To your last point, I've viewed the government-driven corona craziness as an extension of our pervasive CYA culture. A school shooting happens, so now every superintendent at every school district in the country insists upon metal detectors and police presence and every security measure they can undertake just so no one can ever blame them for the tiniest safety infraction. I see it constantly, in almost all walks of life. It's a destructive cycle and COVID became its zenith.
This is completely true and to illustrate an anecdote. Circa 2013 I worked in Atlanta, Georgia. It rarely snows there but when it does it tends to shutdown traffic and cause problems on the roadways because there is no snow clearing equipment, cars are not equipped with snow tires or 4 wheel drive, and most drivers don't have a clue how to drive on snow packed or icy roads. In January of that year on a Friday a snow storm was forecast to hit the city in the evening and it was supposed to be mild. No one thought to take any precautions. As time went on the storm severity increased and the arrival time advanced to late after noon corresonding to the weekend rush hour. Belatedly city officials sent school kids home early and businesses closed early to let their workers get home before the storm hit. Unfortunately, this put everyone on the road at once creating a monster traffic jam, then the snow hit and it was a national news level disaster. The mayor was heavily criticized for not forseeing the disaster and averting it, even though in reality it was just bad luck. Ever since the faintest hint of bad weather shuts the city down, some times days in advance, almost alway unnecessarily. No public official with EVER make that mistake again.
this happened in Scotland after the Dunblane school massacre: every school in Scotland was wrapped in wire and security locks: every handgun confiscated.
Confiscating weapons is the main agenda. They don't want the plebeians armed in any way shape and form. Slavery awaits the unarmed masses. The US 2nd amendment will save those who will fight for their freedom.
Their response to the Rona, along with their overwhelming adoption of transgender nonsense are both evidence that the Scots, once stoic and sensible, have all gone nuts.
actually if the school systems and other gov agencies were serious about preventing gun violence at school , they would use the massive resources at their disposal to install metal detectors and guards in every school. every Police station, courthouse, and other gov office has MASSIVE security. Anytime any politician of any rank moves around they are mobbed by a cloud of armed security. Why cant the state afford and deploy the same level of protection for innocent school kids as they do for a US senator? Well because the leftist and progressive anti gun ideologues WANT school shootings to happen...they want innocent people killed by guns so they can grandstand and use these events to push their agenda which is to disarm law abiding private citizens .
Most mass shootings are in gun free zones and perpetrated by criminals, not law-abiding gun owners… we take away peoples’ ability to protect themselves and the innocent children around them…
An armed nut will think twice about robbing a store if the patrons/owner are armed as well. Liberals are clueless dangerous utopians that should be ignored.
If everyone was serious about preventing gun violence they'd do a damn better job of providing ubiquitous, affordable, continuing-with-regular-follow-up mental health care so fewer people are born into and grow up in abusive or at the least un-nurturing homes. None of these horrors were perpetuated by someone who "just snapped."
Gun violence in the US is almost entirely the domain of poor urban blacks, and so too are school shootings. The mental health component is a genuine problem, but it is dwarfed by the crime that is perpetuated by gangs, drug addicts, and the systemically poor. It's a problem no one has the stamina, focus, or ingenuity to solve. While the left lectures us on racism, they turn a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis that's been unfolding in the black neighborhoods of Chicago.
People are chilled by what the media chooses to highlight. A half million people are dead in the last year because of war in Ethiopia and all we hear about are the (truly sad) fatalities in Ukraine. Over a thousand children die every day from diarrhea alone, but the media never talks about it so it's the furthest thing from our minds.
No. Gun violence is not a white men issue. There are thirty guns within a five minute walk from my desk, and I live in one of the safest, whitest places in the country. And I say that as someone with deep empathy for the profound suffering of urban blacks who are the overwhelming victims of gun crimes in the US.
I'll grant you the "men" part but do you think being white has some correlation with mass shootings? Your statement has qualifiers which render it vague, with "many" and "most." First, I disagree with your premise but, if it were true, it would be what one were to expect in a country with a majority of men being white, as in many and most men are white in the USA. What is wrong with you? And why you would racialize your statement? BTW, define "chilling." Is it what the TV tells you is chilling?
I was merely pointing out that gun violence is not just a problem with black people. When I used the word “ chilling” I was particularly thinking about the man who amassed suitcases full of guns and ammunition in Las Vegas and massacred a huge group of people, and also the young man who was welcomed into a black church in South Carolina and murdered some of the congregants. Every act of violence/gun violence is chilling.
See also my comment in this regard. It is simply not true that most men engaging in these vicious crimes in America are white. They are black. Black crime, and especially violent crime, is wildly out of proportion with their numbers in American society. Stating this undeniable fact doesn't make me, or anyone else who says it, a racist.
Living in Chicago area, yes everyday we hear on the morning news about who was killed the night before, often included are innocent children, bullets penetrate the walls of their homes. But Never a school shooting perpetrated inside the schools by black children, never.
The Chicago media has some unique history in covering the subject. There was a year where every day the Tribune would cover urban gun deaths, front page, above the fold. They know what a tragedy it is.
Something that comes as a surprise, has a major effect but is often inappropriately rationalised after the event even with the benefit of hindsight. As explained by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book of that name.
I am familiar with the concept of a black swan event thank you. But I was wondering specifically why you thought that the Chinese locking down cities qualified as a black swan event. Certainly it reflects hysteria and ignorance. But it also could be some thing the Chinese government on some level is engaging in to reduce production and further hurt supply chains to the west particular the United States
Sorry but I'd only heard of the term a couple of years ago. What surprised me about the latest Chinese reaction was that they seemed to be surprised at the apparent (but inevitable) re-emergence of covid but still imposed strict quarantine measures. On reflection their behaviour more properly fits Einstein's definition of stupidity. That said, they may well just be having another go at panicking particularly the West into further decline - after all it worked last time...
Substack has changed things. You need to specifically click the box to send the email now, it is not clicked by default. The only people arriving here are arriving through the app or the reader, most likely. If you check your post stats you will see.
Not boring. Interesting. Not what I expected. To me Shanghai looks like an experiment in mass population control, and breaking family ties (kids quarantined away from their parents) I'm relieved to see your take on it.
This post just showed up in my inbox minutes ago. A discussion about delayed Substack posts elsewhere someone said they changed the "Publish" function. According to another author you now have to click a box to send an email to everyone. It used to be a default. to just click send.
yes, i just worked this out, thanks to dr hughes. substack are trying to promote their app, which i increasingly think is A Bad Thing, by sidelining email.
That is the joy of socialist ideology. When they say everyone is equal, they mean it literally... people are reduced to a commodity, with each one fully interchangeable with every other, each one exactly like the prior and the next, and having no special value as individuals. Collectivism in its truest form.
Think of the cells in a person's body. It's made up of millions of them, and collectively, they form the person's body. Each of those cells matters only in how it can serve the whole; by itself, it is without purpose. We're glad we have, for example, blood cells.... we can't live without them. But if the doctor wants to take a blood sample to benefit the patient, we allow it, because we know our bodies (the collective) won't be harmed by losing a small percentage of blood cells. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.
The Chinese have been under strict, very strict social ruling for centuries. This has become their second, or in some cases first, nature. This makes for a grand lab for the introduction of the robotic human. The Chinese as a people are no more soulless than you nor me, their social straight jacket system is. A system, as you mention, that feels no respect or appreciation for life.
It´s the robotic nature within the system that is scary.
It is merciless control and victimization.
Some victims become so entangled in the mental game involved they start to sympathize with their oppressors. It´s known as The Stockholm Syndrome.
I only follow emails: I cannot be bothered with RSS or mobile apps and phones, because there is no pleasure in reading such tiny print. I swear by my desktop screen , whish is 21 inches wide
I agree but I'm not talking about an app. RSS is pretty liberating and it's a shame the internet largely dropped the protocol. Now everyone funnels their news through controlled mediums like Twitter or Facebook. RSS lets you pull the news directly to you without interference from censorious mediums.
If I acquiesced every time some provider said "download our app!", I'd have a bajillion icons on my phone screen, and I'd have to remember to open each one. So much easier when everything is together in my inbox.
Sometimes it's relaxing to be an admitted old fart.
Well that's fine but my RSS reader is desktop based and I can configure the fonts, or just follow the link straight to reading it into the browser.
Use whatever system works best for you. The email notifications are nice, but if you aggregate all your news sources into an RSS client, it can become incredibly convenient. But if your system ain't broke don't fix it!
The Substack Reader (reader.substack.com) is actually a very effective tool especially if monitoring dozens of Substacks. Worth a try unless you are a really sophisticated RSS user sucking everything into a single stream. I'm not that smart so love the reader.
I have not received a Substack email since March 20. I pay for your Substack and Berenson's, and I subscribe to others via the free option, and I have not received emails from any of them in three weeks. It took me longer than it should have taken me to realize that it was unlikely that none of you had written anything new.
I have Hotmail, so maybe MSFT is blocking you at the source. I check my junk/spam folder at least once every day, and no Substack emails are there.
Oh no, how distressing, TOB! I have published numerous pieces since then, including three articles for paid subscribers and a brand-new essay that just landed:
I have been worried about this happening, so it’s very helpful to hear from you. In the Housekeeping section toward the end of the Updates in my latest article, I talk about potential email issues and link to a Substack article with troubleshooting tips.
Are you still showing as subscribed to my Stack? This may necessitate contacting your provider and making sure the Substack domain is whitelisted if you are indeed subscribed and nothing’s showing up in spam. Keep me posted and please continue to check back manually in the meantime!
“Their” minds are those of totalitarian brutes who use Covid as a tool to further suppress freedom. So I didn’t reply bc, since they are also the country to release the virus that’s destroyed many lives… my vehemence & desire for the leadership & anyone who supports them to be demolished is so strong that it’s not healthy. They’re dead to me, to coin the mafia phrase. That’s why I didn’t respond, where normally pounce on your articles.
Sorry but I am sick and tired of another one analysis about this "pandemic".After two years of insane measures and aggresive coersive exprimental mRNA injections all over the world, with exactly the same structure of propaganda, I find at least naive to try analyse if all these was made on purpuse or not.
I personally tend to prefer more direct articles that ask for peoples´ immediate participation, straightforward, up front. I have no clue what omi is? Could you tell me about omi? Please? Because we need to know exactly what omi is if omi is the subject of the discusion.
China locks down its citizens because it can. This is communism at work. Communism is not logical, rational, or scientific. It is all about power. Will the Chinese keep doing this over and over in regards to this virus even if the west finally decides not to play the same stupid communist games - yes.
well, everyone is subject to external constraints, and dictatorial regimes still have to pay a price for unpopular policies. in general it's preferable for every regime not to waste resources locking down their populations and not to be obsessed with minor viruses that don't matter
I found the post interesting because I’ve been wondering the same. Yes they can get away with it but for a virus that doesn’t kill you? It’s hard to wrap my head around, and I confess I still can’t fully get why the world went crazy over this. Even the original Coronavirus does what viruses do: kill the old and sick. I get that people were afraid, but why did the powers that be encourage fear at every turn? Why the rampant dishonesty and the attempt to discredit even medical professionals with a different take? I’m left with the notion that at least in part some saw this as an opportunity for population control. That there is a deep feeling among these types that ordinary people cannot be trusted with information and decision making. Ironically it’s because we are so safe that fear over such a minor disease took hold. I’m still flabbergasted that you can’t easily find information about the true risks: the CFR or IFR and deaths sorted by age and comorbidities. Those two things tell you just how scared you should be. For most of us, it’s a nothing burger.
Well the information dichotomy depends on what jurisdiction provides data. In the US measures became quite politically oriented and the "wasted crisis" created an ability to alter an election. Data contrary to crisis was then limited. Other places did collect data that showed the tendencies toward IFR/CFR rates. Group think and politician fear of error prevented nearly all from being bold about those data. We obviously are now quite aware of the differential risks and aside from ongoing social pressures, people are moving away from fear.
I totally agree that the great corona fear of 2020 “created an ability to alter an election.” Worldwide, the opportunity was to create a digital pass system. It looks to me as if a certain ideology gets enough high level operators to go along, then there is a cascade effect. Most people below them go along to get along. I do think even these people wonder, late at night, whether the danger of the virus was indeed exaggerated. Even the go along types eventually get tired of living in fear, or pretending to.
Hopefully except in some places the digital ID and corresponding social score, ala China, get killed. In the US, a national driver's license has been impossible, although the real-ID effort laid the groundwork. But the States benefit from the corruption possible in all those various contracts as do the various companies printing the cards.
Do you remember how a discrete stereo system is organised? I will use this as an analogy to your previous thoughts of a systemic bureaucracy protecting and promoting "The Narrative."
There are "sources"- I use a record player, FM tuner, cd player, Blu-Ray player, and a computer digital source. These are connected to a "preamplifier"
(in Britain a "Control Amplifier" ) which then is connected to a "power amplifier." The "power amp" drives the loudspeakers.
I compare your bureaucracy to the power amplifier- it doesn't actually need to know or decide anything, it just must be powerful enough to drive the speakers (the peasantry.) The preamp is the heart of the system and selects what will be emphasised, while rejecting the unwanted contributions from us, our truckers, or honest scientists.
So if you look at the WEF/WHO (which are tightly connected) and the CCP which is associated with the WEF (see Mr. Xi's presentations), the UN Climate Change organisation, and the central banks as the preamplifier you can see that you are correct but are neglecting the input into the bureaucracy.
But that is rational thinking. Communism and central planning has never worked but yet once communist regimes are solidly in place they think nothing will destroy them no matter how irrational and evil their actions are to their 'citizens.'
Focus is moved away from the main thing - which is covert political maneuvers that slowly impose laws and insane restrictions behind the backs of their people and start war after war - with all this damned focus on omi and kromomi and what not.
It´s sheer bs.
Like the official explanation of the violence taking place in the Ukraine currently.
Let´s be happy at least between 30 - 40 of these bio-labs were taken down.
But let´s NOT drown in the details surrounding the globalist excuses for manifesting their insane megalomania. Fuck their pseudo "explanations" and their violation of sacred scientific principles of honor, such as speaking the truth and not inventing reality and then call the invention a scientific fact.
We need to divert them back.
It´s done by saying no to any bodily intervention of theirs.
And by being the living alternative in speech and action.
I think here in the West, we have multiple factors working against us. Just like the War Machine, special interest groups see profits in their headlights whenever we have a crisis, imagined or not. With help from an over reaching government obsessed with power and and a compliant media, we have the makings of a perfect storm. Just like Green Energy, the narrative is always driven by those that have the most money to make whether the crisis is true, or not.
With respect, you need to broaden your frame of reference. See this in the wider context of helping to accelerate the economic collapse underway. The objective is not preventing 'cases' whatever such a metric represents, but strangling world trade to drive further momentum for economic collapse.
Oligarch following Oligarch wasting resources and dumbing down it's just different today thanks to science. We can argue for foundation money to re-engineer man and everyone cheers since Technocracy is baked in the cake for at least a century.
The most likely explanation is ongoing spike injury from both covid and vaccines. If this is it, then repeated covid infections and more boosters will continue to increase death rates -- the only way out is early treatment, no more vaccines, and ideally finding a way to alleviate latent spike injury.
"I think institutions in mass society develop behaviours and even ideologies that are beyond the understanding of the individuals who participate in them."
Mainly because the individuals who most gravitate to administration of the many institutions turn out to be among the dimmest of minds while masquerading as geniuses.
As a former NHS administrator in the UK, I am afraid that I totally agree with you. The sheer stupidity and mendacity of many of my colleagues in public health management is what made me a skeptic!
Good interviewing a friend who is skeptical of your opinions! Always good to keep some perspective. I, too, have these sorts of conversation with others (my wife, for one) whose objective is to 'talk me down off the roof' when I get into runaway speculation. Your friend is more rational and much more knowledgeable than my wife or my friends and colleagues.
Yeah, maybe the motivation behind the official response to Corona in the West was merely gross incompetence - it wouldn't be the first time governments and institutions are guilty of that. But, like you, I see certain anomalies which stick out and continue to bother me. The sudden belief by officials in made-up science, for one, along with the harsh censorship of reasonable scientific debate. Another thing which caught my attention was the assassination or mysterious deaths of 4 African leaders and the President of Haiti in 2021, all of whom were outspoken opponents of the mass-vaccination effort. There are too many other similar coincidences to mention here, but for each and every one you can be assured that there are multiple 'fact-checking' sites energetically 'de-bunking' each of them. Which, to me, of course, is only more evidence that they may not be coincidences at all.
I've been asking that question as well: Does the CCP know something about this virus that we don't because omicron is the sniffles and this is way overdone unless the threat is real or they just love dominating their people.
The lockdowns actually go to western planners as far back as 2005 according to the author of Liberty or Lockdown, Jeffrey Tucker: "The problem runs deeper than mere silence. Everything about lockdowns and mandates were constructions by intellectuals themselves. Thus do they bear responsibility, to deploy Chomsky’s term. The modelers and coercive controllers concocted their scenarios as early as 2005 and their ranks grew year by year: in research labs, government offices, universities, and think tanks. They became so engrossed in the world they created on their laptop screens that their imaginations came to outpace any understanding of history, cell biology, public health, much less human rights and law."
Which makes sense when you think about the west's first reaction to the virus as lax. Even Fauci who would know since he was funding the damn virus wasn't panicked about it, until it became politically useful to panic. Then in lock step all nations ran toward lock downs.
If there is something especially bad about covid - I'll hear it from the doctors that have earned my trust over the past two years. McCullough, Kory, Marik, Malone, etc.
Worrying the Chinese know something about covid nobody else knows is a psyop I will not fall for again.
Agreed. I just read that there is a new variant from the UK called XE; it's supposed to be more contagious than omi and for now I'm assuming that means less lethal still.
It used to be easier hiding their atrocities and failures, especially with a complicit media. Back in the times you reference, collaborators like Walter Duranty. These days, the internet changes things.
Why do you think they took people off their farmlands and forced them into apartment dwellings where they were less self-sufficient? Just to force them to pay taxes and stimulate their economy?
China couldn't control people who were independent and self-sufficient as easily. Now they can easily starve and control massive numbers of people so very easily.
Other Substack authors have been addressing this for a while. It's not just deprivation of luxury Chinese made products as a consequence. Containers are stacked up in ports around the world, whether your goods are in them or not. Do you need batteries, or tires? Good luck finding what suits your needs best, as I am finding out this week.
I think you're over-analyzing. China's way is the way of brute force and oppression, period. This is what they know and believe despite the damage lockdowns do. Somewhere Xi is saying, "we'll get it right this time, no matter how many people we kill".
No, it isn't. Communism no longer exists. Actually neither does Capitalism: in the purist sense.
What all these countries are moving towards is State Corporatism: essentially this is the same in China, Germany, Russia, or the UK: a quite authoritarian system that rewards compliance more than initiative, that controls free enterprise to the point of deballing it , and that seeks control of the media above all else.
Yes, pretty much. I don't think there are many truly 'democratic' countries left: the elected ruling elites tend to be much like the de-balled monarchs: presenting a PR face for the careerist corporate regime of civil servants and their entourager of cronies in semi-nationalised big businesses.
The British sit-com, 'Yes Minister' expressed this perfectly.
Thats partly why it is so delightful when rogue populists like Nigel Farage come along and upset the apple cart.
The lockdowns in China could be to break supply lines to the West...all part of the economic war being waged by the CCP and Russia against the West. China is in a better place to pay the price of this than we in the West are.
Have we not seen collectivism for the sake of collectivism? Individualists fail to comprehend the inner drive towards collectivism, thus we repeatedly fail to diagnose the psychological dynamics on display. Instead we ascribe universal vices - virtue signaling, greed, fear, need to control, stupidity. I suspect the explanation is an aspect of ideology we simply cannot relate to.
Until covid madness, I never really understood Fascism. As an individualist, this is like trying to understand a societal order in which citizens beats themselves over the head with a hammer.
Any regime is just a bunch of individuals. Some (depending on the regime maybe many or even all) don't care all that much about collective expenses of the regime, but simply act according to their individual interests.
Once there is general mood in favor for lockdowns and other coercive policies, arguing for more sever policies is a way to appear better than any other members of the bureaucracy.
It's insane how the CCP is trying to control this virus! I have wondered about everything you discussed here and was hoping someone would dig into it. Thank you.
As ever, I agree with much of your analysis. I think it's also worth noting that the Chinese have a pretty strange attitude to colds, for which they go to hospital for repeated intravenous drips. No soldiering on. No 'take a couple of asprin and drink plenty of water'. Just go to hospital.
The other element worth considering is the response to SARS version one. This involved some local lockdowns - quite how local, I'm not sure (I arrived in the aftermath). I understand much of the response was guided by international experts (WHO?). Much of their response planning is rooted in that epidemic. The story of SARS-1 and the role of international experts in it is one I'd like to see someday.
Chinese domestic fear-mongering back in early 2020 was based around the experience of SARS as a national trauma. I was warned by friends there about the long-term effects of infection - stories of people who nearly 17-18 years later were still suffering. I quickly dug for anything to back up these claims and found some suggestions of bone weakness in survivors, presumably caused by treatments. Still, what odds there lies the origin of long covid?
entirely agree, also it's significant that lockdowns in Europe took off with the Italians, who are also (stereotypically) those most likely to head the doctor every time there is sniffle.
Plus, in northern Italy where the lockdowns started, there is a large immigrant Chinese population. So Italy saw what the Chinese were doing and voila! Me-too freakout. Five billion dominoes later and here we are.
My stepdaughter lives in China. Based on what she has described over the last few years, there is definitely a culture predisposition toward hypochondria. She just told us the other day about their 7 step hand washing ritual.
When going to hospital for this kind of treatment, it's pretty normal to register as an in-patient so as to be able to claim back on insurance. (This doesn't mean you actually stay there overnight.) This would, I think, be enough for state employers. In the private sector, mileage may vary, though I would think it's much better (more forgiving) than it used to be.
Have you explored the possibility of genetic targeting (or exclusion, in the case of the Chinese)? If SARS-CoV2 is indeed an engineered bioweapon, that could be one reason the Chinese didn’t suffer as much from the original strain.
Nice idea, but given the ultra-high probability of mutation, very unlikely.
....
But anyway, I owe a lot to detective novels, and for a Crime to be committed, there need to be a Motive, a Means, and an Opportunity.
OK: we have the possible means: An engineered virus:
We have an Opportunity: mass transmission via mass global travel
But what we most lack is a Motive: apart from some drug and pizza-delivery companies, this whole episode has been disastrous for almost anyone., and the risks of a serious mutation into a real killer virus were always present.
“But what we most lack is a Motive: apart from some drug and pizza-delivery companies, this whole episode has been disastrous for almost anyone., and the risks of a serious mutation into a real killer virus were always present.”
Surely, you jest, Rob. Didn’t you hear Klaus Schwab?
They needed COVID to detonate the world financial system; terrorize the populace into relinquishing their rights and freedoms; and inflict one-world tyranny so you will own nothing and “be happy” by 2030. COVID was the best thing that ever happened for totalitarianism and was pivotal for achieving their nefarious aims, including coercing the populace into volunteering for their own depopulation while paying trillions to BigPharma in the process. COVID is a win-win-win for BigPharma, Big Brother, Big Media, Big Tech, and tyrants the world over.
Yes, I saw the deluded old fool: and I can suss where he is coming from: he recognises the grotesque failures of nation states (and he isn't wrong there) and comes up with a classic yet delusional solution, which is global government.
Yet he holds no formal power and as Stalin said of the Pope: "How many Divisions does he command"?
The answer is of course none: he's just another dreamer, rather uglier than John Lennon, but equally fantastical and soon forgotten.
Stalin’s bon mot about the Pope is often cited ironically, in view of the fact that Stalin is in his grave but the Papacy perdures. “How many divisions has he got?” was never the point. It may not be the point about Comrade Schwab, either. The Pope’s power is spiritual. So is Schwab’s—but of a different sort, putting it mildly.
Soon forgotten? I will not soon forget how Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern, Gavin Newsom and several others have committed atrocities based on the absurdities Schwab has gotten them to believe.
I wish you were right, Rob, but the WEF has orchestrated a global takeover of governments around the world and is already well on the way to achieving its goals.
Here Klaus is bragging about having “penetrated” most of the major world governments:
The WHO is now moving for an international pandemic treaty that will override sovereign nations. They are moving rapidly and are on pace to complete their mission by 2030 if we don’t stop them:
Have you read “The Real Anthony Fauci” yet? If not, you must. They used the same template for AIDS/AZT.
Klaus, Fauci, Gates, Soros, and plenty of others we don’t know have joined forces to perpetrate this manufactured crisis, using psychological terror techniques (see Laura Dodsworth’s “A State of Fear“) and coercion/torture tactics like Biderman’s Chart of Coercion (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-tyrant) to bring the world to heel. COVID and now the Ukrainian crisis are providing cover while they engineer the destruction necessary to cover up the collapse of the financial system that has been underway for decades and is now impending.
“This is about crushing the middle class—the backbone of a democratic republic—and transferring trillions from the middle and lower classes to the ruling plutocracy. This is about demolishing the foundations of a free society and building it back—not better, but better-controlled.”
"Mass containment is a worldwide delusional rain dance: Everyone hops about trying to coax water out of the heavens, copying whatever dance was current in the first place it started to rain."
Gonna steal this to use w new favorite: PCR tests have diagnostic accuracy of Ouija boards. :~)
I have really come to believe that people who have no discernible talent and a fairly mediocre intellect are the ones who gravitate like lemmings into the bureaucracy....a place where there is no accountability or reckoning for serial ineptness and stupidity.
It's like the human brain, but in reverse: trillions of dumb neurons, wired up correctly, create great intelligence. Hundreds of thousands or millions of intelligent people, wired up incorrectly, create great stupidity.
To your last point, I've viewed the government-driven corona craziness as an extension of our pervasive CYA culture. A school shooting happens, so now every superintendent at every school district in the country insists upon metal detectors and police presence and every security measure they can undertake just so no one can ever blame them for the tiniest safety infraction. I see it constantly, in almost all walks of life. It's a destructive cycle and COVID became its zenith.
This is completely true and to illustrate an anecdote. Circa 2013 I worked in Atlanta, Georgia. It rarely snows there but when it does it tends to shutdown traffic and cause problems on the roadways because there is no snow clearing equipment, cars are not equipped with snow tires or 4 wheel drive, and most drivers don't have a clue how to drive on snow packed or icy roads. In January of that year on a Friday a snow storm was forecast to hit the city in the evening and it was supposed to be mild. No one thought to take any precautions. As time went on the storm severity increased and the arrival time advanced to late after noon corresonding to the weekend rush hour. Belatedly city officials sent school kids home early and businesses closed early to let their workers get home before the storm hit. Unfortunately, this put everyone on the road at once creating a monster traffic jam, then the snow hit and it was a national news level disaster. The mayor was heavily criticized for not forseeing the disaster and averting it, even though in reality it was just bad luck. Ever since the faintest hint of bad weather shuts the city down, some times days in advance, almost alway unnecessarily. No public official with EVER make that mistake again.
As if living in Atlanta isn't punishment enough!
Years ago it was nice, actually. Different culture.
this happened in Scotland after the Dunblane school massacre: every school in Scotland was wrapped in wire and security locks: every handgun confiscated.
Confiscating weapons is the main agenda. They don't want the plebeians armed in any way shape and form. Slavery awaits the unarmed masses. The US 2nd amendment will save those who will fight for their freedom.
I was living in Stirling at the time and never thought up to then that the Scots could be that hysterical.
Their response to the Rona, along with their overwhelming adoption of transgender nonsense are both evidence that the Scots, once stoic and sensible, have all gone nuts.
Truly.
actually if the school systems and other gov agencies were serious about preventing gun violence at school , they would use the massive resources at their disposal to install metal detectors and guards in every school. every Police station, courthouse, and other gov office has MASSIVE security. Anytime any politician of any rank moves around they are mobbed by a cloud of armed security. Why cant the state afford and deploy the same level of protection for innocent school kids as they do for a US senator? Well because the leftist and progressive anti gun ideologues WANT school shootings to happen...they want innocent people killed by guns so they can grandstand and use these events to push their agenda which is to disarm law abiding private citizens .
Most mass shootings are in gun free zones and perpetrated by criminals, not law-abiding gun owners… we take away peoples’ ability to protect themselves and the innocent children around them…
An armed nut will think twice about robbing a store if the patrons/owner are armed as well. Liberals are clueless dangerous utopians that should be ignored.
An armed society is a polite society!
Everyone is armed in Afghanistan, they all hate each other and are constantly murdering each other.
Almost everyone is armed in Wyoming also and it has one of the lowest crime rates in our country…
If everyone was serious about preventing gun violence they'd do a damn better job of providing ubiquitous, affordable, continuing-with-regular-follow-up mental health care so fewer people are born into and grow up in abusive or at the least un-nurturing homes. None of these horrors were perpetuated by someone who "just snapped."
Gun violence in the US is almost entirely the domain of poor urban blacks, and so too are school shootings. The mental health component is a genuine problem, but it is dwarfed by the crime that is perpetuated by gangs, drug addicts, and the systemically poor. It's a problem no one has the stamina, focus, or ingenuity to solve. While the left lectures us on racism, they turn a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis that's been unfolding in the black neighborhoods of Chicago.
Yes but many of the most chilling mass shootings have been by white men
People are chilled by what the media chooses to highlight. A half million people are dead in the last year because of war in Ethiopia and all we hear about are the (truly sad) fatalities in Ukraine. Over a thousand children die every day from diarrhea alone, but the media never talks about it so it's the furthest thing from our minds.
No. Gun violence is not a white men issue. There are thirty guns within a five minute walk from my desk, and I live in one of the safest, whitest places in the country. And I say that as someone with deep empathy for the profound suffering of urban blacks who are the overwhelming victims of gun crimes in the US.
Exactly. I too am amazed that the horrors in Ethiopia and Nigeria (schoolgirl abductions, etc.) are non-news here in the US. Russia Russia Russia!
The overwhelming majority of mass shooters are black. Again, the media doesn't mention this. https://christiansfortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/mass-shooters-2019.jpg
I'll grant you the "men" part but do you think being white has some correlation with mass shootings? Your statement has qualifiers which render it vague, with "many" and "most." First, I disagree with your premise but, if it were true, it would be what one were to expect in a country with a majority of men being white, as in many and most men are white in the USA. What is wrong with you? And why you would racialize your statement? BTW, define "chilling." Is it what the TV tells you is chilling?
I was merely pointing out that gun violence is not just a problem with black people. When I used the word “ chilling” I was particularly thinking about the man who amassed suitcases full of guns and ammunition in Las Vegas and massacred a huge group of people, and also the young man who was welcomed into a black church in South Carolina and murdered some of the congregants. Every act of violence/gun violence is chilling.
See also my comment in this regard. It is simply not true that most men engaging in these vicious crimes in America are white. They are black. Black crime, and especially violent crime, is wildly out of proportion with their numbers in American society. Stating this undeniable fact doesn't make me, or anyone else who says it, a racist.
Living in Chicago area, yes everyday we hear on the morning news about who was killed the night before, often included are innocent children, bullets penetrate the walls of their homes. But Never a school shooting perpetrated inside the schools by black children, never.
The Chicago media has some unique history in covering the subject. There was a year where every day the Tribune would cover urban gun deaths, front page, above the fold. They know what a tragedy it is.
How does this refute what I said?
The state of our mental healthcare is tragic but it really doesn't make a dent in gun violence.
How so?
Only armed good people will be able to stop armed bad people. Hoping to change damage humans with mental health scenarios is infantile and dangerous.
The point is to reduce the number of damaged humans.
Black Swan event.
How? What do you mean
Something that comes as a surprise, has a major effect but is often inappropriately rationalised after the event even with the benefit of hindsight. As explained by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book of that name.
I am familiar with the concept of a black swan event thank you. But I was wondering specifically why you thought that the Chinese locking down cities qualified as a black swan event. Certainly it reflects hysteria and ignorance. But it also could be some thing the Chinese government on some level is engaging in to reduce production and further hurt supply chains to the west particular the United States
Sorry but I'd only heard of the term a couple of years ago. What surprised me about the latest Chinese reaction was that they seemed to be surprised at the apparent (but inevitable) re-emergence of covid but still imposed strict quarantine measures. On reflection their behaviour more properly fits Einstein's definition of stupidity. That said, they may well just be having another go at panicking particularly the West into further decline - after all it worked last time...
The Precautionary Principle is endemic in risk-averse Western society. Everything is dangerous until proven otherwise.
strange, post has been up for an hour, 7 likes, 3 comments, 240 views. maybe some kind of email glitch, or i have just been unusually boring.
Substack has changed things. You need to specifically click the box to send the email now, it is not clicked by default. The only people arriving here are arriving through the app or the reader, most likely. If you check your post stats you will see.
Same deal for me yesterday. I had a post up for 12 hours only 54 views. I re-published and sent the email to everyone, thousands of views now.
ahhh. thank you dr hughes.
I received the email and commented via same several hours ago.
Not boring. Interesting. Not what I expected. To me Shanghai looks like an experiment in mass population control, and breaking family ties (kids quarantined away from their parents) I'm relieved to see your take on it.
It must be an email glitch. Not boring at all !!
I only got the email 24 minutes ago.
Everyone is seeing the same thing. I noticed this with the bad cat as well. Many people are getting burned out right now and I dont know why.
This post just showed up in my inbox minutes ago. A discussion about delayed Substack posts elsewhere someone said they changed the "Publish" function. According to another author you now have to click a box to send an email to everyone. It used to be a default. to just click send.
yes, i just worked this out, thanks to dr hughes. substack are trying to promote their app, which i increasingly think is A Bad Thing, by sidelining email.
Not boring, no. It's only that Chinese really scare me. Feels like no respect or appreciation for life. Like each is replicable and replaceable?
That is the joy of socialist ideology. When they say everyone is equal, they mean it literally... people are reduced to a commodity, with each one fully interchangeable with every other, each one exactly like the prior and the next, and having no special value as individuals. Collectivism in its truest form.
Think of the cells in a person's body. It's made up of millions of them, and collectively, they form the person's body. Each of those cells matters only in how it can serve the whole; by itself, it is without purpose. We're glad we have, for example, blood cells.... we can't live without them. But if the doctor wants to take a blood sample to benefit the patient, we allow it, because we know our bodies (the collective) won't be harmed by losing a small percentage of blood cells. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.
The Chinese have been under strict, very strict social ruling for centuries. This has become their second, or in some cases first, nature. This makes for a grand lab for the introduction of the robotic human. The Chinese as a people are no more soulless than you nor me, their social straight jacket system is. A system, as you mention, that feels no respect or appreciation for life.
It´s the robotic nature within the system that is scary.
It is merciless control and victimization.
Some victims become so entangled in the mental game involved they start to sympathize with their oppressors. It´s known as The Stockholm Syndrome.
Looks like that´s what´s involved here.
The globalists marching again.
Like robots.
Soulless.
Sad.
With 100s of millions of people (I think?), I’m sure they are considered replicable & replaceable
Never a dull moment w/ you, E!
I came here from the RSS feed and don't subscribe to the emails.
I only follow emails: I cannot be bothered with RSS or mobile apps and phones, because there is no pleasure in reading such tiny print. I swear by my desktop screen , whish is 21 inches wide
amen. *exact* same situation here. "app" is a dirty three-letter word, lol.
I agree but I'm not talking about an app. RSS is pretty liberating and it's a shame the internet largely dropped the protocol. Now everyone funnels their news through controlled mediums like Twitter or Facebook. RSS lets you pull the news directly to you without interference from censorious mediums.
If I acquiesced every time some provider said "download our app!", I'd have a bajillion icons on my phone screen, and I'd have to remember to open each one. So much easier when everything is together in my inbox.
Sometimes it's relaxing to be an admitted old fart.
Well that's fine but my RSS reader is desktop based and I can configure the fonts, or just follow the link straight to reading it into the browser.
Use whatever system works best for you. The email notifications are nice, but if you aggregate all your news sources into an RSS client, it can become incredibly convenient. But if your system ain't broke don't fix it!
The Substack Reader (reader.substack.com) is actually a very effective tool especially if monitoring dozens of Substacks. Worth a try unless you are a really sophisticated RSS user sucking everything into a single stream. I'm not that smart so love the reader.
I agree. I love the Reader, and use it on desktop and phone, all day long, keeping up with 100+ substacks.
Me too.
hmm.
I have not received a Substack email since March 20. I pay for your Substack and Berenson's, and I subscribe to others via the free option, and I have not received emails from any of them in three weeks. It took me longer than it should have taken me to realize that it was unlikely that none of you had written anything new.
I have Hotmail, so maybe MSFT is blocking you at the source. I check my junk/spam folder at least once every day, and no Substack emails are there.
Maybe reach out directly, instead of in comments. I suspect bad moves by hotmail. Hope you get your emails back.
Oh no, how distressing, TOB! I have published numerous pieces since then, including three articles for paid subscribers and a brand-new essay that just landed:
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-german-or-a-badass
I have been worried about this happening, so it’s very helpful to hear from you. In the Housekeeping section toward the end of the Updates in my latest article, I talk about potential email issues and link to a Substack article with troubleshooting tips.
Are you still showing as subscribed to my Stack? This may necessitate contacting your provider and making sure the Substack domain is whitelisted if you are indeed subscribed and nothing’s showing up in spam. Keep me posted and please continue to check back manually in the meantime!
My initial thought was: CCP gonna CCP
“Their” minds are those of totalitarian brutes who use Covid as a tool to further suppress freedom. So I didn’t reply bc, since they are also the country to release the virus that’s destroyed many lives… my vehemence & desire for the leadership & anyone who supports them to be demolished is so strong that it’s not healthy. They’re dead to me, to coin the mafia phrase. That’s why I didn’t respond, where normally pounce on your articles.
Sorry but I am sick and tired of another one analysis about this "pandemic".After two years of insane measures and aggresive coersive exprimental mRNA injections all over the world, with exactly the same structure of propaganda, I find at least naive to try analyse if all these was made on purpuse or not.
You are not at all boring ; but your friend is.
🤔
Never.
Spring fever. 😀
I personally tend to prefer more direct articles that ask for peoples´ immediate participation, straightforward, up front. I have no clue what omi is? Could you tell me about omi? Please? Because we need to know exactly what omi is if omi is the subject of the discusion.
So, what is omi?
China locks down its citizens because it can. This is communism at work. Communism is not logical, rational, or scientific. It is all about power. Will the Chinese keep doing this over and over in regards to this virus even if the west finally decides not to play the same stupid communist games - yes.
well, everyone is subject to external constraints, and dictatorial regimes still have to pay a price for unpopular policies. in general it's preferable for every regime not to waste resources locking down their populations and not to be obsessed with minor viruses that don't matter
I found the post interesting because I’ve been wondering the same. Yes they can get away with it but for a virus that doesn’t kill you? It’s hard to wrap my head around, and I confess I still can’t fully get why the world went crazy over this. Even the original Coronavirus does what viruses do: kill the old and sick. I get that people were afraid, but why did the powers that be encourage fear at every turn? Why the rampant dishonesty and the attempt to discredit even medical professionals with a different take? I’m left with the notion that at least in part some saw this as an opportunity for population control. That there is a deep feeling among these types that ordinary people cannot be trusted with information and decision making. Ironically it’s because we are so safe that fear over such a minor disease took hold. I’m still flabbergasted that you can’t easily find information about the true risks: the CFR or IFR and deaths sorted by age and comorbidities. Those two things tell you just how scared you should be. For most of us, it’s a nothing burger.
Well the information dichotomy depends on what jurisdiction provides data. In the US measures became quite politically oriented and the "wasted crisis" created an ability to alter an election. Data contrary to crisis was then limited. Other places did collect data that showed the tendencies toward IFR/CFR rates. Group think and politician fear of error prevented nearly all from being bold about those data. We obviously are now quite aware of the differential risks and aside from ongoing social pressures, people are moving away from fear.
I totally agree that the great corona fear of 2020 “created an ability to alter an election.” Worldwide, the opportunity was to create a digital pass system. It looks to me as if a certain ideology gets enough high level operators to go along, then there is a cascade effect. Most people below them go along to get along. I do think even these people wonder, late at night, whether the danger of the virus was indeed exaggerated. Even the go along types eventually get tired of living in fear, or pretending to.
Hopefully except in some places the digital ID and corresponding social score, ala China, get killed. In the US, a national driver's license has been impossible, although the real-ID effort laid the groundwork. But the States benefit from the corruption possible in all those various contracts as do the various companies printing the cards.
In general, it's preferable for the scorpion to not sting the frog
Do you remember how a discrete stereo system is organised? I will use this as an analogy to your previous thoughts of a systemic bureaucracy protecting and promoting "The Narrative."
There are "sources"- I use a record player, FM tuner, cd player, Blu-Ray player, and a computer digital source. These are connected to a "preamplifier"
(in Britain a "Control Amplifier" ) which then is connected to a "power amplifier." The "power amp" drives the loudspeakers.
I compare your bureaucracy to the power amplifier- it doesn't actually need to know or decide anything, it just must be powerful enough to drive the speakers (the peasantry.) The preamp is the heart of the system and selects what will be emphasised, while rejecting the unwanted contributions from us, our truckers, or honest scientists.
So if you look at the WEF/WHO (which are tightly connected) and the CCP which is associated with the WEF (see Mr. Xi's presentations), the UN Climate Change organisation, and the central banks as the preamplifier you can see that you are correct but are neglecting the input into the bureaucracy.
But that is rational thinking. Communism and central planning has never worked but yet once communist regimes are solidly in place they think nothing will destroy them no matter how irrational and evil their actions are to their 'citizens.'
Then there is the question of evil versus good.
Yes!
I absolutely agree.
Focus is moved away from the main thing - which is covert political maneuvers that slowly impose laws and insane restrictions behind the backs of their people and start war after war - with all this damned focus on omi and kromomi and what not.
It´s sheer bs.
Like the official explanation of the violence taking place in the Ukraine currently.
Let´s be happy at least between 30 - 40 of these bio-labs were taken down.
But let´s NOT drown in the details surrounding the globalist excuses for manifesting their insane megalomania. Fuck their pseudo "explanations" and their violation of sacred scientific principles of honor, such as speaking the truth and not inventing reality and then call the invention a scientific fact.
We need to divert them back.
It´s done by saying no to any bodily intervention of theirs.
And by being the living alternative in speech and action.
I think here in the West, we have multiple factors working against us. Just like the War Machine, special interest groups see profits in their headlights whenever we have a crisis, imagined or not. With help from an over reaching government obsessed with power and and a compliant media, we have the makings of a perfect storm. Just like Green Energy, the narrative is always driven by those that have the most money to make whether the crisis is true, or not.
With respect, you need to broaden your frame of reference. See this in the wider context of helping to accelerate the economic collapse underway. The objective is not preventing 'cases' whatever such a metric represents, but strangling world trade to drive further momentum for economic collapse.
Oligarch following Oligarch wasting resources and dumbing down it's just different today thanks to science. We can argue for foundation money to re-engineer man and everyone cheers since Technocracy is baked in the cake for at least a century.
The excess mortality in the United States is worse today than it has been during the entire pandemic. https://www.usmortality.com/excess-absolute and https://www.usmortality.com/excess-percent -- click the "filter" link and check "all ages" to see a breakdown.
The most likely explanation is ongoing spike injury from both covid and vaccines. If this is it, then repeated covid infections and more boosters will continue to increase death rates -- the only way out is early treatment, no more vaccines, and ideally finding a way to alleviate latent spike injury.
"repeated covid infections and more boosters will continue to increase death rates..." This is more or less what Geert Vanden Bossche is predicting.
But how will pharma make money and govts control people then?
THIS:
"I think institutions in mass society develop behaviours and even ideologies that are beyond the understanding of the individuals who participate in them."
Mainly because the individuals who most gravitate to administration of the many institutions turn out to be among the dimmest of minds while masquerading as geniuses.
As a former NHS administrator in the UK, I am afraid that I totally agree with you. The sheer stupidity and mendacity of many of my colleagues in public health management is what made me a skeptic!
Good interviewing a friend who is skeptical of your opinions! Always good to keep some perspective. I, too, have these sorts of conversation with others (my wife, for one) whose objective is to 'talk me down off the roof' when I get into runaway speculation. Your friend is more rational and much more knowledgeable than my wife or my friends and colleagues.
Yeah, maybe the motivation behind the official response to Corona in the West was merely gross incompetence - it wouldn't be the first time governments and institutions are guilty of that. But, like you, I see certain anomalies which stick out and continue to bother me. The sudden belief by officials in made-up science, for one, along with the harsh censorship of reasonable scientific debate. Another thing which caught my attention was the assassination or mysterious deaths of 4 African leaders and the President of Haiti in 2021, all of whom were outspoken opponents of the mass-vaccination effort. There are too many other similar coincidences to mention here, but for each and every one you can be assured that there are multiple 'fact-checking' sites energetically 'de-bunking' each of them. Which, to me, of course, is only more evidence that they may not be coincidences at all.
Indeed.
🤔
I've been asking that question as well: Does the CCP know something about this virus that we don't because omicron is the sniffles and this is way overdone unless the threat is real or they just love dominating their people.
The lockdowns actually go to western planners as far back as 2005 according to the author of Liberty or Lockdown, Jeffrey Tucker: "The problem runs deeper than mere silence. Everything about lockdowns and mandates were constructions by intellectuals themselves. Thus do they bear responsibility, to deploy Chomsky’s term. The modelers and coercive controllers concocted their scenarios as early as 2005 and their ranks grew year by year: in research labs, government offices, universities, and think tanks. They became so engrossed in the world they created on their laptop screens that their imaginations came to outpace any understanding of history, cell biology, public health, much less human rights and law."
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-responsibility-of-intellectuals-2-0/
Which makes sense when you think about the west's first reaction to the virus as lax. Even Fauci who would know since he was funding the damn virus wasn't panicked about it, until it became politically useful to panic. Then in lock step all nations ran toward lock downs.
If there is something especially bad about covid - I'll hear it from the doctors that have earned my trust over the past two years. McCullough, Kory, Marik, Malone, etc.
Worrying the Chinese know something about covid nobody else knows is a psyop I will not fall for again.
Agreed. I just read that there is a new variant from the UK called XE; it's supposed to be more contagious than omi and for now I'm assuming that means less lethal still.
No one in power will ever admit they did something that didn't work. Just listen to the People parroting:
👉 "If he didn't get triple vaxxed, his death would have been much worse."
👉 "We may mask up again. Get ready to pivot."
👉 "I know I still have neurological damage from the vax and also just got over Covid, but I would do it all over again because the vax works."
👉 "Our efforts have been successful."
(All quotes paraphrased)
This dovetails amazingly with the article I'm writing today:
TL;DR: They are doing it on purpose to 'nudge' our behavior.
People in a city of 25 million struggling to secure food doesn't sell the idea well.
Do you think the CCP cares about those people?
They care about face. And people starving in Shanghai is a PR disaster.
Is it? The mass starvation in China and the Soviet Union when the communists took over didn't bother them then. Why should it bother them now.
It used to be easier hiding their atrocities and failures, especially with a complicit media. Back in the times you reference, collaborators like Walter Duranty. These days, the internet changes things.
Except the internet is being censored
Why do you think they took people off their farmlands and forced them into apartment dwellings where they were less self-sufficient? Just to force them to pay taxes and stimulate their economy?
China couldn't control people who were independent and self-sufficient as easily. Now they can easily starve and control massive numbers of people so very easily.
Like people dropping dead in the streets from covid was a PR disaster?
At this point we know they were fakes. Part of the psyop.
Exactly my point.
Other Substack authors have been addressing this for a while. It's not just deprivation of luxury Chinese made products as a consequence. Containers are stacked up in ports around the world, whether your goods are in them or not. Do you need batteries, or tires? Good luck finding what suits your needs best, as I am finding out this week.
A friend who has a Vespa scooter has been waiting 9 months for a repair because they just can't get the parts.
Gives me a big time cramp!
I think you're over-analyzing. China's way is the way of brute force and oppression, period. This is what they know and believe despite the damage lockdowns do. Somewhere Xi is saying, "we'll get it right this time, no matter how many people we kill".
hm. oppressive policies are expensive for any regime, they are an exertion. they aren't engaged in for their own sake, I don't think.
I agree. But hey, that's communism, right?
No, it isn't. Communism no longer exists. Actually neither does Capitalism: in the purist sense.
What all these countries are moving towards is State Corporatism: essentially this is the same in China, Germany, Russia, or the UK: a quite authoritarian system that rewards compliance more than initiative, that controls free enterprise to the point of deballing it , and that seeks control of the media above all else.
Let's call it corporate communism. Same authoritarian model with control by the techno lords.
Yes, pretty much. I don't think there are many truly 'democratic' countries left: the elected ruling elites tend to be much like the de-balled monarchs: presenting a PR face for the careerist corporate regime of civil servants and their entourager of cronies in semi-nationalised big businesses.
The British sit-com, 'Yes Minister' expressed this perfectly.
Thats partly why it is so delightful when rogue populists like Nigel Farage come along and upset the apple cart.
I suspect that pathological face-saving is also a factor in China's case.
The lockdowns in China could be to break supply lines to the West...all part of the economic war being waged by the CCP and Russia against the West. China is in a better place to pay the price of this than we in the West are.
Have we not seen collectivism for the sake of collectivism? Individualists fail to comprehend the inner drive towards collectivism, thus we repeatedly fail to diagnose the psychological dynamics on display. Instead we ascribe universal vices - virtue signaling, greed, fear, need to control, stupidity. I suspect the explanation is an aspect of ideology we simply cannot relate to.
Until covid madness, I never really understood Fascism. As an individualist, this is like trying to understand a societal order in which citizens beats themselves over the head with a hammer.
Any regime is just a bunch of individuals. Some (depending on the regime maybe many or even all) don't care all that much about collective expenses of the regime, but simply act according to their individual interests.
Once there is general mood in favor for lockdowns and other coercive policies, arguing for more sever policies is a way to appear better than any other members of the bureaucracy.
It's insane how the CCP is trying to control this virus! I have wondered about everything you discussed here and was hoping someone would dig into it. Thank you.
As ever, I agree with much of your analysis. I think it's also worth noting that the Chinese have a pretty strange attitude to colds, for which they go to hospital for repeated intravenous drips. No soldiering on. No 'take a couple of asprin and drink plenty of water'. Just go to hospital.
The other element worth considering is the response to SARS version one. This involved some local lockdowns - quite how local, I'm not sure (I arrived in the aftermath). I understand much of the response was guided by international experts (WHO?). Much of their response planning is rooted in that epidemic. The story of SARS-1 and the role of international experts in it is one I'd like to see someday.
Chinese domestic fear-mongering back in early 2020 was based around the experience of SARS as a national trauma. I was warned by friends there about the long-term effects of infection - stories of people who nearly 17-18 years later were still suffering. I quickly dug for anything to back up these claims and found some suggestions of bone weakness in survivors, presumably caused by treatments. Still, what odds there lies the origin of long covid?
entirely agree, also it's significant that lockdowns in Europe took off with the Italians, who are also (stereotypically) those most likely to head the doctor every time there is sniffle.
Plus, in northern Italy where the lockdowns started, there is a large immigrant Chinese population. So Italy saw what the Chinese were doing and voila! Me-too freakout. Five billion dominoes later and here we are.
My stepdaughter lives in China. Based on what she has described over the last few years, there is definitely a culture predisposition toward hypochondria. She just told us the other day about their 7 step hand washing ritual.
I wonder if they can get time off for work being sick on their say so or if they have to provide a doc note to excuse time lost?
When going to hospital for this kind of treatment, it's pretty normal to register as an in-patient so as to be able to claim back on insurance. (This doesn't mean you actually stay there overnight.) This would, I think, be enough for state employers. In the private sector, mileage may vary, though I would think it's much better (more forgiving) than it used to be.
Many times I have heard them described as pragmatic.
Their response to omicron seems like the direct opposite of that.
Have you explored the possibility of genetic targeting (or exclusion, in the case of the Chinese)? If SARS-CoV2 is indeed an engineered bioweapon, that could be one reason the Chinese didn’t suffer as much from the original strain.
Couple other good posts about this today:
• Edward Slavsquat (Riley Waggaman): https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/open-thread-can-we-talk-about-whats
• Jordan Schachtel: https://dossier.substack.com/p/shanghai-under-lockdown-witness-the
And you guys gotta see this freaking badass evading the corona-gestapo:
https://twitter.com/manyapan/status/1509977263277813762
Nice idea, but given the ultra-high probability of mutation, very unlikely.
....
But anyway, I owe a lot to detective novels, and for a Crime to be committed, there need to be a Motive, a Means, and an Opportunity.
OK: we have the possible means: An engineered virus:
We have an Opportunity: mass transmission via mass global travel
But what we most lack is a Motive: apart from some drug and pizza-delivery companies, this whole episode has been disastrous for almost anyone., and the risks of a serious mutation into a real killer virus were always present.
“But what we most lack is a Motive: apart from some drug and pizza-delivery companies, this whole episode has been disastrous for almost anyone., and the risks of a serious mutation into a real killer virus were always present.”
Surely, you jest, Rob. Didn’t you hear Klaus Schwab?
“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.” (https://www.weforum.org/focus/the-great-reset)
They needed COVID to detonate the world financial system; terrorize the populace into relinquishing their rights and freedoms; and inflict one-world tyranny so you will own nothing and “be happy” by 2030. COVID was the best thing that ever happened for totalitarianism and was pivotal for achieving their nefarious aims, including coercing the populace into volunteering for their own depopulation while paying trillions to BigPharma in the process. COVID is a win-win-win for BigPharma, Big Brother, Big Media, Big Tech, and tyrants the world over.
Not to mention achieving the largest transfer of wealth in history from the lower/middle classes to the wealthiest corporations and elites:
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/billionaires-trillions-covid-19-extreme-poverty/
Yes, I saw the deluded old fool: and I can suss where he is coming from: he recognises the grotesque failures of nation states (and he isn't wrong there) and comes up with a classic yet delusional solution, which is global government.
Yet he holds no formal power and as Stalin said of the Pope: "How many Divisions does he command"?
The answer is of course none: he's just another dreamer, rather uglier than John Lennon, but equally fantastical and soon forgotten.
Stalin’s bon mot about the Pope is often cited ironically, in view of the fact that Stalin is in his grave but the Papacy perdures. “How many divisions has he got?” was never the point. It may not be the point about Comrade Schwab, either. The Pope’s power is spiritual. So is Schwab’s—but of a different sort, putting it mildly.
It is demonic.
Soon forgotten? I will not soon forget how Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern, Gavin Newsom and several others have committed atrocities based on the absurdities Schwab has gotten them to believe.
I don't think this was all about him: he is a bit of a fat old joke, and has no formal power.
This is about THEM.
Of course. He's just a figurehead who likes to play dressup. But a menacing one nevertheless.
👊
I wish you were right, Rob, but the WEF has orchestrated a global takeover of governments around the world and is already well on the way to achieving its goals.
Here Klaus is bragging about having “penetrated” most of the major world governments:
https://rumble.com/vtlk9h-klaus-schwab-brags-of-penetrating-most-major-world-governments....html
The WHO is now moving for an international pandemic treaty that will override sovereign nations. They are moving rapidly and are on pace to complete their mission by 2030 if we don’t stop them:
https://jamesroguski.substack.com/p/pandemic-treaty
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/news/2022/03/pandemic-treaty/45591/
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/the-great-reset-capitalism-with-chinese
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/propaganda-corporatism-and-the-hidden
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/uncovering-the-corona-narrative
He's a make-believe James Bond villain: I bet he just loathes Brexit!
Have you read “The Real Anthony Fauci” yet? If not, you must. They used the same template for AIDS/AZT.
Klaus, Fauci, Gates, Soros, and plenty of others we don’t know have joined forces to perpetrate this manufactured crisis, using psychological terror techniques (see Laura Dodsworth’s “A State of Fear“) and coercion/torture tactics like Biderman’s Chart of Coercion (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-tyrant) to bring the world to heel. COVID and now the Ukrainian crisis are providing cover while they engineer the destruction necessary to cover up the collapse of the financial system that has been underway for decades and is now impending.
He absolutely is a mega-villain—just not make-believe, unfortunately!
And don’t worry, they’ve got Brexit well under control. They own Boris, too:
https://www.weforum.org/people/boris-johnson
Can we forget him now. Right now please!
😆
Agree! Assuming the goal was to eliminate that pesky middle class, C-19 has been incredibly successful.
Yep, I talked about that in my first essay, “A Primer for the Propagandized: Fear Is the Mind-Killer” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-primer-for-the-propagandized) nearly a year ago:
“This is about crushing the middle class—the backbone of a democratic republic—and transferring trillions from the middle and lower classes to the ruling plutocracy. This is about demolishing the foundations of a free society and building it back—not better, but better-controlled.”
The “Planet Lockdown” interviews are a good place to start catching up:
https://planetlockdownfilm.com/full-interviews/
Start with these:
• Catherine Austin Fitts (first interview): https://rumble.com/vd15i1-planet-lockdown-catherine-austin-fitts-full-interview.html
• Mike Yeadon: https://rumble.com/vg4inv-michael-yeadon-full-interview-planet-lockdown.html
Amazon comes to mind. Billions of dollars to Amazon. And crap like doordash and Uber aren't exactly mom n pop delivering pizza.
"Mass containment is a worldwide delusional rain dance: Everyone hops about trying to coax water out of the heavens, copying whatever dance was current in the first place it started to rain."
Gonna steal this to use w new favorite: PCR tests have diagnostic accuracy of Ouija boards. :~)
Ime, Ouija board wins by a landslide.
Already added it to my library of stolen 'good ones'.
The bureaucracy may or may not exhibit systemic racism, but all bureaucracies certainly exhibit systemic stupidity.
I have really come to believe that people who have no discernible talent and a fairly mediocre intellect are the ones who gravitate like lemmings into the bureaucracy....a place where there is no accountability or reckoning for serial ineptness and stupidity.
It's like the human brain, but in reverse: trillions of dumb neurons, wired up correctly, create great intelligence. Hundreds of thousands or millions of intelligent people, wired up incorrectly, create great stupidity.