Thread by @sunnshiiny

I can’t let this go unchallenged. An emotional reaction to personal insult should not overrule critical thinking skills.

But it does and it is being used to elicit an expected response from those whose sensibilities and identity is being insulted.

salon.com/2021/05/18/now…

As a mother of a child on the spectrum, I can’t let this go unchallenged.

There is ample evidence that those with emotional vulnerabilities are more susceptible to SM propaganda.

That includes autism and ASD.
@MatthewRozsa

I for one would appreciate if the “shaman’s” defence lawyer was able to prove a targeted campaign to manipulate his thinking was the cause of his apparent break with reality.

It would create widespread public acknowledgement of how the far right is using military grade PSYOPS.

Organizations using highly personal data scraped or stolen from social media are aggregating and analyzing that data to locate, target, compromise and manipulate vulnerable individuals.

Why the media and public continues to ignore this is beyond me.

That doesn’t remove the “shaman’s” criminal responsibility or his culpability.

Charles Manson’s murder cult members didn’t escape responsibility, but the trial certainly exposed the dangers of cult leaders & unhinged megalomaniacs who live among us. Squeaky Fromm did 34 years.

An awareness of the use of aggregated and analyzed deeply personal data by several data analytics companies for political objectives should be widely exposed. How else will the public in democracies know how to fight the stealthy information warfare that’s killing democracy?

Additionally, exposing the cult tactics and strategic micro targeted disinformation and propaganda campaigns being used to create alternate realities would be a good idea. People might actually take internet and Social Media regulation seriously.

People like the Q Shaman haven’t just arbitrarily lost their marbles. Half the North American population didn’t turn fascist, or radically left and abandon reality by chance. They’ve been coerced.

Why are people normalizing the abandonment of reality by friends & family members?

Because it’s insidious. Incremental. Covert.

The changes happening in friends and family members happen slowly. Then all of a sudden, they’re like someone you don’t know. Spouting off conspiracy theories and propaganda relentlessly.

It’s shocking. And not NORMAL!

No, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m quite grounded in reality. I’ve had to be for years to appropriately parent my kid with ASD. Ask any parent with a kid who has ASD.

You meet them where they are at, not where you want them to be, or where their chronological age is.

You learn quickly to put aside what you want your child to be (dreams and delusions) and deal with him as he is. Whatever that may be.

Sometimes he’s more mature than his age, others far less developed than expected.

You learn to assess reality as it presents, in real time.

Parents with kids who are on the spectrum put what they thought parenting would be, on a shelf. Because those are not the skills your child requires to be parented.

If you persist in using “normal” parenting techniques, you stand to lose your mind and your child.

Maybe that’s why I can observe and analyze politics so clearly. I’ve had plenty of practice successfully raising to adulthood a child with ASD.

I can almost instantly assess his mood, beliefs and opinions. Yes I check, but I’ve had about 18 years practice.

My point is, what I wanted parenting to be, what I expected, what all the parenting books and classes taught, I had to throw out the window.

My child regularly defied logic & made parenting more difficult than I ever thought it could be. So I adapted to be the parent he needed.

And that’s what each citizen has to do regarding contemporary geopolitics.

Political norms are long ago abandoned. We’re in uncharted waters.

Except they aren’t actually uncharted. We’ve been on this precipice before. So we aren’t operating blindly.

WW2 is well documented.

But most are still using the old norms.

I have 2 children. One with ASD & one who is “normal.” Whatever that means.

So I’ve had an instantaneous comparison of the norm and ASD on a daily basis since the second one was born.

Democratic politics doesn’t have a daily reminder.

Changes within democracy have been happening for 40 years or more. To anyone younger than 35, the changes have been imperceptible. To those of us who are older, the change is perceptible, but requires a good memory for comparison to what is being offered as the norm now.

This article details the Canadian version of the 40 year effort to alter the norm.

Unless you were paying close attention, you probably missed it. A small group of far right libertarians bordering on fascism have been moving politics further right.

harpercrusade.blogspot.com/2010/05/ernest…

Polarizing the population from both ends of the political spectrum. Introducing left libertarianism, identity politics and ideological purity.

Paralleling the American transformation of democratic politics as described by Nancy McLean in her book “Democracy In Chains.”

This is a book that came out in 2005. It’s a blueprint on how to dismantle democracy incrementally. I’m certain there is an American original on which it was based.

Pay particular attention to parts 2 and 3. Those are the blueprints.

The plan is the gradual disassembly of institutions that protect democracy.

•recruiting wealthy donors
•controlling media
•lawyers and judges attack Constitutional rights
•shape young minds through academia in pre & post secondary education
•engage Quebec’s cooperation

•attract & recruit conservative immigrants with traditional religious values
•train leaders to obstruct, manipulate and gaslight: train Generals and ground troops.

It’s all there in a dictator’s playbook.

This is the same method every autocratic govt uses, including Hitler.

But dismantling democracy isn’t enough. Imposing policies that exacerbate poverty, remove social mobility, firmly establish a patriarchal hierarchy and remove human rights is the objective.

Only then will conservatives have power & control in perpetuity.

Using the autism spectrum as a defence is not blaming people with mental illness and developmental issues.

The far right is counting on people to reject this as a reason.

They’re using reflexive control to trigger your emotions and trick you into reacting without analyzing.

This is reflexive control.

By using inflammatory language, the defence lawyer triggers a predictable reaction. A gut reaction of yours & countless others, is to reject this rationale. And you maintain the stealth manipulation of Q hidden from scrutiny.

ted.com/talks/laura_ga…