“Conspiracy theories” about 15-minute cities are “false”, “unhinged”, “dangerous” and “not to be believed”, declare mainstream media in unified chorus.
“In recent years, conspiracy theories that were once almost unheard of have spread like wildfire, with a growing number of Australians now sceptical of things like vaccines, 5G and election results,” News.com.au reports in one such article, titled, ‘Inside the 15-minute city conspiracy theory sucking in gullible Australians’.
The article explains that 15-minutes cities (also called Smart Cities) are a commonsense way of attempting to boost liveability for residents. City dwellers in proposed Smart Cities – including Melbourne, Paris, London, Edmonton and Oxford – will have access to everything they need within a 15 to 20-minute walk, cycle or public transport trip, and that’s really all there is to it.
“Anyone who has ever faced a long and painful commute will immediately see the appeal of having the daily essentials at their fingertips,” the article assures readers.
However, “gullible Australians” who cannot appreciate commonsense or convenience have been “sucked in” to a “dangerous conspiracy”. These “unhinged” conspiracy theorists actually believe that Smart Cities are “part of a secret plan by global elites to restrict people’s freedom and movements” – a form of lockdown justified by climate action.
Never mind that Western governments have just spent the past three years abusing their powers with gross overreach and wanton disregard for their citizens’ will or wellbeing, which might make some people nervous about giving government more control over movement, commerce, energy consumption and the like. The article notes that conspiracies about 15-minute cities have been flagged as “false information” on Facebook, so that really settles it, they’re definitely false.
The Victorian Government claims that Smart Cities are a benefits-only proposition, as depicted in the nice pastel coloured infographic on the official Government page detailing plans for Melbourne’s transformation into a Smart City. These plans extend to regional Victoria also. Residents in the Yarra Ranges (just under an hour’s drive from Melbourne) report that their council is already implementing a Smart City Urban Development Framework.
Smart City conspiracy theory reporting comes as the latest micro-meme in the larger meme of ‘cooker watch’ reporting, whereby media outlets clutch pearls and catastrophise over the proliferation of online ‘cookers’ expressing distrust in the government and big corporations.
At the same time as raising the alarm about ‘conspiracy theorists’, the media have relentlessly and without a hint of self-awareness published the most scientifically dubious theories themselves. Some of these false theories include: natural immunity is not effective, when studies have consistently demonstrated otherwise; your vaccine keeps others safe, long after the high level of ‘breakthrough’ infections was plain; Covid vaccines do not affect reproductive health, when the evidence of adverse events points in the other direction; masks reduce the spread of Covid, when no high quality study has found a significant effect; and, there are no safe or effective early treatments of Covid, when numerous studies have identified benefits from repurposed drugs.
In rare edge cases, such as the tragic shooting of Queensland police officers by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train, most media have been quick to blame conspiracy theorist communities for the violence, hinting at the need for increased regulation of online ‘wrongthink’ in order to prevent further violence. In reality, these things are always complex.
Mainstream media reporting rarely, if at all, addresses the role of the Government in seeding distrust, or of the media’s own role in facilitating the marginalisation and even radicalisation of mentally unstable people like gunman Nathaniel Train. Train lost his job due to his vaccination status, and endured years of social and economic deprivation and isolation imposed by his government, reinforced by a relentless media campaign in which people of his ilk were portrayed as morally bankrupt idiots unworthy of a place in society. Did anyone pause to consider the effects of such policies and campaigns on those who were already mentally vulnerable? Effects like pushing the already marginalised further out to the fringes of society and discourse?
It looks as though the ‘cooker’ contingent in Western populations is not insignificant. The Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report of 2023 found that of 32,000 respondents surveyed across 28 countries, nearly half considered the Government and the media to be sources of ‘false’ or ‘misleading’ information. A quarter of Canadians believe in online ‘conspiracy theories’, according to a large poll conducted in 2021. A Rasmussen Report found that more than a quarter of Americans think that they know someone who died from Covid vaccines, and almost half of Americans believe it is likely that Covid vaccines are driving unexplained deaths. A 2023 peer-reviewed paper titled ‘The role of social circle COVID-19 illness and vaccination experiences in COVID-19 vaccination decisions’ found that almost a quarter of respondents reported that they knew someone who had experienced a severe health problem after Covid vaccination, and that this was a driver of vaccine hesitancy.
The media’s response to the distrust of this fairly significant swathe of the population is typically to belittle, insult and defame them, ad infinitum. Which makes one wonder – who is the media’s ‘news’ aimed at, and what is the goal of such inflammatory content?
So here we go, full steam ahead. Smart Cities are coming whether the people want it or not. The Yarra Ranges council in Victoria has put out a statement warning residents to be, “wary of incorrect information circulating in their communities” about Smart City development in the region, which seems to be advancing despite pushback from the local community. In Oxford, U.K., Heritage Party leader David Kurten says that the majority of the residents do not want the implementation of the Smart City framework, which thus far has focused heavily on surveillance cameras and limitations on free movement. That the Council intends to go ahead with plans regardless of the will of the people, “makes a mockery of democracy”, says Kurten.
What will be interesting to observe as Smart City planning progresses is, what gets implemented first? Better infrastructure and support for small businesses, childcare and playgrounds within local hubs? Or systems and technology to facilitate control of movement, commerce and energy? The Oxford experience hints at the latter.
For the time being, the media’s great obsession with 15-minute city conspiracy theories gives a tell. Anyone raising questions about the great plans being imposed on us is stupid and dangerous, say the mainstream media, delegitimising and shutting down debate. This is how we know that powerful interests are very much invested in Smart Cities moving forward, unopposed.
Rebekah Barnett reports from Western Australia. She holds a BA (Hons First Class) in Communications. Find her work at Dystopian Down Under.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
These idiots are fast approaching my debanking/defunding list. We are members, but I am sick of their morbid stupidity, endless simpleton wokisms, racisms, and climate bollocks. Just take care of the god damn buildings and heritage sites and shut the hell up. Or watch your membership dwindle.
Ferd I’m amazed you haven’t left yet. The NT has always frozen their property in aspic, a form of living death.
The problem is, whether or not I remain a member, The National Trust does own large swathes of coastline in the South West and it is this National Trust coastline that keeps us a members, otherwise I think I would leave.
I did not renew my membership after purchasing one of their leaflets describing walks around Hawkshead in the lake district.
In the leaflet they described Vikings as Scandinavian refugees.That was the last straw for me.Even the kids asked what on earth are they on about?
Presumably, that’s because they believe the refugees of today are repeating what the Vikings did in the past.
:->
Yep———-Ironically the Swedes today are now paying for their multicultural dogma as 20 times more sexual crimes are committed by the latter day rapists than by indigenous Swedes. —-But so determined are they that this isn’t true that they make it a crime to talk about it.
Yes I believe the Vikings were put up in castles at taxpayers expense, and I had always thought they were rapists and pillagers. Sorry I now admit I was wrong and that we should pay money for past injustices to all red haired people.
The NT has set its course and there is no rowing back for them now despite your displeasure or any number of members displeasure. There is no way that their proscribed agenda will be allowed to be perceived by the public to have been overturned by a members revolt. Money will be found either from lottery, government or billionaire funding sources to ensure that a popular revolt of this kind fails – God forbid, the people may apply the same democratic principle to all manner of things.
“Patrick Begg, outdoors and natural resources director at the trust”
Who the F. thinks these job titles up? Doubtless another waster on a couple of hundred grand a year. He belongs in the bottom block. A complete Next Tuesday.
Probably a relation of the useless lefty economist David Begg. He was one of the crazies desperate to bounce UK in to the euro. Essentially a useful idiot. Once yr in the woke aristocracy these sinecures become rather easier to obtain.
Thanks
I think there should be a competition for the most ridiculous job titles in the wake of the climate alarm, HP.
You are right Aethelred.
Former member of NT here. The main threat to ‘their’ properties is haemorrhaging support. They keep telling us about the slave-owning history of the builders and owners of the houses – so why don’t they burn them down to demonstrate their contempt more fully?
A Minister for Management of Civilisational Decline would be more useful.
Congratulations Minister. Yours is the only department to achieve its targets.
The Ministry for Silly Talks?
I suggest a Minister for Deaeration of Woke Windbags.
Thanks for then new word.
Maybe the droughts and wildfires will be offset by the floods. It just needs a longer term perspective than most marketing plans.
Make no mistake, this is marketing and not true concern for environments that have suffered all these “hazards” in past years.
Not yet another bloody government department about the climate alarm. We need that new Argentinian prez Javier Milei to do one of his – “Ministry of Climate Adaptation? OUT!” actions. Honestly, the NT are losing it…drought, heavy rain, wildfires? But not today or tomorrow but by 2060! For god’s sake, just get a deckchair and some wellies.
Why the hell are we worrying about 2060. The so-called Tory dupes have caused enough damage to this country these past fourteen years. It’s 2023, can we pay attention to NOW?
Apparently the planet might be a couple of degrees warmer by 2100. Well if anybody is still on this planet in 2100 lucky them, personally I would appreciate those two degrees NOW.
And I won’t be here in 2060 so actually I CGAF about effing global boiling, flooding, freezing or whatever other nonsense they come up with.
Today’s problems need today’s solutions. Tomorrow can look after itself.
https://documents.nationaltrust.org.uk/story/annual-report-2023/page/2/1
I haven’t had a good look yet but I am sure this will be interesting
Today’s problems need today’s solutions. Tomorrow can look after itself.
Tomorrow is something the people of tomorrow will have to deal with tomorrow. People who claim they are solving the problems of tomorrow by creating problems today just want to distract from the latter. They don’t know anything about the real problems of tomorrow and the people of tomorrow obviously haven’t appointed them as their representatives. Conveniently, they just cannot yet object to what’s supposedly being done in their name.
Excellent
It’s a shame that they appear to be jumping onto the bandwagon using “climate change” in lieu of normal extreme weather events and the need to maintain various structures, both old and new. I am actually a member of it. The original reason why I joined was doing the sums for parking at a number of their sites. In effect, paying up front, but less than non-members have to pay given the number of times I go to them.
I’ve often parked without paying. Don’t think their fines are enforcible anyway. I feel eternal shame that I belonged to this organisation for a couple of decades. I should be flayed like Henry the second was in Canterbury cathedral and be forced to sleep on the floor with no blanket.
..and lo the grift continues unabated.
….”“the single biggest threat” to the charity’s mission”, is your organisation’s woke-ism, Mr Begg.
I used to be a member. I looked at moving my subscription to the RSPB, but they’re almost as bad.
Do not support any of them.
I don’t. I want to support the wildlife, our heritage etc., but unfortunately, no organisation can be trusted it seems.
The charity […] said approximately 71% of the places it looks after could be at medium or high risk of climate hazards by 2060.
Attempt to translate this into English: Hazard means risk. Hence, the last bit is
climate risks in 37 years.
Combining this with the bit in front of it yields
above-average risk of climate risks in 37 years.
Then, we have the could, a subjunctive, ie, another risk. We’re now at
there’s a risk of above average risk of climate risks in 37 years
Filling in the last bit now gives the complete sentence:
Modelling has shown that there will be a risk of above average risk of climate risks for about 3/4 of the places the National Trust is currently administrating in 37 years.
What’s that’s supposed to mean – beyond No climate-related damage expected until at least 2060 – is anybody’s guess. Presumably, the point is to repeat risk combined with climate as often as possible to convey the impression of a serious danger. Someone demanding anything based on a statement like this should be unceremoniously shown door and told not to come back until he has at least managed to make up his mind about what he’s actually afraid of.
So far the evidence is the greatest danger to the fabric of the buildiungs and their contents arises from the incompetence of the NT which allows them to burn to the ground.
Interesting that they demand a minister for climate adaptation. In some ways I agreenm with adapting to changes in our environment. Stop wasting huge resources on trying to change the temperature, which is impossible but, as required, adapt to changes – which is what humans have always done. Is the National Trust finally bending to the obvious?
We need to “tackle” Climate change…..so give us some more money.
It’s hilarious how they use “adaptation” and not ‘mitigation’, as these clowns think we can control the weather.
Translation: Systems going well…. Send more money.
Where does this National trust gets its information from? ——-Do they ever question any of it? ——-Very unlikely. Rent seekers question nothing. After all if you need money for something, being alarmist about climate is a great way to get it. If you are a coral island in the pacific what better to get big sums of money from the eco socialist western world than claim you are going to vanish beneath the waves. If you are animal rights activists who think we should all eat vegetables and locusts, what better way to stop people killing animals for food than to claim the animals destroy the climate. If you build turbines or smart meters, what better way to farm all the subsidy than claim your products save the planet. etc etc etc………”Climate Change” —–The gift that keeps on giving. But the gifts are all paid for by us.——– And it is costing trillions.