offguardian--2020-07-23--We must inoculate ourselves against the crazy Anti-Rationalists

Recently , leading anti-rationalist Dominic Lawson had his COVID 19 vaccine promotion pamphlet published by the Daily Mail with the headline “ To win the war on Covid-19 we must inoculate Britain against the crazy anti-vaxxers.
” Like many anti-rationalists Dominic seems to struggle with complex issues .
Certainly questioning anything they are told is unthinkable .
Repeating information is where it ’ s at for the anti-rationalists .
Anti-rationalists are incapable of independent thought and need to be told what to believe by someone , some body or organisation , they consider to be important .
They call these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reliable sources.
” It isn ’ t entirely clear what constitutes a reliable source for the anti-rationalist but they appear to range from globalist think tanks and appointed world health authority officials , to mainstream media hacks , multinational corporation spokespersons , the right scientists , fact checkers and government representatives .
For many anti-rationalists Dominic is one of those reliable sources .
However , there is a pecking order and Dominic probably has his own favourite goto ’ s for information , though presumably Richard Tomlinson and Boris Johnson aren ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he says in his article is plausible , let alone accurate , it is clear that veracity doesn ’ t have much to do with reliability for the anti-rationalists .
If they can ’ t cherry pick the information they need to confirm their opinions , they just make it up .
Accept Everything And Question Nothing The specific novel strain of coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 may cause the associated respiratory syndrome of COVID 19 .
While Dominic doesn ’ t bother making this distinction , it is important to do so .
Otherwise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a million people have been killed by the common cold , which is what most coronavirus strains are .
I ’ m sure Dominic knows this isn ’ t just semantics .
Something which so called fact checkers , the kind of reliable sources anti-rationalists prefer , have been keen to highlight .
When a 2020 study by Pentagon scientists of flu vaccinated U.S. military personnel found that vaccine interference increased the subjects risk of contracting coronavirus by 36 % , the inaccurately named FactCheck were quick to point out that this didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the vaccine study only showed an increased risk for coronavirus and that this is not the same as SARS-CoV-2 .
Despite Dominic ’ s slapdash approach , on this occasion , precision was important for the anti-rationalists .
The study was of service men and women inoculated between 2017 – 2019 .
This was before SARS-CoV-2 was discovered .
This also means the Pentagon team weren ’ t testing for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility .
SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus , so FactCheck ’ s categorical statement that there is “ no evidence ” that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contracting SARS-CoV-2 is false .
There is inconclusive evidence that this could be the case .
FactCheck have got their facts wrong .
Evidence of this potential risk was also found in the paper by scientists from the University of Hong Kong who discovered almost a five-fold increase in susceptibility to non influenza respiratory viruses , including coronavirus , among flu vaccinated children .
Anti-rationalists will be quick to deny the existence of this science because that ’ s what they do whenever it doesn ’ t “ fit ” with their articles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that COVID 19 is only a significant threat to the older people with comorbidities , and that this is the section of the population most extensively vaccinated with flu vaccines , the correlation and the existing scientific evidence would seem to warrant further investigation .
Something the anti-vaxxers at the British Medical Journal are willing to contemplate .
However , rather than call for urgent research to establish if vaccine interference from the flu shot could increase SARS-CoV-2 risks , Facebook ’ s anti-rationalist fact checking partners preferred instead to deny everything and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a thing .
A quick search of Google Scholar reveals hundreds of papers and scientific articles discussing vaccine interference .
Even the most cursory independent research is not something the anti-rationalists like to do .
A virus has very little to say about fiscal or monetary policy .
However , government ’ s do .
Dominic ’ s belief that a virus has caused global economic collapse is very silly .
Of course it hasn ’ t , the political response to claims about a virus has .
Thus far this virus has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global population and allegedly killed 0.007 % .
Though it seems , in the UK at least , there is reasonable doubt about the figures .
Oxford University Centre for Evidence Based Medicine ( CEBM ) reports that one of the main sources of mortality statistics in the UK , Public health England ( PHE ) , have considerably overestimated deaths from COVID 19 .
According to the World Health Organisation , if we accept the figures they report , COVID 19 is slightly less dangerous than a bad , though relatively common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19 necessitates plunging “ the world ’ s economy into recession , ” while flu doesn ’ t , is difficult to say .
Still , Dominic thinks this all makes perfect sense , so that should be more than enough for his anti-rationalist followers .
I say “ allegedly killed ” because there is very little evidence that these people died “ of ” COVID 19 .
The vast majority of people who sadly died “ with ” COVID 19 were older people approaching , or already receiving , end of life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , knows how many of the people who died with COVID 19 died of COVID 19 .
Nor do we have much hope of ever finding out because the death registration process for COVID 19 produces a new from of mortality statistic which is almost perfectly useless .
This makes no difference to the anti-rationalists and they are willing to report that the virus has killed “ more than half a million people ” because that is what they have been told to think by their reliable sources .
It is almost certainly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s no reason not to demand everyone else unquestioningly believe it in the myopic world of the anti-rationalists .
No Fault , No Liability , No Responsibility , No Problem And so we come to the central theme of Dominic ’ s fantastical rant .
The undoubted wonder of the COVID 19 vaccine , that doesn ’ t exist yet , and why anyone who has any reservations is a lunatic .
For anti-rationalists any questioning of their faith is evidence of the “ perversity of human psychology.
” The crazy anti-vaxxers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use of the precautionary principle before we irrevocably alter the human genome , are all mad as far as Dominic and his anti-rationalist chums are concerned .
Dominic enthuses : The oxymoron at the heart of this claim eludes anti-rationalists like Dominic .
Vaccines usually take between 10 to 15 years to develop and trial .
Yet Oxford University , and their collaborators Astrazeneca , are among the numerous public private partnerships around the world to have already injected experimental COVID 19 vaccines into thousands of human beings .
The Bill and Melinda @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest single contributor to the World Health Organisation ( WHO ) .
They funded nearly every aspect of both the COVID 19 pandemic preparedness exercises and the planned response .
Recently Bill Gates spoke about the indemnity vaccine manufacturers will need in order to avoid being sued for the harm their COVID 19 vaccine will probably cause .
He Said : This is standard procedure for vaccines and vaccine manufacturers .
The various Vaccine Injury Compensation Programmes ( VICP ’ s ) operating around the world , are overseen by the BMGF owned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The WHO are keen to stress the “ no fault ” element of the various VICP ’ s .
Before anyone can receive compensation for the proven harm a vaccine caused them or their loved ones , they first have to agree that this is no ones fault .
The vaccine manufacturers are not liable and the cost of the harm they cause is picked up by the tax payer .
As of November 2019 the U.S. NVICP alone had paid out $ 4.2 billion in compensation for people injured or killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vaccine Damage Fund ( VDF ) , with a ceiling payout of just £120,000 , has cost tax payers just over £74 million in compensation .
This no fault legal technicality allows the anti-rationalists to claim that there is no evidence , despite the proven deaths and disabilities caused , of any harm from vaccines .
A ridiculous legalese argument which is difficult to counter due to the depth of the stupidity it is based upon .
This fear of liability begs the question why the world ’ s most powerful health authority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to indemnify his minions against being sued .
Could it be because his own estimate for the potential harm caused by the vaccine seemingly exceeds the risk from the disease he wants to vaccinate the world against ?
Bill ’ s vaccine hesitancy may be well founded .
Previous attempts to create SARS related vaccines have been a total disaster .
This explains why , despite decades of trying , science has failed to engineer a vaccine for SARS strain coronavirus .
Earlier efforts did stimulate the hoped for antibody and protein @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response to the disease , instigating cytokine storms which killed the tested ferrets and mice far more effectively than the virus alone .
The researchers noted : Thankfully , initial animal trials of Atrazeneca and Oxford University ’ s ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine ( renamed AZD1222 SARS-CoV-2 ) didn ’ t immediately kill the mice and 6 macaque monkeys they tested it on .
Following this extensive non peer reviewed study , which the researchers called “ a rapid yet thorough investigation , ” the team decided to inject more than 10,000 people with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for this .
A tiny bit of independent research would put huge doubt in your mind before ever agreeing to be experimented upon with any alleged SARS vaccine .
Anti-rationalism is a high risk faith because the first rule of anti-rationalism is do no research .
Meanwhile no one , anywhere , has reasonably explained how an R & D , trial and safety testing process , that usually takes decades , can suddenly be safely completed in a few months .
Anti-rationalists , who probably correctly assume the experimental substance will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consider anyone who asks how this is possible to be an idiot .
It is safe because the people who want to make billions by selling it , say it is safe .
They have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain so why wouldn ’ t they ?
If you wonder if they actually constitute a reliable source you are clearly deluded .
Or , as Dominic puts it , have fallen for “ an increasingly popular form of conspiracy theory.
” To hammer home just how far off the reservation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ light Dominic then completely destroys the whole purpose of his own diatribe .
While meandering aimlessly through some strawman argument , weirdly alleging that to question any aspect of any vaccine is to unquestioningly believe in homeopathy , he writes : This hits the anti-rationalist nail on the head .
They genuinely believe that the scientific method is the listing of scientific theories from official “ reliable sources.
” They have completely lost sight , or simply don ’ t understand , that the core tenet of all science is , and always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assume that the considerable volume of science that questions vaccine safety and efficacy doesn ’ t exist .
Therefore , in the goldfish bowl of anti-rationalism , to question the science funded by pharmaceutical corporations , often by citing science that isn ’ t , is “ crazy ” and based upon nothing but feelings .
Of course anti-rationalists themselves often cite feelings to back up their arguments against the people they wrongly label anti-vaxxers .
Dominic tells us about the “ heart-breaking detail ” of Roald Dahl ’ s loss of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are fine because they support their opinion .
The people anti-rationalists label as anti-vaxxers generally do not claim that all vaccines are either useless or dangerous .
They acknowledge that vaccines can be , and have been , a useful component of effective public health policy .
They point out that not all vaccines are equal , that some have caused harm and that this harm needs to be carefully considered .
Because anti-rationalism is based upon faith and belief , rather than empirical evidence , its acolytes are often forced fall back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spoon fed .
One such is the mythology surrounding the 1998 study which Andrew Wakefield participated in .
Dominic ’ s version goes like this : The only thing Dominic has got right is Dr. Wakefield name and that he was struck off .
If he read the study , which presumably he hasn ’ t , he would know that this was the finding : That Dr. Walker-Smith ’ s study did not say there was a proven link between MMR and autism ; that no one questioned the scientific efficacy or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a decade ; that an independent scientific review of Dr Wakefield ’ s contribution found no reason even to suspect scientific fraud , nor any misconduct ; that it was only a witch-hunt by a lone alleged investigative journalist which caused the furore ; that he worked for a GlaxoSmithKline board member at the time and that the High Court then overturned the blatantly corrupt decision of the General Medical Council , who stripped Dr Wakefield and others of their licenses , matters not to the anti-rationalists .
I suspect Dominic knows that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waning , prior to publication of the study in the Lancet .
This was due to the 1992 withdrawal of the previous MMR vaccine Pluserix after it was found to cause aseptic meningitis .
Though , like every other anti-rationalists , who bleats on about the stories they have made up about Dr. Andrew Wakefield , Dominic is careful not to report this fact .
So it comes as no surprise that , while venerating the “ double-blind ( placebo ) clinical trial , ” anti-rationalists like Dominic neglect to mention that there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ) of the vaccine schedule .
No one has any idea what the cumulative health benefit or costs are for injecting people with a combination of substances .
Anti-rationalists become incandescent with clueless rage whenever anyone raises this concern , because vaccines save lives and have eradicated disease .
Blind placebo trials of vaccine schedules are impossible because not to offer vaccines to anyone is to condemn them to certain death .
Therefore , this justifies not bothering to find out what the actual health benefits , or risks , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ published in the Lancet , called this the ‘ vaccine paradigm ’ .
The Lancet is usually a reliable source for anti-rationalists , but not in this case .
The vaccine paradigm is built upon RCT ’ s which only measure the targeted immune response .
Like all anti-vaxxers , the research scientist anti-vaxxers point out both that there are non-specific effects , associated with vaccines , and that not all vaccines are the same .
They report a number of positive , hitherto unrecognised benefits from vaccines which can be identified in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a study found that Danish infants who received the MMR vaccine were not only protected against measles , mumps and rubella but all cause mortality from other non specific diseases also decreased for the vaccinated children .
However , they also found increased mortality among vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated groups .
For example studies showed that children who received the DTP vaccine were more than twice as likely to die from some other diseases than unvaccinated children ; the H1N1 vaccine was found to increase all cause mortality among girls and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all cause child mortality in West Africa .
The research scientists noted the lack of research studying the combination and order of vaccine schedules .
Finding numerous examples where the vaccine combinations have an impact upon associated all cause mortality , some positive , some not , they noted , for example : According to the anti-rationalists none of this is real .
To use the scientific method and seek to understand the relative health costs and benefits of constantly giving more and more vaccines to human beings , is all crazy anti-vaxxer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ formed a sort of vaccine cult , based upon the scientifically illiterate delusion that all vaccines always save lives .
Convinced that only they understand “ real science ” they no longer need to apply any and can viciously attack all that do , because they are crazy anti-vaxxers .
Anti-rationalists think anyyone who questions their tightly restricted , officially approved , science is just too dumb to understand it .
Therefore , while refusing even to acknowledge , let alone discuss , the science they don ’ t agree with , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ celebrities .
Dominic suggests : While , to be fair to Dominic , he isn ’ t so keen on mandating vaccines , this kind of estrangement from sanity is leading us all in that direction .
Something which government is all too eager to foster and exploit .
I have no idea if Andy Murray is an anti-rationalist , nor what Novak Djokavic believes about vaccines .
Frankly , I couldn ’ t care less what they think because they are both fantastic tennis players but not independent research scientists .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , tranche of medical science has transcended into the puritanical certainty of “ scientism.
” All that is required is an announcement , from their priests and priestesses in white coats , for the anti-rationalist to obey without hesitation .
This mindless obedience is damned useful if you are a government that wants to control the behaviour of your population .
All the government needs to do is say all their decisions are “ led by the science ” and the anti-rationalists will throw themselves on the bandwagon quicker than the State can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This technique is predicated upon the anti-rationalist aversion to ever reading any of the “ wrong science.
” Or any of the right science for that matter .
The wrong science is the science that doesn ’ t agree with the predetermined political , social or economic agenda .
Providing the mainstream media only report the “ right science , ” and tell the anti-rationalists that all the other science , which disproves or question their faith , is “ crazy , ” the authoritarians are good to go .
Safe in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question anything told to them by one of the government ’ s ( or their multinational corporation partner ’ s ) pet scientific experts .
The fact that the COVID 19 vaccine doesn ’ t exist yet is an irrelevance for the anti-rationalists .
They have already decided that it will be perfectly safe .
Dominic insists that injecting 7.8 billion people with an experimental genetic modifier ( in all likelihood ) is the only thing that can save the 99.99 % of the global population for whom COVID 19 present absolutely no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s existence is no reason not to vigorously promote it or , indeed , buy it .
More importantly , anyone who questions their mythical , future ambrosia must be attacked for being a crazy anti-vaxxer .
In keeping with the faith over reason approach , the fact that anti-vaxxers don ’ t really exist fits neatly with their deification of the fictional elixir they imagine to be their only hope .
As they wage war on an enemy which is , of course , invisible .
Dogmatic adherence to questionable ideologies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lethal components of the human psyche .
Especially when any dissent is considered to be dangerous .
Dominic writes : The general good is precisely the principle advocated by all authoritarian regimes throughout history .
For example , the National Socialist Program ( 25-Punkte-Programm ) of the Nazi ’ s contained the following : As the COVID 19 crisis spread from the alleged epicentre of Wuhan the UK Law commissioner Penney Lewis warned that anyone posting , what the government call , online “ anti-vaccine propaganda ” could be prosecuted under new laws @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is likely to come in the form of the Online Harms Act which will bring in wide sweeping censorship .
The UK government have persistently hinted that they will ignore inalienable human rights and mandate a compulsory COVID 19 vaccine .
As the Coronavirus ACT 2020 suspended all democracy and , with the State warning of second waves ( please watch the video below ) and no return to abnormal before Christmas , initial government assurances that removal of rights was a temporary measure were utterly worthless .
If COVID 19 vaccines become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set to force you to have every other vaccine the pharmaceutical corporations dream up in the future .
You will have no autonomy over your own body , which will be owned by the State , and you will “ officially ” be a slave .
If it is not permitted to openly discuss the scientific evidence , both for and against vaccines , then medical tyranny is assured and any eye rolling by anti-rationalists merely demonstrates that they are not only incapable of understanding science they have no appreciation of history either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID 19 vaccine is going to save all of us , but with some surveys suggesting that up to 40 % of the population might refuse it , Dominic is among the many anti-rationalists who worries himself about achieving the herd effect .
Let ’ s forget that this unproven theoretical concept applies to natural and not artificially induced immunity , and just address the anti-rational witter .
Dominic writes : If limited uptake of the wonder drug keeps the anti-rationalists awake at night , an obvious solution springs to mind .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the concerns of the people who like to make their own minds up .
Once the vaccine is ready , a truly independent health body with absolutely no financial ties to any pharmaceutical corporation , no government backing nor government contracts , should undertake an independent scientific evaluation of the vaccine .
They could be given temporary authority to select a random sample of the vaccine , from batches they select without warning , and test it ’ s safety and efficacy in a large cohort , double blind , placebo randomised control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drawn from all member of parliament , the US congress and the EU commission , all policy makers and lobbyists who advocate “ anti-vaxxer ” censorship , all boards of pharmaceutical corporations , all BMGF members , all GAVI members , and all World Health Organisation bureaucrats .
It will also include all members of the mainstream media , like Dominic , who think anyone who questions vaccines is an anti-vaxxer , and any other anti-rationalist who has argued for censorship of scientific opinion .
Any hint of any involvement or influence from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interests in vaccines , will render the study null and void and the COVID 19 vaccine will be deemed to be unproven and unsafe .
Once the vaccine injury rate has been independently assessed another , separate , independent panel , again with no links to any pharmaceutical corporations , government or policy makers , will then decide if the benefits outweigh the risks .
Only following approval via this process , will the vaccine be offered to the people .
There will be no suggestion or demand for compulsory vaccination because that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nations Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights which states : Given how enthusiastic Dominic and other anti-rationalists are about the COVID 19 vaccine , and how concerned they are about uptake , who among them could object to this ?
However , if they mandate that we must take their vaccine , one developed , trialled and deemed safe by the people who profit from it ; if they refuse to acknowledge the appalling conflict of interest in the scientism they worship ; if they won ’ t listen to legitimate scientific concerns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and independent research ; if they censor scientific evidence , and persist with their strawman arguments and false appeals to faux authority ; if they continue to deploy the meaningless labels , they have created , to marginalise anyone who dares criticise their vaccine cult , then we must inoculate ourselves against the crazy anti-rationalists .
It ’ s easy , we just ignore these zealots .
And , if millions of us refuse to comply , there is absolutely nothing they can do about it .
You can read more of Iain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This Together

Iain Davis
Recently, leading anti-rationalist Dominic Lawson had his COVID 19 vaccine promotion pamphlet published by the Daily Mail with the headline “To win the war on Covid-19 we must inoculate Britain against the crazy anti-vaxxers.” Like many anti-rationalists Dominic seems to struggle with complex issues.
Certainly questioning anything they are told is unthinkable. Repeating information is where it’s at for the anti-rationalists.
Anti-rationalists are incapable of independent thought and need to be told what to believe by someone, some body or organisation, they consider to be important. They call these carefully selected important people and groups “reliable sources.”
It isn’t entirely clear what constitutes a reliable source for the anti-rationalist but they appear to range from globalist think tanks and appointed world health authority officials, to mainstream media hacks, multinational corporation spokespersons, the right scientists, fact checkers and government representatives.
For many anti-rationalists Dominic is one of those reliable sources. However, there is a pecking order and Dominic probably has his own favourite goto’s for information, though presumably Richard Tomlinson and Boris Johnson aren’t among them.
Given that virtually nothing he says in his article is plausible, let alone accurate, it is clear that veracity doesn’t have much to do with reliability for the anti-rationalists. If they can’t cherry pick the information they need to confirm their opinions, they just make it up.
Accept Everything And Question Nothing
Dominic get’s off to a flyer:
There is only one sure way to deal with the coronavirus which has plunged the world’s economy into recession and killed (so far) more than half a million people. A vaccine.”
The specific novel strain of coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 may cause the associated respiratory syndrome of COVID 19. While Dominic doesn’t bother making this distinction, it is important to do so. Otherwise, he could be suggesting that half a million people have been killed by the common cold, which is what most coronavirus strains are.
I’m sure Dominic knows this isn’t just semantics. Something which so called fact checkers, the kind of reliable sources anti-rationalists prefer, have been keen to highlight.
When a 2020 study by Pentagon scientists of flu vaccinated U.S. military personnel found that vaccine interference increased the subjects risk of contracting coronavirus by 36%, the inaccurately named FactCheck were quick to point out that this didn’t specifically mean SARS-CoV-2. They said the vaccine study only showed an increased risk for coronavirus and that this is not the same as SARS-CoV-2. Despite Dominic’s slapdash approach, on this occasion, precision was important for the anti-rationalists.
The study was of service men and women inoculated between 2017 – 2019. This was before SARS-CoV-2 was discovered. This also means the Pentagon team weren’t testing for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility. SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus, so FactCheck’s categorical statement that there is “no evidence” that the flu vaccine increases the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 is false. There is inconclusive evidence that this could be the case. FactCheck have got their facts wrong.
Fact Checking: The diligent process of ignoring evidence.
Evidence of this potential risk was also found in the paper by scientists from the University of Hong Kong who discovered almost a five-fold increase in susceptibility to non influenza respiratory viruses, including coronavirus, among flu vaccinated children.
Anti-rationalists will be quick to deny the existence of this science because that’s what they do whenever it doesn’t “fit” with their articles of faith.
Given that we know that COVID 19 is only a significant threat to the older people with comorbidities, and that this is the section of the population most extensively vaccinated with flu vaccines, the correlation and the existing scientific evidence would seem to warrant further investigation.
Something the anti-vaxxers at the British Medical Journal are willing to contemplate.
However, rather than call for urgent research to establish if vaccine interference from the flu shot could increase SARS-CoV-2 risks, Facebook’s anti-rationalist fact checking partners preferred instead to deny everything and suggest that vaccine interference isn’t a thing.
A quick search of Google Scholar reveals hundreds of papers and scientific articles discussing vaccine interference. Even the most cursory independent research is not something the anti-rationalists like to do.
A virus has very little to say about fiscal or monetary policy. However, government’s do. Dominic’s belief that a virus has caused global economic collapse is very silly. Of course it hasn’t, the political response to claims about a virus has.
Thus far this virus has supposedly affected about 0.15% of the global population and allegedly killed 0.007%. Though it seems, in the UK at least, there is reasonable doubt about the figures. Oxford University Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) reports that one of the main sources of mortality statistics in the UK, Public health England (PHE), have considerably overestimated deaths from COVID 19.
According to the World Health Organisation, if we accept the figures they report, COVID 19 is slightly less dangerous than a bad, though relatively common, seasonal influenza. Quite why COVID 19 necessitates plunging “the world’s economy into recession,” while flu doesn’t, is difficult to say. Still, Dominic thinks this all makes perfect sense, so that should be more than enough for his anti-rationalist followers.
I say “allegedly killed” because there is very little evidence that these people died “of” COVID 19. The vast majority of people who sadly died “with” COVID 19 were older people approaching, or already receiving, end of life care.
No one, including Dominic, knows how many of the people who died with COVID 19 died of COVID 19. Nor do we have much hope of ever finding out because the death registration process for COVID 19 produces a new from of mortality statistic which is almost perfectly useless.
This makes no difference to the anti-rationalists and they are willing to report that the virus has killed “more than half a million people” because that is what they have been told to think by their reliable sources. It is almost certainly a wildly inaccurate claim, but that’s no reason not to demand everyone else unquestioningly believe it in the myopic world of the anti-rationalists.
No Fault, No Liability, No Responsibility, No Problem
And so we come to the central theme of Dominic’s fantastical rant. The undoubted wonder of the COVID 19 vaccine, that doesn’t exist yet, and why anyone who has any reservations is a lunatic.
For anti-rationalists any questioning of their faith is evidence of the “perversity of human psychology.” The crazy anti-vaxxers, who, for example, urge use of the precautionary principle before we irrevocably alter the human genome, are all mad as far as Dominic and his anti-rationalist chums are concerned. Dominic enthuses:
The global race to develop one [a COVID 19 vaccine] has been extraordinary in its scale and speed. As a result, it is thought possible that a vaccine might be approved as safe for general use as early as this winter.”
The oxymoron at the heart of this claim eludes anti-rationalists like Dominic. Vaccines usually take between 10 to 15 years to develop and trial.
Yet Oxford University, and their collaborators Astrazeneca, are among the numerous public private partnerships around the world to have already injected experimental COVID 19 vaccines into thousands of human beings.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) are the largest single contributor to the World Health Organisation (WHO). They funded nearly every aspect of both the COVID 19 pandemic preparedness exercises and the planned response. Recently Bill Gates spoke about the indemnity vaccine manufacturers will need in order to avoid being sued for the harm their COVID 19 vaccine will probably cause. He Said:
The efficacy of vaccines in older people is always a huge challenge. It turns out the flu vaccine isn’t that effective in older people…….Here, we clearly need a vaccine that works in the upper age range…..If we have one in 10,000 side effects, that’s way more, you know, 700,000 people who will suffer from that…….So that decisions of OK let’s go ahead and give this vaccine to the entire world, governments will need to be involved because there will be some risk and indemnification needed.”
This is standard procedure for vaccines and vaccine manufacturers. The various Vaccine Injury Compensation Programmes (VICP’s) operating around the world, are overseen by the BMGF owned WHO via their Global Vaccine Safety initiative. The WHO are keen to stress the “no fault” element of the various VICP’s.
Before anyone can receive compensation for the proven harm a vaccine caused them or their loved ones, they first have to agree that this is no ones fault. The vaccine manufacturers are not liable and the cost of the harm they cause is picked up by the tax payer.
As of November 2019 the U.S. NVICP alone had paid out $4.2 billion in compensation for people injured or killed by vaccines. In the UK the Vaccine Damage Fund (VDF), with a ceiling payout of just £120,000, has cost tax payers just over £74 million in compensation.
This no fault legal technicality allows the anti-rationalists to claim that there is no evidence, despite the proven deaths and disabilities caused, of any harm from vaccines. A ridiculous legalese argument which is difficult to counter due to the depth of the stupidity it is based upon.
This fear of liability begs the question why the world’s most powerful health authority, the software salesman Bill Gates, wants to indemnify his minions against being sued. Could it be because his own estimate for the potential harm caused by the vaccine seemingly exceeds the risk from the disease he wants to vaccinate the world against?
Bill’s vaccine hesitancy may be well founded. Previous attempts to create SARS related vaccines have been a total disaster. This explains why, despite decades of trying, science has failed to engineer a vaccine for SARS strain coronavirus.
Earlier efforts did stimulate the hoped for antibody and protein reactions but also increased the subjects immunopathological response to the disease, instigating cytokine storms which killed the tested ferrets and mice far more effectively than the virus alone. The researchers noted:
Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.”
Thankfully, initial animal trials of Atrazeneca and Oxford University’s ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (renamed AZD1222 SARS-CoV-2) didn’t immediately kill the mice and 6 macaque monkeys they tested it on.
Following this extensive non peer reviewed study, which the researchers called “a rapid yet thorough investigation,” the team decided to inject more than 10,000 people with their experimental vaccine.
People really volunteered for this. A tiny bit of independent research would put huge doubt in your mind before ever agreeing to be experimented upon with any alleged SARS vaccine. Anti-rationalism is a high risk faith because the first rule of anti-rationalism is do no research.
Meanwhile no one, anywhere, has reasonably explained how an R&D, trial and safety testing process, that usually takes decades, can suddenly be safely completed in a few months. Anti-rationalists, who probably correctly assume the experimental substance will be approved as safe no matter what, consider anyone who asks how this is possible to be an idiot.
It is safe because the people who want to make billions by selling it, say it is safe. They have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain so why wouldn’t they? If you wonder if they actually constitute a reliable source you are clearly deluded. Or, as Dominic puts it, have fallen for “an increasingly popular form of conspiracy theory.”
The Highest Scientific Standards
To hammer home just how far off the reservation the anti-rationalists have strayed, their leading light Dominic then completely destroys the whole purpose of his own diatribe. While meandering aimlessly through some strawman argument, weirdly alleging that to question any aspect of any vaccine is to unquestioningly believe in homeopathy, he writes:
This hits the anti-vax nail on the head. Its campaigning is all about the way people say they ‘feel’, far removed from the complex and even intimidating world of scientific and medical research. Furthermore, the advance of genuine medical knowledge is a painstaking process, involving exhaustive double-blind’ clinical trials. It can be hard…for such conscientious empiricism to win out over raw emotional certainty masquerading as knowledge.
This hits the anti-rationalist nail on the head. They genuinely believe that the scientific method is the listing of scientific theories from official “reliable sources.” They have completely lost sight, or simply don’t understand, that the core tenet of all science is, and always has been, doubt.
Moreover they assume that the considerable volume of science that questions vaccine safety and efficacy doesn’t exist. Therefore, in the goldfish bowl of anti-rationalism, to question the science funded by pharmaceutical corporations, often by citing science that isn’t, is “crazy” and based upon nothing but feelings.
Of course anti-rationalists themselves often cite feelings to back up their arguments against the people they wrongly label anti-vaxxers. Dominic tells us about the “heart-breaking detail” of Roald Dahl’s loss of his daughter Olivia. Anti-rationalist appeals to emotion are fine because they support their opinion.
The people anti-rationalists label as anti-vaxxers generally do not claim that all vaccines are either useless or dangerous. They acknowledge that vaccines can be, and have been, a useful component of effective public health policy. They point out that not all vaccines are equal, that some have caused harm and that this harm needs to be carefully considered.
Because anti-rationalism is based upon faith and belief, rather than empirical evidence, its acolytes are often forced fall back on the popular falsehoods they have been spoon fed. One such is the mythology surrounding the 1998 study which Andrew Wakefield participated in. Dominic’s version goes like this:
The British (ex) doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose fraudulent 1998 study for the medical magazine The Lancet, claiming that autism in children was caused by the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine…”
The only thing Dominic has got right is Dr. Wakefield name and that he was struck off. If he read the study, which presumably he hasn’t, he would know that this was the finding:
We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described […] Published evidence is inadequate to show whether there is […] a link with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.”
That Dr. Walker-Smith’s study did not say there was a proven link between MMR and autism; that no one questioned the scientific efficacy or conduct of the researchers for more than a decade; that an independent scientific review of Dr Wakefield’s contribution found no reason even to suspect scientific fraud, nor any misconduct; that it was only a witch-hunt by a lone alleged investigative journalist which caused the furore; that he worked for a GlaxoSmithKline board member at the time and that the High Court then overturned the blatantly corrupt decision of the General Medical Council, who stripped Dr Wakefield and others of their licenses, matters not to the anti-rationalists.
I suspect Dominic knows that confidence in the MMR jab was already waning, prior to publication of the study in the Lancet. This was due to the 1992 withdrawal of the previous MMR vaccine Pluserix after it was found to cause aseptic meningitis. Though, like every other anti-rationalists, who bleats on about the stories they have made up about Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dominic is careful not to report this fact.
So it comes as no surprise that, while venerating the “double-blind (placebo) clinical trial,” anti-rationalists like Dominic neglect to mention that there are no Randomised Clinical Trials (RCT’s) of the vaccine schedule. No one has any idea what the cumulative health benefit or costs are for injecting people with a combination of substances.
Anti-rationalists become incandescent with clueless rage whenever anyone raises this concern, because vaccines save lives and have eradicated disease. Blind placebo trials of vaccine schedules are impossible because not to offer vaccines to anyone is to condemn them to certain death. Therefore, this justifies not bothering to find out what the actual health benefits, or risks, of vaccine schedules are.
The anti-vaxxers, published in the Lancet, called this the ‘vaccine paradigm’. The Lancet is usually a reliable source for anti-rationalists, but not in this case.
The vaccine paradigm is built upon RCT’s which only measure the targeted immune response. Like all anti-vaxxers, the research scientist anti-vaxxers point out both that there are non-specific effects, associated with vaccines, and that not all vaccines are the same.
They report a number of positive, hitherto unrecognised benefits from vaccines which can be identified in the research literature. For example, a study found that Danish infants who received the MMR vaccine were not only protected against measles, mumps and rubella but all cause mortality from other non specific diseases also decreased for the vaccinated children.
However, they also found increased mortality among vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated groups. For example studies showed that children who received the DTP vaccine were more than twice as likely to die from some other diseases than unvaccinated children; the H1N1 vaccine was found to increase all cause mortality among girls and the attenuated Malaria vaccine more than doubled female all cause child mortality in West Africa.
The research scientists noted the lack of research studying the combination and order of vaccine schedules. Finding numerous examples where the vaccine combinations have an impact upon associated all cause mortality, some positive, some not, they noted, for example:
In all studies exploring this, the incidence of all-cause mortality increases if the DTP vaccine is administered after the measles vaccine compared with inverse order. Likewise, administering the measles vaccine and DTP vaccine together is associated with higher incidence of all cause mortality than only receiving the measles vaccine.”
On balance, they conclude:
Taking non-specific effects into account in the global vaccination programme could reduce global mortality by 1.1 million deaths per year.”
According to the anti-rationalists none of this is real. To use the scientific method and seek to understand the relative health costs and benefits of constantly giving more and more vaccines to human beings, is all crazy anti-vaxxer gibberish.
Consequently, the anti-rationalists have formed a sort of vaccine cult, based upon the scientifically illiterate delusion that all vaccines always save lives. Convinced that only they understand “real science” they no longer need to apply any and can viciously attack all that do, because they are crazy anti-vaxxers.
Anti-rationalists think anyyone who questions their tightly restricted, officially approved, science is just too dumb to understand it. Therefore, while refusing even to acknowledge, let alone discuss, the science they don’t agree with, they propose we should instead listen to anti-rationalist celebrities. Dominic suggests:
I would prefer instead that the Government turns the celebrity’ endorsement factor against the anti-vaccination lobby. So in the field of sport, it should hire, say, Andy Murray, to promote a campaign (a suitable antidote to anti-vaxxer’ Novak Djokovic).”
While, to be fair to Dominic, he isn’t so keen on mandating vaccines, this kind of estrangement from sanity is leading us all in that direction. Something which government is all too eager to foster and exploit.
I have no idea if Andy Murray is an anti-rationalist, nor what Novak Djokavic believes about vaccines. Frankly, I couldn’t care less what they think because they are both fantastic tennis players but not independent research scientists.
The Authoritarian Certainty of Anti-Rationalist Scientism
For the anti-rationalist a restricted, officially approved, tranche of medical science has transcended into the puritanical certainty of “scientism.” All that is required is an announcement, from their priests and priestesses in white coats, for the anti-rationalist to obey without hesitation. This mindless obedience is damned useful if you are a government that wants to control the behaviour of your population.
All the government needs to do is say all their decisions are “led by the science” and the anti-rationalists will throw themselves on the bandwagon quicker than the State can say “for the general good.” This technique is predicated upon the anti-rationalist aversion to ever reading any of the “wrong science.” Or any of the right science for that matter.
The wrong science is the science that doesn’t agree with the predetermined political, social or economic agenda. Providing the mainstream media only report the “right science,” and tell the anti-rationalists that all the other science, which disproves or question their faith, is “crazy,” the authoritarians are good to go. Safe in the knowledge that the devout anti-rationalist will never question anything told to them by one of the government’s (or their multinational corporation partner’s) pet scientific experts.
The fact that the COVID 19 vaccine doesn’t exist yet is an irrelevance for the anti-rationalists. They have already decided that it will be perfectly safe. Dominic insists that injecting 7.8 billion people with an experimental genetic modifier (in all likelihood) is the only thing that can save the 99.99% of the global population for whom COVID 19 present absolutely no threat whatsoever.
The lack of something’s existence is no reason not to vigorously promote it or, indeed, buy it. More importantly, anyone who questions their mythical, future ambrosia must be attacked for being a crazy anti-vaxxer.
In keeping with the faith over reason approach, the fact that anti-vaxxers don’t really exist fits neatly with their deification of the fictional elixir they imagine to be their only hope. As they wage war on an enemy which is, of course, invisible.
Dogmatic adherence to questionable ideologies has always been one of the most lethal components of the human psyche. Especially when any dissent is considered to be dangerous. Dominic writes:
The necessity of a mass vaccine take-up is not to safeguard the lives of children but for the general good of us all, economically as much as medically.”
The general good is precisely the principle advocated by all authoritarian regimes throughout history. For example, the National Socialist Program (25-Punkte-Programm) of the Nazi’s contained the following:
The activity of the individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must proceed within the framework of the whole for the benefit for the general good.”
Further:
Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden.”
As the COVID 19 crisis spread from the alleged epicentre of Wuhan the UK Law commissioner Penney Lewis warned that anyone posting, what the government call, online “anti-vaccine propaganda” could be prosecuted under new laws the government want to invent.
This is likely to come in the form of the Online Harms Act which will bring in wide sweeping censorship.
The UK government have persistently hinted that they will ignore inalienable human rights and mandate a compulsory COVID 19 vaccine. As the Coronavirus ACT 2020 suspended all democracy and, with the State warning of second waves (please watch the video below) and no return to abnormal before Christmas, initial government assurances that removal of rights was a temporary measure were utterly worthless.
If COVID 19 vaccines become compulsory then the legal precedent will be set to force you to have every other vaccine the pharmaceutical corporations dream up in the future. You will have no autonomy over your own body, which will be owned by the State, and you will “officially” be a slave.
If it is not permitted to openly discuss the scientific evidence, both for and against vaccines, then medical tyranny is assured and any eye rolling by anti-rationalists merely demonstrates that they are not only incapable of understanding science they have no appreciation of history either.
The anti-rationalists are certain that the COVID 19 vaccine is going to save all of us, but with some surveys suggesting that up to 40% of the population might refuse it, Dominic is among the many anti-rationalists who worries himself about achieving the herd effect. Let’s forget that this unproven theoretical concept applies to natural and not artificially induced immunity, and just address the anti-rational witter. Dominic writes:
For a vaccine to create the herd immunity’ required, it is necessary for between 70 and 90 per cent of us to receive such an inoculation.”
If limited uptake of the wonder drug keeps the anti-rationalists awake at night, an obvious solution springs to mind. On that might go some way towards assuaging the concerns of the people who like to make their own minds up.
Once the vaccine is ready, a truly independent health body with absolutely no financial ties to any pharmaceutical corporation, no government backing nor government contracts, should undertake an independent scientific evaluation of the vaccine. They could be given temporary authority to select a random sample of the vaccine, from batches they select without warning, and test it’s safety and efficacy in a large cohort, double blind, placebo randomised control trial.
That large cohort will be drawn from all member of parliament, the US congress and the EU commission, all policy makers and lobbyists who advocate “anti-vaxxer” censorship, all boards of pharmaceutical corporations, all BMGF members, all GAVI members, and all World Health Organisation bureaucrats. It will also include all members of the mainstream media, like Dominic, who think anyone who questions vaccines is an anti-vaxxer, and any other anti-rationalist who has argued for censorship of scientific opinion.
Any hint of any involvement or influence from anyone with either a commercial or policy interests in vaccines, will render the study null and void and the COVID 19 vaccine will be deemed to be unproven and unsafe. Once the vaccine injury rate has been independently assessed another, separate, independent panel, again with no links to any pharmaceutical corporations, government or policy makers, will then decide if the benefits outweigh the risks.
Only following approval via this process, will the vaccine be offered to the people. There will be no suggestion or demand for compulsory vaccination because that would contravene Article 6 of the United Nations Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights which states:
Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice.”
Given how enthusiastic Dominic and other anti-rationalists are about the COVID 19 vaccine, and how concerned they are about uptake, who among them could object to this?
However, if they mandate that we must take their vaccine, one developed, trialled and deemed safe by the people who profit from it; if they refuse to acknowledge the appalling conflict of interest in the scientism they worship; if they won’t listen to legitimate scientific concerns and deny all opportunities for rational debate and independent research; if they censor scientific evidence, and persist with their strawman arguments and false appeals to faux authority; if they continue to deploy the meaningless labels, they have created, to marginalise anyone who dares criticise their vaccine cult, then we must inoculate ourselves against the crazy anti-rationalists.
It’s easy, we just ignore these zealots. And, if millions of us refuse to comply, there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.
You can read more of Iain’s work at his blog In This Together


offguardian--2020-07-24--Masked, Homeless, and Desolate

Masked, Homeless, and Desolate

Walk the streets in the United States and many countries these days and you will see streaming crowds of people possessed by demons , masked and anonymous , whose eyes look like vacuums , staring into space or out of empty sockets like the dead , afraid of their own ghosts .
Fear and obedience oozes from them .
Death walks the streets with people on leashes in lockstep .
That they have been the victims of a long-planned propaganda campaign to use an invisible virus to frighten them into submission and shut down the world ’ s economy for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This is so even when the facts are there to prove otherwise .
It is a clear case , as Peter Koenig tells Michel Chossudovsky in this must-see interview , that is not a conspiracy theory but a blatant factual plan spelled out in the 2010 Rockefeller Report , the October 18 , 2019 Event 201 , and Agenda 21 , among other places .
Who can wake the sleepwalkers up in this cowardly new world where culture and politics collude to create and exploit ignorance ?
Fifty-five years ago on , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released his song “ Like a Rolling Stone.
” It arrived like a rocking jolt into the placid pop musical culture of the day .
It was not about wanting to hold someone ’ s hand or cry in the chapel .
It wasn ’ t mumbo-jumbo like “ Wooly Bully , ” the number one hit .
It wasn ’ t like the pop pap that dominates today ’ s music scene .
It wasn ’ t Woody Guthrie in slow time .
It beat you up .
It attacked .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were alive then , you thought Dylan was kidding you .
You thought wrong .
Bitching about his going electric was a dodge .
He was addressing all of us , including himself .
Still is .
But who wants to hear his recent “ Murder Most Foul ” and read Dylan ’ s scathing lyrics about the assassination of JFK , the killing that started the slow decay that has resulted in such masked madness .
“ And please , Don ’ t Let Me Be Misunderstood , ” he tells us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what all the mainstream media have done , of course , and not by accident .
There are no alibis .
“ How does it feel/To be on your own/with no direction home/A complete unknown/Like a rolling stone ?
” It was in the mid-1960s when confidence in knowing where home was and how to get there disappeared into thin air .
If you left mommy and daddy , could you ever get back from where you were going ?
Who had the directions ?
Absolutes were melting and relativity was widespread .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ planning to make it wilder and more confusing with the introduction of LSD on a vast scale .
MKUltra was expanding its scope .
Operation Mockingbird was singing so many tunes that heads were spinning , as planned .
The national security state killers were in the saddle , having already murdered President Kennedy and Malcolm X as they sharpened their knives for many more to come .
The peace candidate , Lyndon Baines Johnson , had been elected nine months earlier with 61.1 % of the popular vote and went immediately to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
War as an invisible virus .
Who knew ?
Who , but a small anti-war contingent , wanted to know ?
War takes different forms , and the will to ignorance and historical amnesia endure .
War is a disease .
Disease is weaponized for war .
In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected on a “ secret plan ” to end the Vietnam War and then ramped it up to monstrous proportions , only to be reelected in 1972 by carrying 49 out of 50 states .
Who wants to know now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ correctly that this country ’ s greatest problem wasn ’ t disobedience but obedience .
What ’ s behind the masks ?
The lockstep ?
On the same day that Dylan released “ Like a Rolling Stone , ” Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara , just back from a “ fact-finding ” trip to Vietnam , recommended to LBJ that U.S. troop levels in Vietnam be increased to 175,000 and that the U.S. should increase its bombing of North Vietnam dramatically .
This was the same McNamara who , in October 1963 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NSAM 263 calling for the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel from Vietnam by the end of 1963 and the remainder by the end of 1965 .
One of the moves that got Kennedy ’ s head blown open .
Poor McNamara , the fog of war must have clouded his conscience , confused the poor boy , just like Secretary of State Colin Powell holding up that vile vial of “ anthrax ” at the United Nations on February 5 , 2003 and lying to the world about weapons of mass destruction in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I knew I didn ’ t have any choice .
He ’ s the President.
” How “ painful , ” to use his word , it must have been for the poor guy , lying so that so many Iraqis could be slaughtered .
Of course , he had no choice .
These war criminals all wear masks .
And have no choice .
Masks , or demonic possession , or both .
You ?
Also in that fateful year 1965 , far out of sight and out of mind for most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the slaughter of more than a million Indonesians , led by their man , General Suharto .
This led to the coup against President Sukarno , who two years earlier had been on good terms with JFK as they worked to solve the interrelated issues of Indonesia and Vietnam .
Their meeting planned for early 1964 was cancelled in Dallas on November 22 , 1963 .
And the politicians and media luminaries came out in their masks and told the public that communists everywhere were out to get them .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It hurts to think too much .
Or think for yourself , at least .
To obey an authority higher than your bosses .
“ I was tricked ” is some sort of mantra , is it not ?
Dylan was lost and disgusted when he wrote the song .
His own music sickened him , which , for an artist , means he sickened himself .
He had just returned from a tour of England and was sick of people telling him how much they loved his music when he didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What else is the point of art but change ?
If you ’ re dead , or afraid of getting dead , you aren ’ t going to change .
You ’ re stuck .
Stuck is dead .
Why wear a mask if you know who you are ?
Knowledge , or more accurately , pseudo-knowledge or mainstream media lies , is a tomb “ the mystery tramp ” sold to us , a place to hide to avoid pain and guilt .
I have read more books than anyone I know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too much .
That sickens me .
I sicken myself .
All the news sickens me .
I know so much no one believes me .
As Francesco Serpico once told me : “ It ’ s all lies.
” Of course .
Dylan and Serpico are blood brothers .
Only art tells the truth .
Real art .
Not bullshit pop art .
Some say “ Like a Rolling Stone ” is about Edie Sedgwick , “ the girl of the year ” in 1965 and one of Andy Warhol ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is , but it ’ s far more than that .
It ’ s about us .
Poor Edie was poisoned by her wealthy family at a young age and barely had a chance .
She was an extreme example of a rather common American story .
People poisoned in the cradle .
Thinking of her got me thinking of Andy Warhol , the death obsessed hoarder , the guy who called his studio “ The Factory ” in a conscious or unconscious revelation of his art and persona , his wigs and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on American culture all these years .
Isn ’ t he the ultimate celebrity ?
Warhol once took my photo on a deserted street .
His and my secret but this is the truth .
West 47th Street on an early Sunday morning , 1980 .
I guess he thought he was doing art or collecting images for his museum of dead heads .
When I asked him why , he said I had an interesting face .
I told him he did too , rather transparent and creepy , but I didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was a ghost with a camera , a face like a death mask , trying to capture a bit of life .
I told him I didn ’ t give him permission to shoot me , but he turned and walked away into the morning mist .
The shooters always just walk away in pseudo-innocence .
I then went down the street to the Gotham Book Mart that was my destination and asked James Joyce why he had written “ The Dead , ” and Joyce , secretive as ever , quoted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , “ Think you ’ re escaping and run into yourself .
Longest way round is the shortest way home.
” Now that was direction .
Only those who know how to play and be guided by intuition are able to escape the living tomb of so-called knowledge ; what Dylan called , lifelessness .
But that was from “ Desolation Row , ” released as the closing track of Highway 61 Revisited on August 30 , 1965 .
The only acoustic song on the album .
Slow it down to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Rolling Stone ” was the opening track .
Do you feel all alone or part of a masked gang roaming the streets incognito ?
Miss and Mr. Lonely , does that mask help ?
How do you feel ?
Does that mask help ?
Do you feel alone together now , one of the crowd ?
Do you really want to know about desolation row ?
It ’ s here .
It was here in 1965 , too .
Only the true lonely know how it feels to really be all alone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some call the deep state or secret government under whose protection all the politicians work , say they want to protect us all from death and disease .
They are lying bastards who ’ ve gotten so many to imitate their masked ways .
They can only sing a mockingbird ’ s song .
Listen to real singers .
Dylan has arched the years , as true artists do .
Who has paid close attention to what he said this year about the assassination of President Kennedy in his song , “ Murder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caught up in the propaganda surrounding corona virus , and rather than contemplating his indictment of the U.S. government and its media accomplices , were they contemplating their navels to see if a virus had secreted itself in there .
Viruses lurk everywhere , they say , and the corporate media made certain to circulate a vaccine about the truth in Dylan ’ s song .
This is normal operating procedure .
We are still on Desolation Row .
“ Take Off the Masks.
” That was the title of a book by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long ago .
He was a gay priest who decided that his mask was a lie .
He came out into the light of truth .
He had guts .
It is time for everyone to take off the masks .
Escape from Desolation Row by seeing what ’ s going on behind our backs .
Listen to Dylan , long ago – today : At midnight all the agents And the superhuman crew Come out and round up everyone That knows more than they do And they bring them to the factory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across their shoulders And then the kerosene Is brought down from the castles By insurance men who go Check to see that nobody is escaping To Desolation Row Praise be to Nero ’ s Neptune The Titanic sails at dawn Everybody ’ s shouting “ Which side are you on ?
”

Edward Curtin
Personality is persona, a mask…The mask is magic…Larva means mask; or ghost…it also means mad, a case of demoniacal possession.”
Norman O. Brown, Love’s Body
Walk the streets in the United States and many countries these days and you will see streaming crowds of people possessed by demons, masked and anonymous, whose eyes look like vacuums, staring into space or out of empty sockets like the dead, afraid of their own ghosts. Fear and obedience oozes from them. Death walks the streets with people on leashes in lockstep.
That they have been the victims of a long-planned propaganda campaign to use an invisible virus to frighten them into submission and shut down the world’s economy for the global elites is beyond their ken. This is so even when the facts are there to prove otherwise.
It is a clear case, as Peter Koenig tells Michel Chossudovsky in this must-see interview, that is not a conspiracy theory but a blatant factual plan spelled out in the 2010 Rockefeller Report, the October 18, 2019 Event 201, and Agenda 21, among other places.
Who can wake the sleepwalkers up in this cowardly new world where culture and politics collude to create and exploit ignorance?
Fifty-five years ago on, July 20, 1965, Bob Dylan released his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” It arrived like a rocking jolt into the placid pop musical culture of the day. It was not about wanting to hold someone’s hand or cry in the chapel. It wasn’t mumbo-jumbo like “Wooly Bully,” the number one hit. It wasn’t like the pop pap that dominates today’s music scene. It wasn’t Woody Guthrie in slow time.
It beat you up. It attacked. It confronted you. Maybe, if you were alive then, you thought Dylan was kidding you. You thought wrong. Bitching about his going electric was a dodge. He was addressing all of us, including himself.
Still is. But who wants to hear his recent “Murder Most Foul” and read Dylan’s scathing lyrics about the assassination of JFK, the killing that started the slow decay that has resulted in such masked madness. “And please, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” he tells us in capital letters for emphasis. Exactly what all the mainstream media have done, of course, and not by accident.
There are no alibis.
“How does it feel/To be on your own/with no direction home/A complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?”
It was in the mid-1960s when confidence in knowing where home was and how to get there disappeared into thin air. If you left mommy and daddy, could you ever get back from where you were going? Who had the directions?
Absolutes were melting and relativity was widespread. Life was wild and the CIA was planning to make it wilder and more confusing with the introduction of LSD on a vast scale. MKUltra was expanding its scope. Operation Mockingbird was singing so many tunes that heads were spinning, as planned.
The national security state killers were in the saddle, having already murdered President Kennedy and Malcolm X as they sharpened their knives for many more to come. The peace candidate, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had been elected nine months earlier with 61.1% of the popular vote and went immediately to work secretly expanding the war against Vietnam. War as an invisible virus. Who knew?
Who, but a small anti-war contingent, wanted to know?
War takes different forms, and the will to ignorance and historical amnesia endure. War is a disease. Disease is weaponized for war. In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected on a “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War and then ramped it up to monstrous proportions, only to be reelected in 1972 by carrying 49 out of 50 states.
Who wants to know now? The historian Howard Zinn once said correctly that this country’s greatest problem wasn’t disobedience but obedience.
What’s behind the masks? The lockstep?
On the same day that Dylan released “Like a Rolling Stone,” Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, just back from a “fact-finding” trip to Vietnam, recommended to LBJ that U.S. troop levels in Vietnam be increased to 175,000 and that the U.S. should increase its bombing of North Vietnam dramatically.
This was the same McNamara who, in October 1963, had agreed with JFK when he signed NSAM 263 calling for the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel from Vietnam by the end of 1963 and the remainder by the end of 1965. One of the moves that got Kennedy’s head blown open.
Poor McNamara, the fog of war must have clouded his conscience, confused the poor boy, just like Secretary of State Colin Powell holding up that vile vial of “anthrax” at the United Nations on February 5, 2003 and lying to the world about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Powell recently said, “I knew I didn’t have any choice. He’s the President.” How “painful,” to use his word, it must have been for the poor guy, lying so that so many Iraqis could be slaughtered. Of course, he had no choice. These war criminals all wear masks. And have no choice.
Masks, or demonic possession, or both. You?
Also in that fateful year 1965, far out of sight and out of mind for most Americans, the CIA planned and assisted in the slaughter of more than a million Indonesians, led by their man, General Suharto. This led to the coup against President Sukarno, who two years earlier had been on good terms with JFK as they worked to solve the interrelated issues of Indonesia and Vietnam. Their meeting planned for early 1964 was cancelled in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
And the politicians and media luminaries came out in their masks and told the public that communists everywhere were out to get them.
It’s tough being on your own. It hurts to think too much. Or think for yourself, at least. To obey an authority higher than your bosses. “I was tricked” is some sort of mantra, is it not?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for you
Dylan was lost and disgusted when he wrote the song. His own music sickened him, which, for an artist, means he sickened himself. He had just returned from a tour of England and was sick of people telling him how much they loved his music when he didn’t. He needed to change.
What else is the point of art but change? If you’re dead, or afraid of getting dead, you aren’t going to change. You’re stuck. Stuck is dead. Why wear a mask if you know who you are?
Knowledge, or more accurately, pseudo-knowledge or mainstream media lies, is a tomb “the mystery tramp” sold to us, a place to hide to avoid pain and guilt.
I have read more books than anyone I know. It sickens me.
I know too much. That sickens me.
I sicken myself. All the news sickens me.
I know so much no one believes me.
As Francesco Serpico once told me: “It’s all lies.”
Of course. Dylan and Serpico are blood brothers.
Only art tells the truth. Real art.
Not bullshit pop art. Some say “Like a Rolling Stone” is about Edie Sedgwick, “the girl of the year” in 1965 and one of Andy Warhol’s superstars. Perhaps to a degree it is, but it’s far more than that. It’s about us.
Poor Edie was poisoned by her wealthy family at a young age and barely had a chance. She was an extreme example of a rather common American story. People poisoned in the cradle. Thinking of her got me thinking of Andy Warhol, the death obsessed hoarder, the guy who called his studio “The Factory” in a conscious or unconscious revelation of his art and persona, his wigs and masks and the hold he has had on American culture all these years. Isn’t he the ultimate celebrity?
Warhol once took my photo on a deserted street. His and my secret but this is the truth. West 47th Street on an early Sunday morning, 1980. I guess he thought he was doing art or collecting images for his museum of dead heads. When I asked him why, he said I had an interesting face.
I told him he did too, rather transparent and creepy, but I didn’t want to capture him. He was a ghost with a camera, a face like a death mask, trying to capture a bit of life. I told him I didn’t give him permission to shoot me, but he turned and walked away into the morning mist. The shooters always just walk away in pseudo-innocence.
I then went down the street to the Gotham Book Mart that was my destination and asked James Joyce why he had written “The Dead,” and Joyce, secretive as ever, quoted himself, “Ed,” he said, “Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” Now that was direction.
Only those who know how to play and be guided by intuition are able to escape the living tomb of so-called knowledge; what Dylan called, lifelessness. But that was from “Desolation Row,” released as the closing track of Highway 61 Revisited on August 30, 1965. The only acoustic song on the album. Slow it down to make the point another way. “Like a Rolling Stone” was the opening track.
Do you feel all alone or part of a masked gang roaming the streets incognito? Miss and Mr. Lonely, does that mask help? How do you feel?
Desolation means very lonely. From Latin, de, completely, solare, lonely.
Does that mask help? Do you feel alone together now, one of the crowd?
Do you really want to know about desolation row? It’s here. It was here in 1965, too. Only the true lonely know how it feels to really be all alone.
The Umbrella People, those who some call the deep state or secret government under whose protection all the politicians work, say they want to protect us all from death and disease. They are lying bastards who’ve gotten so many to imitate their masked ways. They can only sing a mockingbird’s song.
Listen to real singers. Dylan has arched the years, as true artists do. Who has paid close attention to what he said this year about the assassination of President Kennedy in his song, “Murder Most Foul”? Or were many caught up in the propaganda surrounding corona virus, and rather than contemplating his indictment of the U.S. government and its media accomplices, were they contemplating their navels to see if a virus had secreted itself in there. Viruses lurk everywhere, they say, and the corporate media made certain to circulate a vaccine about the truth in Dylan’s song. This is normal operating procedure.
We are still on Desolation Row.
“Take Off the Masks.” That was the title of a book by Rev. Malcolm Boyd that I reviewed long ago. He was a gay priest who decided that his mask was a lie. He came out into the light of truth. He had guts.
It is time for everyone to take off the masks. Escape from Desolation Row by seeing what’s going on behind our backs.
Listen to Dylan, long ago – today:
At midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
And they bring them to the factory
Where their heart attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
Everybody’s shouting
“Which side are you on?”


offguardian--2020-07-24--Discussion Thread: Mask Day!

Discussion Thread: Mask Day!

It ’ s July 24th and , as of today , it is now a regulation under UK law that people wear masks ( or face coverings of some kind ) inside shops , stores and supermarkets .
Not on the street , or inside pubs and restaurants ( which have been open for weeks ) , but inside shops and on public transport .
Breaking this rule could result in £100 fine .
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said , when he announced the rules , that these measures were meant to protect retail staff : However , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not apply to staff , only customers .
The problem that will arise is that no seems to be sure whose job it is to enforce these rules .
Many of the supermarket chains have said that enforcing the rules is not their job .
ASDA , Tesco and Sainsbury ’ s all released statements on the same theme : while they will request people “ do their part ” , they will NOT be responsible for enforcing the rules .
While some police officials have pointed out there are simply too many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have any hope of widely enforcing the rules .
Have you been forced to wear a mask ?
Are your local stores following the rules ?
If so , how are they enforcing them ?
We ’ re very keen to hear our readers ’ experiences .
Please post them below .

It’s July 24th and, as of today, it is now a regulation under UK law that people wear masks (or face coverings of some kind) inside shops, stores and supermarkets.
Not on the street, or inside pubs and restaurants (which have been open for weeks), but inside shops and on public transport. Breaking this rule could result in £100 fine.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, when he announced the rules, that these measures were meant to protect retail staff:
Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis.”
However, it should be noted that these regulations do not apply to staff, only customers.
The problem that will arise is that no seems to be sure whose job it is to enforce these rules.
Many of the supermarket chains have said that enforcing the rules is not their job. ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all released statements on the same theme: while they will request people “do their part”, they will NOT be responsible for enforcing the rules. While some police officials have pointed out there are simply too many stores and too few police officers to have any hope of widely enforcing the rules.
Have you been forced to wear a mask? Are your local stores following the rules? If so, how are they enforcing them?
We’re very keen to hear our readers’ experiences. Please post them below.


offguardian--2020-07-27--WATCH: The Face Mask Debate

WATCH: The Face Mask Debate

Digi-Debates is a website and youtube channel which hosts online academic debates on important topical issues of the day .
Their latest edition , Vol 7 , was titled “ The Mask Debate ” and originally live-streamed on Friday the 24th of July and moderated by Petar Josic , the producer .
We encourage you all to visit their website and follow their youtube channel and their twitter .
With mandatory masking being enacted by governments around the world , in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus , many questions have surfaced as to whether or not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think ?
Do public mask mandates help curb the spread of the virus ?
David Kyle Johnson is a professor of philosophy at King ’ s College ( PA ) , who specializes in ( among other things ) logic , argumentation , philosophy of science , and the refutation of pseudoscience .
And he also he maintains a blog for Psychology Today , called “ A Logical Take , ” where he routinely identifies fallacious arguments and debunks pseudoscience .
You can read his full bio here and his written response to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Denis Rancourt holds B.Sc.
, M.Sc .
and Ph.D. ( University of Toronto ) university degrees in physics .
He has been a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ( NSERC ) of Canada international post-doctoral candidate in prestigious research laboratories in both France and The Netherlands .
He became a national NSERC University Research Fellow , in Canada .
He was a professor of physics at the University of Ottawa for 23 years , attaining the highest academic rank of tenured Full Professor .
You can read his full bio here , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t Work ” , here .

Digi-Debates is a website and youtube channel which hosts online academic debates on important topical issues of the day. Their latest edition, Vol 7, was titled “The Mask Debate” and originally live-streamed on Friday the 24th of July and moderated by Petar Josic, the producer.
We encourage you all to visit their website and follow their youtube channel and their twitter.
The Resolution
With mandatory masking being enacted by governments around the world, in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, many questions have surfaced as to whether or not these measures work. What do you think?
Do public mask mandates help curb the spread of the virus?
Affirming the Resolution
David Kyle Johnson is a professor of philosophy at King’s College (PA), who specializes in (among other things) logic, argumentation, philosophy of science, and the refutation of pseudoscience. And he also he maintains a blog for Psychology Today, called “A Logical Take,” where he routinely identifies fallacious arguments and debunks pseudoscience.
You can read his full bio here and his written response to Dr Rancourt’s work here.
Negative to the Resolution
Denis Rancourt holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. (University of Toronto) university degrees in physics. He has been a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada international post-doctoral candidate in prestigious research laboratories in both France and The Netherlands. He became a national NSERC University Research Fellow, in Canada. He was a professor of physics at the University of Ottawa for 23 years, attaining the highest academic rank of tenured Full Professor.
You can read his full bio here, and his paper “Why Masks Don’t Work”, here.


offguardian--2020-07-27--The Ultimate Divide and Conquer

The Ultimate Divide and Conquer

Western civilization , led by the US government and media , has embarked upon a campaign of mass psychological terrorism designed to cover for the collapsing economy , set up a new pretext for Wall Street ’ s ongoing plunder expedition , radically escalate the police state , deeply traumatize people into submission to total social conformity , and radically aggravate the anti-social , anti-human atomization of the people .
The pretext for this abomination is an epidemic which objectively is comparable to the seasonal flu and is caused by the same kind of Coronavirus we ’ ve endured so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The global evidence is converging on the facts : This flu is somewhat more contagious than the norm and is especially dangerous for those who are aged and already in poor health from pre-existing maladies .
It is not especially dangerous for the rest of the population .
The whole concept of “ lockdowns ” is exactly upside down , exactly the wrong way any sane society would respond to this circumstance .
It ’ s the vulnerable who should be shielded while nature takes its course among the general population , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Dominionist-technocratic rigidity can ’ t prevent an epidemic from cycling through the population in spite of the delusions of that religion , especially since Western societies began their measures far too late anyway .
So it ’ s best to let herd immunity develop as fast as it naturally will , at which time the virus recedes from lack of hosts ( and is likely to mutate in a milder direction along the way ) .
This is the only way to bring a safer environment for all including the most vulnerable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rejected the sane , scientific route in favor of doomed-to-fail attempts at a forcible violent segregation and sterilization is proof that governments aren ’ t concerned with the public health ( as if we didn ’ t know that already from a thousand policies of poisoning the environment while gutting the health care system ) , but are very ardent to use this crisis they artificially generated in order radically to escalate their police state power toward totalitarian goals .
The whole concept of self-isolation and anti-social “ distancing ” is radically anti-human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be social creatures living in tight-knit groups .
Although modern societies ideologically and socioeconomically work to massify and atomize people , nevertheless almost all of us still seek close human companionship in our lives .
This terror campaign seeks to blast to pieces any remaining human closeness , which means any remaining humanity as such , the better to isolate individual atoms for subjection to total domination .
Arendt wrote profoundly on this goal of totalitarian governments , though even she didn ’ t envision a state-driven cult of the literal physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ atom .
So far the people are submitting completely to a terror campaign dedicated to the total eradication of whatever community was left in the world , and especially whatever community was starting to be rebuilt .
Some dream of this terror campaign somehow bringing about a magical collective transformation .
They don ’ t explain how that is supposed to happen when everyone ’ s so terrorized they ’ re desperate to detach physically from their own shadows , let alone physically come together with other people .
But any kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of movement-building , requires close person-to-person contact .
It seems that for most erstwhile self-alleged dissidents , the fact that social media is no substitute for face-to-face organizing and group action , a fact hitherto universally acknowledged by these dissidents , is another truth suddenly to be jettisoned replaced by its complete antithesis .
Thus the terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to abdicate all activism and all prospect for all future activism , for as long as they remain insane with the fever of this propaganda terror .
Far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to fear and loathe all human contact , all companionship , all closeness , all things which ever made us human in the first place .
Prior totalitarian regimes sought this lack of contact and trust through networks of informers .
These networks are part of today ’ s terror campaign as well , encouraged from above and spontaneously arising from below as a result of the feeling of terror as well as the exercise of prior petty-evil intentions on the part of petty-evil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potential is far worse than this .
Now the regimes aspiring to total domination have terrorized and brainwashed the vast majority of people into an automatic physical distrust of all other people .
One no longer fears that someone is an informer , but fears the very existence of another human being .
Any kind of human relations , from personal friendship and romance to friendly social gatherings and clubs to social and cultural movements become impossible under such circumstances .
This threatens to be the end of the very concept of shared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anthill of slave atoms with no consciousness beyond fear and the most animal concern for food and shelter , which already is allowed or denied in the same way experimenters do with lab rats .
And the more people fear and loathe the literal physical existence of all other people , the more the situation becomes ripe for every epidemic of murder , from the spiking rate of domestic violence and killings to incipient lynch mobs to pogroms to Nazi-style extermination campaigns .
This is the system ’ s end goal .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trend of today leads .
All of it is trumped up over an epidemic which objectively is a flu season somewhat rougher than average .
Why do the people want to surrender and throw away all reality and future prospect of shared humanity , happiness , freedom , well-being , over so little ?
Is this really a terminal totalitarian death cult , the globe as one massive Jonestown ?
So far it seems this is what the majority wants .
If they don ’ t really want this consummation of universal death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ d better snap out of their terror-induced mental delirium fast , before it ’ s too late .
Russ Bangs is a writer and organic food grower from New Jersey , United States .
He blogs at Volatility and can be found on Facebook .

Russ Bangs
It has frequently been observed that terror can rule absolutely only over people who are isolated against each other and that therefore one of the primary concerns of tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from people acting together, acting in concert; isolated people are powerless by definition.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Western civilization, led by the US government and media, has embarked upon a campaign of mass psychological terrorism designed to cover for the collapsing economy, set up a new pretext for Wall Street’s ongoing plunder expedition, radically escalate the police state, deeply traumatize people into submission to total social conformity, and radically aggravate the anti-social, anti-human atomization of the people.
The pretext for this abomination is an epidemic which objectively is comparable to the seasonal flu and is caused by the same kind of Coronavirus we’ve endured so long without totalitarian rampages and mass insanity.
The global evidence is converging on the facts: This flu is somewhat more contagious than the norm and is especially dangerous for those who are aged and already in poor health from pre-existing maladies. It is not especially dangerous for the rest of the population.
The whole concept of “lockdowns” is exactly upside down, exactly the wrong way any sane society would respond to this circumstance.
It’s the vulnerable who should be shielded while nature takes its course among the general population, who should go about life as usual. Dominionist-technocratic rigidity can’t prevent an epidemic from cycling through the population in spite of the delusions of that religion, especially since Western societies began their measures far too late anyway.
So it’s best to let herd immunity develop as fast as it naturally will, at which time the virus recedes from lack of hosts (and is likely to mutate in a milder direction along the way). This is the only way to bring a safer environment for all including the most vulnerable.
The fact that most societies have rejected the sane, scientific route in favor of doomed-to-fail attempts at a forcible violent segregation and sterilization is proof that governments aren’t concerned with the public health (as if we didn’t know that already from a thousand policies of poisoning the environment while gutting the health care system), but are very ardent to use this crisis they artificially generated in order radically to escalate their police state power toward totalitarian goals.
The whole concept of self-isolation and anti-social “distancing” is radically anti-human. We evolved over millions of years to be social creatures living in tight-knit groups. Although modern societies ideologically and socioeconomically work to massify and atomize people, nevertheless almost all of us still seek close human companionship in our lives.
(I suspect most of the internet police-state-mongers are not only fascists at heart but are confirmed misanthropic loners who couldn’t care less about human closeness.)
This terror campaign seeks to blast to pieces any remaining human closeness, which means any remaining humanity as such, the better to isolate individual atoms for subjection to total domination. Arendt wrote profoundly on this goal of totalitarian governments, though even she didn’t envision a state-driven cult of the literal physical repulsion of every atom from every other atom.
So far the people are submitting completely to a terror campaign dedicated to the total eradication of whatever community was left in the world, and especially whatever community was starting to be rebuilt.
Some dream of this terror campaign somehow bringing about a magical collective transformation. They don’t explain how that is supposed to happen when everyone’s so terrorized they’re desperate to detach physically from their own shadows, let alone physically come together with other people. But any kind of political or social action, any kind of movement-building, requires close person-to-person contact.
It seems that for most erstwhile self-alleged dissidents, the fact that social media is no substitute for face-to-face organizing and group action, a fact hitherto universally acknowledged by these dissidents, is another truth suddenly to be jettisoned replaced by its complete antithesis.
Thus the terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to abdicate all activism and all prospect for all future activism, for as long as they remain insane with the fever of this propaganda terror.
Far more profoundly and evoking despair, the terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to fear and loathe all human contact, all companionship, all closeness, all things which ever made us human in the first place. Prior totalitarian regimes sought this lack of contact and trust through networks of informers.
These networks are part of today’s terror campaign as well, encouraged from above and spontaneously arising from below as a result of the feeling of terror as well as the exercise of prior petty-evil intentions on the part of petty-evil individuals.
But today’s totalitarian potential is far worse than this. Now the regimes aspiring to total domination have terrorized and brainwashed the vast majority of people into an automatic physical distrust of all other people. One no longer fears that someone is an informer, but fears the very existence of another human being.
Any kind of human relations, from personal friendship and romance to friendly social gatherings and clubs to social and cultural movements become impossible under such circumstances. This threatens to be the end of the very concept of shared humanity, to be replaced by an anthill of slave atoms with no consciousness beyond fear and the most animal concern for food and shelter, which already is allowed or denied in the same way experimenters do with lab rats.
And the more people fear and loathe the literal physical existence of all other people, the more the situation becomes ripe for every epidemic of murder, from the spiking rate of domestic violence and killings to incipient lynch mobs to pogroms to Nazi-style extermination campaigns.
This is the system’s end goal. It’s the logical end where every trend of today leads. All of it is trumped up over an epidemic which objectively is a flu season somewhat rougher than average.
Why do the people want to surrender and throw away all reality and future prospect of shared humanity, happiness, freedom, well-being, over so little? Is this really a terminal totalitarian death cult, the globe as one massive Jonestown?
So far it seems this is what the majority wants. If they don’t really want this consummation of universal death in spirit, emotion and body, they’d better snap out of their terror-induced mental delirium fast, before it’s too late.
Russ Bangs is a writer and organic food grower from New Jersey, United States. He blogs at Volatility and can be found on Facebook.