the main points this essay is trying to establish is that essentially there are no "them" as a unified coherent entity. There are a lot of disparate people that converged on the same ideology due to social forces that are essentially out of their control. Here are some of them: fear, desire to conform, cognitive dissonance...
Don't get me wrong: a lot of people are using the situation for their selfish (and evil) gain. But they do not control it.
It is very important to realize that in social situations people do not react rationally. You go with the group, you believe the myths, you beat the drum. I was in such a situation when a lot of people around me just totally turned bonkers. Thankfully it did not involve hurting people.
> then you are not practicing critical thinking
Agreed. However, I do not necessarily expect to find exhaustive answers. Which is not to say we should not try to search for them.
[Just to make it clear: I intentionally do not address any of your facts directly. This is not what this comment is about]
I think there are many, "theys" if you will. I don't think there is one and only one conspiracy. As the author's post was trying to communicate. I do think it very possible there was an original event triggering conspiracy. I'm very open to that.
Currently, I think there are multiple conspiracies working. And I do mean conspiracies. People working together for nefarious ends.
Lastly, and oddly, common people are trapped into believing that the unvaxxed are the cause of continued cases and death. That the pandemic caused people to lose their jobs, when in fact it was government driven action. That we have high energy prices and supply chain issues because of a virus, when again, they are caused by government action. Sadly, some of those common people are becoming tyrants ready to do harm to their fellow human beings.
Lastly, thank you for your excellent thoughts. I will read what is at the link.
>I think there are many, "theys" if you will
Actually, probably there is only one "they" - The Ruling Class - https://archive.org/details/rulingclass031748mbp/page/n9/mode/2up
Which is nowadays mostly global, due to the American cultural and political hegemony.
Once they cohered on the "zero-covid" approach it was game over. The question is why and how did they end up with that approach?
The early canary in the coalmine for me (I realized that only retroactively) was Israel's lockdown that started on March 15, 2020. Israeli elites are very sensitive and well-attuned to global elites (just notice at how they are the first ones to mask, lock-down, vaccinate, and booster.)
>Currently, I think there are multiple conspiracies working. And I do mean conspiracies. People working together for nefarious ends.
That is always the case. Moreover, there are always people who look for and jump on opportunities. And this is a big one.
For example, addressing your fact (1) I won't at all be surprised if the following largely turns out to be true: https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/heres-the-real-reason-comirnaty-is
Here is something I might be willing to concede given enough facts: there might have been powerful people who ignited the situation just to shake things up and see if they can "profit" as the result. They could not count on or plan for any particular outcome, though.
Such people must fit a certain profile: since the possible downside of such a shake up might be pretty dire, the situation they are already in should be rather untenable. Or that they somehow would be able to isolate themselves from the fallout (e.g. China). Just a thought.
But again, the fact that they might have started it does not mean that they could plan on any foreseeable outcome. I believe that's what Eugvyppius is trying to illustrate with his drawing.
Two millennia past, Paul (once Saul of Tarsus, a Roman Citizen, and unfettered murderer of Christians) wrote from Nero's prison in Rome to the Church in Ephesus "For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." The devil is an opportunist. We are helpless against him, if we stand alone.
Regarding the watchmaker. A bit off-topic, but I do appreciate your reference.
What looks to be designed by a mind, is designed by a mind. It is not fallacy, unless proven to be so. So the theory; the watch, is always designed by watchmaker, has never been disproven and thus, not a fallacy. Whereas, it can be observed 100% of the time that a watch is designed by a watchmaker. As of today, the theory of the watchmaker stands.
you are right, don't fall for that guy's nonsense. Only the most naive can explain what's happening by calling it incompetence. It requires a 2 digit IQ to do this, at this point. No fallacy in seeing the truth as it is. some people are born to be losers and sheep, they will never accept the truth.
>Regarding the watchmaker...
Not sure what you mean. The fallacy is not that the watch (and any watch) is made by a watchmaker, but the analogy. The world is not a watch. A social movement (or social psychosis) is not a computer or a business partnership.
BTW, I am a theist (which is a fancy way of saying that I believe in God.) I do not have rational arguments for my belief, though. And I certainly do not subscribe to the watchmaker argument as a proof or clear evidence of the existence of the Deity.
Here is another analogy (which is *not* a proof of anything, it is just an attempt to steer you into a different way of looking at things): you do not expect a cow to understand math. Why would you always expect humans to understand extremely complex issues? After all, our brain is still finite. There must be a limit.
Love this conversation. We don't have any clear evidence of a Deity, agreed. But is life evidence of design by a mind? Not conclusively, but I will keep an open mind on that topic.
Oddly, this dovetails with the SARS-Cov-2 virus. There is ample evidence it is designed by a mind or multiple minds. That is the starting point for the following speculation: Was it released by accident then covered up? Was it released on purpose but designed to look like an accident? Was the appearance of the virus by design or coincident then used for purpose? I have suspicions, but I'm remaining open to anything.
Lastly, I don't expect humans to understand complex issues. Most don't have the time or energy to even try. That is why they view the world in very granular concepts. Example: The experts tell us XYZ, therefore they must be right. That is a very granular response to an impossibly complex world. One I held 20 months ago. But, not any longer.
>There is ample evidence it is designed by a mind or multiple minds.
Seems that pretty much everybody agrees on that
Whichever one of the theories is true they are all damning to the unholy alliance of Science and State. I am not even sure which is worse - the gain of function research hypothesis or the bio-weapon hypothesis. At least according to the latter people had some clear purpose.
>One I held 20 months ago
Hm, for me the ultimate red pill was the Russia collusion. Not the politics per se, but how a lot of sane and normal people totally bought it. That firmly defenestrated me through the Overton window
you believe in God in 2021? rofl dude the irony is gigantic on you. you talk to other people about fallacies while you believe in the boogy man in the sky lol. so brainwashed
That's definitely a possibility
The challenge is the “population wide” assumption. We lose our humanity when we dismiss the vulnerable. In Ontario, Canada, several old age homes lost their entire population of residents to COVID in massive internal outbreaks. Literally hundreds died (ex: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/canadian-nursing-home-reels-from-death-of-half-its-residents-bobcaygeon). And they died gasping for breaths. A horrible death. But the population wide numbers are hugely reasonable and workable here - so to speak. In developing countries, much is made of a shorter life expectancy from birth - often as worrying as 50 to 55 years of age. But the reality is that infant mortality is astronomical while if a child lives to age 5, life expectancy from 5 is not dissimilar to developed nations. We must do more in these more vulnerable nations to support pediatric medical needs. When we acknowledge how little risk there is from COVID and how pointless containment is, we do so from the perspective of privilege. Those that have died of COVID, the 800,000 across the US, 29,000 in Canada, 300,000 in Mexico (to tackle North America essentially), it is as if we are also dismissing those who died in old age homes begging for breaths, or the infants in poorer countries who never make it to age five but had they survived would not only have lived to a competitive age but might also have discovered a cure for leukaemia or written extraordinary poetry. There must be some consideration to all these fantastical and many beautifully crafted posts that they are written all by people still alive, not on a ventilator or deep in grief for having lost a close friend or family member to COVID. No matter how informed we are, the Holocaust is always more raw to a Jew. The horrors of ALS always more raw to somebody who has cared for somebody who has intimately witnessed the injustice of the disease. A healthy academic discussion around the tyranny of containment from a group absolutely free and healthy to do so and less vulnerable can sometimes sound like people complaining about the existence of a unwieldy wheelchair ramp to access their university library when they don’t have the experience of relying on one. The discussions here are impressive and I mean no disrespect. Instead I am just reminded some that empathy is not a liberal work or a woke word but a decent human characteristic.
One thing I think is that the bandwagon is so far down the road it simply cannot reverse. The narrative that the vaccines are going to cure the pandemic is the motto and don’t you dare disagree with it. If you vaccinate everyone then there is no control group and no one to prove the vaccines aren’t effective.
The first two sentences can explain what most common people might think. But I don't accept that as an excuse from so called experts, who look at the data and can see what is happening. What are they up to? Your last sentence tries to answer, that question. Eliminate the control group. I think it is the motivation of many people who do know the facts about "vaccine" harm.
"periodic ritual entertainment of false moral outrages and protests."
From my perch it is the virtue signaling on social media that appears to have cratered the ability to think logically for so many honest hearted people.
Nobody wants to be Emmanuel Goldstein.
The urge, and the provision of means to engage in it, has existed since the dawn of civilization.
What we have NEVER had before is a potentially endlessly-iterative generator of opportunities that work faster than an individual human brain.
There is no arguing that we've gone too far. We don't even need destructive AI. We've created reinforcement and punishment systems that move faster than us. It's a cyclotron spinning too fast to get off of.
I don't see any means by which this ends well.
"This image heads Harvard University’s list of Socializing Rules. None of these students is at serious risk of severe outcome from Corona."
They are, however, at serious risk of severe outcome of brainwashing.
Well, I guess this all makes me glad that I'm mostly "self-educated". I might not be able to "hold my own" with an "intellectual", but I trust my common sense, *life experience* and "street smarts" more than just trusting books, lectures or "cultural trends". I am also willing to listen to and/or read opinions about subject matter I may not understand or know much about and make a determination based on the combination of that information and my "gut instinct." I'm not sure if this comment is really in context with what your article is about, but some of us "hicks" out here trust our gut. If something being peddled on the world's stage or in universities just seems really "bad" for society... we reject it. Thanks for continuing to welcome people like myself to read and ponder your great articles Eugyppius.
Most of the ‘Science’ being sold to you about Corona containment isn’t technically difficult, just poorly written, and with a little effort most people will have no problems understanding it. Trusting your gut is good. Very often it takes a PhD to be wrong in the most profound ways.
Stinging! Ouch! :)
Well said. The 'science' isn't hard, the powers that be is just trying to convince us that it is. I think applies to the natural sciences in general. I think there seems to be a concerted effort to convince people that the so-called STEM is difficult and not for the peons (compared to the "easy subjects" like the social sciences and humanities), that it takes a brilliant and educated mind to understand "science". This obviously plays into how this "pandemic" plays. Why else would people like Dr. Fauci be still respected despite being wrong so many times.
I get along with anyone who uses that many "quotes". Wish we had more "hicks" like you in Chicago area. If you tell someone here to "trust your gut", they might just run away, or they would sit there and nod but deep down they would know that you are lying. But if you say something like "trust the *system" or "trust the *process*" it will put them at ease. Let's all keep wearing our masks to hide how uncourageous we are, shall we?
I think you will appreciate this saying, "The louder he spoke of his virtues, the faster we counted our spoons." I too go with my gut instinct more often than not.
Really well-thought out, and helpful. Thank you. I've never been a conspiracy person for the simple reason that humans generally aren't that smart or clever, and someone will always snitch. That's not to say they don't ever happen - they absolutely do. But they almost inevitably come apart or fail. And this also matches much of my experience working in and outside of governments.
It still leaves me with the question = so what do we do? How do we bring this to an end? I think that wokeness and phenomena like that eventually destroy themselves from the inside out. And Corona containment may as well. But I've got little kids and I'm out of patience with how it's ruining their lives. How do we accelerate the demise of this phenomenon?
99% of my rage is directed towards the BS my 9 and 7 year old are having to do. I have lived my life and in my 40s I can tolerate the world being a mess for a few years. I cant handle them losing theirs though and I am besides myself with helplessness about it
This is where we are as well. I can personally tolerate a lot of BS. But it angers me to no end how the world is screwing with our kids.
A conspiracy doesn't have to be successful or clever to exist. There is no doubt that major business and political players worldwide are conferring and cooperating in their COVID efforts. That they're idiots doesn't mean they're not doing so.
Colluding, yes, and working toward similar ends with incentives (show me the incentives, I'll show you the outcome). But that's different than a dark conspiracy to control mankind. I also don't doubt some humans exist that want to control mankind - that's existed in every era. But I find it to be an unsatisfying and unrealistic explanation of what has been happening.
Perhaps even the DAVOS crowd is simply imagining they're steering the chaos. The train raced by, they jumped on and now imagine they're the engineer. Even if so, lunatics with a lot of power can do a lot of damage. There may be a thousand plans, but its the ones with the biggest backing that have the most influence, including influencing the other, lesser plans.
I think there's a lot of merit to that train of thought.
Same boat--"fighting" it is great, but hard to do with kids involved (i.e. I have to keep my mouth shut at their school and put up with the covid shenanigans)--and it's not like we have a lot of alternatives in L.A., except homeschool which is almost worse. I am navigating our course day by day, and making some interesting decisions around all of it---not ones I ever thought I would make.
The conversations my wife & I routinely have now, where we say, "we never ever would've considered this prior to March of 2020" are almost every day now. It really shocks us, but it's become necessary. I won't subject our kids to any more of this past May of next year, period.
Why do have to keep your mouth shut? Isn't that the actual problem?
Yes, it is and it is the opposite of how to win this war. However, what we are talking about here is the obstacle of having kids, whose lives are more important to me than batting back at a kindergarten teacher. I would be ripping them away from friends they've had for years, a school they love, their teams only to bring them home and do the dreaded Zoom again. You can wax philosophical about how fighting would teach my kids better things, that they might not have much of a life in the future if I don't fight, and that I am teaching them to "go along" which is horrible, but that's not quite right. I've explained it all to them. We talk a lot of They have been magnificent in their understanding, flexibility and ability to see that what I have chosen for them is not compliance, but a work-around until such time as we can do better than that. I do my fighting in other ways and I personally do not care who disowns me. But I do not want that for them.
All of us with small children that see through the current narratives struggle with how to respond. We constantly struggle w/ the best way. It's not easy to balance our needs with those of our kids, and I really want to keep them out of all this as much as possible. This isn't my 6 and 4-year old's fight, it's the adults. So I think we all have to figure out what makes sense in our own worlds. Ours may eventually involving moving somewhere else, to escape all the mandates.
I think losing the war, as you stated in the first line, over-rules everything else you said. But easy for me to say, with no kids at stake. Cheers.
It is likely there will come a point when you will snap. Better make ready for it.
This is irrelevant but I like your username :)
Why is homeschool worse? Homeschool has great outcomes for kids. You don't necessarily have to do it alone - there are usually homeschool coops in your area, often with credentialed teachers involved.
I say that only because to me it implies isolation and screens. I agree that it has good academic outcomes, but all my boys really want is to be around other kids and play sports. Believe me, I have considered it, but am probably also in the wrong place for good homeschools. If I have no other choice, I will make it work, but for now, I am taking it day by day (no mandates in their school yet) and not arguing with anyone. When I heard the Kindergarten teacher say to me, "the only way out of this is to get everyone vaccinated, I said, "Absolutely!" and kept walking. I realized I don't have to fight everyone and I have a higher purpose (kids). What are the odds I will change anyone's mind at this point anyway?
It definitely doesn't have to involve isolation and screens. In many school districts homeschool students can play on school or other organized sports teams, or sometimes they organize their own. You might be surprised if you investigate what's available. The good thing about homeschooling is you can make it look like you want it to.
That's great to know--thank you.
I think it's important to challenge statements like those made by the kindergarten teacher. "I respectfully disagree" would be a good response, if for no other reason than to show him/her that not everyone agrees with his/her belief. Isn't that what this entire blog was about? If we don't speak up, we're part of the problem.
Of course it's important. It's everything, and it's the only thing that will save us, if that's possible. It pains me not to. But you aren't taking into account the consequences of that as it pertains to children. As I have already said in this thread, it's one thing for me to take the brunt of the response--insults, gossip, defriending, termination, etc. but it is another to subject a 9-year old to that. If there were a school around the corner that had a different stance, we'd go there. But there's not. Not anywhere in this state, and we cannot up and move to Texas. I will still fight in every way I can, but I will not put my children through a different kind of hell in the meantime. With all due respect, if you are not in the same situation, it's probably best not to give advice.
Re: About your kids wanting to play sports. I can't tell you what is true in other states but in Florida it has been decided that homeschooled students have a right to participate in extracurricular activities. They also have a right to take advantage of special services offered to classroom students such as testing for learning disabilities, meeting with a speech pathologist and such. Most state constitutions are clear that free and equal education is a right of the children in that state. That is not limited to classroom learning time.
This is a great question and one I'm struggling with as well.
In fairness, by definition you wouldn't actually know if they almost inevitably come apart because the ones that don't would evade detection.
I've commented on this typically great plague chronicle post earlier but just have to add something. I'm reading Robert Kennedy's new book, "The Real Anthony Fauci", and though I'm only in the first chapter, my blood is boiling. The high level worldwide collusion to actively suppress alternatives to the mRNA shots, which began in the spring of 2020, is real, is continuing, and is truly frightening. While perhaps just one of many plans, it is one backed by enormous power and has had correspondingly enormous consequences, the biggest being the loss of millions of lives. This ongoing plan is not one of incompetence. It is intentional evil by real people in real positions of power. I cannot recommend Kennedy's book enough. Read it and pass it on to others.
I will be posting a review of this book soon.
I will disappoint you, but bear with me.
We need to think every hypothesis. What you bring in the table is of great value in so many levels.
You should also be able to accept that not all of your articles will be on the right track. Shouldn't you ?
Here is my issue.
"These failures are too consistent to be accidental: The system is too large and unwieldy to act according to coherent strategies and basically lurches from one failure to the next. It is only good at sustaining itself and enforcing compliance."
This STILL looks wrong to me.
If 'it' (a system too big to be controlled but small enough to be defined in an article /s ) was lurching from one failure to the next at some point it would come to a pair of moves that would take it out of existence. Especially if the moves are so nasty to so many people.
You can't expect us to believe that the system is moving randomly by a decentralized group of bureaucrats and at the same time it keeps maintaining the zero-covid illusion goal target perfectly aligned in a mirror opposite of biologic reality do you ?. You can't make us believe that there are so many people that can't read or search information.
The element you are not covering is a VERY tightly controlled group of people: the mass media,, social media and at least one famous search engine.
He who controls them , controls the narrative, and this is not covered in your article.
Now if you want me to believe that all these not-real-journalists that work in these institutions are not controlled that will be a hard sell.
Again back and forth is necessary here but this is not a random walk.
the ‚system‘ is optimised for self-preservation above all, so it will be unlikely to accidentally unplug itself. though cf. places like the DDR, which did in the end self-immolate through the sheer force of bureaucratic perseverance.
media messaging, i agree, can be highly coordinated. this doesn’t mean it is controlled by any single person, or even a confined group of people.
we see before us the emergence of spontaneous order in a complex system. there is agency here, but it isn’t *human* agency, nobody is running this.
Nyet
friend you want us to believe that a random network of non-cooperating bureaucrats all around the world managed to randomly perfectly fall into a system that works with self preservation that makes no mistakes ... managed to undo all policies ... supress the entire wests 'human rights'... then you left out the highly controlled media operation which influenced citizens, bureaucrats and low-iq politicians alike ... and then you want to us ignore this coordinated propaganda engine in favor of random creation of order out of chaos ?
You may want us to believe that but you have not done the groundwork in the arguments above to prove so.
Calling perfect arising of order out of chaos is a nice story but that is SO RARE that we should not see that happen in million of lifetimes. This is the reason why the molecules in the air don't go in one corner of the room,
They could.
It is just not very probable.
Your previous theory with lines of conspiracy was great.
This one is statistically improbable and you will have to bent it to even more statistically improbable arguments to get it look correct.
Thanks again but we are both Truthists here.
1) The system makes mistakes all the time, even in self-limiting ways. What do you think my ongoing series of posts about the UKHSA efficacy statistics is about?
2) I have written thousands and thousands of words about the origins of containment policies and how they were implemented, by whom, and why, at which stages. This is the work you claim I haven’t done.
3) Spontaneous order in complex systems isn’t rare, it is observed all the time. It is in fact pervasive in human culture and markets. Human systems develop suprahuman agencies and strategies that nobody controls or even fully understands. In much the same way, relatively simple organisms like ants, guided entirely by chemical signals with no understanding of agriculture or mycology, build elaborate underground fungus farms.
3) Yes, ants do this but the part you are missing out is that they have evolved through millions of years of trial and error a set of biological setups that allow them to do ONLY that. They don't do 'other' elaborate organizations of chaos AND that, they ONLY do that. So it is determistic once the biological setup is there.
This was on their part advantageous for their evolution.
Coming up with ie Twitter is one thing, evolving the genetic predisposition to imitate each other is another and, building a meme that lasts 20 months suppressing all liberties in the west is completely another,
Then how much pervasive it is a system and for how long given that it supresses the will of so many people is another story alltogether.
2) Your work is fantastic, that is why I follow you, but that work is NOT connected with the above article. You just drop a phrase WITHOUT having connected the dots at every step on the way. Yes we know what wokeism is, but. there are plenty of countries in Europe that are not as much wokist as you think and they are still taken down by the new appartheid system through oppresion of controlled goverment and media blackout.
1) The mistakes alone should have broken the system on day 14. The reason it hasn't is because of the Media, search engines and these are controlled. These are the backbone that keeps the con going. It is not the self organizing bureaucrats. They just pop up and follow up a couple of days until a new media frenzy fear re-ignites them a new direction.
The Media are what keeps the con together going pushing fear in some and keeping information away. Its not self organization arising out of chaos in the face of suppressing all human rights.
Again we need to think this through.
Very simple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDCfIKWEFs Russell Brand explains it best
I think there is a major piece of the puzzle you need to consider and incorporate: "the elites". The people who tacitly (and not-so-tacitly) steer the media and the bureaucracy. Those are the ones who influence the spontaneous order.
Here is an post from the earlier days of the epidemic I mentally marked at the time and now found again. It's from Robin Hanson at "Overcoming Bias" (apropos, he is the co-author of The Elephant in the Brain):
https://www.overcomingbias.com/2020/05/why-openers-are-winning.html
What I see in that post is that "the elites" converged on zero covid approach. Which at the time meant lock-downs. But "elites and experts don’t speak with a unified voice" - they had different ideas on how to achieve zero covid.
Extrapolating to today - they do have a focal point to rally around, which is the "vaccine".
exactly, he brought no proof. it's his belief and he states it as a fact.
I wasn't aware there was so much arguing about the last post. I guess I didn't read the comments thoroughly enough.
Your point here is fine, but I think you're swinging to the other extreme; there are indisputably individual actors and discrete organizations that are opportunistically using the current macrosocial conditions to consolidate power and advance agendas. The WEF, Bill Gates, and Soros probably didn't release COVID on the world as part of an elaborate James Bond Villain scheme, but they are 100% seizing the reins of specific social forces acting within the crisis to advance globalist totalitarian goals.
it wasn’t in the comments, but in the email replies.
Well, damn it, you should have shared them with us. We pay for you to have less privacy.
The problem a lot of your readers apparently have, is they are incapable of placing probability weights on potential realities. I put 10% weight on what Alex Jones says, and maybe 70% weight on your story, and the remainder on some other stories. Problem solved, now I can go about my day thinking that both you, and Alex Jones may be right, but that it's much more likely that you are right. If I see smallpox or some horribly deadly variant released, or a massive die off in the vaccinated, I'll adjust my view and reweight toward Alex Jones.
Interestingly in favor of your view: the Russians are apparently building a Corona regime every bit as repressive as a US blue state. Certainly the Russians are not in on a globalist depopulation program, yet their bureaucracy goes in the same direction, under similar incentives.
I suggest reading, Dissolving Illusions by Suzanne Humpries, MD, for the last chapter on Forgotten Cures. We don't need to fear small pox. Just spend $50 bucks now, and you'll be prepared.
Thanks for that. We had ordered tincture of a different purpurea, sarracenia, after learning about it from the Kate Daley podcast. But it’s hard to find and when you do, expensive. Having a strong background in herbal medicine, I had wondered if echinacea purpurea would have a similar effect. It’s far easier to source, in fact it’s everywhere. And ACV… Who knew? A great source, thanks again.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-investigating-vials-labeled-smallpox-found-in-lab-near-philadelphia/ar-AAQMYrH?ocid=uxbndlbing