While everyone has their eyes on Ukraine, there's a comprehensive control system being erected all around us.
Let's count the ways. 🧵
First, there is the treaty being worked on, on the level of the WHO. The details have not been worked out yet, but the Director General of the WHO is pushing for a binding treaty with the power to apply sanctions if 2/3rds of the members agree.
Next, Biden signed an executive order so "study" the "risks" of cryptocurrency, and begin work on the "digital dollar". edition.cnn.com/2022/03/09/inv…
The Financial Times helpfully informs us that Central Bank Digital Currencies, such as the Digital Dollar, will have to be Digital ID based, since banks are already bound by Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. ft.com/content/88f47c…
It should be noted that these regulations don't actually seem very good at their stated purpose. But they do make excellent control mechanisms for law-abiding citizens.
So what are Central Bank Digital Currencies? Well, in a way, it's like turning all money into food stamps. It can allow for all sorts of constraints to be placed on currency, including where, when, by whom, and on what it can be spent.
So if you thought Canada freezing Bank accounts linked to protests was scary, central banks are constructing a power that is far greater, an ability to intervene on every single transaction. cbc.ca/news/politics/…
In the meantime, vaccine passports are being implemented.
"IATA welcomes the EU’s effective work on establishing the EU DCC system across Europe and, at the same time, urges the World Health Organisation to build a global digital vaccine standard." schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-uk-vac…
At the same time, if you thought the COVID-19 vaccines were developed at miracle speeds, wait until you see the next generation! nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
How far are we from a world where a pandemic is declared, and within a few months everyone is mandated to accept a medical procedure or lose access to their assets, or even the ability to buy food until they comply? cbc.ca/news/canada/mo…
In fact, you may not have to protest physically to lose basic rights. Media, tech, and "fact checkers" all proudly cooperate to control the spread of "misinformation". bbc.com/news/entertain…
And as far as the US govt is concerned, they're not going far enough.
According to the NYT: "Dr. Vivek Murthy also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation. Companies have until May 2 to submit the data." archive.ph/WPmBi
When I write about biology, I'm often told that I don't have the credentials. Well, as an academic with hundreds of citations to the work I did as part of my PhD on information systems, and as an entrepreneur working on IoT tech for over a decade, this is not looking any better.
In fact, I can tell you confidently, that the introduction of single points of control / single points of failure is exactly what we try to avoid when architecting large-scale systems, as they're well understood to be a threat to the stability and security of the system.
When people spoke about "turnkey totalitarianism", they were called conspiracy theorists and their voices were suppressed. Now it's all out in the open. There's no hiding whatsoever.
As a final thought, this isn't about left vs. right. Conservatives and Liberals, Progressives and Populists have all moved the system in one direction: Giving bureaucrats more control over the population. Stop giving them more problems to "solve", they only know one way.
Control promises efficiency, safety, while building an ever greater risk of inescapable systemic failure.
Like picking up pennies on train tracks, hoping this is not your unlucky day.
Seeing them fail with COVID, are these the people we will entrust with control of our future?
I wasn't planning to turn this into a pitch, but perhaps it was inevitable.
I don't know what the full solution is, but I know we'll need free expression to find it, and we need accessible technology to guarantee that.
Alongside @Ry_Nomad, @theHirad, and a few others, we're working on a project to restore the public square in the digital realm, with speech being unhindered, as was originally intended.
PS. The BITE model is a checklist to see if someone is in a cult: Behavioral, Information, Emotional, and Thought control. Cults combine these to control of members.
PS2. I'm encouraged to see this thread take off. If people are interested in discussing this more, set a reminder for this Space, at 9:30am Pacific Time or whatever time it is where you are: twitter.com/i/spaces/1mrGm…
It's so unnerving to see this treaty marketed as if it was a product on a shelf.
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In trying to keep up with the vast pace of developments across many fronts, I have started to hypothesize something. Perhaps it is oversimplified. Perhaps it is just wrong. I am open to all eventualities, I'm sharing this to get feedback.
When Mike Johnson did his complete turnaround, I started to wonder what he could possibly have been told that changed his view so drastically. It is tempting to think it was some personal threat to his reputation or family. But that is a low-context explanation that could apply to anything, and as such is not very informative, imo.
What if, what he was told, is that what is going on is pretty much the opening moves for WW3? See the map below and think about what was recently approved with the help of Mike Johnson:
- Warrantless wiretapping
- TikTok forced sale or banning
- Funding for Ukraine
- Funding for Israel
- Funding for Taiwan
- No funding for strenghtening the border (and actually perhaps some funding to get *more* people into the US)
Basically, infowar funding for the internals of the empire, and actual war funding to support the borderlands (Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine) against the rising BRICS powers. And an entry to the US of cheap workforce that will be needed to set up a new industrial base. At best we end up with a new Cold War. If we're lucky.
Maybe I'm giving people in power more credit than they're worth. Perhaps I refuse to believe they're simply arrogant and incompetent. But for better or worse, I can't stop thinking about this map, and what it means for the world.
I may have classified some countries wrong, by the way, I'm open to suggestions on specifics. In particular, It's likely that Hungary and Serbia should be at the very least a kind of greyzone. Also, US influence in south Asia probably goes further than I marked. And of course Africa is a competition zone, with Russia and China making inroads and France/EU losing ground, but nothing yet completely settled.
Anyway, hopefully this is interesting to others as it was to me. (runs away and hides in bunker)
Was about to mention that the poles are about to become a zone of intense competition between the blocks.
This Ben Shapiro/Dave Rubin clip is one of the most important recorded interactions for people who care about hypocrisy in the public sphere.
Thread 🧵 with some thoughts below.
First, Shapiro makes the argument that Daily Wire is a publisher (like a magazine or a newspaper) not a platform (like locals).
Interestingly, he implies that the Daily Wire was *subsidizing* Candace Owens. This would imply they were taking a financial loss to have her there.
Shapiro and Rubin, however, have also been massive critics of cancel culture. How did cancel culture get its name? From a campaign to cancel The Colbert Report over a tweet. Much of cancel culture is about inflicting professional harm for bad opinions. newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
At this point I treat Scott Alexander's writing as an infohazzard. Unless you are willing to check his facts and citations, it is probably inadvisable to read his material, as it is constructed to build a compelling narrative.
But watch the lemmings line up and jump off a cliff, obviously taking Scott Alexander, who has already admitted to falsely accusing multiple scientists, at his word.
Unless and until Scott Alexander commits to adopting a robust editorial process where blatant errors that are reported to him are corrected promptly, his work should be read as fiction "based on a real story, sorta".
To coin a term, this FDA tweet was a "narrative scaffold". After the narrative solidifies, it doesn't matter if the scaffold is taken down. Nobody will remember how things started anyway.
It's a synchronization signal for the elites to line up and promote the approved narrative. Once all the relevant people are committed, opponents' reputations destroyed, the original signal can go away, and the hive mind will continue singing to the same tune.
Other examples of narrative scaffolds? Where to start.
For one, the Steele dossier that led to the years and years of Russiagate garbage.
Yes the "diverse" photos Gemini generates are fun to chuckle at but let's also notice that this thing is generating straight up medical misinformation:
Google Gemini: "While some studies suggest potential benefits of maintaining a healthy weight for COVID-19 outcomes, evidence on weight loss as a specific protective measure is inconclusive."
Google Gemini: "There's no evidence that the spike protein in COVID-19 vaccines is directly cytotoxic. These vaccines only contain the genetic instructions for making the protein, not the fully formed protein itself."
I would like to use the occasion of this clip to remind everyone that the TOGETHER trial has still not released the raw data as it promised to do in its journal submission.
All the big name accounts complaining about fraudulent ivm studies have said NOTHING about this scandal.
I even offered Scott Alexander $25k of my own money if he would help get it released and he didn't move a finger.
Following the ivm rabbit hole has been the fastest way to find out that practically nobody from the medical establishment cares about the actual facts on the ground. Just posturing and repeating the hive mind talking points.
Thank God for whistleblowers, I have gotten access to the interim analyses from this trial, and when I publish them, the fraudulent nature of its conduct will be clear to anyone who cares to know about it.