I think there's a large body of reasonable people getting sick of some of the NPIs who do no agree with mandates or passports, but go along to get along. Only a small minority who are rabid passport / vaccine advocates. Part of the problem is political capture by pharma and media capture by politics / pharma.
I am at the point now where I think we fight fire with fire, and generate a greater fear than the one(s) already part of the zeitgeist. Mainly because I do not think rational, reasoned discourse is really going to shift the needle enough to get us off this death spiral of control by corrupt actors.
I agree with your last sentence. I have found like Sarah that people drift away - the cognitive dissonance seems to freeze them. So what does fighting fire with fire look like to you, sir? I am all ears! I think the MANY lawsuits are part of it.
I think it's more a case of bringing to their attention the things that are going on - more independent media, simpler explanations of vaccine efficacy, particularly from countries down the road a bit from us time wise, who have more of the population unwell.
Then dramatise it, let the emotion play, etc. No dishonesty, but if someone died, make sure the death is not a number on a website we never look at, but communicated by someone who depended on that person for their life. That kind of thing.
I agree with this. What I struggle with is what alarm wakes them up? Everyone here seems to keep hitting the snooze button. Here in the US, any stories about vaccine injury are labeled as misinformation by official sources, and even when the vaccine injured themselves speak up, there is a cacophony of people ready to call them anti-vaxxers (if you can sort out the logic on that one, please let me know).
And what's more, even as efficacy is CLEARLY waning...people keep repeating the mantra "safe and effective." And they treat the "booster" as a normal thing. Despite the fact that a "normal" booster schedule for a vaccine isn't....whatever this is.
I read these articles with so many mental gymnastics and holes in them. And I worry people passively take them in and accept the "conclusions" drawn without question. At the risk of driving traffic to them, this is an article that made my head hurt from the clear cognitive dissonance and jumpy logic. (https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-goal)
It talks about boosters and why they may be regularly necessary, and then goes on to say that waning immunity isn't really a problem and boosters may only need to be situational. And by the end of the article it says anyone who's eligible for a booster should get one.
How can all those things be true at the same time, and how are people just going with it?
It's a difficult question, agreed, but partly because we are not swayed by emotion as easily in this instance and do not have experience in using it to get a message across, or the weight that MSM and gov't etc do.
I don't have hard and fast answers, just think this is the way to go - emotive narrative. If I see something that works or work something out, I will definitely share.
And do this for both vaccine injuries and covid deaths.
When you see a video of 1000 covid deaths and they are all grandpas & grandmas, but the vaccine injuries are fit young sports people and deaths are from a range, I think the point makes itself.
We had a lawyer here in Australia bring an anti-vaccine mandate lawsuit (and do other things that are anti-health orders) get suspended, so lawsuits may work where you are, but not everywhere.
A lot of people have and continue to consume daily doses of MSM lies, half truths, and outright propaganda. Many are unreachable and in the face of new or differing information they turn away or become angry. It seems that it is easier to con some people than it is to convince them they have been conned.
For me it seems best to focus energy on those who know me enough and trust my judgement in other areas and to focus it on those who still have at least a bit of an open mind.
Agreed. Many people, including at least two of the three I mentioned in my post, seem only to pay attention, unquestioningly, to what's being curated and delivered to them by mainstream media. I confess that I was that way, once-upon-a-time. It wasn't until I began to realize that the sources I'd come to rely on and trust were only giving me partial information and lying by omission that I started to actively seek out other sources. (And then I compared Google with DuckDuckGo and really lost it). For me, with people still in this boat, including and especially those with whom I have a personal relationship, the key will be showing them that there are reliable, credible sources that offer more than what their seeing, and pointing out the glaring omissions (and sometimes outright lies) from the mainstream. The MSM has labeled EVERYTHING that isn't them as misinformation, so it's a matter of gently showing them how this isn't so, and that the actual purveyors of misinformation (often via missing information) are mainstream outlets and the like.
If you have any particular strategies that you've found to be successful with those in your circles, I'd love to try them too!
You are so right. It is not only what is reported it is also what is not reported by MSM. Public opinion is shaped by MSM. It hard to convince people that they have been lied to and/or fed half truths and distortions. The depth of it is so deep that people think there is no way the govt would lie or that if they did MSM would expose it. It's a lot to take in. Sometimes I see an opening when I hear someone make a comment about crazies who think this or that or something of that nature. I say, "You mean people like me?" After that I usually get a, "You don't really think....." I usually say, "Yeah I do," and then explain why. Sometimes depending upon what it is I say, "You are right. I don't think that. I know that." Then I elaborate on how and why.
Its not easy. I try to not literally waste my time when I don't know someone well or I know enough to see that they have been guzzling the kool aid.
I know it wasn't related to this but a quote atributed to Jesus seems relevant, "Cast not ye pearls to swine." This isn't to say that people are pigs but of what value is a pearl to a pig. Zero value. They don't recognize what it is.
On a brighter note as someone who has been crazy for many, many years it is refreshing to see many more people not being taken in by MSM. From that perspective this is the best I've ever seen it.
Ha, well maybe that silver lining is something that will pick up some momentum. I do wonder what the media and information landscape will look like in the years to come, especially if they keep peddling half truths and more people continue to see and defect.
(Also I just caught a they’re/their typo in my response, please forgive the error).
I didn't notice the typo. Oh I think the silver lining has picked up a lot of speed and has 'them' worried, hence the push for censorship and labeling things as misinformation. Faith in MSM is at an all time low and MSM is needed to keep the charade going. The internet makes it hard to control the flow on info. The more they try to control it and censor it the more obvious their game becomes to a greater number of people. In a sense they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. It won't happen overnight but it will happen.
I think of it as sort of like when a chicken's head is cut off. To an observer....what a mess it makes and what energy it has, almost seems super powerful...but it is actually in it's death throes.
Of course I may not live to see the "chicken" fall but fall it will.
I try to be optimistic. I think in the future the world will be a much better place. It will be awhile and that belief is not an excuse to not do anything. Pointing out the lies is a sort of stepping into the future and helping others. So maybe the "misfits", those not drinking the kool aid are a glimpse of the future.
Another excellent post, Sarah! I agree with you about the Brownstone Institute. I was thrilled to discover them. We need sources like that with very credible scientists and researchers and with a secular approach, so as to be as inclusive as possible.
I think there's a large body of reasonable people getting sick of some of the NPIs who do no agree with mandates or passports, but go along to get along. Only a small minority who are rabid passport / vaccine advocates. Part of the problem is political capture by pharma and media capture by politics / pharma.
I am at the point now where I think we fight fire with fire, and generate a greater fear than the one(s) already part of the zeitgeist. Mainly because I do not think rational, reasoned discourse is really going to shift the needle enough to get us off this death spiral of control by corrupt actors.
I agree with your last sentence. I have found like Sarah that people drift away - the cognitive dissonance seems to freeze them. So what does fighting fire with fire look like to you, sir? I am all ears! I think the MANY lawsuits are part of it.
I think it's more a case of bringing to their attention the things that are going on - more independent media, simpler explanations of vaccine efficacy, particularly from countries down the road a bit from us time wise, who have more of the population unwell.
Then dramatise it, let the emotion play, etc. No dishonesty, but if someone died, make sure the death is not a number on a website we never look at, but communicated by someone who depended on that person for their life. That kind of thing.
ie we can't tell and should not try to tell people what to think. They have to wake up themselves, but we can sound an alarm.
I agree with this. What I struggle with is what alarm wakes them up? Everyone here seems to keep hitting the snooze button. Here in the US, any stories about vaccine injury are labeled as misinformation by official sources, and even when the vaccine injured themselves speak up, there is a cacophony of people ready to call them anti-vaxxers (if you can sort out the logic on that one, please let me know).
And what's more, even as efficacy is CLEARLY waning...people keep repeating the mantra "safe and effective." And they treat the "booster" as a normal thing. Despite the fact that a "normal" booster schedule for a vaccine isn't....whatever this is.
I read these articles with so many mental gymnastics and holes in them. And I worry people passively take them in and accept the "conclusions" drawn without question. At the risk of driving traffic to them, this is an article that made my head hurt from the clear cognitive dissonance and jumpy logic. (https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-goal)
It talks about boosters and why they may be regularly necessary, and then goes on to say that waning immunity isn't really a problem and boosters may only need to be situational. And by the end of the article it says anyone who's eligible for a booster should get one.
How can all those things be true at the same time, and how are people just going with it?
Food for thought: https://twitter.com/bell00david/status/1460054220212563971
This aligns with my next reading topic: Socratic questioning. This may be the thing that answers the "how / what" above.
It's a difficult question, agreed, but partly because we are not swayed by emotion as easily in this instance and do not have experience in using it to get a message across, or the weight that MSM and gov't etc do.
I don't have hard and fast answers, just think this is the way to go - emotive narrative. If I see something that works or work something out, I will definitely share.
And do this for both vaccine injuries and covid deaths.
When you see a video of 1000 covid deaths and they are all grandpas & grandmas, but the vaccine injuries are fit young sports people and deaths are from a range, I think the point makes itself.
We had a lawyer here in Australia bring an anti-vaccine mandate lawsuit (and do other things that are anti-health orders) get suspended, so lawsuits may work where you are, but not everywhere.
https://7news.com.au/news/court-justice/nsw-anti-vax-mandate-lawyer-suspended-c-4535450
I agree. This is terrifying.
Wow. Terrifying!!! So what ideas do you have to fight fire with fire?
A lot of people have and continue to consume daily doses of MSM lies, half truths, and outright propaganda. Many are unreachable and in the face of new or differing information they turn away or become angry. It seems that it is easier to con some people than it is to convince them they have been conned.
For me it seems best to focus energy on those who know me enough and trust my judgement in other areas and to focus it on those who still have at least a bit of an open mind.
Agreed. Many people, including at least two of the three I mentioned in my post, seem only to pay attention, unquestioningly, to what's being curated and delivered to them by mainstream media. I confess that I was that way, once-upon-a-time. It wasn't until I began to realize that the sources I'd come to rely on and trust were only giving me partial information and lying by omission that I started to actively seek out other sources. (And then I compared Google with DuckDuckGo and really lost it). For me, with people still in this boat, including and especially those with whom I have a personal relationship, the key will be showing them that there are reliable, credible sources that offer more than what their seeing, and pointing out the glaring omissions (and sometimes outright lies) from the mainstream. The MSM has labeled EVERYTHING that isn't them as misinformation, so it's a matter of gently showing them how this isn't so, and that the actual purveyors of misinformation (often via missing information) are mainstream outlets and the like.
If you have any particular strategies that you've found to be successful with those in your circles, I'd love to try them too!
You are so right. It is not only what is reported it is also what is not reported by MSM. Public opinion is shaped by MSM. It hard to convince people that they have been lied to and/or fed half truths and distortions. The depth of it is so deep that people think there is no way the govt would lie or that if they did MSM would expose it. It's a lot to take in. Sometimes I see an opening when I hear someone make a comment about crazies who think this or that or something of that nature. I say, "You mean people like me?" After that I usually get a, "You don't really think....." I usually say, "Yeah I do," and then explain why. Sometimes depending upon what it is I say, "You are right. I don't think that. I know that." Then I elaborate on how and why.
Its not easy. I try to not literally waste my time when I don't know someone well or I know enough to see that they have been guzzling the kool aid.
I know it wasn't related to this but a quote atributed to Jesus seems relevant, "Cast not ye pearls to swine." This isn't to say that people are pigs but of what value is a pearl to a pig. Zero value. They don't recognize what it is.
On a brighter note as someone who has been crazy for many, many years it is refreshing to see many more people not being taken in by MSM. From that perspective this is the best I've ever seen it.
Ha, well maybe that silver lining is something that will pick up some momentum. I do wonder what the media and information landscape will look like in the years to come, especially if they keep peddling half truths and more people continue to see and defect.
(Also I just caught a they’re/their typo in my response, please forgive the error).
I didn't notice the typo. Oh I think the silver lining has picked up a lot of speed and has 'them' worried, hence the push for censorship and labeling things as misinformation. Faith in MSM is at an all time low and MSM is needed to keep the charade going. The internet makes it hard to control the flow on info. The more they try to control it and censor it the more obvious their game becomes to a greater number of people. In a sense they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. It won't happen overnight but it will happen.
I think of it as sort of like when a chicken's head is cut off. To an observer....what a mess it makes and what energy it has, almost seems super powerful...but it is actually in it's death throes.
Of course I may not live to see the "chicken" fall but fall it will.
I try to be optimistic. I think in the future the world will be a much better place. It will be awhile and that belief is not an excuse to not do anything. Pointing out the lies is a sort of stepping into the future and helping others. So maybe the "misfits", those not drinking the kool aid are a glimpse of the future.
Another excellent post, Sarah! I agree with you about the Brownstone Institute. I was thrilled to discover them. We need sources like that with very credible scientists and researchers and with a secular approach, so as to be as inclusive as possible.