Thread by @EthicalRenewal

It’s well known that our society is infected by concepts which make us unhappy, damage our communities and endanger the biological world. These concepts infect us, we become contagious, then we infect those around us.

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#KatesGarrotte

We know the sort of concepts they are. They look like this:
–You need more
–Take, don’t give
–Winner takes all
–Greed is good
–Appearances matter
–Those in power deserve their power
–Those with wealth deserve their wealth
–It’s your fault you’re poor

2/44
#KatesGarrotte

Some of these concepts simply misinterpret Darwinism. Some are demographic falsehoods. Some are empirically false. All lead us to a dangerous outcome for our species.
I consider them viruses–contagious & malign concepts which are part of a mind plague that’s harming us all.

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When we take on – are infected by – concepts like these we become the sort of people who harm ourselves, who harm others, and who harm the environment on which we all depend.

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#KatesGarrotte #harm #climatecrisis

You’ll find people like this everywhere you look: on tube trains, on billboards, haranguing you on social media, patronising you from the news channels.

Sometimes you’ll even find them looking back at you from the mirror.

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#KatesGarrotte

It’s a cognitive pandemic.
An illness that’s making our society sick.

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#KatesGarrotte #MindPlague #pandemic

So how do we address viruses of this type – viruses which infect and influence human cognition? How can we reduce the ‘r’ rate – the speed at which they spread, their degree of infectivity?

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#KatesGarrotte #infection #virus #Rrate

Well, we deal with pandemics like these – ‘mind plagues’ – in the same way we deal with their biological cousins. A program of mass vaccination is required, while in parallel we develop cures for the infected.

8/44
#KatesGarrotte

The vaccine is available. It’s easily produced & universally accessible. Developer kits can be found in earlier threads in this series. There’s no patent/copyright/licence.
No corporation, unaccountable international court or legal system can stop you applying this vaccine.
9/44

The vaccine is freely accessed, freely assimilated and protects the cognitive freedom of your mind.
It comes in two parts:
–A shield of values
–A wall of truth

Take these two jabs and you’re pretty much immune.

10/44
#KatesGarrotte #vaccine

But vaccines by themselves are not enough. With much of the human population already infected, we need to take the fight to the germ.

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#KatesGarrotte #vaccine #infection

We need cognitive weapons that can attack the virus on its own terms, in the public and social realms, in the cognosphere where disinformation and fake news begin. The infected need their cure.

12/44
#KatesGarrotte

We’ve looked at one antiviral already: the Socrates Bomb. It brings the Socratic Method into play in the areas of Evidence, Logic, Language, Motivation and Morality. The ribonucleic strands of the virus are disrupted as the Socrates Bomb explodes.

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#KatesGarrotte #Socrates

A second antiviral is Chaplin’s Stiletto, which uses humour to attack the effects of propaganda and spin.

Now we need to talk about a third antiviral: Kate’s Garrotte.

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#KatesGarrotte #ChaplinsStiletto

Kate is a friend of mine. Or, perhaps I should say, she was.
Kate was vital and passionate and clever. She was passionate about life, music, friendship… and she encouraged those around her to be passionate too.
But she’s been dead a while now.
She died far too young.

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“I’m sorry… That’s really sad…”
It’s more than sad – but being sad is the last thing Kate would have wanted. I think that’s true of all good people when they die.

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#KatesGarrotte #Kate

Rather than being sad, Kate would have wanted us to carry on her legacy by being happy, by being creative, by being vital and passionate and clever.

But I’m sad all the same.

17/44
#KatesGarrotte

Kate used to talk to me about trust. It’s one of the ten thousand things she was passionate about, but it’s one we talked about near the end of her life: how trust is broken in our society, and how it needs to be rebuilt.

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#KatesGarrotte #trust

“Anyone would have to be vital and passionate and clever to take on a challenge like that,” you say.
I agree. And they’d have to be brave, too.

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#KatesGarrotte

After all, who trusts anyone or anything anymore? Trust is broken, all across the world.
Politicians? Experts? Journalists?
They’re only in it for themselves, aren’t they? – Lining their pockets while the rest of us struggle to get by…

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#politicians #experts #journalists

Lawyers? Academics? Students?
Isn’t selfishness at the heart of everything they do?

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#KatesGarrotte #lawyers #academics #students

A world without trust is a bad place to be.
It leaves us atomised & divided. It destroys our effectiveness as individuals & as communities. It undermines our sustainability as a species.
And, on top of all that, it makes us easy prey for the power hungry and the corrupt.

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Divided, untrusting, isolated, we’re easy to manipulate and rule.

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#KatesGarrotte

The truth-twisters, the your truth/my truth folk, the monetisers of resentment and rage, work to keep the fires of distrust burning.

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#KatesGarrotte

The truth-twisters want to ensure we distrust the wrong people and the wrong ideas – people and ideas that count against them, people and ideas which ask us to think for ourselves, which make us harder to control.

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#KatesGarrotte

Kate wanted to find a way to work out who & what to trust – so we could put aside those that don’t deserve our trust & raise up those that do. She wanted to rebuild trust in our communities, re-establish trust in our broken world, rediscover how to trust & be trusted.

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“She had ambition, then.”
Yes, it was no small challenge… and she had too little time.
“It’s a shame.”
It is....

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#KatesGarrotte #Kate

I’ve kept looking since she’s gone.
“She’d have liked that.”
And I think I’ve found a way.
“She’d have liked that, too.”
I call it Kate’s Garrotte.

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#KatesGarrotte

“She’d want to be remembered for a garrotte? I’m not sure I would…”
I think she’d be okay with it. As well as being vital and passionate and clever, she was also pretty tough. I don't think she'd have been squeamish about squeezing the life out of lies.

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Here’s how it's made…

The wire
Only trust a concept or proposal if it encourages you to be moral.

Left handle
If you don’t trust a concept or proposal, don’t trust its source.

Right handle
If a person or source isn’t moral, distrust everything they propose or claim.

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That’s it.
You’ve got your garrotte.
Now pull it tight.

31/44
#KatesGarrotte

It’s is a kind of algorithm:

A. Only trust a concept…
B. If you don’t trust a concept…
C. If a source isn’t moral…

You can apply it to the message… and you can apply it to the messenger.

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#KatesGarrotte

Go to your cognitive armoury. Select Kate’s Garrotte…
…and watch as the sinews strain and the pips squeak until at last what can be trusted, what might be true, trickles from the husk of the lies and disinformation that we’re fed, day in, day out.

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#KatesGarrotte

You say, “I like it, even though it sounds a little harsh. But haven’t you just postponed the difficult bit? Kate’s Garrotte seems to be saying, ‘Only trust a person or a claim if they’re moral’–but doesn’t that assume you know what moral is?”

But we do.
“Do we?”
Don’t we?
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You see, we’ve already used Kate’s Scythe to bring the lies to their knees.
“Kate’s Scythe? She’s got another weapon up her sleeve?”
I told you she was talented.
It’s a second algorithm.

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#KatesGarrotte #algorithm

It works like this:

Does a claim, proposal or alleged fact encourage you to be honest and consistent?
Does it encourage you to treat the needs of others as of equal significance and importance as your own?
Yes?
Then it’s moral.
No?
Then it’s not.

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#Kate

That’s the ‘moral-proposal-or-claim-checking’ algorithm: Kate’s Scythe.

As for people and sources, the messenger not the message, we’ve got Kate’s Flail.

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#KatesGarrotte #KatesScythe

“Kate’s Flail?”
Yes. It works like this:

Is this person, organisation or source honest and consistent?
Do they consider your needs as of equal importance and significance to their own?
Yes?
Then they’re moral.
No?
Then they’re not.

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That’s the ‘moral-person-or-source-checking’ algorithm: Kate’s Flail.

So now you can determine whether a person, a source or the data they present are moral. If not, step in close with Kate’s Garrotte.

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#KatesGarrotte #KatesScythe #KatesFlail

Kate’s Scythe. Kate’s Flail. Kate’s Garrotte.
We need these weapons because we’re fighting a guerrilla war against an establishment programmed to civilisational self-destruct. It's an asymmetric comms war & we’re already behind enemy lines. We’ve almost no territory left.

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There’s no alternative to guerrilla tactics: close contact, intimate, ruthless.
There's no alternative to brutal honesty, to using Kate’s scythe, flail & garrotte–the stakes are so high: the future of our children, the survival of our society, the sustainability of our world.
41/

Kate was a friend of mine.
She died heart-breakingly young.
She believed in trust.

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#KatesGarrotte

Kate thought it was crucial we find a way to work out who and what to trust, and how to rebuild trust in our broken world.
The armoury I’ve described is a small part of her legacy.
It’s my gift to Kate, her gift to me.

And now it’s yours.

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#KatesGarrotte

Use it for yourself.
Use it for Kate.
Use it for us.

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#KatesGarrotte

You can find the threads leading up to this one in article format here:
dorseteye.com/chaplins-stile…

And here:
dangerousglobe.com/mind-plague/

#KatesGarrotte #ChaplinsStiletto #SocratesBomb