Many people are becoming increasingly aware of the infrastructure being created by governments working hand-in-glove with Big Tech in order to censor any form of dissent. Even two years ago this view would have seemed somewhat paranoid, but through the important disclosures made by Senators Grassley and Hawley, the Twitter Files and also Big Brother Watch’s report on the Ministry of Truth, there is now irrefutable evidence that censorship is taking place on an unprecedented scale.
New research by Thinking Coalition shows that the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is playing an integral part in this censorship. The research highlights connections (depicted on an interactive map) showing the unhealthy alliance between Big Tech, government agencies (mainly security related) and oligarch foundations who cooperate in order to shut down dissent.
ISD grew out of the Club of Three, established by Lord Weidenfeld in 1996. Although the initial initiative was on countering extremism, a very worthwhile cause, it appears that before Lord Weidenfeld’s death in 2016, the ISD had already been used to counter ‘disinformation’. Judging by its recent annual reports, it seems that the vast majority of ISD’s efforts are now focused on ‘disinformation’. In particular, the ISD seeks to restrict free speech in the areas of:
- 2020 election analysis;
- COVID-19 disinformation; and
- Climate Change disinformation.
Focusing on the second two objectives, it is clear that they are not related to countering extremism. Accordingly, we believe that the ISD’s activities have overreached its original and worthwhile purpose.
Broadly speaking ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ are defined by the ISD and others as views which do not comply with the state’s declared position on a given subject. The category of misinformation, in essence, relates to erroneous data or opinions, whereas disinformation is a position based on knowingly incorrect data or arguments. Misinformation and disinformation are terms the ISD applies to undermine and negate any challenge to the mainstream narrative. In reality, misinformation means very little, since human knowledge has advanced through argument and counterargument. The idea that the state, or ISD, establishes absolute truth indicates a high degree of arrogance.
This is a dangerous precedent given how wrong governments have been, especially in the very recent past, for example, stating vaccines are 95% effective against Covid infection. With government propaganda recently exposed, it is hard to imagine that anyone could trust in the narrative. Yet, the infallibility of governments is an important baseline for the ISD and other statists.
The basic methodology of ISD, as well as a plethora of similar organisations, is to trawl through social media posts in order to identify heretics questioning the state’s current position on any given subject. Such organisations have been known to compile databases of non-believers, the best known probably being the DeSmog: Climate Disinformation Database. Infamy is such that even death does not result in absolution, such as in the case of David Bellamy who remains targeted even in memoriam.
The ISD’s main focus is elucidating network graphs which visualise interactions of users via social media, primarily Twitter. To provide this analysis with a ‘sciencey’ feeling, various network analysis tools are used and statistics, such as network density, are quoted. However, the entire exercise is flawed from the outset since the interactions of atomised Twitter users do not constitute anything in the nature of a network. The diagrams visualise the intensity of interactions between various Twitter users based on likes and retweets. However, liking or retweeting material from another user does not make you part of a network and ninety-nine times out of a hundred Twitter users will never meet or have any other kind of interaction outside of Twitter. Subtly, the language applied to groupings of Twitter users who, to some extent, share opinions is always negative with terms such as ‘disinformation community’.
As well as labelling Twitter groups in this way, the ISD will also smear specific individuals who receive a lot of social media traction, i.e., those expressing popular views. The most commonly used and increasingly meaningless smears are: ‘far Right’, ‘anti-vaxxers’, ‘climate change deniers’.
In addition to static mapping, the ISD and others are moving to live mapping of discussions online. By their own description, this involves sophisticated programming and it is likely that an enormous amount of time and money is being invested into this technology, again with the main objective of silencing dissent. The ISD alone spends over £5 million per year and, at this stage, it is likely that tens of millions of pounds have been invested by such groups into developing tools to identify political dissent in the U.K. and other countries
Ironically, the ISD and others complain that the opponents of government climate policy are anti-science. Objectively, nobody is more anti-science that the climate alarmism lobby whereby their whole modus operandi is to identify a spokesperson with almost no scientific credentials (e.g., Greta Thunberg) who then seeks to emotionally manipulate the wider public into accepting climate alarmism. Bjorn Lomborg’s book False Alarm meticulously dissects stories on hurricanes, climate related deaths, polar bears etc., and shows that these stories are either misrepresented or are outright lies.
Climate alarmists, like everyone who pushes faulty dogma, aim to silence opposition. The ISD proposes censorship through legislative means and close cooperation with Big Tech platforms, where it has several related initiatives; one is to ensure that its particular world view is incorporated into Big Tech’s Community Standards. While this sounds reasonable, the reality is that ‘community guidelines’ means all things to all people and is open to interpretation. In our experience, these guidelines are little more than the state’s current position on any particular topic, certainly not any kind of absolute truth. Big Tech users can be accused of breaching those guidelines (as we have been), but without identifying the offending action and without providing any option to remedy this breach. The limited right of appeal (if it even exists) on Big Tech platforms is self-regulated by the platform itself and not referred to any external adjudicator; Big Tech is the judge, jury and executioner. In perfect Kafkaesque style, the original breach is often never specified, and the accused is not aware of the offending content which breached the vaguely worded community guidelines.
As set out in the excellent analysis by Francis Hoar in ‘In Protection of Freedom of Speech‘, there can never be a reasonable case for removing that which is neither illegal under criminal law or defamatory under civil law. There are already robust laws which outlaw the use of speech to incite racial, religious or other hatred and civil laws to prevent defamation and other transgressions. There is simply no reasonable basis under which a partisan organisation like the ISD can present its own views as absolute truth and then insist on platforms policing their users to remove dissent to the ISD’s position.
Also encouraged is state sanctioned censorship via legislation which covers the so-called ‘legal, but harmful’ categories of free speech. In addition, the ISD encourages further censorship via legislation including the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and the U.K. Online Safety Bill.
There is a very limited case for pointing out factually incorrect information posted on social media but only in clear cut cases of falsification and not in connection with views or opinions. In addition, this process should apply even-handedly, which would mean that in many cases it would be applied to the state and its representatives who regularly make untrue statements. For example, President Biden’s untrue statement that “you’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations”.
Strikingly, the authors of the ISD’s recent report ‘Deny, Deceive, Delay’ have little discernible scientific education or professional experience that would enable them to determine what is misinformation. The head of ISD Climate Research and Policy graduated in Arabic and Spanish and her prior experience was as Regional Director Arts at the British Council – but this lack of credentials doesn’t impinge on her willingness to smear scientists like Bjorn Lomborg.
In order to illuminate these nefarious connections, we developed a simple network map for the ISD, where the links between the ISD and others represent real world links in the form of funding or other cooperation. The exact nature of each link between entities in the map can be viewed by hovering over the relevant connection. The ISD lists its funders, but there is no indication as to the relative contributions and, therefore, the relative influence in the context of an approximate £5 million annual income.
The map includes three categories of entity which routinely feature in policy setting, namely:
- A small group of around four foundations set up by ultra-wealthy individuals;
- Big Tech companies;
- Multiple national government agencies.
The same small group of large foundations fund NGOs which develop policy in all major areas including public health, climate and in this case digital censorship (CIFF, Open Society Foundations and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). They then link (via ISD in this case) with multiple governments around the world, particularly in the Anglosphere and in particular with security agencies of those governments.
Of course, cooperation between big business, governments and foundations is welcome, but there is the risk that this cooperation will be exploited and subvert the democratic process. Based on the recent disclosures via Senators Grassley, Hawley and others, it is clear that the cooperation between the state and Big Tech is moving in a unhealthy and coercive direction. Almost all major Big Tech companies appear in the ISD map, either as funders, partners in various initiatives (e.g., The Shared Endeavour Fund) or recipients of various reports from ISD. In the last category, ISD contacts Big Tech companies with a view to having specific content and users removed.
As mentioned above, the ISD cooperates with various other entities with a similar outlook. One such example is the charity Demos, which submitted a joint response to the Online Harms White Paper and shares common funders Google and the U.K. Government. Demos, in turn, is funded by GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), a U.K. Government intelligence agency.
Another important feature of the ISD map is the global nature of this cooperation, with multiple government agencies from the U.K., U.S., EU, Canada and Australia working with ISD.
The ISD (and others) claim a special status in their interactions with government as representatives of wider civil society. In fact, contrary to this, the ISD does not represent a large section of society, but, rather, actively works against sections of society by trying to censor popular commentators and researchers. It appears that government policy is disproportionately influenced by well-funded and well-organised interest groups like the ISD leading to increasing impositions placed on law abiding individuals who, by and large, wish to be left alone.
In conclusion, we believe that the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) censorship initiatives are not reasonable, are a threat to freedom and should be vigorously opposed.
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Well, for once there are some encouraging poll numbers. If only Canadians had seen through Turdeau before the recent election! Then again, their “Conservatives” seem to have been as useless as ours through this pandemic panic.
“A new Maru Public Opinion poll shows a possible career-ending backlash against Justin Trudeau’s handling of the freedom protesters.
In a National Post interview, 32-year industry veteran John Wright, executive vice president of Maru Public Opinion said, “The last time I’ve seen numbers even close to this was in the final days of Brian Mulroney.”
The Maru poll, which was conducted from Feb. 9 to 10, found that only 16 percent of Canadians would vote for Trudeau based on his actions of the last two weeks. This is echoed in a new Abacus poll, which currently finds Trudeau to have his worst favorability rating in over a year.”
Freedom protesters may spell the end of Trudeau’s career: Poll
Mind you, with similar regime problems across the US sphere and Biden’s poll numbers spectacularly bad (though in fairness, not too bad for a senile corrupt old hair-sniffer who could only ever win a Presidential election by cheating), the possibility of a “wag the dog” war seems disturbingly real.
Perhaps therein lies the reason for the seemingly determined push to provoke the Russians into war in the Ukraine, and the sudden reappearance of wall to wall anti-Russian demonisation propaganda in the regime propaganda outlets?
“According to a CNN poll, the majority of voters are unhappy with President Joe Biden’s job performance during his first two years in office.
The poll also revealed just 37% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 62% disapprove. Another 58% disapprove of the president’s job overall, with only 41% approving.
“That’s a tough number,” CNN anchor John King said. “We’re only in a midterm election year.”
“We asked people, ‘What has President Biden done for you that you approve of?'” King said. “Fifty-six percent of Americans, nearly 6 in 10 Americans — that means a decent amount of Democrats — said ‘Nothing.'”
“They disapprove of everything that has happened,” he added. “Fifteen percent say the president has helped with the economy, 6% say [he helped with] the coronavirus.”
CNN poll: 56% of voters say Biden has done ‘nothing’ for them
Trudeau called an early election, bringing it forward from 2023 when, under the current circumstances he would almost certainly have lost. The Liberals came second anyway but were still able to form a minority government… perhaps he knew what was coming?
How did he get in at all? I remember watching the election and realizing the Anglosphere countries really do seem to be in the grips of some kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Have we really all become so soft and fearful that an obvious global puppet like Trudeau can have any chance of success? Virtually nothing the guy says is pro-Canada; even a cursory jaunt through his public statements reveal a man who hates Canada and wants to destroy it.
That is a rhetorical question of course. For us in the UK this all really kicked in with Tony Blair. But why are we voting in people destroying our amazing nations? Why do we allow any kind of pro-country movement to be written off as some kind of hard-right white supremacy movement?
Future historians will have a field day.
I think it’s because politics today is more of a beauty contest than judging who has the best policies.
It’s all about appearances and sound bites and looking and sounding “good”, in a manner approved by the left wing, journalists, and people living in Islington. Then they can dig up things from the past and shriek about them. “Politician X had a goldfish that died! ” leading to Politician Y promising better standards of goldfish welfare if he was elected, and a general chorus of disapproval against Politician X’s neglect of the goldfish community.
Also, most people are ignorant, and most want free stuff, so the party that promises most free stuff will win.
1.How do the people of Islington get to vote for Trudeau? Call an enquiry for fraud now
2.if it’s a beauty contest how come we got Johnson
3.if it’s all left wing how do some countries get right wing leaders such as Macron?
“There’s probably an Islington in Canada”
Duh! Presumably concrete68 knew full well how fatuously spurious that response was.
“He’s cuddly and engaging. I can’t stand the man, and he’s been a disaster, but he’s got a posh matiness that seems to work.”
That’s one reason Johnson succeeded. The more important reasons, probably, are Brexit, which is the great exception to the leftist dominance of the past few decades and which Johnson opportunistically rode into office, and the fact that the “Conservative” Party is objectively leftist, and is of the Blairite leftist faction which has predominated in our elites since at least 1997.
The Blairite and old leftist factions hate each other even more than they hate traditionalists and conservatives, as evidenced by the sheer venom and dishonesty with which Corbyn, as a representative for the old leftist faction, was savaged by our media.
When faced with a choice between a safe Blairite albeit in “Conservative” costume and their old leftist factional rivals, it was a no brainer for the Blairite media types.
Note that, Brexit aside, the “Conservatives” have made not a single substantive change to the established Blairite misrule in this country, despite more than a decade in office and now a thumping majority. Some cosmetic stuff like pretending to try to control mass immigration, and a bit of talk to keep conservative voters duped, but no action. We still have all the shitty Blairite identity politics and speech crime stuff they brought in, along with the big government social engineering stuff that morphed so easily into pushing covid panic when the time came.
“I’m “right wing” and Macron doesn’t represent my views.”
Obviously, since Macron is a Blairite just like our “Conservative” Party are. That was his platform when he stood – neither the right nor the old left, a “third way”.
Here’s what 12 years of “Conservative” rule has gotten us:
PUBLIC SECTOR’S HIGHEST-PAID DIVERSITY OFFICER EARNS MORE THAN PM
“New government transparency data has revealed the highest-paid diversity officer in the public sector is making just as much money as the Prime Minister. Raking in £160,000-£164,000 a year at the taxpayers’ expense, Network Rail’s Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Loraine Martins, is responsible for ensuring the railway is more “open, diverse and inclusive“. In fact if she does a good job, she can actually earn more than the PM, whose salary is capped at £161,866.
When she’s not making sure your commute is open, diverse and inclusive, she’s also found time to share tweets accusing the government of corruption and Boris Johnson of ‘white privilege‘.”
This is a corrupt political sinecure, using tax funding to push Blairite leftism, as are all and every single “diversity and inclusion” position in the country. That’s just one individual raking in £160k in money stolen from taxpayers and abused to manipulate them. Think of the vast sums going to support Blairite dominance nationally, both through such directly tax-funded state positions and through all the similar positions created by Blairites, or directors desperate to pander to the dominant Blairism, throughout private business.
When these positions are all contemptuously swept away, we will be able to hope that conservatism is back. I’m not holding my breath….
The big money is of course in “private business” – provided it’s on a grand scale.
As it was in the orders from Davis…under “How to deal harshly with protest” of course he did,
Police sabotage heavy equipment at Coutts
RCMP sabotaged three excavators to prevent their usage at the blockade in Coutts, Alberta
LOL! Canadian police ask protesters to move their excavators out of sight of the highway, then once they are out of sight, vandalise them to render them inoperable.
Is there anyone, other than the regime apparatchiks and extreme covid cowards themselves, who still hasn’t recognised which side is the side of truth and decency here?
Stirring speech by Major Chledowski.
Was Sweden right all along?
Yes. We said so all along.
A country that wants people to show Vaxx Passes upon entry, or ‘proof’ of a negative result from a test, is “right”?
Sweden is a rather dull and boring country, and has adopted the same ‘Covid narrative/agenda’ as other European countries.
This is just a ‘grass is greener somewhere else’ thing.
The Swedes are no knight in shining armour coming to rescue anyone.
You know very well neither Annie nor anyone else here approves of vaxx passes or test for entry, neither do we think Sweden is perfect in every respect with regard to covid or anything else. We’re not idiots. I’ve always said they thought covid was more important than it was, but crucially their reaction was in general one of persuasion rather than coercion. Stockhold October 2020 was quiet and had some very limited restrictions in place but was light years away from the situation in the UK. Sweden represented the counterfactual to confound the lockdown zealots – we know very well it was not their mission to rescue us, but it was very important to have that example.
I think the only place to be completely restriction free was South Dakota, and maybe Belarus, but neither of those places were suitable as a counterfactual, for different reasons.
Yes, Belarus had the best approach of all (do absolutely nothing) and demonstrably disproved the whole lockdown fable. However, like you say, it’s simply not an example that would have been accepted or even publicised in the Western media.
I’ve been to Sweden and I found it a beautiful, friendly, sane and peaceful country where I could happily live.
Sweden was right to not lock down, end of story.
Vaccine passports were brought by another Prime Minister.
Sweden wants people entering to show Vaxx Passes or ‘proof’ of being ‘negative’ from a ‘test’.
That’s all there is to it, from my angle.
Just another country promoting the Great Covid Scam.
The big question now is how are Vaxx Passes to be kept valid? I think it unlikely that they are going to be swept away. 4th ‘vaccine’?
Face masks everywhere here in Helsinki… 99% (I’ve seen a few without them).
Since 2020, Anders Tegnell has retired and the Swedish Prime Minister has been changed, hence the policy changes.
You conveniently ignore relevant facts.
No vaxx passes for now in England other than favourable treatment for the vaxxed on return for abroad
That could of course change
Sweden bought into the scam, yes, but their reaction was much more sensible and less unpleasant than most other countries, which has been helpful to us, sadly not as helpful as we had hoped
There are very few people on this planet who believe that the correct reaction to covid was to do very little, and very few governments that chose to not intervene. One notable place that took a very principled stance was South Dakota, where the Governor declared that the state did not have the power to force businesses to close or keep people in their homes
And Belarus. I was going to say even if they are a tyranny, but I wonder if I’d be better off there in the Belarus of 2020 than certain Western countries.
Covid cases fall 23%…
‘And if all our days are numbered, why do I keep counting?’ – The Killers
“the pandemic”
There’s never been a pandemic, by June 2020 all cause mortality was at normal levels, and went 10 from 13 weeks below expected average
Covid was 24th on the list of reasons you might die in August 2020 all without a jab
There has been a pandemic of lies, madness, and of making money if you have been ‘approved’ by the Government.
Anyway, what happened with the British truckers’ protest? Seems to have dropped from the radar. Not even mentioned on this site.
Where is it?
Aren’t most truckers in the UK Polish, Romanian or Hungarian anyway?
I haven’t looked for the British truck drivers’ Convoy Protest, but I guess nothing actually happened, else there’d have been mention of it on here.
The Finnish truck protest seems to have also vaporised.
70% of passengers on the Helsinki Metro seem to be ‘foreigners’ these days, another country that has imported heaps of cheap labour from third world countries.
Even January 2021 wasn’t particularly remarkable. Certainly in line with the flu outbreak of January 2018 (in fact in Scotland and Northern Ireland 2018 was worse).
Only the 2nd week of January was notable
If you believe there was/is a pandemic then by default you must believe the ‘vaccine’ narrative, at least to some extent.
This is where DS’s position is so fragile. It’s important to dismiss a pandemic ever happened.
There was no pandemic. The test kit is fraud. The ‘vaccine’ is a bioweapon who’s full effect/purpose is yet to be seen. The ‘passport’ is the communist social credit system. The financial crash was deliberate to usher in the social credit system.
Well said. The fraud of virology continues to be exposed. The virologists are nowhere to be seen refuting the allegations. The argument has essentially been won, its now a painful process of waiting for people to catch up. Ive been waiting for 20 years for people to catch up with 911. No sign of it. If this fraud doesnt get exposed for what it is, in a big way, these scumbags will keep rinsing and repeating these scams. Theyre already telling us they are going to do that. CONVID is nothing but a scam. The notion that with all this knowledge we have accumulated that they can still keep getting away with further scams makes me feel sick. Its like when 77 hit after 911. Same scammers, same scam, same script, same bunch of good for nothing bought and paid for shills in the fakestream media taking money to keep the scam alive, plus a whle load of backslapper groupthink where they all agree on the lie so its safety in numbers. Those people are going to hell. They have responsibility for the rampage of murder and destruction in the Middle East because they didnt speak the truth, they lied on behalf of the war criminal scum and ridiculed those who spoke out. They are guilty. This is why I resent Daily Sceptic. It has the power to promote the discovery of REAL truth, but it continues to spread BLATANT lies – becuse the site owner is worried about what people (lying scum on Fleet Street) might think. You dont have to take a position if you describe yourself as a Sceptic, you should be open to all options based on the current and incoming evidence. The evidence is now clear – the methods used by virologists to prove their “science” is completely bogus and fraudulent. Same with the PCR tests being used to run the scam. So the whole thing is built upon easy to prove lies. This must be tackled and if sites like DS continue to perpetuate this fraud, it is a betrayal of their duty to their own family, God and the human race. Its that serious.
“Fraud”- indeed – one little word saves an awful lot of pointless, unnecessary speculation!
Sort of interesting to see what will happen, but I fear it looks like things will just continue as they are, with just the arrival of the 4th & 5th ‘vaccines’ in 2022.
There’s no revolution coming, no lawyers coming to take the Government to Nuremburg 2 trials, doesn’t even seem to be another protest in London coming up… and even if there was another ‘peaceful protest’ I think we all know by now what the result will be. A day out in London meeting friends and home in time for tea.
Dear God the Guardian just can’t give up on project fear
Even with the understanding the ultra-Left Guardian has to make money, despite their disgust of capitalism, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion they have some affinity with living in a fearful state. It goes far beyond headline-grabbing click bait.
Does it give them a sense of meaning? Some of the comments from their loyal serfs are borderline psychotic and certainly delusional. Despite their own obsession with what they imagine as the rise of white supremacy and transphobic murder squads, it is surely obvious the sphere of influence coalescing around the Guardian and the BBC is absolutely crazy as well as dangerous. Obviously more dangerous than normal people questioning climate change, mass immigration and the 57 genders.
What a world we live in 🥸
I don’t it’s so much wanting to live in fear (I doubt they do, want to or actually live in fear), it’s more the priceless chance to tell other people what to do and be listened to.
Yes, you could be right. Their little moment of power.
Life is so dull and miserable on Planet Guardian, it must be down to all those lentils.
Just think of the methane they must be breathing in every day!
And note that they never seme to demand any evidence that these claimed “protective measures” actually do anything with regard to spread of an airborne virus anyway – probably because all the evidence says that they don’t make any difference (although causing massive problems in society).
The soft-brained readers just need to give up on the ‘Guardian’ – problem solved! Close it down by ignoring it!
Not be forced into Covid easing?
Gibbering totalitarian bag of sh***.
“Scotland Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says Scotland should be free to continue restrictions, reports BBC News.” What a lovely piece of doublespeak!
That noble Scotsman, Hamish McUseless.
Are there any health-related government posts anywhere in the UK that aren’t occupied by Muslim immigrants?
Sweden will soon be a Muslim country… by the year 2040? You said Sweden was a ‘peaceful’ country… you weren’t wrong!
Good old Scottish names – Yousaf and Sridhar. To add to the Patels, Zahawis, Khans, Sunaks and Javids of Engerlandland. Without this wonderful ‘diversity’ it could have been so much worse!
Well thank you to You Tube for censoring parts of the presentation by the Major. It really underlines the points that he is making. How stupid of them.
I agree. Uncensored version on bitchute and various other places. 7min 10secs.
Brave man – they need 10,000 like him!
Why has blairs bullshit been given a platform here, nobody cares x is that profanity
Young Russian skater will not be banned dispite failing a drug test because, wait for it!!!!
“It might affect her mental health!!!”
So that means if you fail your GCSE’S,A LEVELS, DRIVING TEST,JOB APPLICATIONS,AD INFINITUM, You will have to be awarded them because ( here we go AGAIN), it might blah, blah, blah,etc, etc.
In truth she’s doubtless been exploited by ambitious coaches, parents etc, but the real reason is probably more to do with Russia’s huge power in the world of Figure Skating and saving face at the Olympics. It’s a toxic world especially for the young girls, should really only allow over 18s in senior comps.
Absolutely agree, Julian.
I was actually having a go at what I call the “Moonpig” attitude of the “Woke brigade” where nobody is ever allowed to be disappointed or to fail and everything is “Unicorns and Roses”
The main culprits: The “Zero covid” fantasists.
Totally agree, it’s so patronising, unhelpful and usually fake.
Drug tests against Russians – regularly rigged against them perhaps?
Fits the CIA narrative.
I see Northern Ireland’s super de luxe vax roll out slashed the annual all cause death total there last year from a terrifying 17,641 in 2020 to, er, 17,556 in 2021.
The number of masked zombies I saw on my morning coffee run today continues its precipitous decline. Sunday Eucharist at my local Church of England was notable for the near- (but not total) absence of masks. I’d put the Mundschutzfrei at 95% for the congregation. Which generally trends (unsurprisingly) towards those 65+.
Waitrose and Boots employees seem to be the only ones sticking to their corporate overlords diktats about masks. Which makes me wonder how much longer big company management will keep up the charade? Boots is technically owned by US-based Walgreens, and as such is probably about a month or so behind the UK in getting over covid. As an aside, Walgreens, the US retail pharmacy chain, is in no way related to discount store Wal-Mart. Walgreens actually grew to dominance in the US during Prohibition, as pharmacies were the one place where one could legally purchase ethyl alcohol. For medical use only, naturally…..
I think we’ve won this war, fellow Sceptics. There will be skirmishes and the odd setbacks. But we’re not doing lockdown again.
Lockdown no longer needed as the drug pushers have got the obedient sheep hooked on their ‘vaccines’. No ‘vaccine’ = no Vaxx Pass.
As I have thought all along, the ‘Covid Scam’ is about people control, and making money out of it. All I have seen so far confirms, in my own mind, that this has indeed become true.
I’m not scared of travelling as some here would claim, but I do find the tyranny/fascism/brainwashing/deliberate spread of fear to be more than concerning.
I’ve never seen anyone here claim that you’re scared of travelling, and never seen any evidence to suggest that you are scared of travelling.
Powerful cancel culture story. https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/yesterday-i-was-levis-brand-president?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNTQ3NDkyOCwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDg2MzExMjcsIl8iOiJjSUJneiIsImlhdCI6MTY0NDg0MzE5OSwiZXhwIjoxNjQ0ODQ2Nzk5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjYwMzQ3Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.QLoC-SpYGFwNVupkrrq4fh5QnwGHqF_S-6Q4hzPudLE
I would just to say thank you to not only DS, but all the contributors, commenting and sharing links and by doing so helping to preserve sanity for myself and many others in this lonely world we all share.
Next Covid strain could kill many more, warn scientists ahead of England restrictions ending.
In theory, it could. The future hasn’t yet happened, hence, we don’t yet know how it’ll turn out to be. However, We don’t know what will happen in future, therefore healthy people must be forced into house-arrest now is not an argument. We already didn’t know what will happen in future in 2016. But nobody got arrested (essentially) just because of that. This would have been unlawful.
And then, there’s more than this theory. We know that humans have been living on this planet for over a million years. In the course of that, they have encountered countless pathogens and equally countless epidemics and pandemics. And they all ended on their own. Eg, something really nasty, the bubonic plague, became a recurrent, low-level illness long before it could be treated instead of keeping to kill 80% of the population per outbreak. Common sense strongly suggests that – in absence of specific evidence to the contrary – we should assume that things will work out as they always did. Meaning, Sars-CoV2 will not suddenly turn around and come back as something akin to the black death of 1346.
As to the immunocompromised who are again being waved on a flagpole by the usual suspects here: People with an immune system deficiency are at danger from all commonly circulating pathogens, ie, they’re not living in an inherently harmless world, wasn’t it for the terrible, new virus. They’re no worse off with Sars-CoV2 in 2022 than they were already with influenza in 2018.