Day Whatever + 9
Freezing out there this morning. Forgot to take my gloves. Bear with me. This edition was a tough assignment.
So I got vaccinated yesterday. You all need to get it done if you haven’t already. Mind you, you need to be aware that it doesn’t immunise you against being infected by my daily dose of mindstuff.
The mangled sign has been removed from the signpost. Whether by the COVID-19 infected signpost vandal or an essential signpost maintenance worker I don’t know.
By now of course you’ve all bought into and are totally convinced by my theory of viral induced signpost vandalism. I’ve done it through storytelling, through homespun secular homily, and oddball humour. I’ve slipped it past your intellectual defences while you’ve been enthralled by my recollections of family, and while you’ve been laughing, distracted by my strange sense of humour.
Some of you have been distracted by your own focus on the autobiographical nature of it.
All the while my purpose has been to slip ideas into your unconscious minds unfiltered by the conscious mind. To ensure that those ideas are embedded in the metaphorical arsehole of opinion and belief and that they remain there.
There is madness in my method.
The pandemic has provided a golden opportunity for just that. The viral-like spread of conspiracy theory. The effects of the pandemic and lockdown on the mental balance and well being of liberal democracies, and social cohesion, could well be as damaging and longlasting as the effects on economies.
The anti-vaccination conspiracy is an obvious example.
As is the conspiracy theory linking 5G cell towers to the spread of the virus. It has taken hold around the world and is becoming rampant in New Zealand. I’ve mentioned earlier that 5G radiation is non-ionising and not harmful, whereas the sun’s radiation is ionising and potentially harmful. The science means nothing however, in the face of belief. We have already witnessed an attempt to burn down a tower. Many believers, being ignorant of which towers are 3G, 4G or 5G-capable have focused their attention on all towers. Ironically they actually spread their conspiracy theories through the very communications networks they rail against, and on which we all depend for our health and safety in these trying times.
What most people don’t know is that these conspiracy theories have been picked up and are being widely and actively promoted by the same groups that infected the mind of the Christchurch mosque killer, with the purpose of sowing discord and creating chaos in the liberal democracies of the world. They have become very active in the pandemic for it has created the perfect climate of alarum and despond in which conspiracy theories flourish.
The methodology was trialled by Russia in it’s 2016 online meddling in the Ukranian elections, and deployed again soon after and with some effect in the USA elections. Cambridge Analytica used the same methodology to manipulate voters in the Brexit referendum in the UK, and in elections elsewhere. Sowing scepticism and discord, and creating a climate of distrust in government, in science and other expertise, is at the core of the methodology.
Coincidentally or not, soon after Steve Bannon was ejected from the White House the QAnon conspiracy theory appeared in the USA. It is an all enveloping theory thats enfolds within itself a variety of other conspiracy theories like deep state fearmongering, satanic pedophilia, New World Order paranoia, and anything else that can be attached to it.
It uses essentially the same methodology as that developed by the Russians and Cambridge Analytica, without the need for the same level of financial backing.
It had its home in a webportal called 8chan, which hosted a range of Alt-Right, neo-Nazi, racist, white supremacist, anti-semitic, anti-muslim groups, and was instrumental in the promotion of hate crimes and mass shootings, including the Christchurch massacre.
Qanon is essentially a white nationalist alt-right indoctrination movement that has poached and continues to poach serious concerns and conspiracies, from right across the political spectrum, and to suck people into its mire. The central purpose of the movement is to cause hyper-isolation of its members. Phase 2 is desensitisation, and the final phase is direct violent action in support of the white nationalist agenda.
Which is to disrupt and throw into a state of chaos the liberal democracies that are the target of their indoctrination, in order to instal a new white nationalist order. Sounds hopelessly utopian and it might be, but they are nevertheless trying, and they are very good at what they are doing. It is a sophisticated operation.
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The Christchurch shooter had been caught up in the same hyper isolation and desensitisation on 8chan before he went into the two mosques and murdered 51 people.
8chan was ripped offline by concerned online activists last year. But the movement has moved on and flourishes still, especially so during the enforced isolation of these times. The pandemic has achieved for it the physical and mental isolation necessary for the promotion of its further aims. The pandemic has provided the ideal climate for the spread of its aims camouflaged within whatever concerns and conspiracies are appropriated to its own use.
QAnon ideas have now made their way into Maori political discourse. It is hugely ironical that this white nationalist alt-right indoctrination movement has now enfolded within itself an increasingly large number of Maori, as well as other New Zealanders. As at this morning the “Kotahitanga Movement Aotearoa NO 5G” group on this platform has 12,890 members. It is not the only New Zealand based anti-5G movement being manipulated at arms length by QAnon activists who are providing the fast circulating memes picked up and adopted as reality by unsuspecting folk on social media.
This particular 5G conspiracy theory has also leaked into the network of military veterans.
As a conspiracy theory in New Zealand it is at first glance hard to see how it might be linked to a white nationalist agenda. And it isn’t directly linked. 5G activists however are already becoming involved in actual and threatened acts of arson. Some in my wider network have been abused and threatened with violence for opposing the conspiracy theorists. We have countless thousands of vulnerable folk sitting at home, isolated and vulnerable to insidious mindstuff. Many of them becoming more and more agitated and angry at being cut off from their perception of themselves.
Where might it end? With social and economic disruption assured, what are the chances of this becoming a serious problem. We have already seen how it motivated the actions of just one person in Christchurch.
Having already let you in on the secret that I myself have been attempting to infect you with my own conspiracy theory, I won’t be offended if you interpret all this as another.