Thread by @sunnshiiny

I’m happy that some readers are sifting through past threads.

This one is quite apt considering Chief Adam Allen’s revelations regarding Ft. Mac state of emergency.

I’m puzzled by the public’s reaction. Initial shock and then immediately into passive obedience.

https://twitter.com/sunnshiiny/status/1378211428931235840

The incremental moves towards callous disregard has caused the public to numb to the abject cruelty and negligent policy of UCP.

It’s stunning to me but predictable.

If you’ve ever wondered how Nazi’s committed the Holocaust with nary a complaint from the public, this is how.

Desensitization to violence is a process, but it isn’t difficult to create.

Shock is common when we witness uncharacteristic violence.

Violence is supposed to be rare & typically is, in a stable democracy.

Incrementalist violence is referred to as the frog in a boiling pot.

Slowly the intensity of violence is increased, allowing the public to adapt to violence as a norm. It becomes no longer unexpected. It gradually transposes into the norm.

If you’ve ever watched real life unexpected violence, you should be familiar with desensitization.

One event sticks out for me. 9/11.

I watched the second plane fly into the twin towers believing it was a rebroadcast of the first plane.

Mesmerized by the horror of the explosion, I watched for hours as the day unfolded. People jumping from the top floors to their deaths.

The collapse of the two towers. The grief and shock of New Yorkers trying to process the days events.

It was jolting. It caused a visceral response in me I can only describe as shock and revulsion.

For months I was severely impacted by the events and horror of 9/11.

Twenty years later and it doesn’t affect me to watch the explosions, the people jumping to their deaths, or the devastation of the collapse of the towers.

Multiple viewings have desensitized me to the horror and terror.

Repeated exposure to violence desensitizes human beings to the trauma of an isolated experience. What we once experienced physically becomes intellectual.

I’m still horrified and repulsed by what happened. But I no longer have a physical response. I’m numb to it.

Desensitization also occurs when governments impose chaotic policy for mitigation of covid. Imposing restrictions, lift them, repeating the process.

The first wave about 150 people died in Alberta. We were all shocked and filled with sadness.

There are over 2075 deaths now.

But many are numb to the rising numbers of dying and infected people.

When Fauci told Americans as many as 200K people could die, the population was stunned. Well over 500K have died, but the shock has worn off.
Desensitization makes us numb to the rising death toll.

Protecting ourselves from trauma is a normal human process during chaos and catastrophe. An extended state of terror is impossible for our minds to process without serious impacts. So our brain’s wiring becomes desensitized to the shock of disturbing stimuli, to protect us.

We have to make an effort to relate to horror, terror or visceral disgust when witnessing a trauma repeatedly.

Hannah Arendt wrote about the banality of evil & how it transforms regular everyday people into callous diabolical killers. But she also explained the indifference shown by a population when malevolence is turned into policy repeatedly.

Small steps are taken to numb our senses.

If you read the screen shots you’ll recognize several incremental steps that produce indifference. You’ll recognize they’ve been installed over several years incrementally.

Arendt refers to Biopolitical objectives.

These objectives are related to imperialism/colonialism.

Direct and indirect violence is being desensitized so it is tolerated by the public. It’s working. Chief Allen provided confirmation UCP will do nothing to assist RMWB. UCP has been introducing incremental moves towards increased disease spread and reduced restrictions.

UCP has been aided by “Freedom” protests and extremist evangelical congregations.

While we have covid restrictions, they’re inadequate. Egregiously inadequate in RMWB, a region with a large indigenous population & the province’s centre of resistance to unregulated extraction.

While many want to chalk this up to ineptitude, Kenney and Shandro are the most informed individuals besides physicians in AB.

Are the UCP’s biopolitical objectives interfering with an appropriate response to covid?

It seems biopolitical objectives very well may be in play.

Policy is used to create an internal organization of violence:
•paleolibertarian ideology & Dominionist Christianity has created exclusive electoral base for UCP. Some people may die, but that enables others to move in unimpeded by resistance to land development.

•Small imperceptible changes to law enforcement, the judiciary, healthcare, education are implemented to tolerate surveillance of those who dissent, reinforce intolerance (i.e. “disproportionately indigenous”), and segregate communities from resources and state assistance.

•Perpetrators of violence go unpunished. The rise in racially targeted violence towards blacks, Muslims and Indigenous has multiplied over the past few years.
•state support for violent offenders. Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin have been embraced by law enforcement & politicians.

The evidence is clear. The UCP far right are recolonizing and reimplementing imperialist objectives.

Whether the public chooses to acknowledge these actions are irrespective of the policy directives UCP continues to choose.

Inadequate covid measures are exacerbating the spread and devastation of this pandemic.

The pot of water is now boiling. It’s time we stopped numbing ourselves to the carnage UCP is creating. Whether it’s intentional or a byproduct of ignorance.

UCP’s covid policy is killing people and creating a long covid underclass. It really makes no difference whether it’s their conscious choice or not.

We must remove this party from power to save ourselves and our neighbours.

General Strike for All Lives!

Remove the UCP!

@threadreaderapp please compile.