A while back, Dilbert creator Scott Adams shared his ‘two movies’ theory — the idea that Donald Trump made people so deranged that we fractured into two separate realities, or ‘two movies’, where we now see the world completely differently, with zero common ground, even while witnessing the exact same events.
It wasn’t a completely new observation, but a succinct way of defining the escalating culture war. A war that has only continued to escalate, to the point where it is now not just two movies, but two movie theatres, in two different cities, on two totally different planets.
The latest escalation, I believe, is Jordan Peterson’s decision to sign up as a content creator with Ben Shapiro’s conservative media network the Daily Wire, along with the launch of the Wire’s new service, Daily Wire+ (some say an ironic nod to CNN+, which was discontinued after just 30 days). It is a new venture that will offer everything from documentaries, to fictional feature films, to children’s shows.
This change is part of a phenomenon that will send us ever deeper into the realm of customising our media consumption habits, a trend whose only logical end is a scenario where anything that clashes with our preferred world view is erased entirely from our experience.
The Peterson move is significant because one would think he on his own is a bigger ‘brand’ than the Daily Wire. For example, he has 2.8 million Twitter followers to their one million. Although he is now suspended from Twitter for the sin of ”deadnaming” Elliot Page, i.e., referring to the actor who used to be an actress called Ellen Page as “her”.
Peterson says he “would rather die” than remove the offending Tweet, and thus will presumably be banned permanently, or until Elon Musk arrives at Twitter HQ with his flamethrower and his crazy ideas about ‘making profit’.
This incident is actually pertinent to the larger point, as Peterson appears to have become increasingly bold and ‘based’ on Twitter lately, perhaps due to his anger about Covid measures, following his initial failure to spot the creeping authoritarianism (a topic he has ironically dedicated much of his working life to examining).
In this light, his move to the Daily Wire is less surprising.
Yet if a figure of such broad mainstream appeal as Peterson, whose advice famously includes cleaning your room and trying your best, has moved to the subscription-only, conservative ghetto of the Daily Wire (admittedly quite a large and very well-appointed ghetto, with perfectly mowed laws and absolutely no litter on the streets) then something is changing.
As well as their recent viral documentary What Is a Woman?, the Daily Wire is now showing feature films starring people like Gina Carano, who was cancelled from Disney’s The Mandalorian for having some opinions, and even independent film legend and Richard Nixon enthusiast Vincent Gallo.
Perhaps more significantly, the Daily Wire has announced it will be investing $100 million in yet another branch called DW Kids, to provide children with programmes that do not try to “turn your kids against you”, as the Daily Wire believes Disney is now committed to doing. And, although this channel was planned before Disney’s recent leaked staff meetings, anyone who saw the latter may think the Daily Wire has a point.
In these leaked Zoom calls, Disney’s corporate president Karey Burke revealed that she had “one transgender child and one pansexual child” (what are the odds?), while an executive producer said she identified as a “bi-romantic asexual” and referred to her (their?) “not at all secret gay agenda” and goal of “adding queerness” to shows wherever possible. (Which may explain why the recent Pixar film Lightyear contained a lesbian kiss, resulting in it being banned in 14 countries.)
One thing for adults, but highly questionable for a company famous for its children’s content, and the kind of thing that would push any ageing Clint Eastwood character, or Daily Wire fan, over the edge.
As the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro puts it: “We feel slapped in the face, we feel that companies like Disney wish to hijack our children… and turn our children against us on behalf of their own values.”
We will increasingly be faced with a choice between what we previously considered mainstream cultural output, now hijacked by woke ideology, and slightly harder to find, possibly lower budget, conservative or at least broadly countercultural content.
There will be no in-between until someone wins.
And at present it’s not clear who that will be. Netflix’s share price has plummeted, and the streaming company is being forced to incorporate adverts, albeit for now only on a cheaper ‘ad tier’ version of the service.
Many cite Netflix’s misfortunes as part of the ‘Go Woke, Go Broke’ phenomenon, and there are hints that the company is getting the message. Following staff outrage over comedian Dave Chappelle daring to tell jokes about trans people, Netflix sent around a memo to employees stating that: “Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.” (Rumour has it than when Netflix recently had to make some lay-offs, the ringleaders of the anti-Chappelle protest were the first to get their cards.)
New media, such as podcasts, also present a threat to the former mainstream — Joe Rogan still has the biggest podcast in the world, and recently survived the attempt to cancel him for his determination to provide a broad range of informed opinions on the Covid pandemic.
The likes of Disney clearly have the edge in terms of movie budgets, but may struggle when it comes to telling compelling stories that people actually want to watch. (Lightyear has performed poorly at the box office.) Blatantly shoehorning ideology into fiction rarely works, especially if it’s a really crap ideology that the vast majority of people can’t stand.
I also tend to think that classic hero stories are inherently conservative. For a start they are all about the individual, and involve such concepts as the necessity of suffering for gaining wisdom and experience, in order to eventually overcome adversity and achieve manhood (or sometimes womanhood, but never bi-romantic asexualhood).
We previously thought of these stories as politically neutral for the most part, before wokeness arrived to tell us they were actually hateful patriarchal tales of privileged (yet fragile) ‘white saviours’.
Star Wars is perhaps the best example. The original films were perfectly realised hero’s journey stories, grounded in Jungian archetypes and loved by almost everyone (except women). Recent Disney films, by contrast, are woke monstrosities, with glaring political messaging (old white men bad, women good, purple-haired women even better, etc.) replacing the inconveniences of compelling characters and satisfying story arcs.
I suspect the Daily Wire, in its fictional content, will be shrewd enough to not simply force its own political messaging down the viewer’s throat, but rather return to that state of apparent ‘neutrality’ that we all enjoyed in the pre-culture war halcyon days of, say, 2013.
And it will have the advantage of the fundamentally conservative nature of so many classic genres and plot-lines. It is no surprise that its new film, Terror on the Prairie, is a western. What is more conservative or more satisfying than a western?
In fact I have just checked my theory, and the blurb for this movie states that “modern audiences will connect with the universal themes of strength, courage, and resilience in the face of evil”. Just like I said, focussing on the universal. Though perhaps laying it on a bit thick with “a movie about fighting for survival and against all odds because the American Dream is too valuable to give up on”.
We get it guys, you love America and you’re not giving up!
But it will be a struggle. In the two movies now playing before us, the woke pseudo mainstream has the money, the political power, the big tech backing, the support from virtually any institution you can name, and the rabidly destructive, un-American instincts of Satan… sorry, been reading too many Daily Wire blurbs.
The new media, sometimes conservative, sometimes centrist, sometimes just aesthetically motivated, has the best ideas and a pure heart. It shows promise, but has a hard road ahead.
I will be backing the rebels and hoping for an epic victory.
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Can anyone help me?
I thought I put lockdownsceptics.org into the URL box but I seem to have arrived at vaccinezealots.org by mistake.
We need to consider all sides of the debate. It’s clear that the vaccines do provide protection. We can’t deny this.
That isn’t clear at all.
The manufacturers themselves say they may not prevent infection and they may not prevent transmission. That they may result in less serious symptoms for those who do get infected.
That’s not a lot of “protection”.
We have also seen – everywhere they have been rolled out – a sudden spike in cases and deaths in the immediate aftermath of vaccinations. Again, not a lot of “protection” there. If anything it looks like the side effects of the vaccine are sufficiently serious to push frail elderly people over the edge, as the authorities in Norway noticed.
“ It’s clear that the vaccines do provide protection”
No. Around 1% ARR at best. Not worth getting out of bed for. You’ve been conned.
And it’s them that created the mutations, of and as there are any and if and as they became more serious.
Above all, it’s them, the only symptoms suppressing gene therapies, who created asymptomatic transmission and infectiousness. And that only amongst the vaxxed.
Only the vaxxed pose such a risk and if anyone still needs to get tested, it’s only them, the vaxxed.
As for the case reductions there and in the UK: it’s most likely and obviously mainly a combination of the weather improving and being milder and the high previous rates of infection.
The continental weather is much harsher, infection rates were lower in e.g. Germany, they make things far worse through their FFP2 mask mandates and zealous compliance.
The alleged ICU crisis is a lie and a fabricated hoax to get a constitutional change through. Death rates were and are falling and low there too.
the best that can be claimed for them is that they might ameliorate the effects of a covid infection. However that is at the risk of problems being caused by the vaccines themselves.
Is that the Royal ‘we’: certainly wrong otherwise!
The Palestinian Covid rate fell ahead of the Israeli one when Israel began vaccinating, despite virtually no vaccinations in Palestine – ie, the drop was driven by seasonality and the usual Gompertz curve.
Naturally, the Israeli PM is keen to claim the vaccines did the trick – he is totally politically invested. The vaccination programme caused an initial rise in deaths.
But of course it is true that these vaccines do give some protection to the elderly, estimated by some at around 65per cent for the short time measured so far. And if that continues, of course it is good.
Still not worth the unknown risks for the younger population though.
“protection …estimated by some at around 65per cent”
That’s the bollocks of relative risk. The absolute risk reduction is very low.
Relative risk is the oldest con in the books – the emperor’s new clothes; absolute risk is the little boy who notes the nudity.
Protection from what?
You might argue whether it was the natural decline in Israel or not but agree that to say that vaccines have no effect at all is wrong. In Sweden, they had first a razor focused vaccination campaign in the elderly in care home or similar conditions before they started ,at least in my mind, a reckless mass vaccination campaign outside risk groups. And the result shows.The so called “third wave” or rather the double peak of the second wave have increased hospitalizations and ICU but not affected much at all the death rate. See graphs. Cynics would perhaps say the “tinder” was already dead but I think it must be a vaccination effect
Below ICU admissions
Next deaths
Deaths
I agree with everything you posted. I’m convinced that the vaccine rollout caused an increase in over 80s deaths ad it’s quite possible the vaccine rollout is the reason that Europe is not seeing a decline in cases/deaths. However, once that initial spike was over there was a sharper decline than we would expect.
Swedenborg – the figures are out there, and you can do your own analysis. The overall risk reduction attributable to the vaccines is minimal when proper controlled comparisons are used :
Based on data reported by the manufacturer (I’ve analysed other reported data, and come up with similarly minute figures) :
Pfzier/BioNTech vaccine BNT162b2
Relative risk reduction, 95.1%; 95% CI, 90.0% to 97.6%; p = 0.016
Absolute risk reduction, 0.7%; 95% CI, 0.59% to 0.83%; p < 0.000.
Moderna vaccine mRNA-1273
Relative risk reduction, 94.1%; 95% CI, 89.1% to 96.8%; p = 0.004;
Absolute risk reduction, 1.1%; 95% CI, 0.97% to 1.32%; p < 0.000
Comment :
Unreported absolute risk reduction measures of 0.7% and 1.1% for the Pfzier/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, respectively, are very much lower than the reported relative risk reduction measures. Reporting absolute risk reduction measures is essential to prevent outcome reporting bias in evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine efficacy
Rick
The AR calculation is using an early end point. It’s basically assuming that there will be no more infections among the study group.
We need to consider all sides of the debate. The debate is over, you have got lost and are in the wrong place. Try the Guardian or ask your sergeant for advice.
Surely a learned man such as yourself would reserve denial or admission until the phase 3 trials are complete in late 2023? This has got to be the first ‘scientific’ vaccine trial that the participants have actually paid to be part of courtesy of their taxes.
I think I’d prefer a bit of good old fashioned honesty, watch a pharma guy pull his finger from his backside and maybe lick it before telling me which way the wind is blowing.
Has anyone claimed that $million for conclusive proof yet? The only things we can’t deny is that true ‘science’ has been made a mockery of this last year and our beloved government and its opposition are either stupid or criminal. My money’s on both.
vaccinezealots.org is available. So tempted to buy it for a few quid and direct it here.
As this is vaccinezealots.org i suppose it’s best not to mention that the cases only started rising after they started the vaccine program
Yep – easy mistake to make!
Heaven help them if ADE kicks in
I am comfortable being part of the control group, watching from the sidelines.
Yes, that seems the safest place and I’ll be watching with you.
When next we’re asked if we’ve gotten our shots, we can say we took the placebo.
Indeed.
I had my vaccine call-up from the local hospital a couple of days ago. I declined to arrange an appointment, saying that the vaccines were unlicensed and still in clinical trial. I’d wait and see, thanks. They’ve put me down as “undecided.” That’s fine with me.
I doubt this will be a major problem. We would have seen some evidence of it by now.
No we wouldn’t. We won’t see any evidence until the next virus season.
Nah, for once I agree with mayo.
We should have seen it in the trial groups of around 200.000 people at least.
Of course, it can still happen later, to a mutation or C23, 24ff.
But regardless, what’s really speaking against them, unless you are in a serious at risk group, is that you don’t need it, that the absolute risk reduction is minuscule, that your known risk/benefit ratio is negative and that the unknown and for a decade+ unknowable medium to long term side effects like brain diseases through the use of nanoparticles and cancer turn them into a game of Russian roulette for most and for a decade+.
Coupled with the now obviously sinister motives of the drivers of the plandemic, every single restriction served to DECREASE life expectancy and only made people unhealthier, and all the other authoritarian developments, that strongly suggests better staying clear of them.
I suppose it’s possible we have already seen it, given the sudden increase in cases and deaths almost everywhere vaccination has been started around the world in places where the virus is still circulating.
Or when they start with the boosters.
Not a lot going on between your ears. Go and play some where else.
The anti-vaxx boneheads wish it would turn bad, instead it has vastly cut infections. Yet another science triumph against the backward ignorant cretins, vaccines have made infections slump, stick the boot in and make these dumb-arse MFs eat dirt, they seem to like it!
No title on the graph, no labels on the Y axis. A poor effort. Not much of a scientist, clearly.
… and a bit blind to reading graphs – with that steep increase in deaths following the introduction of vaccines. Not that I’m saying ….
Gamestop?
Hey-up. Mayo’s got a friend.
Oh look who it is : the visitor from Planet Innumerate. Say no more!
We’ve had a blessed mayo-free couple of weeks, but heyho, all good things come to an end. And – sigh. – that nasty, rude little fon buy has found a friend in mayo. Beware the bully gang in the playground from now on.
Hold on, is Mayo from Tucson?
Give my regards to your puppet master.
Pray tell how exactly how they class these as infections? Would that be with a clinical analysis alongside their bullet proof tests?
Another moron with his/her anti-vaxx bollocks. Like this government, I trust your opinion about as far as I could throw you. Go spend your silver on some toys before they take them away.
Have a look at the MHRA Government website where you will find nearly 800 deaths and over 500,000 adverse side effects. I think that’s quite a lot of evidence (not my figures Government sourced). Why’s everyone ignoring these FACTS?
Agree that so far ADE has not been spotted. CDC reports about 5800 C-19 cases after full vaccination and about 400 hospitalisations and 74 deaths. Most likely they would have found ADE in these 74 deaths. Everything points to ordinary deaths of C-19 in elderly patients, most likely low immune response to the vaccine. Caveat is of course if the younger vaccinated with good immune response should encounter this autumn or winter a new variant but so far no ADE problem. It is more of a problem of not that good immune response to the vaccine in the elderly, who might contract it, but many mildly or asymptomatic but they can transmit.
https://everlast.mercolamarket.com/r/?id=h43b78524,28a32d91,28faf2da&mid=DM854882&rid=1136100644&p1=c9e6f918d64140ab9ffc66dfce8c4c03fe9ef2c9607b5ca673888e51f429ba9d&p2=20201112
“Whether or not COVID-19 vaccines can trigger ADE or Th2 immunopathology remains to be seen. As or right now, studies suggest vaccinated individuals are at increased risk of contracting lab-confirmed infection with variants such as the South African B.1.351 strain, but there’s no telling whether they actually get sicker than unvaccinated individuals.
Israeli researchers compared 400 individuals who had tested positive for the South African B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variant after receiving at least one dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine against 400 unvaccinated individuals who had been infected. Among those who received two doses of the vaccine, the variant was eight times more prevalent than in unvaccinated individuals (5.4% compared to 0.7%).
Similarly, while there are now hundreds of cases of fully vaccinated individuals having being diagnosed with COVID-19, some of whom have died as a result,29 it’s too early to tell whether ADE is at play.
We’re currently moving into summer in the Western hemisphere, a time when respiratory viruses tend to be less prevalent in general, so I suspect the real test will come this fall and winter.
So, while some argue that ADE is a “non-issue” with COVID-19 vaccines simply because we haven’t seen any signs of it yet,30 even with new variants, I have my doubts. I suspect we might still see it once flu season sets in. Besides, ADE is far from the only potential problem. There are many other potential side effects, some of which may take months or years to develop, while others may be lethal within days or even hours.
The vaccines may also be problematic for already immunosuppressed patients. The reason for this is…”
Without going through every single entry on the U.S. OpenVAERS system, it does look like there’s been considerably more deaths and hospitalization with these vaccines. If it really was just 74 deaths out of the 200 million doses given so far, it really wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t believe that’s the case. And how many post-vaccine deaths or hospitalisations are connected to the vaccines by the medical staff treating the patients?
This site has developed some severe symptoms of bipolar disorder as of late. Unfortunately it seems Dr Jekyll (aka Will Jones) is outnumbered.
Maybe Will should go solo?
Relaxing restrictions because of the success of the vaccine rollout…complete bullshit. The Israeli government must know full well, and for some time, that a) nobody is at risk of catching anything outside, and b) masks are useless. So, I can only conclude that making the population wear masks outdoors is an exercise in control, compliance and submission, and then relaxing that restriction is to make the population feel grateful for the tiny crumb they’ve been thrown. What a huge price the population have paid (through mass vaccination) for so little.
It’s very good news, but it also reflects very badly on the British ignorant anti-vaxxxers who damage our efforts here
.It reflects very badly on our education system that we still have so many anti-science boneheads who want longer hardfer, thicker lockdowns, instead of the vaccines, it’s always a shame to be outdone by a former colony, like Palestine. a 3rd world place.
Lol. Ive got two honours degrees, in science and engineering. I am as pro science as they come.
What’s your degree in, fon?
I think the quality of your writing reflects badly on our education system, not to mention your lack of critical thinking.
Anyone describing people who are rightly sceptical of a new, still-in-trial vaccine that isn’t a vaccine for a disease that isn’t deadly to 99.9% of the population as an “anti-vaxxxer” has zero credibility.
Yes I’ve got nothing against TRIED AND TESTED vaccines for DANGEROUS diseases. This doesn’t come close
You sound like you’re being paid to be here., but to give you the benefit of the doubt, please explain what these genetic experiments have in common with all the great vaccines that have come before them.
Any live virus vaccine can be viewed as a generic experiment, since the genetic material is incorporated into the genome. The mRNA vaccines explicitly do not do this. Processing of mRNA is done outside the cell nucleus in the cytoplasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA
” anti-vaxxxers who damage our efforts here”
Interesting give-away : ‘our efforts” and Palestine : ‘a third world place’ and former colony’. Now where could such ignorance about an occupied country originate? ….
Wave to 77th Brigade – they’re obviously struggling to recruit half intelligent candidates,with quality of trolls as bad as this.
Maybe he has his own agenda, not least to rile folk….a distraction? Best to ignore.
Defo 77th
They glow brighter than a Chernobyl chicken drumstick
Oh, go away. It’s not as if you’ve got anything useful to contribute apart from inane insults.
We will have to wait and see how Israel performs on the longer term. But again we are falling into a reductionist trap of thinking only of Covid/Covid numbers and ignoring completely any other casualties caused in society. feel that the Israeli government has behaved appallingly towards its citizens – they are part of a massive experiment to please BigPharma. How many Israelis have been bullied and coerced into this vaccination – they take it or have no life at all and isn’t the U.K. fast heading in this direction. How many young people and children were at no risk of Covid? The long-term effects of this vaccine are completely unknown – there may not be any but the possibility of disaster remains.
I for one do not applaud Israel however low their numbers become because any country that terrifies many of its citizens as Israel has done deserves no praise. The end does not justify the means.
Excellently put, and all that really matters in the long term is the kind of societies being ushered in by this lunacy.
Well, that’s the second Holocaust begun……..
Can someone good at math work out this for me please? What is 80% of 9.3 million?
The quote taken form this piece claims 80% has been vaccinated but I’m crap at math and I get that at least 7 million would have to have been jabbed.
“Israel’s highly successful vaccination campaign has seen close to five million of its 9.3 million people vaccinated, according to Reuters.”
So close to 5 million been vaccinated with a population of 9.3 million would be?
I’m asking this as throughout this entire farce, the public have been fed in accurate, false and misleading journalism. Is this just more of it?
Maths is not a strong background in journalists.I think the confusing is that two doses were given and this counted for fully vaccinated which is 5 million. 80% of 9.3 million might be the number of doses total.
I suppose about 20% of the population will be under 18. Are they vaccinating children yet?
Not yet started children vaccination.Israel is a rather young society but in total only 60% of the populatin is vaccinated(2 doses) so there is a substantial minority adults not taking the vaccine whether they are Israeli arabs,Hassidic community I don’t know. Using 80% of population is wrong.Most likely 60-65% of the population is vaccinated,unless they are still not counting the ones with only one vaccine dose waiting for the second so it could go up.But I think doses given each day is falling.
Yes I just looked at OurWorldInData which generally seems a reliable data source.
According to it 61.73% of the population have had at least one dose, and 57.42% have had both doses.
Thank you.
Why Israel, of all countries, would choose to take part in an unprecedented medical experiment on such a large proportion of their population, is completely beyond me.
Perhaps there is something I’m not seeing. Most probably I have underestimated the extent to which politicians everywhere are incompetent, scientifically illiterate, and/or downright corrupt.
I suppose history will show whether Israel was correct and large parts of the rest of the world were wrong.
I note more garbage posted in response to my comments.
Let me make a few things clear.
1/ I disagree with fon on far more issues than I agree with him.
2/ I slightly disagree with Rick on the absolute risk issue. The AR calculated by Rick and others was at a very early end point when there had been only a few events. While Rick is right that the 95% RR (for Pfizer) could be misleading the data does tell us that the effect is statistically significant. We won’t know what the AR is until we know how many more people become infected. Rick’s right that it won’t be 95% but it might be 45% or 50%.
3/ I have not yet had the vaccine for the same reason most of you lot have not had it. I don’t believe we yet know enough about the medium to longer term adverse effects. However, I don’t accept some of the apocalyptic drivel from the likes of Dolores Cahill, Vernon Coleman & Sheri Tenpenny.
4/ And if any of you are interested, I’ve just taken delivery of the book ‘Virus Mania’ which is co-authored by Dr Sam Bailey who I badly misjudged a while back.
When the facts change I change my mind. I’m not sure the same can be said about the majority of LS readers.
Garbage in garbage out.