Green agitators working on the climate ‘blacklist’ site DeSmog have “scoured hours of online footage” and concluded that many journalists and presenters working at GB News are a tad sceptical about claims that the ‘climate emergency’ is rapidly approaching the point of no return and only the collectivist Net Zero project holds out any hope of averting imminent catastrophe. Needless to say, the Guardian is all over this scandalous outbreak of sceptical journalism. The Green MP Caroline Lucas notes the “truly toxic misinformation” on GB News, adding: “Ofcom cannot allow these statements to go unchallenged and un-investigated”.
DeSmog found that 16 of the station’s 31 presenters “attacked” U.K. climate policies last year, including the ‘Net Zero 2050’ target. The Guardian noted that 10 of the presenters made statements rejecting or challenging “widely accepted scientific findings” about how humans are affecting the climate, and the role the climate crisis plays in extreme weather events.
The latter comment is interesting. Attributing individual bad weather events to long-term changes in the climate is pseudoscience, and such claims invariably rest on computer models contrasting our atmosphere with wholly imaginary ones. Any data these models spit out fail to qualify as science since they are based on opinions that cannot be tested or falsified. The former economics professor and science writer Roger Pielke is particularly scathing about the attribution of extreme weather events to anthropogenic global warming, which has rushed to fill the alarmist space vacated by global warming running out of steam over 20 years ago. “I can think of no other area of research where the relaxing of rigour and standards has been encouraged by researchers in order to generate claims more friendly to headlines, political advocacy and even lawsuits”, he observed.
Neil Oliver, whose Saturday monologue is a social media hit, is singled out for criticism. On December 30th, he is said to have asserted that polar bears are “doing fine”, and the ice in Antarctica is getting thicker every year. In fact, polar bears are doing fine with surveys suggesting their numbers are at recent highs. Extra food in the Arctic and a ban on hunting has helped the recovery. Meanwhile, a recent paper in Nature (Singh and Polvani) notes that over the last seven decades, the Antarctica sea ice area has “modestly expanded” and warming has been “nearly non-existent” over much of the ice sheet. In November, Oliver criticised green policies by suggesting they were part of a “hellish potpourri of policies guaranteed to condemn hundreds of millions to death by poverty, death by starvation”. DeSmog characterises the statement as a “conspiracy theory”, although the less hysterical might regard it as a fair comment on a potentially disastrous political agenda.
Weather attribution propaganda reached a high point on July 19th last year in the U.K. with news that the temperature topped 40.3°C for 60 seconds half way down the runway at RAF Coningsby, home to Britain’s Typhoon jet fighters. GB News host Calvin Robinson, referring to the short heatwave surrounding the claimed record, accused the Met Office of “alarmism”. Around this time, Nana Akua noted that: “If we [humans] only generate 3.5% of carbon dioxide and the rest of it is natural, then surely the CO2 is not the reason for the climate changing because it’s such a small proportion?” DeSmog accuses her of “challenging the science consensus”, while Lucas in the Guardian clutches pearls and states that climate denial is “deeply dangerous”. Of course, Akua is simply identifying the dubious scientific assumptions that lie at the heart of the unproven hypothesis that humans have caused all or most global warming since the mid-19th Century by burning fossil fuels.
DeSmog only looked at the Net Zero and climate reporting record of GB News, but over on the rival station Talk TV, similar appalling levels of investigation and scepticism are flourishing. If DeSmog is looking to add to its ridiculous blacklist of climate sceptics, it will be spoilt for choice. Julia Hartley-Brewer, Richard Tice, Mike Graham, Kevin O’Sullivan and Dr. Renee Hoederkamp are names that spring immediately to mind, and there are many more. What is happening, of course, is that when journalists are employed on media that allows them to do what they do best – ask questions, inquire, debate – a more nuanced and interesting story often emerges. The Net Zero collectivist project is backed by decades of virtue signalling and the false claim that the science surrounding climate change is ‘settled’. As scientists learn more about the complex natural influences that have major impacts on long-term climate, attributing all or most of the recent changes to humans looks more implausible by the day.
Some media companies are also aware that scepticism about Net Zero and the climate catastrophisation that promotes it is gaining ground in the wider population. Last month, the Daily Sceptic reported that climate scepticism was on the rise throughout the world, as populations start to grasp the effects of the looming Net Zero disaster. A recent poll conducted by a group within the University of Chicago found that belief in humans causing all or most climate change had slumped in America to 49% from the 60% level recorded just five years ago. Last year, a major Ipsos survey covering two thirds of the world’s population revealed that nearly four in every 10 people believe climate change is mainly due to natural causes.
Perhaps worryingly for the BBC and the Guardian with their steadily shrinking audiences, the Chicago survey found climate scepticism increasing more rapidly in left-wing Democrat circles than among Republican. In addition, support for human-caused climate change fell by 17% among young people aged 18-29.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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Now we see who the real covid enthusiasts are..!
yes, it really is the “pro-covid faction”. Gradually the “anti-covid” voices are being heard
Stephen Reicher = Klaus Schwab lite
why the fuck is a psychologist sitting on SAGE?
I just looked up some of his publications. ‘Word salad’ doesn’t really do it justice
maybe advising on how to make the public more afraid?
I think that’s exactly it. you’d think they’d be advocating for healthcare for lockdown victims. but maybe they are just drumming up business
There’s no ‘maybe’ about it. Reicher crops up in Laura Dodsworth’s book, A State of Fear, a couple of times. Spreading fear, on behalf of the government, is indeed his role.
|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
COVID19?
IT WAS NEVER ABOUT
A VIRUS
|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿|
\ (•◡•) /
\ /
—
| |
https://saidit.net/s/propaganda/comments/82tt/2020_a_propaganda_masterpiece_perspectives_on_the/
No “maybe” about it.
To keep all the other psychologists company.
Another member of the special Einsatzgruppe
(special Nazi extermination squads – for those who forgotten the term)
Because its function is to scare the shit out of us.
Because the whole motley crew are deranged, and one more lunatic self-regarding left wing shit makes no difference.
Psychopersil washes brains whiter.
He’s not the only one. Most of SAGE seem to be psychologists, all the better to coerce and bully us with.
Ha ha, great question. Brief, but hits home hard the point behind it.
There are many psychologist and behavioural scientists on SAGE. Their job is the equivalent of a border collie to a flock of sheep. They are there to manage our behaviour by instilling fear.
How many of them are not psychologists?
His particular sagacity is useful to ‘THEM’.
Stephen Reicher comes from a place where his instinct is that only he and people he is friends with can be trusted. The large mass of people, Reicher judges them to be untrustworthy. To live amongst others, which we must and need to for our own survival, is to trust them.
Selfishness is a virtue and never mind Ronald Dworkin, try Ayn Rand.
As for “The third, and in my view most troubling, is the implication that freedom itself is selfish. Public health may be a “we” thing, but that does not mean that freedom is an “I” thing.”, it is selfish and selfishness is a virtue, self-sacrifice is a sin, altruism the morality of death, communism, socialism and fascism are all altruism translated into politics.
Oh fuck. More grist to the 77th Brigade mill from the loopy right; the comrades of the loopy left shadow box with them.
Reicher.
They just love to troll us with the names of those they install in positions of influence.
The new boss of the German BBC equivalent ZDF is Mr. Himmler, no kidding.
Zimbabwe defence Forces?
Isn’t time the government kicked these idiots into the kerb? They were not elected so why are we having to suffer their brand of politics? Insufferable arrogant wanquers!
why aren’t they just advising the government on the effect of various policies? rather than advocating certain policies or going straight to the media
where’s the cost/benefit analysis? the fucking arseholes ‘own’ the effects of lockdown
Patrick Vallance appointed all of SAGE. Government need to insist that he kick the idiots out.
And then join them.
No need to get Vallance to do anything; all that is required is the disbandment of SAGE.
It’s notable that practically all the comments to Reicher’s tweets are full-on supportive, e.g.:
https://twitter.com/ReicherStephen/status/1411631602787094528
“This autumn is going to be the most frightening of all”, “It’s like he has not been here for the last 18 months”, “its all about individual desires and little about social responsibility”, “He’s a self-professed acolyte of Ayn Rand”. Maybe Reicher just blocks critics? The Pharma twitter squad “leaning in”? Guidance welcome.
It was scary I read them and pointing out the responses this morning. Twitter does foster an echo chamber in general though.
If they kick off anyone who disagrees, that’s all that’s left.
77th Brigade?
So why not just sack this ‘member’ of SAGE. It’s patently obvious he’s a communist like Michie and yet they are bothneither scientifically qualfied and remain in place?
If I was Javid I would have his head on a plate and yet here he is mouthing off to all and sundry.
Now that’s an interesting idea (head on a plate). If you are talking literally the last beheading in Britain took place in 1747, however, today ISIL and some Islamic states still practice this. Ur, um.
The last beheading in Britain was in 1820.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Thistlewood
He seems more ruffled and twitchy than righteous.
They sense the tide of unreason is going out at long last.
Oh, I don’t know. I think that the key message of the pandemic is that when we let the government think that our health is a ‘we’ thing rather than an ‘I’ thing, what we see is horrific cruelty, fuzzy logic, huge sections of society thrown under the bus, and generally worse outcomes than if ‘we’ just managed it ourselves on an ‘I’ by ‘I’ basis.
Reicher.
He’s a total nut job.
His behaviour affects my health.
He’ll have to get over it.
Or self refer to a secure facility with total isolation facilities. Even better.
In my experience, the people who are likely to be accused of wanting grannies to die (i.e. those who opposed lockdowns) are also over-represented amongst those who are actually involved in the day to day care of their grannies. When you see the impact of forced isolation on real people who are near the end of their lives, you understand that, for the elderly, living isn’t just about not dying.
Yes!
True. But not-dying is what some of them get.
Not-dying is the senility wing of most ‘care’ homes.
well here’s one. You wouldn’t have even known there was a “pandemic” on without the massive propaganda and fake-testing machine in place.
Here’s another.
I’m reasonably confident (as much as one can be in any counterfactual) that if we had continued our lives as normal during the pandemic period, we would by now have forgotten about it, other than in some technical medical journals and records, and we would probably not have sustained significantly greater numbers of deaths.
And of course there’s the point that:
“Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted.”
Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza
Spot on.
Here’s another. There’s no evidence that doing anything else has done much good, and plenty of evidence it has done the opposite.
The ONLY sensible option was to do NOTHING, just like Sweden. No-one would have been any the wiser without all the bullshit because Covid19 has a mortality rate in line with regular flu, even if you believe all the crap about a new virus, all you are left with is a low mortality rate virus. These things don’t even register with most people BECAUSE THEY HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM – THAT’S WHAT THE IMMUNE SYSTEM IS FOR. GOD HAS GOT THIS COVERED.
IT SAYS COVID IS A NOTHING BURGER ON THE GOVERNMENT’S OWN WEBSITE AND HAS DONE SINCE BEFORE THE 1ST LOCKDOWN:
High consequence infectious diseases (HCID)Status of COVID-19
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19
As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) in the UK.
Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall)
What kind of sceptic believes the world must be turned on its head because of a low mortality rate virus? It’s beyond parody that someone who is writing an article on a so called sceptics website is stll entranced by all the government’s lies. He is STILL justifying their actions in the face of all the irrefutable evidence which exposes this whole agenda as a total fraud. So let me clarify a few things, to end this confusion this supposedly intelligent person is dogged by:
WE HAVE BEEN CONNED. THERE WAS NEVER ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT.
THEY INTRODUCED LAWS TO FACILITATE DEATH CERTIFICATE FORGERY – CREATE MORE DEATHS TO CREATE THE ILLUSION OF A PANDEMIC.
THEY ARE USING A CROOKED TEST TO “DIAGNOSE” PEOPLE AND DISINGENUOUSLY LABEL THEM COVID “CASES” EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE NO SYMPTOMS OF ANY RESPIRATORY DISEASE.
THEY HAVE A BENT SYSTEM OF LABELLING A COVID DEATH AS ANY DEATH WITHIN 28 DAYS OF A DODGY PCR TEST REGARDLESS OF ACTUAL CAUSE OF DEATH. WHEN PEOPLE WHO HAVE DEFINITELY NOT DIED OF COVID 19 ARE LABELLED AS COVID 19 DEATHS THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO CALL THIS OUT AS A SCAM.
THEY ARE ABUSING THE TEST TO MAXIMISE THE FALSE POSITIVE RATE – ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE DESIGNED TO ARTIFICIALLY INFLATE THE NUMBER OF FAKE C19 CASES AND FAKE C19 DEATHS TO GENERATE MORE FEAR BUT THE CASES AND DEATHS ARE TOTALLY FRAUDULENT. IN PORTUGAL THEY RECENTLY DECLARED THAT ONLY 0.9% OF REGISTERED C19 DEATHS COULD BE GENUINELY LABELLED AS C19 DEATHS.
THEY HAVE RUN A 24/7 PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN BASED ON FEAR AND LIES AND THE DODGIEST “SCIENCE” IMAGINABLE.
THEY HAVE SUPPRESSED ALL DISSENT ONLINE AND IN THE MSM AND DEMONISED THOSE CALLING OUT THEIR BLATANT CRIMES.
THEY NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER DISCUSS THE INFECTION FATALITY RATE BECAUSE IT EXPOSES THE WHOLE THING AS A SCAM.
THEY ONLY EVER SPEAK OF THE ROLLING CUMULATIVE FRAUDULENT DEATH TOLL OVER TWO FLU SEASONS TO JUSTIFY THEIR ACTIONS AND SCARE PEOPLE.
SUPERMARKETS ARE NOT CRYING OUT FOR MORE STAFF DUE TO EXCESSIVE STAFF DEATHS FROM THIS WORLD STOPPING VIRUS EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH THE PUBLIC SINCE DAY ONE WHICH EXPOSES THE LIE AND IS IRREFUTABLE PROOF WE ARE BEING LIED TO.
EVEN IF THERE WAS A VIRUS TO BE QUAKING IN OUR BOOTS ABOUT, WHICH THERE ISN’T, BUT EVEN IF THERE WAS, THE KNOCK ON EFFECT OF THE MEASURES IS SO CATASTROPHIC THAT THEY RENDER ANY SO CALLED BENEFITS NULL AND VOID.
THESE MEASURES KILL PEOPLE AND ARE 100% COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. THEY CRIPPLE THE ECONOMY AND THEY HAVE TURNED THE NHS INTO A NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE ORGANISATION WHICH TURNS PEOPLE AWAY WHEN THEY HAVE A BROKEN NECK FOR REFUSING THEIR WEAPONISED SWAB TEST FOR TEST WHICH IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT’S WRITTEN ON AND CANNOT DIAGNOSE ANY ILLNESS FULL STOP.
THE WHOLE F***ING THING IS BASED ON FRAUD AND BULLSHIT AND LIES AND YOU AND YOUR SCEPTIC “FREINDS” – YOU ARE STILL SUPPORTING THIS CLEAR CUT INSANITY!!!!
Maybe the author can put his money where his mouth is by addressing each of the points I have made and then present his reasons why, despite all of this. we should have changed our lives and sacrificed our freedom for this blatant fraud we have been living through?
Here is a good article to appreciate the depths of the deceit and the lows they sunk to to facilitate this criminal agenda. It is a but dated now in parts but it is a very good piece of research which exposed the criminal death counting system for what it is – a total fraud.
COVID 19 Is A Statistical Nonsense
https://in-this-together.com/covid-19-is-a-statistical-nonsense/
This article from the same author compliments it very well.
COVID 19 – The UK Scamdemic – Part 2
https://in-this-together.com/covid-19-the-uk-scamdemic-part-2/
Hiya Fraud well said and succinctly put but unfortunately the MSM will not/cannot take this on board due to to the lack of investigative journalism
Spot on!
“The third, and in my view most troubling, is the implication that freedom itself is selfish. ”
The idea that dissent from collectivism is “selfish” has been the essence of the socialist argument against those resisting its advance throughout the latter half of the C20th. Anyone who questioned the sensibleness of have the state take charge of healthcare, or of spending ever greater amounts on the state healthcare bureaucracy, was routinely accused of being selfish.
It was also the essence of the hysterical lies that drove reason out of the public sphere in early 2020 – that those who wanted to adopt the established response of waiting for natural herd immunity were “selfish” people who wanted to put money ahead of lives, that those who didn’t think the supposed well-being of the state healthcare bureaucracy should trump basic rights were “selfish”, that those who didn’t agree that this fairly unremarkable respiratory virus required a panic response were “selfish” because they didn’t see the need to put everyone in lockdown in order to supposedly protect a supposedly vulnerable minority from having to lock themselves down.
The former led smoothly on to the latter.
This guy does not ‘sit on SAGE’ as such. He is simply a member of the behavioral insights sub-group that feeds into SAGE.
See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response-membership/list-of-participants-of-sage-and-related-sub-groups#scientific-pandemic-insights-group-on-behaviours-spi-b.
But he does sit on ‘Independent Sage’ and we all know where their political leanings lie.
Am I the only one who detects a certain nervousness from these ‘fear merchant’ psychologists?
They are right to fear being edged out into the cold, as pragmatic reasonable voices begin to be heard, and the ‘we’ thing pseudo-Marxist technocrats and their deluded flu kids (I was trying to write ‘flunkies’ but auto text did something nice with flu kids) may have to slink back into their boxes once again, until the final loosening of the lid of jar no 2 at Porton Down.
Up vote for ‘flu kids’
The more fear ‘they‘ have the better. Gut wrenching, vomit inducing, total paralysis fear to the nth degree. Time and time again.
For a start.
Visions of meat hooks and piano wire.
Whilst that’s a comforting thought, I think it’s poetic justice that it should be psychologically based – a taste of their own bitter medicine.
Off subject but I just broke out in a cold sweat
Thoughts of Dilyn crashed against the inside of my frontal lobes
The parallels are becoming disturbing
Towards the end they both sacked their generals and blamed it on them
Both married their ever so younger mistresses
Now he has started awarding medals
The last known film footage of Hitler was him pinning Iron Crosses on 13 year olds outside the Reich Chancellery
So who is the cyanide pill going to be tested on?
Free Dilyn, free him now
I didn’t realise it was magic mushroom season already
A timely reminder of a point in this piece that I had forgotten. It is not whether lockdowns work or not (evidence points to that they don’t), it is that lockdowns treat us like children who, without stiff penalties, will act irresponsibly. Sweden (our hero) has shown the way a government should respect its citizens.
It is that lockdown says you don’t own your own life, that you belong to the state.
That’s what now seems to be the case with the wretched NHS, which I suppose we should now call NHS GC, as we used to Malta.
So has South Dakota, and from last summer, Florida.
Neither governor is a commie-apologiser Democrat, but Republicans.
Governments love to drag people onto sinking ships and then tell us “We’re all in this together”. https://www.minds.com/steveghostwords/
In my experience of lockdown zealots, the reality is the precise opposite of what Stephen Reicher contends.
The lockdown zealots I know are:
In short, their attitude is “I’m alright Jack”. They don’t care about those who are not protected by government furlough rules, don’t give a toss about small business (they shop at amazon and Ocado), don’t give a toss about parents struggling to homeschool their kids, don’t give a toss about people who live in small flats without gardens, don’t give a toss about people in the private sector, and don’t give a toss about people who are ill with anything other than COVID-19.
Sadly this includes a lot of my friends and some of my family. I have had it with them.
100% correct. For many this disaster (lockdown, not WuFlu) has been an extended holiday, complete with time to bake banana bread or take up yoga. If it really is a ‘we’ culture it should be relatively simple and of course popular to levy a special tax on these people, in the interests of helping those who have been impacted. Somehow I think ‘we’ would end right there!
If it is really ‘we’, we wouldn’t be having a lot of restrictions that are killing poor people in Africa. (A bit suspicious, that death of that politician in Tanzania, wasn’t it?)
The push to erode all sense of individualism should send chills down the spine of anyone who values independent thought and self respect. The fanatical zealot-like enthusiasm for collectivism, herd mentality and groupthink goes beyond *this* jab.
The greater good guilt-inducing peer pressure forms touted by this Govt and indeed their fellow Govt peers within the rapid response common narrative (G7) leads to dark places. Incremental and barely perceptible until our friends, colleagues, neighbours and even our own families demonise any non-state-approved wrongthink.
The real agenda is seeding in the public consciousness that conformity and obedience supersedes bravery and critical thinking. The true goal is augmentation of the human race, transhumanism and total subservience. Call it out. We must pushback.
Exactly!
“There may be circumstances in which a serious public emergency will trump even that consideration (and one individual’s rights can be limited by another individual’s competing rights, of course). But that situation has to be extremely rare. And we are certainly not in such a situation now that all of the vulnerable have been double-jabbed and almost all other adults at least partially vaccinated. “
No, there can be no such circumstances because governments cannot be trusted to define what is a serious public emergency. We know that for sure now. And as for people being double, triple or partially jabbed, what has that got to do with anything? Covid was never an emergency, lockdowns cannot be justified even for a short time, let alone the time it takes to develop vaccines of uncertain safety and efficacy.
Sorry, not impressed with this argument at all. Far too defensive, conceding too much.
“No, there can be no such circumstances because governments cannot be trusted to define what is a serious public emergency.“
This is probably a truth of general application, but certainly in the case of health policy, it seems to me incontestable now that the costs of allowing even the theoretical possibility of an “emergency” justifying suspension of basic rights by government are much too high for it to be adopted.
We should have laws specifically forbidding such emergency actions, based on the axiomatic presumption that if a genuine health emergency were ever to arise it would be easy to persuade enough of the people to act as necessary in response.
A false “emergency” we know can happen and result in catastrophic costs – we are living through an example of it, still. A genuine emergency might or might not be possible, but if it were to arise then we could change the laws or ignore them. Having the laws prohibiting emergency powers in place would at least make the fake “emergencies” a bit less easy.
I was assuming they meant stuff like in WWII when it was illegal not to have blackout blinds (I presume, but maybe it was guidance?)
I’m sure there were some similar laws that probably saved some lives but I recognise that people were still fed some absolute bs propaganda eg making people donate their aluminium cooking pans so that they could supposedly be recycled into planes.
Bloody right Toby. How many more arrogant ar**holes are there on SAGE, for crying out loud?
If BJ had any sense he’d disband this ghastly mob immediately, they will scupper his chances of staying on as PM. (Maybe that’s their aim.)
It’s also quite telling that for Covidians like Reicher, the ‘we’ always excludes the collateral damaged, above all the 120 million people our Western Lockdowns will eventually have killed in the 3rd World, of which about
5 million then go on Britain’s, and first and foremost on people like him, account.
Hospital clearances of the elderly and infirm, our most vulnerable citizens. 18562 died.
People like Reicher should be nowhere near the reins of power. In fact, who voted him into power and with the supposed authority to be able to tell people what to do? No doubt he’s best mates with the other communists on SAGE…
It’s not hard to see why this country has been paralysed for the past 18 months and many people are still very frightened.
It is what Essfeld, Ruechel and others already stated: the revival of utilitarianism, in whose name all major atrocities and infringements upon individual rights and liberties have been committed in the past, under the guise of neo-Marxist or neo-fascist policies like CRT, Covid restrictions, vaccine/test/mask mandates and climate change, at the expense of these inalienable individual rights and that concept, which were of course introduced in response to those atrocities committed in the name of utilitarianism.
Sadly, the people have been brainwashed into accepting that shift and not seeing its dangers anymore over the last few decades by people marching through the institutions like him, people who think only they know and that best but hereby only prove that they really detest other human beings, and who are now ready to execute their agendas.
Reicher et al can invest in FFP3 masks and Hazmat suits. Then they don’t have to rely upon everybody else “following the rules” so precisely.
Unless of course “following the rules” is what they are really interested in, with them making the rules obvs.
You cannot reason with the perennially petrified, nor the authoritarian mindset.
Reicher of the Reich. What a wicked fucker that man is!
Surely you mean Fokker?
Or Kunt!
SAGE needs to be disbanded immediately. Simply isn’t fit for purpose, who the fuck appoints these people? It’s about time we had some proper grown ups in government who can make proper decisions without relying on these creepy bastards.
Stephen Reicher, ‘Third’ to his mates.
Spat my tea out!! 🙂
Now that’s the sort of thing we used to get regularly on LDS. Reasoned scepticism. Philosophical coherence. Welcome back. Please stick around.
As for the salvation wrought by double-jib-jab – the jury is still out.
He’s right about one thing, actually: You can’t compare this to the flu, as the flu is now about 5 times more likely to kill you than Covid is! In any case, Javid is not comparing it to the flu, simply stating that we have to live with this endemic virus (that ain’t going anywhere), just as we co-exist with other pathogens.
But somebody was bound to do this, weren’t they?
Does he think that school-age children should continue to breathe in dangerous levels of CO2 to protect elderly people?
How fitting his name is REICHer!
He’s a Third Reich psychologist.
Ive hated every single day of this covid madness – but in a strange kind of way I.m glad its happened because it has exposed the authoritarian tyrants in this country who I suspect would leap at any opportunity to transform Britain into some kind of East German police state – it is worrying to think how easily our basic freedoms were removed and society controlled with a government campaign of endless fear and threats – I’ve always wondered whether it could ever be possible for Britain to slide into totalitarianism as happened in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia and now I know the answer to that question .. yes it could and quite easily too.
Maybe this is the wake up call we’ve all needed.
I have been very worried about the ever increasing authoritarianism for some years. When I was 18 and an enthusiastic motorcyclist I was stunned by the passing of a law to make crash helmets compulsory. Like 99 per cent of bikers I wore a helmet and took pride in having made that choice for myself. The government robbed me of that pride.
We campaigned against the law under the slogan “Helmets, yes; compulsion, no.” We were ignored. The experience made me sensitive to the ongoing bullying which most others seemed unperturbed by.
If the covid experience makes people aware in the way the helmet law stirred me, then some good may come. Glad to have you on board Spartacus.
“Like 99 per cent of bikers I wore a helmet and took pride in having made that choice for myself. “
Exactly my experience with the wrongful seatbelt law.
This is where Reicher demonstrates his own selfishness through attachment to his view and insistence that others follow it. As is sometimes referred to in debate, he is accusing someone of stealing the very horse that he himself is sitting on.
It is up to all of us how we live our lives. The vast majority of us have a morality that is based on some concern for others and will act responsibly. We would hope the same in return from others, but we cannot demand it or even rely on it. That is essentially the ‘we’ concept.
Very well said. Thank you.
No, he demonstrates altruism, the morality of sacrifice and death. Altruism literally means other-ism and he demands everyone lives for everyone else.
Who downvoted my post?
I can prove my claim: altruism is a term coined by Auguste Comte to literally mean other-ism.
Why is a PSYCHOLOGIST being taken seriously on this issue? He has no formal training in epidemiology or public health. There is precisely zero published science that supports the effectiveness of lockdowns and other NPI (including mask-wearing) in response to covid. He has about as much credibility on this issue as any random person on the street.
It’s like asking the Bank of England Governor about England’s chance in the Euro semifinals. Or conversely, asking Gareth Southgate about monetary policy outlook. Those guys might be experts in their field but (all due respect to Gareth) – not blessed with omniscient wisdom on every topic under the sun.
What a PSYCHOLOGIST ought to be worrying about is the tremendous psychological damage that lockdowns, social isolation, stress about jobs, money, educations, and social lives that his godforsaken SAGE has wrought on the British people.
Psychologist? First: cause no psychological harm on the people you serve.
Maybe somebody could tell this ugly little satanist and his coven that THEY are welcome to live in terror for the rest of their miserable lives. We don’t care in the least.
Lock the fucker up with the rest of the bed wetters.
BIG BLUBBER IS MOCKING YOU
In earlier times The State was literally an “I”: the King. Now, although it is made up of numerous departments and thousands of people, the actions of the state can still be usefully understood as if they were the actions of just another actor, with his own motivations and incentives. This is shown to be the case in the ground-breaking The State by Anthony de Jasay.
KNOB!
One would think a psychologist would understand the mental health issues caused by the policies he supports unless of course to them it’s just an experiment
If so they should all be on trial for breaking the law on informed consent
and after a fair trial suitably punished – dancing at Marble Arch at the minimum
So this guy Reicher, whose main focus of study has been on group behaviour and individuation and who knows all the manipulative tricks in the book, sits on SAGE, advising government about whether we should be allowed to congregate in groups or not, making judgements about our behaviour and seeming to ignore the fact that humans can exercise individual responsibility and make their own decisions when in knowledge of the facts. Humans need contact, helping to keep our spirits up and to thrive. He seems entirely the wrong person to sit on such a powerful committee with such views which seem anti-social and dangerous.
Men like this are dangerous, they should never be allowed near another human being, they have zero empathy, or understanding of what it is to have a life, they are algorithms contained within a living carcass, they need to be de commisioned
Twitter is a horrifying place if you ever have the stomach to read comments under the likes of this twat. We live in a pathetic country largely made up of complete and utter flakes and wimps. All largely unaffected by lockdown I would assume and happy on furlough and mostly have no more than 6 friends so no issues there.
I am honestly terrified for the future and for my children.
One of the good things about this appalling time we are living through is that it is bringing these narcissistic ‘intellectuals’ out from under their stones and into the light. These are the kind of people who have been busily wielding undeserved influence and warping minds unchallenged from their ivory towers for far too long.
Democracy is a “we” thing. A process that cannot function meaningfully without freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It is undermined when academics are intimated into silence, and trusted broadcasters abuse trust by becoming propaganda machines. Education is a “we” thing. Theatre and music and dancing are “we” things. Herd immunity is a “we” thing. Manipulative behavioural psychology is a them experimenting on us thing.
“we are certainly not in such a situation now that all of the vulnerable have been double-jabbed”
I’m getting more than a bit tired of this sort of bollocks coming from the (allegedly) sceptical as an unexamined routine trope.
The reinstatement of normal life is not justified by the snake oil – it is a prior requirement.
If he is so keen on ‘we’ concepts, why is he so worried about ‘his’ health? What about the (physical, mental, social, financial, economic) health of the other 99.9999…% of society?
There have always been different ways to respond to COVID, but it is because of ‘experts’ like ‘himself’, these were never considered. For the sake of our health’ he should be locked-up.
Slightly off on a tangent but just had this sent to me by a friend – anybody’s guess.
How is Reicher even on the SAGE Committee, his attitude is that of someone who thinks people should be controlled by a totalitarian state. It’s no wonder that his influence has caused this Tory government to become that. He has no sense of balance and no idea that his influence on the government has caused or will cause more people to die as a result of the restrictions than of Covid-19 and drive many people and businesses into bankruptcy than was necessary if a sensible, balanced view had prevailed over his idiocy.
As I’ve heard it expressed: “My freedom does not end where your fear begins.”
“…no socialising, schooling, community activities or even sex except where mediated by the authority and permission of the state.”
Obviously Neil Fergusson (Old Major) and Matt Hancock (Napoleon) can have sex when they please. Some pigs are more equal than others.
There can be little that is more selfish than expecting others to suffer for your benefit. The audacity of such some people! Get out of my life Reicher, you pompous ass!
Who chooses the SAGE members? Reicher and Michie must be changed out asap. When Trump was elected, statists used Russiagate to tie him in knots for years. British statists want to tie Boris in knots until the end of his term.
This man and his peers on SAGE, especially ‘Stalin’s nanny’, make Joseph Goebbels comparable to George Washington when it comes to honesty.