The task in hand would be to lift the lockdown/restrictions. But we need to know why the lockdown/restrictions are in place.
Er, because an incompetent government put them there under poor advice from scientists and an ineffective opposition did not challenge them?
OK, so we both have a common belief that the virus is not as dangerous as the government makes out and that lockdowns/restrictions should be lifted. You hold to the incompetence theory, but how incompetent can a government be? How far down the line of the incompetence theory are you prepared to travel until the incompetence turns into staged strategic moves? We are heading into winter and these lockdowns/restrictions arn't going to stop. I used to believe the incompetence theory myself, but the balance has tipped for me. If it was one or two governments that were imposing lockdowns/restrictions then maybe the incompetence theory would stand, but it isnt that way, many governments have locked down and imposed restrictions.
I can no longer believe the incompetence theory. The Great Reset theory is now the only theory that makes sence.
ps. Please read this thread by Dr Mike Yeadon. Toward the end he calls the UK government actions a criminal enterprise!
There aint no big conspiracy. Its just the usual mind numbing incompetence. If you read enough history you will see the pattern repeated over and over again.
The reason for "Big Picture" conspiracy theories is that some people need to think that someone is in-control when completely irrational events are playing out in the wider world. The bad news is, there is no one "in control". You just have a bunch of opportunistic charlatans (and not just the politicians) scrambling to avoid taking responsibility for the greatest disaster that has befallen the western world in peace time.
The politicians, acting both in panic and on the advice of medical establishment "experts", have destroyed large parts of the world economy and committed egregious basic human rights violations for what is actually just a minor new variation on a very common virus. With basically no health risk to most of the population and no meaningful enhanced risk to the high risk population. The high risk population have about the same risk of dying of a human corona-virus infection as they did this time last year. Thats how common human corona-virus infections have always been.
The only conspiracy you are seeing is the conspiracy to keep the hysteria going as long as possible as those who caused this disaster are desperately trying to put off the day of reckoning. Nothing more than a conspiracy to save their political skins and professional careers. Because in this disaster it has been the so called experts in the medical and scientific establishment who have committed the greatest crimes. Crimes of gross professional malfeasance and negligence of the highest order.
You can be 100% certain that those at the highest levels in the medical and scientific establishment knew at the beginning of March that the number that was used as the justification for the huge risk to public health from the SARs CoV 2 epidemic, the Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of the SARs 1 outbreak in 2003, was completely and totally fraudulent. There was actually zero data to support it due to the systematic Chinese cover-up at the time. The number quoted by the medical and scientific establishment was at least 10 times higher than any possible medically plausible value. And they knew it.
That's the only conspiracy. The conspiracy to cover up the fact that the supposed hard scientific data used to base such radical public health policy on was manufactured for purely political reasons. By the WHO and others. There was zero actual verifiable evidence for the number. Zero. And knowing how these people and these organizations work, they knew damn well. But no one was going to put their cozy career on the line. Because the sort of people who get to those top positions are the worst type of time servings slime.
It will be interesting to see what length the international establishment will go to to cover up this particular crime against humanity. Which is most certainly is. It will take decades to undo all the damage these people have done.
You hold to the incompetence theory, and you go to great lengths to support your theory. But how incompetent can a government be? How far down the line of the incompetence theory are you prepared to travel until the incompetence turns into staged strategic moves? We are heading into winter and these lockdowns/restrictions arn't going to stop. I used to believe the incompetence theory myself, but the balance has tipped for me. If it was one or two governments that were imposing lockdowns/restrictions then maybe the incompetence theory would stand, but it isnt that way, many governments have locked down and imposed restrictions.
I can no longer believe the incompetence theory. The Great Reset theory is now the only theory that makes sense. If you look at outcomes, then the Great Reset / Green New Deal theory fits those outcomes very well.
Here is a taster...
This is a transcript. It's available to all and not behind a paywall.
Introducing the 'Great Reset,' world leaders' radical plan to transform the economy
By Justin Haskins, Opinion Contributor — 06/25/20 11:00 AM EDT
For decades, progressives have attempted to use climate change to justify liberal policy changes. But their latest attempt – a new proposal called the “Great Reset” – is the most ambitious and radical plan the world has seen in more than a generation.
At a virtual meeting earlier in June hosted by the World Economic Forum, some of the planet’s most powerful business leaders, government officials and activists announced a proposal to “reset” the global economy. Instead of traditional capitalism, the high-profile group said the world should adopt more socialistic policies, such as wealth taxes, additional regulations and massive Green New Deal-like government programs.
“Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed,” wrote Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in an article published on WEF’s website. “In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”
Schwab also said that “all aspects of our societies and economies” must be “revamped,” “from education to social contracts and working conditions.”
Joining Schwab at the WEF event was Prince Charles, one of the primary proponents of the Great Reset; Gina Gopinath, the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund; António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations; and CEOs and presidents of major international corporations, such as Microsoft and BP.
Activists from groups such as Greenpeace International and a variety of academics also attended the event or have expressed their support for the Great Reset.
Although many details about the Great Reset won’t be rolled out until the World Economic Forum meets in Davos in January 2021, the general principles of the plan are clear: The world needs massive new government programs and far-reaching policies comparable to those offered by American socialists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in their Green New Deal plan.
Or, put another way, we need a form of socialism — a word the World Economic Forum has deliberately avoided using, all while calling for countless socialist and progressive plans.
“We need to design policies to align with investment in people and the environment,” said the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow. “But above all, the longer-term perspective is about rebalancing economies.”
One of the main themes of the June meeting was that the coronavirus pandemic has created an important “opportunity” for many of the World Economic Forum’s members to enact their radical transformation of capitalism, which they acknowledged would likely not have been made possible without the pandemic.
“We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis — its unprecedented shockwaves may well make people more receptive to big visions of change,” said Prince Charles at the meeting, adding later, “It is an opportunity we have never had before and may never have again.”
You might be wondering how these leaders plan to convince the world to completely alter its economy over the long run, since the COVID-19 pandemic most assuredly won’t remain a crisis forever. The answer is that they’ve already identified another “crisis” that will require expansive government intervention: Climate change.
“The threat of climate change has been more gradual [than COVID-19]—but its devastating reality for many people and their livelihoods around the world, and its ever greater potential to disrupt, surpasses even that of Covid-19,” Prince Charles said.
Of course, these government officials, activists and influencers can’t impose a systemic change of this size on their own. Which is why they have already started to activate vast networks of left-wing activists from around the world, who will throughout 2021 demand changes in line with the Great Reset.
According to the World Economic Forum, its 2021 Davos summit will include thousands of members of the Global Shapers Community, youth activists located in 400 cities across the planet.
The Global Shapers program was involved in the widespread “climate strikes” of 2019, and more than 1,300 have already been trained by the Climate Reality Project, the highly influential, well-funded climate activist organization run by former Vice President Al Gore, who serves on the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees.
For those of us who support free markets, the Great Reset is nothing short of terrifying. Our current crony capitalist system has many flaws, to be sure, but granting more power to the government agents who created that crony system and eroding property rights is not the best way forward. America is the world’s most powerful, prosperous nation precisely because of the very market principles the Great Reset supporters loathe, not in spite of them.
Making matters worse, the left has already proven throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that it can radically transform political realities in the midst of a crisis, so it’s not hard to see how the Great Reset could eventually come to fruition.
Can you imagine George W. Bush or Bill Clinton printing trillions of dollars and mailing it to millions of people who didn’t lose their jobs? This would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. Today, this policy garners bipartisan support.
Prince Charles was right: The present pandemic is a “golden opportunity” for radical change. And if Al Gore, Prince Charles and the rest of the World Economic Forum can convince enough people that attempting to stop climate change is also worth dramatically pushing humanity toward greater government control, then radical – and catastrophic – change is exactly what we’re going to get.
Justin Haskins (Jhaskins@heartland.org) is the editorial director of the Heartland Institute. Follow him on Twitter @JustinTHaskins.
OK, so we both have a common belief that the virus is not as dangerous as the government makes out and that lockdowns/restrictions should be lifted. You hold to the incompetence theory, but how incompetent can a government be?
This is where you get me wrong. I do not hold to the incompetence theory. It is an explanation - and maybe a more obvious one - but it does not affect the issue at hand.
We need to show that the current countermeasures against covid-19 are not only ineffective but create greater problems in mortality, health, welfare, economy and so on. Some ridicule of those perpetuating this nonsense is a mere adjunct to this.
It seems to me that you are the one holding to a theory because you are campaigning against the intentions of others (as you perceive them to be) without a present and evident problem. Using such a theory as a 'sine qua non' could limit direct and effective action right now.
I can no longer believe the incompetence theory. The Great Reset theory is now the only theory that makes sense. If you look at outcomes, then the Great Reset / Green New Deal theory fits those outcomes very well.
I have been lucky enough over the years to have known people who moved at the highest levels of government in the US going back as far as the 1930's. Who by chance also knew very well the people who moved at the same levels in government in the UK and various European countries. One very good friend got a half page obit in the NYT and Washington Post when he died and is in all the history books of the period in question. Its one thing to read in history books about the politics and events of very important times in history, its quite another to hear first hand and to be able to question at length an exceptionally astute observer of the human condition. About the people, the motivation, and the dynamics of what happened and why. It was many long conversions like those ones that educated me as to the dynamics of why things happen. In the large. And its incompetence, petty politicking, and the most venial of personal vanities and motivations all the way down.
There are always good people around. Always are. But the Law of Unintended Consequences of Good Intentions rules all such situations. Thats why history is little more than a catalogue of very bad things happening with the occasion good thing every now and then. Those good hings are always the freak accidents of history. Nothing more.
There is no Great Reset because there are no competent people in control or hidden hands directing events. Never are. Just a lot of very flawed people (very flawed) acting in complete panic with no idea how to escape the mess they have created. As for the Bill Gates of the world. If you just knew how utterly incompetent he was as a programmer, or how he had a complete breakdown the first time he ever had a reality check, during the Anti Trust Trial, you would realize just what a pathetic spoofer he really is. A very unimpressive person in real life. As is Jeff Besos. Doesn't mean I dont think they are both dangerous pathological sociopaths. But thats a different story.
There is no Great Plot. None. And that is actually the really scary part of what is going on. This is a completely random walk situation where the end result is unknown. Forget 2008, 2001 or even 1973. What is going on at the moment has the air of 1933 or 1914 about it. We are heading for a bad ending. A very bad ending. No matter what.
You can be sure that those currently in power are preparing to defend that power come what may. But that is a long way from some overarching conspiracy.
So best to educate, inform and prepare. Because you cannot change the final outcome, Just how it will effect you and your loved ones. It has gone too far by this stage. But concerted action by individuals getting information out there can help mitigate the final damage. So little different from doing Earthquake Preparation when you live in earthquake country. You cannot change what happens but with good preparation you can greatly mitigate how much hurt it can do you when the inevitable happens. And obsessing about conspiracy theories is a very bad non-constructive way to prepare for what is coming next.
