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Originally Posted by Lightspeed
How is this scam being run, how was the buy-in of the overwhelming majority of the world's experts achieved? How come places more aligned with best practices (masks, etc.) are doing so much better than those not? How do I get hold of whatever you're smoking?
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Germany, Israel, et al are adhering to the full stack of "best practices" (Germany especially has N95 masks as standard) and what can we say about their surging cases? It would have been worse if they just let it burn through? Dare I say that it would be the same, and likely better health outcome if people were allowed free movement with less stress & anxiety. Typically, neighbouring countries where one follows NPIs, and another doesn't their daily cases ebb and flow almost in tandem.
How did a critical mass of experts fall upon the exact same conclusion? Is the dogma and stigmitization not evident? Plenty of examples of dissenting people losing their jobs, having their peer-reviewed papers "temporarily retracted". Twitter accounts suspended, youtube videos removed, Police paying you a visit because of a Facebook post. If you need your paycheck, and your reputation cannot withstand the stigma you may just say and do anything that fits within the Overton Window just to keep your head above water.
Incentives matter. Life is easier if you just go along with what is socially acceptable.
I don't think anyone is in control. I think to get everyone in the pandemic mode we encouraged snitching, shaming, fear, and abundance of caution as if these were virtues. By an large we were all in need of a common goal, so this became it. Governments are excellent at starting wars, but terrible at ending them. So this train is going to continue until the wheels come off because governments in the 21st century also don't have any balls. Bureaucratic hell is our ruin.
The best description (but shitty invented term) I've seen is Dr Mattias Desmet's Mass Formation concept. Probably better described as Mass Hypnosis, he describes the ingredients for totalitarianism as:
- Lack of social bond (anti-religion, anti-patriotism sentiment growing. Subreddits give greater sense of belonging than a flag or religious icon)
- Large swathe of society with lack of meaning (see Bullshit Jobs)
- Free floating anxiety
- Free floating frustration
These boxes have been checked for well over a decade. Trump almost solved it, but the pandemic solved all of it in the most unhealthy way possible.
- We can now bond over public health actions (This is our World War moment, but instead of grabbing a rifle, just sit down and watch Netflix!)
- We now have meaning! #InThisTogether!
- We finally know what we're anxious about, it's the virus!
- We finally know what we're frustrated about, it's COVIDIOTs and anti-vax nutters!
But this isn't exactly totalitarianism. It's not from a single government, nation, or originator. We have converged on grass-roots totalitarianism somehow. I don't believe world leaders and public health advisors thought their suggestions would mutate into this monster.