Tag Archives: New Normal

The New Normal: Death Spirals and Speculative Frenzies

Posted on by
Reply

By Charles Hugh Smith

Source: Of Two Minds

There is an element of inevitability in play, but it isn’t about central bank bailouts, it’s about Death Spirals and the collapse of unsustainable systems.

The vapid discussions about “soft” or “hard” landings for the economy are akin to asking if the Titanic’s encounter with the iceberg was “soft” or “hard:” either way, the ship was doomed, just as the global economy is doomed by The New Normal of Death Spirals and Speculative Frenzies.

Death Spirals are the inevitable result of entrenched interests clinging on to the status quo and thwarting any adaptation or evolution that might threaten or diminish their share of the swag–and that includes any real change because any consequential modification has the potential to upset the gravey train.

The status quo “solution” is to borrow and blow whatever sums are needed to satisfy every entrenched interest. Filling the federal slop-trough for all the hogs now requires borrowing a staggering $1.4 trillion every year, and billions more in municipal, county and state bonds (borrowing money via selling bonds) on the local level.

This borrow and blow strategy avoids any uncomfortable discipline and difficult trade-offs: everybody gets everything they demand.

This strategy looks “unsinkable” until the iceberg looms dead ahead. History suggests that fiscal and political discipline is eventually imposed by the real world in one fashion or another when diminishing returns enter a Death Spiral.

Any limit on debt is of course “impossible,” just as it was “impossible” for the Titanic to sink. But history is rather implacable in this regard. The self-serving hubris of “impossible” limits on largesse tend to collapse on contact with currency devaluation, structural inflation or a systemic crisis of legitimacy that sweeps away the entire worm-eaten facade of stability.

In other words, the entrenched interests benefitting from the status quo will continue to do what worked in the past until it all implodes. The pain of discipline and modest sacrifices is too great to bear, so let’s collapse the entire system.

Autocracies excel at Death Spirals because they eliminate dissent, transparency and competing nodes of power. Nobody’s left to push back on disastrous policy decisions, so autocratic regimes race toward the iceberg at full speed.

Rather than invest in real long-term solutions, everyone is in the casino, buying options that expire in a few hours. Rather than invest for an entire quarter–whew, three whole months!–speculators now consider a week an unbearably long time to hold a trade.

Speculative frenzies create their own Death Spirals, as gamblers front-run the “guaranteed” bailout of speculators by central banks. This is the consequence of moral hazard being elevated to “guaranteed”: there is no need to actually wait for the inevitable central bank bailout of bets gone bad, we can place bets before the bailout because we know it’s as assured as the sun rising tomorrow morning.

Nice, except central banks and bailouts also reach diminishing returns and enter Death Spirals. Doing more of what’s failed seems to work once, then twice, if you give it enough juice, but the third time is iffy and the fourth time collapses the speculative casino that the status quo was trying to save.

No one who benefits from the Moral Hazard Casino Economy believes it’s no longer sustainable. All the gamblers, big and small, are confident the Federal Reserve and other central banks can cover any losses and make good whatever befalls the casino. The hubris of the punters, big and small, is essentially infinite.

I’ll get out before the house of cards collapses, everyone tells themselves. In the meantime, I’m going to front-run the inevitable bailout of this speculative frenzy.

There is an element of inevitability in play, but it isn’t about central bank bailouts, it’s about Death Spirals and the collapse of unsustainable systems. Death Spirals and speculative frenzies have now been completely normalized. We can’t imagine any other way to operate. But this New Normal won’t last as long as punters believe. Doing more of what worked in the past is only accelerating the casino’s demise.

A Smoldering Fuse

Posted on by
1

By James Howard Kunstler

Source: Kunstler.com

We have pretty much burned our bridges at this point. Unless youтАЩre prepared to mindfuck yourself, and gaslight yourself, and confess, and convert, thereтАЩs no going back to тАЬnormalтАЭ society (which we couldnтАЩt go back to anyway, on account of how it doesnтАЩt exist anymore) тАФ CJ Hopkins

Thirty-seven billion more dollars for Ukraine? (ThatтАЩs thirty-seven thousand millions of dollars, by the way.) Bringing the total this year to a click-or-two over ninety billion (ninety-thousand millions), on top of whatever Sam Bankman-FriedтАЩs FTX company funneled through that sad-sack international money laundromat тАФ soon to be the darkest backwater of a European failed state since Field Marshal Melchior von Hatzfeldt of Westphalia left Bohemia a corpse-strewn wasteland after the Battle of Jankau (1645).

    It really doesnтАЩt matter how much more money we pound down that rat-hole, you understand, because by the time various parties тАФ the weapons-makers, Volodymyr Zelensky, sundry members of the US House of Representatives, The Biden family, the World Economic Forum тАФ are finished creaming off their fair shares, poor Ukraine wonтАЩt have enough cash-on-hand to replace six fuse-boxes in Zaporizhzhia.

    Against this backdrop, the USA enters a holiday season near-death spiral as unspooling scandals battle a collapsing economy for supremacy of the alt news sites. Case-in-point: the aforementioned FTX monkey business, a metastasizing tumor of the body politic. This complex fraud will smolder for a few weeks before it explodes into an extinction-grade event for the Democratic Party. The usual suspects among the mainstream media are trying to ignore it for the moment, but the shreds of this exploding money-borg are already sticking to guilty parties far and wide across the political landscape.

      FTX commander-in-chief Sam Bankman-Fried remains at large after steering the crypto-currency trading platform into a bankruptcy so hideously tangled that the assigned liquidator in court proceedings, one John Ray III, who oversaw the Enron aftermath years ago, was boggled by what heтАЩs found so far (and itтАЩs early in the game): Namely, a company run by a handful of twenty-something drug freaks with no idea what they were doing, no record-keeping, and a slime trail of misappropriated investorтАЩs funds leading to Kiev and Geneva through various crooked American political action committees, and the halls of Congress тАФ with echos in ballot harvesting shenanigans which shaped the outcome of this monthтАЩs US elections.

     Mr. Bankman-Fried is still scheduled as a main speaker for AccentureтАЩs Nov. 30 DealBook Conference in New York ($2,499 for a ticket), along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Odds on him showing up? Or even being alive elsewhere on this planet then?

     The extended family Bankman-Fried is the quintessence of Woke aristocracy. Dad Joe Bankman and mom Barbara Fried are both law professors at Stanford. She also acted as a money-bundler for the Democratic Party and ran two non-profit тАЬvoter registrationтАЭ orgs (against the IRS laws which only permit non-partisan organized voter registration). Brother Gabe Bankman-Fried headed a non-profit named Guarding Against Pandemics (funded by Sam), which lobbies Congress to construct new platforms for medical tyranny. Aunt Linda Fried is Dean of the Columbia UтАЩs Public Health school, and is associated with Johns Hopkins, which ran the October 2019 Event 201 pandemic drill (sponsored by the Gates Foundation) months before the Covid-19 outbreak.

SamтАЩs girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, ran the Alameda Investments arm of the FTX empire (that is, FTXтАЩs own money laundromat). Her dad, Glenn Ellison is chair of MITтАЩs Econ School. His former colleague on the MIT Econ faculty, Gary Gensler, who specialized in blockchains there, is now head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency that Sam Bankman Fried was attempting to rope into a regulation scheme to eliminate FTXтАЩs crypto-currency competitors. CarolineтАЩs mom, Sara Fisher Ellison is an MIT econ prof specializing in the pharmaceutical industry (fancy that!). Caroline Ellison is currently on-the-run.

     The sum total of all this professional and academic accomplishment is also the quintessence of Woke-Jacobin turpitude in service to a political faction that seeks maximum moneygrubbing while acting to overthrow every norm of behavior in the conduct of elections, and perhaps in American life generally. ThatтАЩs some accomplishment. ItтАЩs also a lesson in why the managerial elite of our country are no longer trustworthy. They have gotten away with crimes against the nation for years, which has only made them bolder and more reckless.

     Wait for the FTX bankruptcy to unwind, along with all the political ramifications it entails, not to mention the financial afterburn in the whole crypto market, very likely extending into and befouling the rest of the banking system. This is going to be a clusterfuck for the ages, and will propel the USA into a depression with no visible horizon.

The Gaslighting of the Masses

Posted on by
1

By CJ Hopkins

Source: Off-Guardian

For students of official propaganda, mind control, emotional coercion, and other insidious manipulation techniques, the rollout of the New Normal has been a bonanza. Never before have we been able to observe the application and effects of these powerful technologies in real-time on such a massive scale.

In a little over two and a half years, our collective тАЬrealityтАЭ has been radically revised. Our societies have been radically restructured. Millions (probably billions) of people have been systematically conditioned to believe a variety of patently ridiculous assertions, assertions based on absolutely nothing, repeatedly disproved by widely available evidence, but which have nevertheless attained the status of facts. An entire fictitious history has been written based on those baseless and ridiculous assertions. It will not be unwritten easily or quickly.

I am not going to waste your time debunking those assertions. They have been repeatedly, exhaustively debunked. You know what they are and you either believe them or you donтАЩt. Either way, reviewing and debunking them again isnтАЩt going to change a thing.

Instead, I want to focus on one particularly effective mind-control technology, one that has done a lot of heavy lifting throughout the implementation of the New Normal and is doing a lot of heavy-lifting currently. I want to do that because many people mistakenly believe that mind-control is either (a) a тАЬconspiracy theoryтАЭ or (b) something that can only be achieved with drugs, microwaves, surgery, torture, or some other invasive physical means. Of course, there is a vast and well-documented history of the use of such invasive physical technologies (see, e.g., the history of the CIAтАЩs infamous MKULTRA program), but in many instances mind-control can be achieved through much less elaborate techniques.

One of the most basic and effective techniques that cults, totalitarian systems, and individuals with fascistic personalities use to disorient and control peopleтАЩs minds is тАЬgaslighting.тАЭ YouтАЩre probably familiar with the term. If not, here are a few definitions:

тАЬthe manipulation of another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.тАЭAmerican Psychological Association

тАЬan insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity.тАЭPsychology Today

тАЬa form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in their victimтАЩs mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition.тАЭNewport Institute

The main goal of gaslighting is to confuse, coerce, and emotionally manipulate your victim into abandoning their own perception of reality and accepting whatever new тАЬrealityтАЭ you impose on them. Ultimately, you want to completely destroy their ability to trust their own perception, emotions, reasoning, and memory of historical events, and render them utterly dependent on you to tell them what is real and what тАЬreallyтАЭ happened, and so on, and how they should be feeling about it.

Anyone who has ever experienced gaslighting in the context of an abusive relationship, or a cult, or a totalitarian system, or who has worked in a battered womenтАЩs shelter, can tell you how powerful and destructive it is. In the most extreme cases, the victims of gaslighting are entirely stripped of their sense of self and surrender their individual autonomy completely. Among the best-known and most dramatic examples are the Patty Hearst case, Jim JonesтАЩ PeopleтАЩs Temple, the Manson family, and various other cults, but, the truth is, gaslighting happens every day, out of the spotlight of the media, in countless personal and professional relationships.

Since the Spring of 2020, we have been subjected to official gaslighting on an unprecedented scale. In a sense, the тАЬApocalyptic PandemicтАЭ PSYOP has been one big extended gaslighting campaign (comprising countless individual instances of gaslighting) inflicted on the masses throughout the world. The events of this past week were just another example.

Basically, what happened was, a Pfizer executive confirmed to the European Parliament last Monday that Pfizer did not know whether its Covid тАЬvaccineтАЭ prevented transmission of the virus before it was promoted as doing exactly that and forced on the masses in December of 2020. People saw the video of the executive admitting this, or heard about it, and got upset.

They tweeted and Facebooked and posted videos of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Bill Gates, the Director of the CDC, official propagandists like Rachel Maddow, and various other тАЬexpertsтАЭ and тАЬauthoritiesтАЭ blatantly lying to the public, promising people that getting тАЬvaccinatedтАЭ would тАЬprevent transmission,тАЭ тАЬprotect other people from infection,тАЭ тАЬstop the virus in its tracks,тАЭ and so on, which totally baseless assertions (i.e., lies) were the justification for the systematic segregation and persecution of тАЬthe Unvaccinated,тАЭ and the fomenting of mass fanatical hatred of anyone challenging the official тАЬvaccineтАЭ narrative, and the official New Normal ideology, which hatred persists to this very day.

The New Normal propaganda apparatus (i.e., the corporate media, health тАЬexperts,тАЭ et al.) responded to the story predictably. They ignored it, hoping it would just go away. When it didnтАЩt, they rolled out the тАЬfact-checkersтАЭ (i.e., gaslighters).

The Associated Press, Reuters, PolitiFact, and other official gaslighting outfits immediately published lengthy official тАЬfact-checksтАЭ that would make a sophist blush. Read them and you will see what I mean. They are perfect examples of official gaslighting, crafted to distract you from the point and suck you into an argument over meaningless details and definitions. They sound exactly like Holocaust deniers pathetically asserting that there is no written proof that Hitler ordered the Final Solution тАж which, there isnтАЩt, but it doesnтАЩt fucking matter. Of course Hitler ordered the Final Solution, and of course they lied about the тАЬvaccines.тАЭ

The Internet is swimming with evidence of their lies тАж tweets, videos, articles, and so on.

Which is what makes gaslighting so frustrating for people who believe they are engaged in an actual good-faith argument over facts and the truth. But thatтАЩs not how totalitarianism works. The New Normals, when they repeat whatever the authorities have instructed them to repeat today (e.g., тАЬtrust the Science,тАЭ тАЬsafe and effective,тАЭ тАЬno one ever claimed they would prevent transmissionтАЭ), could not care less whether it is actually true, or even if it makes the slightest sense.

These gaslighting тАЬfact-checksтАЭ are not meant to convince them that anything is true or false. And they are certainly not meant to convince us. They are official scripts, talking points, and thought-terminating clich├йs for the New Normals to repeat, like cultists chanting mantras at you to shut off their minds and block out anything that contradicts or threatens the тАЬrealityтАЭ of the cult.

You can present them with the actual facts, and they will smile knowingly, and deny them to your face, and condescendingly mock you for not тАЬseeing the truth.тАЭ

But hereтАЩs the tricky thing about gaslighting.

In order to effectively gaslight someone, you have be in a position of authority or wield some other form of power over them. They have to need something vital from you (i.e., sustenance, safety, financial security, community, career advancement, or just love). You canтАЩt walk up to some random stranger on the street and start gaslighting them. They will laugh in your face.

The reason the New Normal authorities have been able to gaslight the masses so effectively is that most of the masses do need something from them тАж a job, food, shelter, money, security, status, their friends, a relationship, or whatever it is theyтАЩre not willing to risk by challenging those in power and their lies. Gaslighters, cultists, and power freaks, generally, know this. It is what they depend on, your unwillingness to live without whatever it is. They zero in on it and threaten you with the loss of it (sometimes consciously, sometimes just intuitively).

Gaslighting wonтАЩt work if you are willing to give up whatever the gaslighter is threatening to take from you (or stop giving you, as the case may be), but you have to be willing to actually lose it, because you will be punished for defending yourself, for not surrendering your autonomy and integrity, and conforming to the тАЬrealityтАЭ of the cult, or the abusive relationship, or the totalitarian system.

I have described the New Normal (i.e., our new тАЬrealityтАЭ) as pathologized-totalitarianism, and as a тАЬa cult writ large, on a societal scale.тАЭ I used the тАЬCovidian CultтАЭ analogy because every totalitarian system essentially operates like a cult, the main difference being that, in totalitarian systems, the balance of power between the cult and the normal (i.e., dominant) society is completely inverted. The cult becomes the dominant (i.e., тАЬnormalтАЭ) society, and non-cult-members become its тАЬdeviants.тАЭ

We do not want to see ourselves as тАЬdeviantsтАЭ (because we havenтАЩt changed, the society has), and our instinct is to reject the label, but that is exactly what we are тАж deviants. People who deviate from the norm, a new norm, which we reject, and oppose, but which, despite that, is nonetheless the norm, and thus we are going to be regarded and dealt with like deviants.

I am such a deviant. I have a feeling you are too. Under the circumstances, itтАЩs nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, we need to accept it, and embrace it. Above all, we need to get clear about it, about where we stand in this new тАЬreality.тАЭ

We are heading toward New Normal Winter No. 3. They are already cranking up the official propaganda, jacking up the fabricated тАЬcases,тАЭ talking about reintroducing mask-mandates, fomenting mass hatred of тАЬthe Unvaccinated,тАЭ and so on. PeopleтАЩs gas bills and doubling and tripling. The global-capitalist ruling classes are openly embracing neo-Nazis. There is talk of тАЬlimitedтАЭ nuclear war. Fanaticism, fear, and hatred abound. The gaslighting of the masses is not abating. It is increasing. The suppression of dissent is intensifying. The demonization of non-conformity is intensifying. Lines are being drawn in the sand. You see it and feel it just like I do.

Get clear on whatтАЩs essential to you. Get clear about what youтАЩre willing to lose. Stay deviant. Stay frosty. This isnтАЩt over.

Ukraine in the time of Covid

Posted on by
1

Can we trust тАЬhorizontal conflictтАЭ in the post-pandemic age?

By Catte Black

Source: Off-Guardian

The biggest mistake the elites made with the scamdemic was to let us see what good buddies they really are, because this instantly and inadvertently presented the 99.9% with a shocking and previously quite carefully hidden reality about the true nature of power and geopolitics.

Horizontal conflict narratives have for centuries been a major part of how elites control their populations. Catholic v Protestant, Moslem v Christian, black v white, male v female, gay v straight etc etc. ItтАЩs a tried and trusted method of channeling frustrations, shaping minds and keeping peopleтАЩs minds off the real authors of their misfortunes.

Behind the facade of conflict the elites have always shared a common bond of mutual interest. Kings (mostly) knew to honor the divinity of other kings even in defeat. Even when they killed each other they did it reluctantly and in the guise of тАЬnatural causesтАЭ. They knew their own populations were the real common enemies against which they knew to make common cause.

War was just another method of achieving this as well as gratifying some degree of personal pride.

Nothing much has changed in the modern era. And a great deal of the legacy mediaтАЩs energy has long been devoted to helping to conceal the reality of the тАЬbig (supranational) clubтАЭ that we ainтАЩt in.

Until, that is, the recent huge error of judgement by the worldтАЩs leaders when they chose to abandon the carefully maintained тАЬhorizontal divisionsтАЭ narrative in favor of some New Age, New Normal narrative of тАЬinternational solidarity and co-operation to beat the virusтАЭ.

They were clearly going for some тАЬIndependence DayтАЭ type hug-fest psychic effect. Humanity falling into each otherтАЩs arms and deciding to work together in WHO-created mutual New Normal benevolence to defeat an invisible enemy that will, of course, never be defeated.

It did not go over as planned.

They just tried to sell it too hard too fast. And they blew it.

Gordon Brown reacting to a few hundred тАЬCOVIDтАЭ deaths by saying we needed a world government (not yet, Gordon, too soon!).

Goldfinger Schwab and his stupid book of тАЬhappy peasantтАЭ delusional raving.

Insane overkill on the тАЬnothing will ever be the sameтАЭ meme based on a few flu cases.

Those pix of people falling over backwards because тАЬcovidтАЭ in China.

All our lovely leaders being seen at their international junkets ignoring their own mask rules (except for the flunkies), while forcing their populations into isolation and psychological torture.

All pushing their own magically produced untested toxic concoctions, all unctuously mouthing the same lies in a hundred different languages.

They goofed and made it just too obvious how closely in sync they are.

Sure they did also seed a few тАЬalternativeтАЭ deadly virus narratives that halfheartedly muddied the waters by blaming China, or maybe the US, but it wasnтАЩt enough to counter the truly stunning images of international elite solidarity. Most particularly east-west solidarity.

Why were the Chinese elites spearheading this lie? Why were the Russian elites promoting it?

This was a big wake up moment for many many people all over the world.

Not for the majority, of course. For the majority there was nothing but zombified lockstep, absolute obedience, bizarre levels of willing self-destruction.

But for a large and growing minority the very opposite began to happen.

This growing minority began realizing, not only that the pandemic was a massive lie, but also began to discern that most carefully hidden and most explosive truth тАФ that the elites of the world тАУ all the world тАУ owe allegiance to each other above and beyond any trapping of national identity.

And that convincing us this is not true had heretofore been a huge part of retaining their power.

Faced with this awakening some people began to see they had no choice but to take control of their own destiny rather than wait for their governments to save them.

Small grass roots and spontaneous rebellions began sprouting. First it was just a very few but then more and more people began challenging the pandemic lie. There were mass marches in cities across the globe and small local тАЬstand in the parkтАЭ protests. People were speaking out, reaching out. The truckers began their convoy.

Suddenly from a place of darkness there was real hope. Not invested in some phony hero politician or some noisy celebrity populist, but in ourselves. Groups of ordinary people began realizing they could take back their lives.

And simultaneously the pandemic narrative began to falter.

Vaccine uptake was not meeting expectations. Even people who had one jab were getting reluctant to have another. Some of those who had once been compliant began to feel theyтАЩd had enough.

By autumn 2021 the New Normal тАУ and, more importantly, the system promoting it тАУ were actually in some trouble. The worst trouble they had known for a while.

Faced with overwhelming resistance the тАЬIndependence Day hug-festтАЭ, and indeed the whole pandemic narrative, began to go into panic-reverse. Mask mandates began to be canceled. Quarantines abandoned. QR codes likewise.

And the elites began to recall the benefits of those good old tried and true horizontal conflict narratives.

The US began accusing Russia, China began accusing the US. Israel began bombing everyone again.

But not because they wanted to distract you from that awkward realization about how chummy they really are behind the scenes!

No. Never. Not at all.

It was because Russia suddenly got extra scary. And those Nazis in Ukraine suddenly became seriously worrying. And Israel got all worried about terrorists and Iran again. And TaiwanтАж.yada yada.

And, obviously, those elites who can all agree to tell the same lies in the same words at the same time and produce the same тАЬresponseтАЭ and promote the same тАЬsolutionsтАЭ in lockstep over covid just canтАЩt agree at all over anything else.

Because deep seated ideological and strategical differences make it impossible.

Oops.

So, the US had no option but to start provocations in the China Sea and flood Ukraine with weapons and advisors, and Russia had no option but to invade Ukraine.

It was all inevitable. Like death and taxes. Just something that wise people know had to happen.

And the fact it rescued the power structure from a dicey little moment is absolutely and totally a coincidence.

Yes, it did reinstate all the old conflict narratives and allow the media to make a lot of noise and distract people while the embarrassing тАЬIndependence Day co-operationтАЭ narrative snuck out the room.

And yes, it did rescue the New Normal and provide a lovely new reason for potential rationing, belt-tightening, forever shortages, travel restrictions and all the other things Goldfinger Schwab and his billionaire supranational globalist chums really like.

But coincidences are like that.

Coincidental. Convenient. And no need to look any further.

I mean тАУ would your favourite world leader really start or provoke a war just for convenience or profit? Would they really sacrifice lives just to benefit themselves?

Ok, maybe the Americans would, because Imperialism.

But Russia? China? TheyтАЩre more moral, right. Higher ethical plain.

I mean sure, they are all equally happy to let their citizens get injected with untested toxic sludge, and sure they just worked with the West to joint-perpetrate an unprecedented global scam that may have killed or maimed millions.

And sure there is quite a lot to be gained from тАЬwinningтАЭ in Ukraine, aside from defeating Nazis. Fat rebuilding contracts. Access to a lot of resources.

And of course the same convenient distraction equally serves West and East.

But no, come on. Sure they were all in lockstep in 2020. And, ok they still are in lockstep in 2022 тАУ but only over the pandemic lie!

They are absolutely opposed and forced into conflict about everything else, and we need to take a side, support the good guys who are rooting for a better world.

The only alternative is to recognize that horizontal divisions benefit them not us. That neither side is good, or rooting for anything but their own advantage, and that fundamentally, as ever, the global 0.1% take care of their own interests while striving hard to deter and divert us from doing the same.

I suggest we stop being diverted and deterred, remember the lesson of 2020 and continue on the path of personal and collective awakening they are doing their best to lure us from.

Orwell was Right: Control the Language, Control the World

Posted on by
1

By Bill Rice Jr.

Source: American Thinker

Of all the elements of todayтАЩs тАЬNew Normal,тАЭ the most ominous is the тАЬreformтАЭ that effectively changed the meanings of previously accepted words or terms. The following glossary illustrates how changes to our vocabulary played a central role in making the world a more dangerous and frightening place.

New Normal – тАЬNormalтАЭ is something that has long been the norm and is accepted as the norm. The key point is that the тАЬoldтАЭ normal no longer applies. This change in thinking provided authority figures the license to enact reforms that would not have been widely accepted in the past. 

In the old normal, a citizen might not have complied with authoritarian mandates, but in the New Normal, most willтАж that is, if one accepts the premise that we now have a New Normal, a premise most people now accept.

Vaccine — Previously a vaccine was an injection that provided тАЬimmunityтАЭ or prevented diseases, as well as the spread of diseases. Today, at least as it involves the COVID тАЬvaccines,тАЭ vaccines simply (and allegedly) reduce the probability someone will develop a severe case of this disease or die from this disease.

Safe — An activity that is not dangerous or does not cause harm. 

According to public health officials and almost all doctors, COVID vaccines are тАЬsafe and effective.тАЭ According to VAERS, approximately one million Americans believe they have suffered adverse medical reactions to COVID vaccines, with approximately 20,000 deaths possibly caused by the vaccines. Several studies have concluded that VAERS captures only a small fraction of such adverse events.

Effective — Certainly today тАЬeffectiveтАЭ does not mean COVID vaccines prevent infection or virus spread. In many heavily vaccinated countries, the vaccinated comprise a greater percentage of new COVID cases than the unvaccinated.

Harm — Something that injures, perhaps even kills, or causes someone pain or discomfort. The key change here is that тАЬharmтАЭ can now be caused by speech. The nexus that would definitively trace any alleged harm to any piece of speech is nebulous and impossible to prove.

Still, a person who composes words determined to include тАЬmisinformationтАЭ or тАЬdisinformationтАЭ is held guilty of causing potential harm to people who might read these words. Such a person can be censored, maligned, lose their jobs, or even be prosecuted. In our Old Normal, this rarely happened. In our New Normal, it happens daily.

Misinformation or Disinformation — In its simplest terms, this would be information that is provably false.

In our тАЬNew Normal,тАЭ misinformation or disinformation is simply any information that challenges the veracity of pronouncements made by authorized experts or authorities. That is, Dr. Anthony Fauci, AmericaтАЩs leading public health authority, cannot be charged with producing тАЬdisinformation,тАЭ but skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. can and should be.

Also, in todayтАЩs New Normal, many people censor their own thoughts as they know тАЬfree speechтАЭ can result in personal or professional harm. By now, the censors donтАЩt even have to censor everyone.  People do it themselves.

Science and тАЬThe scienceтАЭ — A theory largely accepted by the scientific community and public. 

тАЬScienceтАЭ used to be the process of testing a hypothesis and was almost never тАЬsettled.тАЭ In the past, a skeptic who examined or challenged the conclusions of peers was himself engaging in science. Today, тАЬThe ScienceтАЭ is what the authorized scientists and officials at public health bureaucracies say it is, and cannot or should not be challenged by other тАЬscientistsтАжтАЭ who perhaps should not even be called scientists and should now be labeled as тАЬscience deniers.тАЭ Or asтАж

Anti-vaxxer — Technically, this would be a person who opposes all vaccines. In Newspeak, it means anyone who is against mandatory COVID vaccines. In practice, this term is used as a slur to denigrate anyone who questions the pronouncements of authorities.  If you oppose mandatory COVID vaccines for whatever reason, you are a тАЬscience denierтАЭ or тАЬanti-scienceтАжтАЭ and, as such can and should be punished or censored because you could be causing тАЬharmтАЭ to the public. 

Free or freedom — In тАЬthe land of the freeтАЭ the definition of freedom has also been radically changed.

Today, some Americans are тАЬfreeтАЭ to keep their jobs or go to a restaurant or see a play if they can prove they have received at least two injections of an experimental vaccine (a vaccine where the vaccinated waive their right to sue if they later suffer harm). Americans may be allowed to engage in тАЬfree speechтАЭ on social mediaтАж if they say the right things.

ItтАЩs not just тАЬCOVIDтАЭ topics that are now being regulated by speech monitors. If you publish тАЬextremistтАЭ speech or politically incorrect speech that can be labeled as тАЬharmfulтАЭ or тАЬdangerous,тАЭ you also can lose your job or speech privileges. 

With the precedent established that speech can cause тАЬharmтАЭ and that the primary role of government is to protect people from harm, the harm of being тАЬoffendedтАЭ by speech is now a sanctionable offense. 

Patriotism or patriot — In the past, a тАЬpatriotтАЭ was one who stood up to tyrannical governments and/or displayed a great love for their country. Today, for many Americans, a patriot is one who complies with the edicts of their government and helps attack or embarrasses those who challenge governmental authority.

Just this week, President Biden proclaimed that Americans who get vaccinated are doing their patriotic duty. This statement builds on the тАЬus-against-themтАЭ theme, the good American vs. bad American narrative.

Public health — This term once meant the state of overall health in hundreds of millions of people who comprise тАЬthe public.тАЭ In the last two years, itтАЩs come to mean the тАЬhealthтАЭ of people who may or may not have COVID-19.

Today, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental health, obesity – all the conditions that kill and harm people — are afterthoughts when compared to тАЬCOVID health.тАЭ 

All of the above was made possible by changes in accepted language. George Orwell was right. If you want to control people, first control the language.

COVID, a virus that poses no significant health risk to 98 percent of the population, has given us a тАЬNew NormalтАЭ where тАЬvaccinesтАЭ are not vaccines, where тАЬfreedomтАЭ is now a privilege granted to those who obey, and where unelected public health officials have made billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies.

What they REALLY mean by тАЬliving with CovidтАЭ

Posted on by
Reply

Why are media dialling back on the Covid hysteria? Is it because the тАЬpandemicтАЭ is really over? Or is it an important part of the gaslighting process?

By Kit Knightly

Source: Off-Guardian

The past few days, even weeks, have seen a definite alteration in the mediaтАЩs attitude to the Covid тАЬpandemicтАЭ.

There have been numerous examples of what, if the media were not so tightly controlled, might be referred to as тАЬdissentтАЭ. But, since the media is tightly controlled, we must call it an apparent change in the message.

Famously, Dr Steve James, a consultant anaesthetist, confronted UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the weakness of the science supporting vaccine mandates. Note this was actually aired on Sky News:

A few days ago Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, went on Good Morning America to discuss the тАЬOmicronтАЭ wave, and ended up pointing out that most тАЬomicron deathsтАЭ have multiple co-morbidities.

In another interview, with Fox News, Dr Walenksy said the CDC was going to publish data on how many people had died of Covid, and how many died with it.

This begs a series of important questions.

  1. Why is the director of the CDC (seemingly) engaging with these Covid skeptic arguments after two years of pretending they donтАЩt exist?
  2. Why would Sky News air, and then tweet out, the video clip of a doctor challenging the health secretary?
  3. Why is the Guardian running headlines like тАЬEnd mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of vaccine taskforceтАЭ and quoting medical personnel who say we need to тАЬtreat Covid like the fluтАЭ?
  4. Why are new studies being promoted that claim T cells from ordinary colds can тАЬprotect you from CovidтАЭ?

ThereтАЩs no denying the messaging, the deceleration of the narrative. ThereтАЩs a new thread being woven into the story: тАЬliving with CovidтАЭ.

For over a month that has been a popular buzz phrase all over the Western press.

On December 1st, Forbes headlined:

Why Endemic Covid-19 Will Be Cause For Celebration

An article which argued, among other things, that тАЬEndemic Covid-19 will be no worse than seasonal fluтАЭ. This sentiment has been repeated ad nauseum across multiple outlets.

We already mentioned the Guardian article from January 8th, thereтАЩs also an earlier one from Dec 5th titled тАЬFrom pandemic to endemic: this is how we might get back to normalтАЭ.

CNBC ran three almost identical stories on this topic in the space of two weeks:

On New YearтАЩs Day, Vox had a piece titled:

Despite omicron, Covid-19 will become endemic. HereтАЩs how.

Bloomberg is reporting that Omicron signals the end тАЬof the acute phase of the pandemicтАЭ.

Just yesterday the New York Post headlined: тАЬCOVID will become endemic by later this year, ex-Biden task-force head predictsтАЭ, and USA Today asked тАЬThe pandemic is changing. Will omicron bring a тАШnew normalтАЩ for COVID-19?тАЬ

And earlier today Channel 4 opined that тАЬCovid in 2022тАЭ means тАЬlearning to live with the virusтАЭ.

The messaging isnтАЩt just media-based, either. Reports are coming out that тАЬliving with CovidтАЭ is going to be the UK governmentтАЩs strategy moving into 2022, with an official publication on this topic expected тАЬwithin weeksтАЭ.

So, тАЬliving with the virusтАЭ is going to be added to the Covid phrasebook alongside тАЬflatten the curveтАЭ and тАЬthe new normalтАЭ. But what does it actually entail?

When they say тАЬliving with CovidтАЭ, what do they really mean?

Well, firstly, letтАЩs not make the mistake of trusting any government, media, or тАЬexpertтАЭ, just because they start telling 20% of the truth.

They are liars, they have an agenda, this is always true, you should always be aware of it, even when тАУ or especially when тАУ they are suddenly telling you what you want to hear.

They have not seen the light, they are not correcting their mistakes, they not finally seeing sense, and they are not switching sides.

There have been no Damascene conversions. There is no wave of guilty consciences sweeping through the elite.

They have an agenda. They always have an agenda.

You should also dispel all notions of тАЬgetting back to normalтАЭ from your mind. That isnтАЩt happening.

How do we know? Because they said so.

Half the articles talking about тАЬliving with CovidтАЭ go into detail about how things wonтАЩt really change. Take this one, from the Guardian yesterday:

тАШLiving with CovidтАЩ does not have to mean ditching all protective measures

It outlines that Covid could become endemic soon, that the mass testing of asymptomatic people may be counter-productive and possibly should stop, but it doesnтАЩt reverse course on masks or vaccines and leaves the door wide open for a new тАЬvariantтАЭ to jump-start more lockdowns in the future:

тАЬLiving with CovidтАЭ does not have to mean reversing every protective measure. If better ventilation and face masks reduce the impact of winter respiratory illnesses, that is a positive, even if the NHS is no longer under imminent threat of being overwhelmed. We will also need to remain vigilant about the threat from new variants, which could still cause big setbacks. There is no guarantee that another variant, more infectious and more virulent than Omicron, could emerge in the future. Scientists say that supporting global vaccination efforts will be crucial to securing the path to normality.

Masks, working from home, and social distancing in crowded settings could all be тАЬsticking aroundтАЭ, according to one of the above CNBC articles. And тАЬCovid Boosters could become like annual flu shotsтАЭ.

Meanwhile, тАЬexpertsтАЭ are warning that even once Covid is endemic we should prepare for тАЬsurgesтАЭ every three or four months.

It seems тАЬliving with the virusтАЭ means maintaining the status quo, loosening a few restrictions, but leaving the path clear for new waves of fear porn should the need arise.

But why? Why are they doing this now?

It could be that there are splits and factions, fractures along the floors of the corridors of power. Perhaps some members of the great big club want to halt the Pandemic where it is, afraid that any more progress along the тАЬGreat ResetтАЭ path may imperil their own position or their own wealth.

Maybe.

What I see as more likely is that they sense they have over-extended themselves already, and that stretching further could break their entire story to pieces.

To use an apt metaphor, imagine the тАЬGreat ResetтАЭ agenda as an invading army, marching through town after town, winning battle after battle and burning as they go.

There comes a point where you have to stop. Your supply lines are pulled taut, your men are tired and numbers dwindling, and the occupied citizens are putting up more and more resistance. Push on now, and your entire campaign could crumble.

What you do in that situation is withdraw to a defensible position and fortify it. You donтАЩt give back the land youтАЩve taken, or not much of it at least, but you stop pushing forward.

The people whose land you have invaded will be so glad the war is over, so tired of fighting, theyтАЩll be so relieved by the respite before realising how much of their land youтАЩve taken away. They may even say тАЬlet them keep it, as long as they stop attacking usтАЭ.

ThatтАЩs how conquest works, from the days of ancient Rome and beyond. A cycle of aggression followed by fortification.

When we switch from тАЬpandemicтАЭ to тАЬendemicтАЭ, we wonтАЩt be getting our rights back, the vaccine passes and surveillance and the culture of paranoia and fear will remain, but people will be so relieved at the pause in the campaign of fear and propaganda they will stop resisting.

They wonтАЩt push back, and the тАЬNew NormalтАЭ will literally become just that, normal.

Hell, theyтАЩll probably greenlight funding for anything Bill Gates wants to do make sure тАЬCovid is the last pandemicтАЭ.

And then, one day when people are nice and docile again, a new variant will come back, or weтАЩll need a тАЬclimate lockdownтАЭ, and the push for control of every aspect of our lives will start up again in earnest.

The best thing we can do is not fall into the trap.

The press politicians and Big Pharma didnтАЩt all just realise the truth, theyтАЩre just using some small parts of truth theyтАЩve been ignoring for two years to fortify their position.

But that doesnтАЩt make it a bad thing.

The very fact they feel the need to do so shows that the resistance is building, and that theyтАЩre are trying to lull us into relaxing.

Now would be the worst time to stop fighting.

The Year of the New Normal Fascist

Posted on by
2

By CJ Hopkins

Source: Consent Factory, Inc.

And so, as 2021 goose-steps toward its fanatical finish, it is time for my traditional year-end wrap-up. ItтАЩs тАЬThe Year of the OxтАЭ in the Chinese zodiac, but IтАЩm christening it тАЬThe Year of the New Normal Fascist.тАЭ

And what a phenomenally fascist year it has been!

IтАЩm not talking amateur fascism. I am talking professional Class-A fascism. Government and corporate sanctified fascism. Bug-eyed, spittle-flecked, hate-drunk fascism. IтАЩm talking mobs of New Normal fascists shrieking hatred and threats at тАЬthe UnvaccinatedтАЭ as they are dragged off тАЬVaccinated OnlyтАЭ trains, painting Nazi-era messages on their windows of their stores, leaders of government fomenting mass hatred, TV commentators literally quoting sadistic Nazi SS doctors, leftists going full-fascist on Facebook, concentration camps, Goebbelsian propaganda, censorship of dissent тАж the whole nine yards.

Here in Europe, things are particularly fascist. One by one, New Normal countries are rolling out social-segregation systems, ordering тАЬlockdownsтАЭ of тАЬthe Unvaccinated,тАЭ and otherwise persecuting those who refuse to conform to official New Normal ideology. Austria has made тАЬvaccinationsтАЭ mandatory. Germany is about to follow suit. тАЬCovid passesтАЭ have been approved in the UK. Greece is fining тАЬUnvaccinatedтАЭ pensioners by reducing the amount of their state-pension payments. Swedes are тАЬchippingтАЭ themselves. And so on.

In New Normal Germany, тАЬthe UnvaccinatedтАЭ are under de facto house arrest. We are banned from society. We are banned from traveling. We are banned from protesting. Our writings are censored. WeтАЩre demonized and dehumanized by the New Normal government, the state and corporate media, and the New Normal masses on a daily basis. New Normal goon squads roam the streets, brutalizing pensioners, raiding barber shops, checking тАЬpapers,тАЭ measuring social distances, literally, as in with measuring sticks. The Gestapo even arrested Santa Claus for not wearing a mask at a Christmas market. In the schools, fascist New Normal teachers ritually humiliate тАЬUnvaccinatedтАЭ children, forcing them to stand in front of the class and justify their тАЬUnvaccinatedтАЭ status, while the тАЬVaccinatedтАЭ children and their parents are applauded, like some New Normal version of the Hitler Youth. When New Normal GermanyтАЩs new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced that, тАЬfor my government there are no more red lines as far as doing what needs to be done,тАЭ apparently he wasnтАЩt joking. ItтАЩs only a matter of time until he orders New Normal Propaganda Minister Karl Lauterbach to make his big Sportpalast speech, where he will ask the New Normals if they want тАЬtotal warтАЭ тАж and I think you know the rest of this story.

But this isnтАЩt just a story about New Normal Germany, or New Normal Europe, or New Normal Australia. And it isnтАЩt just a story about mass hysteria, or an тАЬoverreactionтАЭ to a corona virus. The тАЬNew NormalтАЭ is a global GloboCap co-production, a multi-trillion-dollar co-production, which has been in development for quite some time, and this year has gone exactly to script.

Given all the drama over the past 12 months, itтАЩs easy to forget that the year began with the occupation of Washington DC by thousands of US (i.e., GloboCap) forces in the wake of the тАЬTerrorist Assault on the CapitolтАЭ (a/k/a the тАЬJanuary 6 Insurrection,тАЭ or the тАЬAttempted Coup,тАЭ or some such nonsense) carried out by a few hundred totally unarmed Donald Trump supporters, who were allegedly intent on тАЬoverthrowing the governmentтАЭ and тАЬdestroying DemocracyтАЭ with тАж well, their bare hands.

This was the long-awaited тАЬReturn to NormalтАЭ spectacle that had been in the pipeline for the previous four years, the public humiliation of the Unauthorized President (and the тАЬpopulistsтАЭ who put him in office) and the GloboCap show of force that followed. HereтАЩs how I described it back in January:

тАЬIn other words, GloboCap is teaching us a lesson. I donтАЩt know how much clearer they could make it. They just installed a new puppet president, who canтАЩt even simulate mental acuity, in a locked-down, military-guarded ceremony which no one was allowed to attend, except for a few members of the ruling classes. They got some epigone of Albert Speer to convert the Mall (where the public normally gathers) into a тАШfield of flags,тАЩ symbolizing тАШunity.тАЩ They even did the Nazi Lichtdom thing. To hammer the point home, they got Lady Gaga to dress up as a Hunger Games character with a тАШMockingjayтАЩ brooch and sing the National Anthem. They broadcast this spectacle to the entire world.тАЭ

As I assume is obvious to everyone by now, the тАЬReturn to NormalтАЭ was a тАЬReturn to the New Normal,тАЭ which the global-capitalist ruling establishment was already imposing on the entire world. The message couldnтАЩt possibly be clearer. As Arnold Schwarzenegger succinctly put it, the message is, тАЬscrew your freedom.тАЭ The message is, shut up and toe the fucking line. The message is, show me your fucking papers. Use the fucking pronouns. Eat the fucking bugs. Get the fucking тАЬvaccinations.тАЭ Do not fucking ask us тАЬhow many.тАЭ The answer is, тАЬas many as we fucking tell you.тАЭ

The message is, there will be no more unauthorized presidents, no more leaving the European Union, no more тАЬpopulistтАЭ rebellions against the global hegemony of global-capitalism and its soul-crushing, valueless тАЬwokeтАЭ ideology. GloboCap is done playing grab-ass. They announced that back in March of 2020. They informed us in unmistakable terms that our lives were about to change, forever. They branded and advertised this change as тАЬthe New Normal,тАЭ in case we were тАж you know, cognitively challenged. They did not hide it. They wanted us to understand exactly what was coming, a global-capitalist version of totalitarianism, in which we will all be happy little fascist тАЬconsumersтАЭ showing each other our тАЬcompliance certificatesтАЭ in order to be allowed to live our lives.

I donтАЩt need to review the entire year in detail. You remember the highlights тАж the roll-out of the тАЬsafe and effectiveтАЭ miracle тАЬvaccinesтАЭ that donтАЩt keep you from catching or spreading the virus, and which have killed and injured thousands of people, but which you now have to get every three or four months to be allowed to work or go to a restaurant; the roll-out of the global social-segregation/digital compliance-certificate system that makes absolutely no medical sense, but which the тАЬvaccinesтАЭ were designed to force us into; The Criminalization of Dissent; The Manufacturing of тАЬRealityтАЭ; The Propaganda War; The Covidian Cult; the launch of The Great New Normal Purge; the whole Pathologized Totalitarianism package.

IтАЩd like to end on an optimistic note, because, Jesus, this fascism business is depressing. So IтАЩll just mention that, as you have probably noticed, more and more people are now тАЬwaking up,тАЭ or relocating their intestinal fortitude, and finally speaking out against тАЬvaccineтАЭ mandates, and тАЬvaccination passes,тАЭ and social segregation, and all the rest of the fascist New Normal program. I intend to encourage this тАЬawakeningтАЭ vociferously. I hope that those тАФ and you know who you are тАФ who have been reporting the facts and opposing the New Normal, and have been ridiculed, demonized, gaslighted, censored, slandered, threatened, and otherwise abused, on a daily basis for 21 months, as our more тАЬprominentтАЭ colleagues тАФ and you know who you are тАФ sat by in silence, or took part in the Hate Fest, will join me in applauding and welcoming these тАЬprominentтАЭ colleagues to the fight тАж finally.

Oh, and, if youтАЩre one of those тАЬprominentтАЭ colleagues and you start beating your chest and sounding off like youтАЩve just rediscovered investigative journalism and are now leading the charge against the New Normal for your YouTube viewers or your Substack readers, please understand if we get a little cranky. Speaking for myself, yes, itтАЩs been a bit stressful, doing your job and taking the shit for you out here in the trenches for the past 21 months. Not to mention how it has virtually killed my comedy тАж and IтАЩm supposed to be a political satirist.

But there I go, getting all тАЬangryтАЭ again тАж whatever. As the doctor said, тАЬbuy the ticket, take the ride.тАЭ And itтАЩs the season of joy, love, and forgiveness, and publicly crucifying dissidents, and paranoia, and mass hysteria, and persecuting тАЬUnvaccinatedтАЭ relatives, and, OK, I might have had one too many. Happy holidays to one and all, except, of course, to the New Normal fascists, especially the ones that are torturing the children. God, forgive me, but I hope they fucking choke.

Resolution for 2022: Dare to Build Your Own Opinions and Then Defend Them!

Posted on by
Reply

By Alfred De Zayas

Source: CounterPunch

тАУ Sapere aude!, Horace

Anyone who has followed the political culture in the US, Canada, UK, EU over the past twenty years must have realized that a war on epistemology, on truth, on semantics is going on.  We witness the hijacking of concepts like democracy, freedom, peace, patriotism, human rights тАФ and their instrumentalization for domestic and geopolitical purposes.  We observe a process of language destruction not unlike what Orwell foresaw in his sadly visionary book 1984.  тАЬNewspeakтАЭ is not the future, it is now, hic et nunc. We recognize it in the jargon of political correctness, the language and practice of the тАЬcancel cultureтАЭ.

The military-industrial-financial complex in the US, Canada, UK, EU is hell bent on full spectrum cognitive control and inundates the population with plausible тАЬnarrativesтАЭ based on fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy and fake democracy. We are literally swimming in an ocean of lies тАУ but, remarkably, most people are not conscious of the fact that they are systematically manipulated by governments, corporate media, compliant think tanks and universities. The power of тАЬpolitical correctnessтАЭ surrounds us in direct and subliminal ways. Most accept it as the тАЬnew normalтАЭ, as long as they continue having Hollywood entertainment and lots of sports on television. The classical panem et circensis (Juvenal).

A particularly worrisome phenomenon is the gradual emergence of a тАЬhuman rights industryтАЭ that systematically subverts and weaponizes human rights.  The holistic approach to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights advocated by Eleanor Roosevelt has been quietly denatured, dismantled, discarded.  We see how the тАЬindustryтАЭ transforms the individual and collective entitlement to assistance, protection, respect and solidarity тАФ based on our common human dignity  тАФ into a hostile arsenal to target competitors and political adversaries.

In the stockpile of weaponized human rights, the technique of тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ has become a sort of ubiquitous Kalashnikov. Yet, experience shows that naming and shaming fails to alleviate the suffering of victims and only satisfies the strategic aims of certain governments, non-governmental organizations and of a burgeoning clique of human rights operatives in government, academia and even in international organizations.  Allegations of real and putative human rights violations have proven politically very useful to destabilize rivals, denouncing and demonizing them.  To this end the deliberate use of double-standards, the maximation of human rights violations by a targeted country and the negation or suppression of evidence of violations by our own governments or by our allies, prepares the population to accept patently unjust and illegal actions to prepare тАЬregime changeтАЭ elsewhere.  Precisely this kind of indoctrination of the population through evidence-free allegations and hyperbole paves the way to barbarism e.g.  the aggression against Iraq in 2003 and against Libya in 2011, to name only two emblematic examples.

The Iraq invasion, which UN Secretary General Kofi Annan repeatedly called an тАЬillegal warтАЭ found the support of a тАЬcoalition of the willingтАЭ тАУ 43 States that turned their backs on the UN Charter and on international law, with the support of many university pundits and the corporate media.  One could affirm without fear of contradiction that the Iraq war constituted an international revolt, an assault on the international order established under the UN Charter and a negation of the Nuremberg Principles.

The Iraq war was preceded by a public relations and disinformation scheme of тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ, a concerted campaign about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction, about the extraordinary criminality of Saddam Hussein, who a few years earlier had done the PentagonтАЩs bidding in the US proxy war against Iran.  Barely eight years later, in 2011, alleged human rights violations were again invoked to denounce Muammar al-Gaddafi for the sole purpose of destabilizing Libya, imposing undemocratic тАЬregime changeтАЭ and facilitating the looting of LibyaтАЩs natural resources.  This occurred in flagrant violation of the customary international law principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign States, also contained in treaties and stipulated in the 1986 Judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua case[1].

Many rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council, European Commission and Inter-American commission also make use of тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ, a  strategy that rests on the false premise that the тАЬnamerтАЭ somehow possesses moral authority and that the тАЬnamedтАЭ will recognize this moral superiority and act accordingly. Theoretically this could function if the тАЬnamerтАЭ were to practice тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ uniformly, in a non-selective manner. Alas, the technique frequently backfires, because the тАЬnamerтАЭ has many skeletons in the closet and engages in blatant double-standards. Such intellectual dishonesty usually stiffens the resistance of the тАЬnamedтАЭ party, who will be even less inclined to take any measures to remedy the alleged violations.

Another technique of norm-warfare is what is termed тАЬlawfareтАЭ, whereby the apparatus of the administration of justice, both civil and criminal, is complicit in the subversion of the rule of law.  We witness how domestic and international criminal law are instrumentalized to demonize certain persons and not others. A self-respecting judge would not betray the profession by playing this kind of game тАФ but some do тАУ as we have seen in the US, UK, Sweden and Ecuador in the Julian Assange case.  The book by UN Rapporteur on Torture Professor Nils Melzer (Switzerland), originally published in German and now being released in English translation (by the author himself) The Trial of Julian Assange  (Verso, New York 2022)[2]  reveals the breakdown of the rule of law in the US, UK, Sweden and Ecuador тАУ a tour de force, far more serious than Emile ZolaтАЩs JтАЩaccuse in 1898 during the Dreyfus Affaire in France. Instead of safeguarding the ethos of the rule of law, these political judges corrupt it (remember Roland Freisler in HitlerтАЩs infamous Volksgerichtshof!) thus undermining the credibility of the entire system. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (Juvenal).  This is a crucial question of constitutional law.  Who will guard over the guardians? The corruption of the rule of law by those courts that engage in тАЬlawfareтАЭ is far more serious than many will admit, because it is precisely the administration of justice that must be the gatekeeper of truth and equity, the defender of the weak and most vulnerable.  The deliberate corruption of the administration of justice to target political or economic rivals leaves us powerless against tyranny.

Under certain conditions, тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ as we know it from politicians, rapporteurs and the media, raise issues of additionalviolations of human rights and the rule of law, contravening Arts. 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and could reach the threshold of what is termed тАЬhate speechтАЭ under Art. 20 ICCPR.

Experience shows that тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ is an ineffective instrument of change. States and ngoтАЩs would do well to revisit Matthew VII, 3-5 and replace the obsolete тАЬnaming and shamingтАЭ technique by good faith proposals and constructive recommendations, accompanied by the offer of advisory services and technical assistance so as to concretely help the victims on the ground. Sowing honesty and friendship is necessary if we expect to reap cooperation and progress in human rights terms. What is most needed today is mature diplomacy, result-oriented negotiations, a culture of dialogue and mediation, instead of a petulant culture of posturing, grandstanding, intransigence and holier-than-thou pretence.

The arsenal of weaponized human rights also includes non-conventional wars such as economic wars and sanctions regimes, ostensibly justified because of the alleged human rights violations of the targeted State. The result is that, far from helping the victims, entire populations are held hostage тАУvictims not only of violations by their own governments, but also of тАЬcollective punishmentтАЭ by the sanctioning State(s). This can entail crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, when as a consequence food security is impacted, medicines and medical equipment are rendered scarce or are available only at exorbitant prices. Demonstrably, economic sanctions kill[3]. It is particularly disgraceful how several non-governmental organizations including  Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have preferred to focus on real and alleged violations of civil and political rights by VenezuelaтАЩs Nicolas Maduro and forgotten the fundamental human rights of the Venezuelan people and the fact that tens of thousands of Venezuelans have already perished as a direct result of illegal unilateral coercive measures and financial blockades, as we know from independent reports, including the 2019 report тАЬCollective PunishmentтАЭ by Professor Jeffrey Sachs (Colombia) and Mark Weisbrot (Center for Economic and Policy Research)[4] .

Another grotesque example of weaponization of human rights principles is reflected in UN Security Council Resolution 1973 concerning humanitarian assistance to the Libyan population. This resolution was promptly hijacked by NATO to wage an all-out war on Libya, leading to the assassination of LibyaтАЩs head of State, Muammar Gadaffi in 2011. Ten years later the country is still in civil war and chaos, but the natural resources are safely in the hands of Western economic interests. More recently, in February 2019, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy organized  тАЬhumanitarian assistanceтАЭ for Venezuela and placed an impostor with no constitutional legitimacy, the pretender Juan Guaid├│, as the leader who would bring this humanitarian assistance to Venezuela. The operation failed. This was followed by a real coup dтАЩ├йtat attempt in April 2019, which again failed, and yet another attempt in May 2020, the Operation Gideon, which similarly failed.  The violations by the US and accomplices of fundamental norms of international law тАУ and common decency тАУ were breathtaking.  And yet, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Fox, etc. whitewashed these operations and sided with the putschists тАУ invoking тАЬprinciplesтАЭ such as тАЬdemocracyтАЭ, тАЬhumanitarian interventionтАЭ and тАЬresponsibility to protectтАЭ.  Hypocrisy had indeed come a long way.

Yet another form of weaponizing values is the grotesque undermining of peace and human rights by Committees that award such prizes.  A notorious disgrace is the undermining of the last will and testament of Alfred Nobel, who genuinely wanted to promote peace and human rights.  If one regards the laureates over the past years, we realize that most of them do not come within the testamentary purpose.  These days the laureates are not genuine pacifists like Henri Dunant or Bertha von Suttner.  They are chosen for purely political purposes тАУ not to advance peace and dialogue, but to denounce certain governments (in 2021 the Philippines and Russia) and to promote a geopolitical model over another.  This is totally against the letter and spirit the Nobel Peace Prize. The best book on the subject is by the Norwegian lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl, The Nobel Peace Prize тАУ What Nobel really wanted.

And let us not forget the politicization and weaponization of sports.  We are being manipulated into thinking that boycotting the Beijing Olympics is a good and honourable thing.  It is not.  It is an oxymoron, a public relations stunt.

What can we average citizens do?  First and foremost we must know the facts.  And because the corporate media lies to us, we must pro-actively get the information.  Thanks to the internet, it is still possible to access information that we do not get in the New York Times (тАЬall the news thatтАЩs fit to printтАЭ), Washington Post, CNN and Fox.  We must demand transparency and accountability from our democratically elected leaders, when instead of formulating constructive solutions to problems they engage in confrontational politics.  We must demand that our elected officials learn the habits of collaboration and compromise, enable true competition by guaranteeing a level playing field for everyone, both domestically and internationally. Our politicians, the media and the university pundits should embrace a new paradigm:  competition in solidarity.  I incorporate these thoughts into my 25 Principles of International Order,presented to the UN Human Rights Council in 2018.[5]

Here our New YearтАЩs Resolutions:

1. Sapere aude (Horace). Get the facts and act thereon.

2. Pushback against the hybrid war being waged by governments and the media. Demand truth from the government and the private sector. Only on the basis of correct information can the citizen exercise his democratic rights.

3. Pushback against the war being waged against whistleblowers, true human rights defenders. Demand the immediate release of Julian Assange. Recognize the contribution of Edward Snowden to the survival of true American values.

4. Pushback against Orwellian newspeak and тАЬpolitical correctnessтАЭ. Refuse to retreat into self-censorship.

5. Pushback against the military-industrial-financial complex

In 2022 let us  commit to listen more to others, practice self-criticism and intellectual honesty, stop instrumentalizing values for short-term political gain.

Let us reject the weaponization of everything.

Notes.

[1] https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/70/judgments

[2] https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/11/the-trial-of-julian-assange-a-book-by-nils-melzer/

[3] https://undocs.org/A/HRC/39/47/Add.1

[4] https://cepr.net/report/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela/

[5] https://www.claritypress.com/product/building-a-just-world-order/