Nothing motivates and mobilizes people quite like propaganda. Governments know people are tribal and that in order for any semblance of uniformity or unity to be achieved, hearts and minds must be conditioned and won over, and that those people must exert pressure on the reluctant to fall in line and then ostracize them when they fail to do so.
America has been almost completely shut down–all except for the world’s richest and most powerful corporations, that is. This crisis has shown us that we are and have for some time been completely and utterly dependent upon them. They ARE our infrastructure. A huge, inextricable part of it, anyway. It’s how they’re often able to skirt or even flout laws with impunity–they’ve got society over a barrel. When the smoke clears, they’ll be the ones left standing and they’ll have things exactly as they’ve always wanted them.
Yes, I understand the need for social distancing and quarantining, and the need for propaganda to give those concepts wings. I get it. What’s horrifying to me is that so many people fell right into lockstep with very little persuasion and started parroting the rhetoric verbatim.
This is heavy shit and should be done with great reluctance and awareness. The powers that be told us to hand our freedoms over to them for safekeeping or DIE and some of us said “Ok, yeah, sure thing! It’s for the greater good!” Some of us said, “Alright, we’ll err on the side of caution and comply, but we’ll be watching your every move.” And still others have refused to alter their lifestyles in any capacity because they believe it’s all a hoax. This is a mess.
Wealthy celebrities posting videos of their worry-free #quarantineandchill experiences aren’t the ones having to ask themselves how they’ll survive the economic fallout from this. They stand to lose nothing. Hollywood will still be around and pouring billions into poorly-written CGI extravaganzas while the people clamoring for the entertainment value they provide live in squalor.
Be careful. Do what the experts say to do while this plays out, because we ignore them at our own peril. What if you ignore the warnings and are wrong? That’s a hell of a risk, but so is handing the keys to the government and corporate America(is there a difference anymore?) and trusting them to do right by us. You can’t trust them, and that’s why this is so difficult and scary. Freedoms should be surrendered with great reluctance, but at the same time ignorance should not drive that decision-making process.
It’s also time to practice discernment when assessing these things. It’s easy to make up wacky but plausible conspiracy theories and make them take off. Check it out, I’ll make one up right now: The widespread legalization of marijuana is because the government wanted the herd doped and docile for this fake crisis, making it easier for the national guard to herd them into FEMA camps.”
I’m sure someone’s already said that. I could say that I predicted it in my book Effugium. The dregs of the Earth are culled from the herd by TREE and set adrift on a self-sustaining worldship, sequestered away from the “good” people and given plenty of marijuana to keep them docile.
But that’s all fantasy. It’s all imagination. I’m 100% in favor of marijuana legalization and it’s done wonders for the state of Oklahoma. There’s no statement being made there, political or otherwise. I thought it would be hilarious to have a ship full of stoners with a society built on bad storytelling. But I could easily cram it into some kind of paranoid conspiracy narrative and tell people “See? I saw this coming.”
Focus on reality and established facts and don’t create opinions out of thin air and you’ll be alright. Thoroughly vet the info you allow in your brain, police it like nerds do entertainment franchise canon. Don’t trust the government, but reluctantly allow them to temporarily do what they need to do, and hold every last one of them accountable for everything they do, now more than ever. It’s already given us an opportunity to Flush out the villains, or at least a few of them. More cockroaches will scurry into the light and be exposed before this is all said and done, I’m sure. Talk about actually draining the swamp. And Trump didn’t do it–the people did it. People found that info and made it viral.
Hehehehe, look at that drowning rat trying to scramble to safety. A whole lot of people have waited a long time for something like this to nail that guy on.
“I wasn’t there!” Oh, right, and the buddies who were didn’t text you about it?
This is a serious issue, and I’m taking it seriously. I believe my dad to have contracted the virus, and he’s in isolation awaiting test results. Even so, I’m still wary of all this lockdown stuff. I understand it, but I remain vigilant. We must be careful of the amount of leeway we give the powers that be, because remember, these politicians are mostly career opportunists who have never–let me repeat that–NEVER given a single flying fuck about you or your loved ones. They can’t, because many of them are sociopaths. I don’t think you can rise to that level of power in America now without being one, honestly. Or at least a power-hungry narcissistic. The hunger for power has replaced the conviction to serve. Putting aside George Washington’s many faults, he stepped up to the plate reluctantly and with the desire to give and strengthen. These guys today, they come into it with a desire to take and to control. It’s no coincidence that there are no “Joe the plumber” politicians. They’re all Richie Rich. And Richie Riches suffer from an addiction to the accumulation of wealth and power called greed. They are not suffering right now. They’re in a good place. And as we know, the love of money is the root of all evil. I don’t think even an atheist would deny that. Loving money to the point that you’ll destroy your fellow man to get it is EVIL.
These are the people, though, to whom we have entrusted our lives during this unprecedented(in our lifetime)event. So let’s watch them and make sure they act properly. Let’s not cloud things up with a bunch of “This is a deep state drill orchestrated by the Illuminati and the real thing will usher in the new world order” bullshit, or “There is no virus, this is radiation poisoning from 5G” hogwash. Just calm your down for a minute and think rationally.
Yes, abuses of power during this time can, will, and have already happened. Call them out on those. Don’t let them get away with it. But don’t look crazy, because that blows your credibility away and gets you dismissed as a crackpot when you’re actually harping on something legit. You’ll cry wolf too many times.
In short: don’t trust the govt OR the corporations, but use them, because it’s what we’ve got right now. Sucks, I know, but that’s how it is. We have to work within the structure we exist in. It’s all very confusing and no one else knows anything either. No one.
Patrick Walts 
So true…