Covid 9-11: Of Mice and (Straw) Men

A straw man is a form of argumentation which has the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument is not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false one.

This method of argumentation has become ubiquitous today, and is nowhere more evident than in this recent televised clip featuring an indignant Melbourne nurse as she castigates the “brave covid deniers” who attened the July 24 World Freedom Rally. For the record, I consider this ad a piece of offensive, cowardly, sickening, gas lighting, virtue signalling propaganda, which needs to be called out, and I invite its creators to debate me on it.

I would welcome a proper public debate from anyone right now, but debate seems to be off the table, along with any form of civil discussion which does not embrace government and media talking points. Official truth is always backed up by “the science”, and questioning “the science” is simply not allowed – as if science itself is not a method of inquiry.

Trauma and the Shaping of the Collective Will

“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. -- Hermann Goring

In a fascinating conversation with a panel of paralegals and expert witnesses, Mattias Desmet explains the current situation using the Freudian concepts of free floating anxiety and mass formation (massenbildung). These concepts perfectly explain the pattern of fascist propaganda, the rise of totalitarianism and the state of catatonic hypnosis we see today in the gen pop.

Afflicted with a general sense of discomfort, nervousness, worry, and anxiety, group identification offers a safe harbour, a rock upon which to anchor one’s world view. This may include the identification of a perceived external threat, often magnified beyond realistic proportions.

Indeed, we have repeatedly heard from our esteemed leaders that we are fighting ‘a deadly invisible enemy’. If this sounds familiar, I invite you to consider the propaganda used to launch the war on terror. The fact that the same script can be trotted out today simply shows that it works.

Massenbildung however does not apply equally to all. Like hypnosis, there seems to be a small percentage of the population who for whatever reason aren’t susceptible.

Most react to trauma by seeking comfort in conformity and group identity, and will eagerly swallow whatever narrative the ruling authority peddles, no matter how illogical or nonsensical, if it offers some measure of comfort. This is not a moral judgement. These people are quite often intelligent and well meaning, and generally motivated by a sense of the common good. They see their actions and sacrifices as being for the good of the collective, for the community. Others seem to be motivated more by reason and a desire to understand the truth of their reality for themselves, which may come from a distrust in authority. Where most intelligent people, when faced with a crisis, will shut down, fall into line and follow orders reflexively, there seems to be an outlying group which tends to be more apprehensive; quite often disagreeable and argumentative.

At times there even seems to be a genuine concern on the part of the former group to reach out to the latter, whose protests are seen as evidence of their psychopathology. It is never acknowledged however that the dissenting group might have legitimate grievances. Rather, in a strange circular logic, they are presumed to be wrong, in virtue of their dissent. Non-conformity becomes synonymous with denial. They are dismissed as ‘conspiracy theorists’ and misinformation spreaders; a danger to the collective.

The identification of an ‘out group’ which can be easily scapegoated (covid deniers, anti-vaxxers etc) is also useful in the context of mass formation.

Freud compares massenbildung to hypnotism, and indeed the gen pop appears to be in a state of collective hypnosis, or to borrow another word from the German, schockstarre - being paralyzed by fear. In this traumatised state any questioning of the official narrative is seen as a threat, and must be shut down in any way possible. Because such questions often arise from healthy skepticism and simple observation, you can expect to see all manner of fallacious arguments brought to bear.

Silencing the dissident voice

What might the world look like through the eyes of the dissenter?

As an old school commie I have always maintained that public health should not be for private profit. I think this just goes without saying. There is nothing more important or essential than our health. Most liberals would agree, and its not surprising that will rally behind proposals for universal health insurance aka medicare for all as a panacea for the current state of our healthcare systems.

They miss the point. When I say public health should not be for profit, I don’t mean it should be handed off to a third party financial intermediary. Insurance companies are for-profit entities whose only motivation is dipping their grubby fingers into the public purse. “Then how do we fund it”? It stands to reason that if insurance companies can find a way to make a profit out of delivering a service, it should be able to be funded directly, and more cost effectively.

I share the same position on for-profit medicine and medically mandated treatments which are invariably a one-size-fits-all approach to delivering healthcare. My preferred model is integrated medicine, taking the best practices from different traditions and applying them on a case by case basis. I would like to see traditional Chinese medicine, ayurveda, acupuncture and other approved practices publicly funded, and doctors trained to deliver the best and most appropriate health care on an individual basis. Obviously publicly funded, patient oriented healthcare is not something which we are ever likely to see. At least not without a radical restructuring of our political and economic systems. It’s just not how our world operates.

How does our world operate?

When you strip away the adornments of ‘democracy’ and ‘rule of law’, our society operates on a crude class system. We are ruled by a corporate and financial oligarchy who control the majority of the world’s wealth through private ownership. They own the pharma companies, they control the public health bureaucracies, and have their fists up the backsides of the self serving muppets who pose as our elected representatives.

These are the real movers and shakers of our world. The ones who determine policy at the highest levels. The ones from whom the preening, prancing boot lickers of the political class take their orders. The ones who determine what our ‘sustainable development goals’ will be. The ones who write the policy papers for the World Health Organisation, like this one from September 2019 which calls for the acceptance of a universal vaccine mandate.

This is my world view, based on cold, hard material analysis. It is not pretty. It is not comfortable. It is not the fairy tale we are taught to believe in. Where the majority see billionaire philanthropy, I see money laundering through private non-profits. Where the majority see sustainable development, I see racketeering by resource and energy conglomerates. Where the majority see a global pandemic, I see "a reset of our economic and social foundations". Where the majority see mass vaccinations as the way back to normality, I see pharma companies cashing in on the biggest medical fraud in history.

This is the position I come from when I question the sidelining of effective, cheap and readily available off-the-shelf oral medications in favour of dubious injectables. This is the position I come from when I query the emergency use authorisation of medical interventions which don’t meet the legal definition of vaccines, which are demonstrably not fit for purpose, and which have been shown to result in death and serious injury in an alarming number of cases. This is the position I come from when I ask when did diagnosis without clinical presentation become a thing? Why are healthy people being treated as disease spreaders when they cannot spread disease? What happened to serology and why are we being forced to take invasive and unreliable PCR tests? Why are we locked in our homes when only 0.01% of the population are affected by Covid, most with zero to mild symptoms? Why in god’s name do we have the army on the streets in what is at the very worst a manageable and minor health crisis?

It’s not easy being in the dissenting group. Apprehensive, disagreeable and argumentative perhaps, but also apparently immune to the allure of massenbildung. For me there are serious questions which need to be answered before I will accept the legitimacy of mask mandates, social distancing, stay at home orders, contact tracing, vaccine certificates, and having a temperature ‘gun’ pointed at my head when I walk into a restaurant. To me these things look less like a legitimate response to a public health emergency, and more like open fascism.

For daring to raise such concerns I am called anti-science, anti vaxxer, covid denier and disease spreader. I’ve been deplatformed (currently kicked off facebook for another 30 days), laughed at and called every name under the sun, and I’m still waiting for someone to answer my questions or engage with the actual content of my arguments.

The truth? You can’t handle the truth!

Straw-manning is weak and cowardly. Straw-manning is deceitful and manipulative. Straw-manning is a desperate attempt to delegitimise an argument which cannot be taken at face value; to suppress a truth which cuts against the agreed version of reality, which transgresses the group identity, which threatens to plunge the individual back into a state of discomfort, nervousness, worry, and anxiety.

Could it be that they misrepresent me because they’re afraid that I may be right? Could it be I am labeled ‘denier’, and ‘anti’ this or that dogma because the heresy I speak threatens their unconscious association with the group?

“It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realise that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of the nation, that the position of the individual is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole.”
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1924

Covid-19 is a trauma psy-op. No wonder the Melbourne nurse speaks with such indignant rage. How dare anyone protest the stripping away of their basic human rights at a time like this. As one critic responded, It’s like turning your light on during the blitz.

Trust 'The Experts' for they alone reveal unto thee 'The Science' most consensual and sacred. Heed not the warning of the equally qualified, though they now number in the tens of thousands. For only the Telebox and political clergy can reveal the Word and the Truth of 'The Science'. Doubt it not, and know thy place.” - Thom Forester

Massenbildung, like every form of hypnotism, relies on the attribution of authority. In the case of Covid 9-11, the cult of the leader has been replaced by the cult of “the science”. As if the War on Terror, in fact a war on an abstract noun, was not insane enough, we have now created an abstract dictator. It’s no wonder that anyone stepping outside the range of acceptable speech in this new totalitarianism is labeled a ‘covid denier’, or by proxy a ‘science denier’. It’s always easier to attack a straw man than confront the real subject of the argument, and in this strange new world in which we now find ourselves, questioning ‘the science’ is tantamount to high treason.