One side of politics maintains its support through fear, but it’s an invisible wall until you touch it. Most people within the bubble think they got there through persuasion and reason. They think they are free to leave, they “just don’t want to”. But once an errant thought occurs, or they ask an unpermitted question, the wall of fear appears — it’s the unexpected poison barb, the mockery a reasonable question provokes. It quickly escalates to full blown “primal rejection”.
Leil Leibovitz lived within the bubble, and writes about The Turn — the moments he realized that he was afraid to ask, to speak his mind.
I sense a phase change coming as more and more people reach The Turn.
The Turn
By Leil Leibovitz
You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist.
If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns..
The Turn brings with it the sort of pain most of us don’t feel as adults; you’d have to go all the way back to junior high, maybe, to recall a stabbing sensation quite as deep and confounding as watching your friends all turn on you and decide that you’re not worthy of their affection any more. It’s the kind of primal rejection …
But, having been there before, I have one important thing to tell you: If the left is going to make it “right wing” to simply be decent, then it’s OK to be right.
Why? Because, after 225 long and fruitful years of this terminology, “right” and “left” are now empty categories, meaning little more than “the blue team” and “the green team” in your summer camp’s color war. You don’t get to be “against the rich” if the richest people in the country fund your party in order to preserve their government-sponsored monopolies. You are not “a supporter of free speech” if you oppose free speech for people who disagree with you. You are not “for the people” if you pit most of them against each other based on the color of their skin, or force them out of their jobs because of personal choices related to their bodies. You are not “serious about economic inequality” when you happily order from Amazon without caring much for the devastating impact your purchases have on the small businesses that increasingly are either subjugated by Jeff Bezos’ behemoth or crushed by it altogether. You are not “for science” if you refuse to consider hypotheses that don’t conform to your political convictions and then try to ban critical thought and inquiry from the internet. You are not an “anti-racist” if you label—and sort!—people by race. You are not “against conformism” when you scare people out of voicing dissenting opinions.
If you glimpse someone close to that point, welcome them. We’ve been watching it slowly for years in the climate debate. Someone asked a reasonable question and was shouted down. Bitten, they come to us seeking answers, or just a friendly ear. They want the Red Pill then..
Read it all at The Tablet, there’s a lot more.
What we are seeing now could be called the Turn, or it could be the downstream effects of eight years of Obama’s Hope and Change. When he was elected, given all the history associated with him, I thought the downfall of America would happen faster. Much of it was done in stealth mode, and a lot of judicial appointments, military appointments, and public service appointments flew under the radar. Trump staved it off for a while, but it will take something extra to “turn” it back from where it is now.
It’s a year until the half term elections. How much more damage will be done during that year, and how much faith do we have in elections after 2020?
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Morning Jo,
And thanks for another thought provoking post.
I can’t remember which came first for me, discovering you, or reading “The delinquent teenager”, but it was the latter which forced me to accept that AGW (as it was then) was not a question of science but of a coordinated set of lies and obfuscations by a world wide organisation.
Your site has enabled me to express my views openly and without editorial modification (apart from the odd stuff up by me.) Thank you.
But my early Turning enabled me to observe that the Covid mess is following the same propaganda techniques, reach and global control. My small actions at self preservation, all came from either you or replies to you. So thank you again.
I think more people are turning, or getting towards that decision, and certainly hope that’s true. One rather strong pointer available here is the huge outbreak of cases that occurred recently and which were all triggered in large groups pf people within venue which required all present to have demonstrated they’d been double vaxxed. That fact has not been enunciated in SMH or by their ABC.
Cheers
Dave B
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I hope you are right and that people are turning but I fail to see it occurring so far. People are still complying with face masks and rushing to get vaccinated. Perhaps things will turn once we get to the 2nd or later booster shots. Can so many people be that stupid that they will keep on taking them? I don’t know, yet. I hope not but then again the damage will have already been done to the vast majority of the population not to mention the possibility they will still introduce and enforce more draconian laws, such as the vaccination passport. At the moment the trend is still in the wrong direction. It will turn only when we see people refusing to comply en mass. Given the scaremongering that has been successfully perpetrated on the public, I doubt it will turn any time soon. I do hope I’m wrong but I’m a hard core evidence person and thus far there is absolutely no evidence of a turnaround.
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G’day Peter S,
Being a confirmed pedant I must protest that I did not claim there was “a turnaround” but that more people were Turning. I hope that that number is increasing and will produce a turnaround, but doubt that’s possible because our ever esteemed leaders are contractually bound to Pfizer.
Cheers
Dave B
40
Some people are wavering, not turning. If some people were turning then there would be a turnaround.
10
The term “walkaway” (from the left / woke) is apt here.
00
I’ve been ‘turned’. You cannot make a comment in mainstream newspapers along any of the following lines. Mention Ivermectin, something against vaccination, treatment of covid, vitamins i.e. D,A, Zinc. If you do you will be rejected instantly. Although I have mentioned the book ‘The real Anthony Fauci’ 3 times and only been rejected once.
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And The Australian is just as bad as the rest of the printed media. I am constantly being refused when I mention any of those subjects that you quote. If it was not for the fact that there are some excellent articles in that paper, I would be cancelling my subscription.
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Commercial talkback radio immediately cut off any caller questioning official COVID advice on the basis that it promotes dangerous mis-information that could harm people’s health. Then they play ads for booze, fast food and gambling.
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I think most of us are sick and tired of the stupid thought police, yet the so called climate emergency has lasted for decades and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.
Here’s the latest Press release from the UK’s Net Zero group about the UK’s energy emergency and we can only hope that more people start to wake up to this looming disaster.
Fair dinkum, what a stuff up.
“Declare an energy emergency or risk economic disaster, Boris Johnson warned”
Press Release
“London, 29 December – Net Zero Watch has called on Boris Johnson to declare an energy emergency and introduce radical policy reforms in order to prevent the energy cost crisis turning into an economic and social disaster.
The call comes as fears grow over a devastating energy cost and energy security crisis, with spiralling prices hitting households and businesses hard, and warnings that energy bills could double or even treble next year.
It is reported that Boris Johnson is considering to hand out £20 billion of taxpayers’ money to energy suppliers who are threatening to double or treble energy costs.
Despite the fact that Britain will need natural gas for decades to come, the ban on fracking and the curtailing of conventional gas exploration has led to serious shortages of domestic natural gas production. The result is super-charged energy prices and rising inflation, a painful cost burden already struggling households are now facing.
The government should suspend costly Net Zero plans as a matter of urgency and put energy costs and security of supply at the centre of national security.
The government has only one way to avoid political oblivion, and that’s for Britain to introduce radical policy reforms and to start using the UK’s massive natural gas resources, which would bring down energy costs and enhance energy security significantly.
In fact, natural gas prices in the UK are nearly ten times higher ($35/MMBtu) than they are in the US ($4/MMBtu) where fracking is widely used and shale gas is cheap and abundant.
If the shale gas moratorium was lifted tomorrow, it would take at least 12 months to get the gas flowing. But the Government needs to take strong steps now, in order to send out a clear signal to investors. Otherwise the energy and cost of living crises will become permanent, posing an existential threat to this government and many businesses.
The British Geological Survey estimates that the total volume of shale gas in the Bowland basin is between 820 and 2200 trillion cubic feet, with a central estimate of some 1300 trillion cubic feet. It is estimated that if 25 trillion cubic feet of this huge resource could be recovered it would be worth nearly one £trillion at current gas prices.
The current energy cost and supply crisis is the result of decades of ill-considered climate policy which has prioritised costly emissions reductions technologies while neglecting national security, security of supply and economic and social impacts.
The severity of the current crisis merits emergency measures, not only to protect consumers and the economy, but also to avoid the crisis from turning into an economic and social disaster.
Net Zero Watch is calling on the Government to:
1. Suspend Net Zero plans as a matter of urgency and put energy costs and security of supply at the centre of national security.
2. Suspend all green levies on energy bills, funding subsidies temporarily out of taxation, but acting firmly to cancel these subsidies in the near term.
3. Cancel constraint payments, and compel wind and solar generators to pay for their own balancing costs, thus incentivising them to self-dispatch only when economic.
4. Remove all fiscal and other disincentives to oil and gas exploration, including shale gas, to increase domestic production levels.
5. Suspend carbon taxation on coal and gas generation in order to provide consumer relief and ensure security of supply.
6. Re-open recently closed gas storage facilities and support new storage projects.
7. Suspend all further policy initiatives directed towards the Net Zero target, including the Carbon Budgets, the heat pump targets, and the overly ambitious timetable for the ban on petrol and diesel engines, until the UK energy sector has been stabilised.
8. Facilitate the acceleration of building and deploying Small Modular Reactors for both electricity and heat.
Dr Benny Peiser, Net Zero Watch director, said:
“It is almost certain that energy companies, should they survive the coming storm, will not repay the £20 billion fund they are demanding. In any case, handing out billions to energy suppliers while energy prices are going through the roof would go down like a bucket of cold sick with voters.”
“Boris Johnson must prioritise national security as a matter of urgency by declaring an energy emergency, restarting North Sea gas exploration immediately and abandoning the effective ban on the development of shale gas.”
“By continuing to prioritise the Net Zero agenda over national security and economic stability, Boris Johnson risks turning a crisis into a national disaster.”
Contact
Dr Benny Peiser”
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one more:
9. Remove Carrie Johnson from No.10. If Boris Johnson goes with her, so be it.
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Carrie Johnson is a roadblock to Britain’s energy costs and security of supply for sure but she is typical of millions. I have said it before that nothing can be done to change the political mindset of the British people; both left and right side of politics preach/believe in the same lunacy of climate change. As a result the mass of the people have been blindsided and are unable to think for themselves. The ‘educated’ believe what they were told in University and the rest are brainwashed by the media.
People are stubborn and they will freeze to death before they change their minds . .
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I am currently reading Ian Plimer’s book “Green Murder”, a fascinating look at climate from a geologist’s point of view. Several pages back from where I am now (and I can’t find it at the moment) was a saying from some scientist that “ a person cannot be reasoned out of a belief that they have not been reasoned into”
This really impressed me. How often have I came away frustrated from conversations with those of the left that I have tried to convince with solid data that the climate models all exaggerate global warming; that the BOM and NOAA all fiddle with the data on temperature, storms and fires to ensure that their graphs match the theory and that both temperature and sea level have been much higher in the past than they are now.
No matter how simply I present the data it is always met, at the minimum, with a knowing, sad smile and a shake of the head or, perhaps with a red face and waving arms while shouting that I am a “climate denier”. Recently, at Christmas dinner, I told the father-in-law of my daughter (a climate change “expert”) that electric cars are actually coal fired cars as 75% of the grid was powered by coal. He just about choked on his turkey and told me he was an “expert” and I had no idea what I was talking about. When I quoted him the average input to the grid from wind and solar, compared to coal and gas, he just told me “I was wrong”.
These people of the left just believe what they want to believe and what they have read in their favoured source of information and no amount of real data will persuade them.
I think what is happening in the UK at the moment, especially if this winter is severe and people suffer badly from “heat or eat” and especially if the death toll from cold is exacerbated by the current cost and unavailability of power, may well lead to a “great awakening”. I certainly hope so.
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Could you imagine being a prof of marine sedimentation today and trying to teach a bunch of part-time barista’s about the finer-points of geological history?
40
“ a person cannot be reasoned out of a belief that they have not been reasoned into” –
Love that.
If you ‘know’ the Earth is the centre of the universe, you don’t need to waste time looking through that stupid telescope thingy that Galileo is promoting.
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Will the winter be cold enough to escalate the UK energy crisis?
Bill shock is after the event. Energy supply shortages are immediate. It will take shortages and supply disruptions to generate the political will needed to change direction. One thing for certain, Boris is not a hostage to past decisions. He jumps rapidly to the tune of the electorate.
Modern society is driven by fads and followers. When people are freezing in the dark, the Climate fad will fade quickly.
Benny Peiser is just staying ahead of the latest fad. I get the impression that he is a “greenhouse effect” believer.
All that CO2 released over the past century and there is still no ocean surface that shows an annual average temperature higher than 30C.
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I know this will get me lots of down votes, but what do you mean by a “green house effect believer”? You appear to use the phrase as a perjorative label. But maybe I am wrong. There are many people, possibly here but over lots at WUWT who seem to think a greenhouse effect violates the Second Law, which it does not, or that it is a hoax, etc. etc.
No mechanical engineer worth the title is going to deny that CO2 and H2O are IR active gasses which have a substantial impact on heat transfer through atmospheres — planetary atmospheres no less than solar atmospheres and combustion atmospheres in furnaces and ovens.
I am a greenhouse effect believer. Nonetheless I also think that the effect is overwhelmingly beneficial, that a small increase in CO2 not only has a very small impact, but is also not worth halting at the prospect of a world without affordable energy, that methane is a worry only because at its tiny current concentrations it has a large sensitivity coefficient, and, like you, that there are mechanisms, mostly in the hydrological cycle, placing a firm limit on maximum temperature. But the greenhouse effect is a reality just the same.
Benny is about as good an ally in this war as one could ask for.
00
Will history repeat yet again? We will know soon enough. We are continuously being attacked on two major fronts; climate change and COVID-19 vaccinations. New York might shows us the way it will all pan out on the latter. It’s not looking good but then again there is the possibility people will wake up if these new draconian bills are put in effect. If not then history will repeat and they will have to suffer a lot more for them to wake up.
Extreme Authoritarian Laws Proposed in New York!
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Because most have already vaccinated these bills in NY are a means to manipulate them to hate people who are unvaccinated and demand they be rounded up and put into camps so their crazy world can get back to “normal”. Where have we seen that one before?
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Watch the NewYork Storm Troopers arresting people at a restaurant for not having the right papers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3YUHGrxJ4
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Yes, they are much closer to Naz1 Germany than most people realise. “Show me your papers!”
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Unfortunately, there’s a third major front as Xi Jinping wages war on the west on every possible front bar one. including exploitation of fronts 1 and 2. The only missing front from Xi Jinping, so far, is direct military attack. He has read his Sun Tzu and will try to win without direct military attack, or failing that, only attacking when he is ready. He is gettng ready by building new military bases across the Pacific and Indian Oceans – Hambantota in Sri Lanka, another in Papua New Guinea just off the northern tip of Australia, and more recently the Solomon Islands. There may well be more. He will probably attack some vulnerable places along the way though, like Taiwan for example. The west does not have long to prepare, and it looks like it is concentrating more on self-destruction than on preparation. These are not good times.
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This is out of date, it was ruled-out by the PNG govt quite a few months ago, and it was not an official PNG govt initiative to begin with, but a local one for local interests, and had no binding authority of any kind (in the same way Premier-Dan had no authority to sign a part of Australia or its foreign policy and economy to the belt and road agenda).
70
Our own governments are waging war against us – not only Xi Jinping.
50
But Mark, how does one know the difference?
20
Thankfully Omicron has arrived to pop the Fauci Flu bubble.
Despite the frantic attempts at censorship by the Establishment Misleadia and the Big Tech Neo-Orwellians, the truth that the quackzines do nothing to stop Omicron is spreading like wildfire.
When people see there is no point in jabbing children with dangerous experimental gene therapy shots, then the quackzine passport game collapses.
I believe the quackzinators are going to have a miserable 2020.
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I do hope you are right, Konrad.
But just because it’s a FACT that the vaxx is now medically useless will not stop the world-wide drive to make everyone take it.
It has never been a medical issue from the start, but a political issue.
Lockdown, for instance, is a Communist tool of repression, used also in prisons to punish the prisoners.
Those who believe that lockdowns are valuable life-savers need to explain why we had no lockdowns previously for bad flu seasons – if they work so well, why were we destroying so many lives in past pandemics by not locking down?
It’s the acceptance of the authorities’ demand to take the vaxx, and the threats of punishment if not, that is driving the uptake.
Do you want t travel?
Do you want to work?
Do you want your children taken from you (see the case in Germany now)?
Then vaxx up, no matter how useless you believe they are.
The antisemitism of the Nazis was based on lies but did not stop the death camps.
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An interesting aspect about cult behaviour are the rehearsals in preparation for the attack.
In Jonestown the followers practiced drinking the ‘Kool-aid’ as a culmination of what were called ‘White Night‘ events.
10
I’ve got two more decades if I live to 95. Hope I see the end of The Rot, but it’s been planted real deep.
210
The males in my family live to the mid-80s. Using that as a guide, I expect to live until 2030 +/-2.
So, if we are now at the beginning of the end, I may see the middle. Hope so.
50
I read the full article and there’s one typical major flaw. It presumes most people desire to be free. No, most people desire to be safe and protected, and therein lies the rub. They will choose mild tyranny in order to feel safer over and above total freedom. That’s the trick; mild tyranny. Governments then introduce the next phase, and the next, and the next, until before we know it we have a full blown tyrannical regime. It works all the time. The only way to break the chain of events that will lead to the full tyrannical regime is for people en mass to stop complying right here and how. Of course, that is not going to happen. Surprise me if you will.
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‘Surprise me if you will.’
There were three waves of the Spanish Flu epidemic: the first was bad, the second worst and the third not so bad in terms of mortality. This is most likely the same trajectory for Covid, so it should be all over by this time next year.
The climate change madness will take a little longer, the Thames has to freeze before they acknowledge global cooling has begun.
In social settings, when Covid or energy matters are mentioned, I smile and leave the room. As friends and family are all brainwashed there is little point in further discussion.
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El+Nostradamus
Your 2020 prediction was for it to be all over by xmas 2020.
Your 2021 prediction was for it to be all over by xmas 2021.
You are excelling even your own topsy turvy world and coming in two days early with your xmas 2022 prediction.
You also predicted that if it was not over by xmas 2021 the people will revolt, how’s that revolution looking from behind your mask.
Give up while your behind.
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The second wave is drawing down and the third wave is taking off, lockdowns are over.
Look at the Ashes in Melbourne, packed stadiums and no masks.
33
That just proves it’s all a pack of lies. So, how many are vaccinated and how come they are not wearing masks yet we are still required to be vaccinated and wear masks at certain places that are far less densely populated? See the hypocrisy?
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Governments are following medical advice, people still get Covid even if they are fully vaccinated.
I know quite a few nurses, one is against vaccination and has now lost her friends. Another has been working on the front line and just caught Covid, even though fully vaccinated and wearing hazmat.
From the outbreak its been policy on the run and governments will fall if found wanting.
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Medical advice, yes that’s it.
50
Seriously, packed stadiums.
I did watch a bit of the cricket serial cheats, more empty seats then bodies. The TV told me it was packed, my eyes told me they were lying.
You watch but you don’t see.
You hear but you don’t listen.
One
Two
This one is titled, world record crowd at MCG
Adelaide packed also
Nice throw to the straw man by the way.
Lockdowns are over in the northern hemisphere also.
Winter is coming.
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There were 57,000 at the MCG on the last day of the third test. In the old days that would have been a disaster, but all things considered it wasn’t a bad number.
This NH winter has seen an increase in numbers, but that was expected. Some countries have tightened restrictions and reintroduced partial lockdowns to restrict the spread of Omicron so that the hospital system is not over run.
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One comment latter, not packed. Still not your best effort, that was a 180 in the same sentence.
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‘You also predicted that if it was not over by xmas 2021 the people will revolt …’
You’re telling fibs on the world wide web. The people won’t revolt, they have the ballot box.
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Go back to sleep. You are so naive you are embarrassing yourself in front over everyone.
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You’ll have to do better than that.
Draconian efforts by democratically elected governments, to prevent the hospital system from breaking down, was essential. Now they have to face the electorate and if they reelect Commie Dan you’ll say they are brainwashed.
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I already have done better than that but you are so blind to the lies spread by MSM, politicians and health officials.
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Surely you jest, I don’t believe everything the MSM says. Critical judgement is required after reading more widely, such as here on this blog.
Supposing all Australian governments decided to ignore medical advice from the start of the pandemic, would we be any better off?
24
Would we be worse off?
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Better off??
Perhaps if they had followed the established Pandemic Preparation Plans instead of making it up on the fly , we may have been better off.
As soon as they discovered people were so easily convinced to surrender their freedoms, the warm fuzzy feeling of power was too intoxicating to let slide.
‘Medical Advice’ was often touted as the reason for the latest diktat – however the release of said advice was strangely absent. A convenient shield to hide behind.
Shambolic mismanagement comes to mind……
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‘ … people were so easily convinced to surrender their freedoms …’
The people were reluctant, but most accepted what the authorities demanded.
If Australian governments ignored medical advice then we can be fairly sure that the indigenous community would be decimated.
‘Shambolic mismanagement comes to mind……’
History will show mistakes were made from the start and politicians had to successfully defend their positions throughout the pandemic or suffer the consequences at the next elections.
18
I struggle to understand why an Aboriginal’s lack of immunity is any more or less immune than my lack of immunity. If it’s a D3 plus other vitamin deficiency problem, affecting their immunity, then give them D3 food supplements, etc., but I thought we were over this racial prejudice, and assumed inequality of health services. Why is it still a thing?
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Well, the argument goes that because they live in a more communal environment that Covid would be unrelenting. Also, diabetes is widespread so they assumed mortality would be higher.
Health services in the bush are deficient, for some unknown reason doctors and nurses don’t want to live out the back of nowhere. Over the past ten years new hopeful immigrants, with appropriate medical credentials, were given the nod if they first worked in the bush for a couple of years.
The most popular doctor in my town is Indian and who originally did her stint at Dubbo, she now has a broad Australian accent. My personal doctor is from Nepal and did his time out west, but I get this feeling that they are both gravitating slowly towards Sydney.
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Yes, my wonderful GP speaks three languages, Hindi and English being two of them. But re the health services situation, like all Australians my bank acct was sent a COVID19 bonus fund, by the Australian govt, to get me though the worst troubles of the period and its health risks. And one of the things I did with that money was to make sure I prepared better in my personal circumstances for when I catch it. Which included budgeting and metering out this money very carefully, and retaining it for as long as I can, and educating myself about Covid19 and my lack of immunity. And spending a quite small fraction of that money on buying essentials to get prep my immune system for the illness, and improve my chances of a lowered impact and faster recovery.
That is my responsibility. So I sort of feel bilked that fellow equal citizens with the same opportunity and incentives, get treated differently wrt their immunity. This seems to me to be along way from my fellow citizens taking responsibility to not be more then a necessary burden on others, or invoking an extra entitlement. So i don’t like much this residual special treatment and media and political waffling about it.
During my past ~6 weeks of fairly severe illness, I had to fill out a lot of forms and interact with govts and agencies quite a lot, and the question I got asked more than any other was “Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Islander descent?” After a while that question got up my nose more than covid19 ever has. It’s time we saw an end to that question, and those separate database fields, or special treatment.
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Only 40% are fully vaccinated.
‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are almost four times more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to have diabetes or pre-diabetes.’ (Diabetes Australia)
31
That’s why we are building more capacity after two years of the most lethal most contagious virus in history. Don’t know why they called them Centres for national resilience though.
50
Ebola was more fatal than all the others, 93% of those infected died from the contagion.
Building new quarantine stations is a good idea, never know when they might be needed.
33
the Thames has to freeze RE: el+gordo 8.1
I recall posts, now perhaps 7 to 10 years ago, explaining that the river surroundings, and the River, has changed since the frost fairs. One of the most significant was the Great Frost of 1683–84, but the most recent was the winter of 1962-63.
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A repeat of the 1962-63 winter will suffice, the coal fired power stations along the Thames prevented skating up to London Bridge, but with them removed its open to speculation.
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Also, the embankments have been built up, making the river narrower. Consequently it flows faster and is less likely to freeze.
I well remember that winter of 62/63. I went skating on a pond near Reading.
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Good point Annie, the hydrology has changed and may not freeze.
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I believe man made embankments along the Thames, such as the Victoria Embankment may stop the possibility of the Thames freezing up, but I’m more than ready to be corrected as I’m no expert.
00
You are right about three major waves (1918-1919) in the Spanish flu pandemic; but the data, sketchy as it is, showed some small waves occurring clear into 1922, confined mainly to the normal “flu season”. At some point, though I stopped predicting when or how, this too will fade into the background noise of endemic disease.
00
Such puritanical political absolutes do not exist, except between the ears of political absolutists.
All democratic choices are a trade-off, and they always will be, than may it ever be so.
And political absolutists will be eternally dissatisfied with the electorate’s right to decide on the ‘impure’ trade-off, that suits the situation, as they see fit. And will forever nit-pick holes in the in-practice exercise of Democracy.
And admittedly imperfect system, that is better than all the others, but can do better.
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We’re already safer than ever before in human history. You’re implying everyone in happy to lie and be lied to over imaginary threats in order to feel safer. Extrapolate that: lies and imaginary threats will run out-of-control because when the criteria is feeling safe rather and actually being safe – then – it’s all about our feelings. The lies multiply to make us feel less safe.
We really need honesty and transparency in public life to actually be safe. For example: look at the oxycontin epidemic in the USA – built on lies – still killing 70k/year due to drug overdoses.
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To clarify my point. This argument blames us because we are gullible and subject to manipulation through fears, real or imaginary, orchestrated by politicos, journalists and activists.
It’s a similar argument all con-men use to legitimise exploitation of their marks. Conmen, who are cynics, think everything in life is a scam, and so justify their own scams as merely a smarter version of scams they think everyone else is up to!
In reality, telling the truth has a value in and of itself. When we don’t lie, society is better for it.
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🙂 🙂
20
Welcome to my life for the last 10 years.
When you know most of the drivel in the MSM is just that, but get shut down when you ask hard and reasonable questions, but threaten the mass delusion….or worse, threaten to burn down the carefully crafted lunacy of the Elite, the attack dogs appear quickly.
You do develop a titanium exterior and goid reasoning skills though.
Just know there is Godly favour found in righteousness, and liars practice that which goes against what people in thier gut know is inherently right….
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You, I and some others here know that unless one has the Holy Spirit, they are wide open to being manipulated and deceived by evil people. Without Him there is little hope of using proper discernment to distinguish good from evil.
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And any intollerant political liar can claim to have the Holy Spirit and be guided by the powa of gawd.
“No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”
All for a ‘good cause’.
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If anybody wants evidence-free assertions backed up by a rigid and unbending belief in something which has no tangible proof, then religion fits the bill perfectly.
10
While true, equally true: If anybody wants evidence-free assertions backed up by a rigid and unbending belief in something which has no tangible proof, then Atheism fits the bill perfectly.
Only Agnosticism is logically consistent.
Yet, belief in logic (an axiomatic system) is belief in the unproved (and unprovable) axioms on which logic is based.
Yep, turtles all the way down.
01
I believe man made embankments along the Thames, such as the Victoria Embankment may stop the possibility of the Thames freezing up, but I’m more than ready to be corrected as I’m no expert.
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People want – or it it have a need ? – to be accepted by others. They quickly learn to do and say whatever “the crowd” wants them to do and say, because to do otherwise leads to rejection.
Part of “the crowd” is the media because that’s where everyone gets their information from. The media claims that it simply reports public opinion but if you believe that then you’ll believe anything. The public form their opinions based on the information given to them by the media and when journalists have no idea what they’re talking – far too common these days – you’ll simply get a regurgitated press release or whatever a media contact told them. Get told by the gullible media that the world is getting hotter and hotter and people will believe it. Not everyone immediately but enough of them to make anyone who doubts it go silent rather than risk being branded a crank and “not one of us”.
Critical thinking seems to no longer be taught in schools. Independent thinkers are seen as a blight on society, not a positive, because they are too much of a threat to those who hold power.
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The intolerance we now witness of virtually all reason- and evidence-based new and alternative ideas relates to the domination of the Left, or as Americans call them “liberals” (as opposed to the pretend conservative party we have in Australia of the same name) who now dominate virtually all institutions.
It all started in 1967 when Rudi Dutschke told his followers that violent Marxist revolution was difficult but they would succeed through a “long march through the institutions” as they infiltrated all levels of society and all institutions over a long period such as government at all levels, academia, the education system, the legal system, even the large woke private corporations that so greatly benefit from the “gift” of “crony capitalism” bestowed upon them.
There are no more intolerant people than the Left either in their International Socialist or National Socialist forms.
The Left are at war against the core Enlightenment values of Western Civilisation such as the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and evidence, ideals such as liberty, ongoing progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state (they are imposing their own Leftist religion upon us).
The phenomenon of Leftist intolerance was written about by Kin Holmes in the book “The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left“.
Article: https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/how-the-left-became-so-intolerant
Video: https://www.c-span.org/video/?408729-1/kim-holmes-discusses-the-closing-liberal-mind
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I recently read an article by Trevor Loudon. Trevor discusses the current involvement of the British Communist Party and their support and implementation of lockdowns to destroy society and the economical situation. The British situation is to be the model for the whole world. The global warming hoax and the Covid reaction are tools of the Left in the destruction of the West.
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“Dr Robert Malone Permanently Suspended from Twitter Platform
December 29, 2021 | Sundance | 146 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/12/29/dr-robert-malone-permanently-suspended-from-twitter-platform/
Alternate links listed there
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At least he has good company, including the former President of the United States, Donald Trump as well as hundreds of other conservatives and free thinkers.
The Left cannot tolerate new or alternative ideas, or free or freedom-oriented thought in all its forms.
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Do you realise you are exactly what this article is written about?
Might pay for you to actually re-read the article and read the whole article from the link.
“Only small children, machines, and religious fanatics think in binaries.”
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David, I would just point out that leftist Progressives hold that new ideas and methods are necessary to initiate (even though there’s nothing new under the Sun actually, but they like to pretend there’s another untried way, as a vital party of getting elected under a curtain of lies …). And right Conservatives hold that the tried and true plus tested older known concepts be the guide to political formulation, speech, social and economic organisation and Laws.
I just like things to work better, to make life better for all, and recognize that both are valid parts of the process.
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When I was at high school in the early 60’s we looked at 1984 in our English Literature class. I thought at the time this could never come true, who could possibly fall for something like double think which flies in the face of logic and reason. Yet we have people who believe that the jab works, but they need protection from the un jabbed because they could be infected by them.
The unvaccinated are treated like the followers of Emanuel Goldstein, aka thought criminals, and should be the object of the daily 2 minute hate according to idiots in government and the media.
I never thought that it would happen, but it has.
Slightly O/T It seems that Omicron is also a lab creation so the CCP can move to the next phase of their plan.
https://richardsonpost.com/david-archibald/24965/omicron-bio-weapon-2-0/
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When trying to understand the Left, always remember, we have their manual, George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four”.
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I think we heretics should try and establish the true cost of their TOXIC, dilute, unreliable S&W energy.
A typical estimate for a 2.5 mw wind turbine/generator is about 3 million $.
So the cost of 1 million of these 2.5 mw generators would be about 3 trillion $ and to meet Dr Pielke jr’s target for the last 3 years would’ve cost well over 4.5 trillion $ and at least 50 to 60 trillion $ for net zero by 2050. But I think my cost increases for the next 30 years are far too conservative.
Don’t forget TOXIC wind generators only last about 20 years and the the entire mess has to be cleaned up and buried in landfill. And then you have to start all over AGAIN. Of course coal , nuclear, gas etc power plants would last 50 years and longer with proper maintenance.
And never forget that wind energy is only available for about 30% of the time, so you also have to back up every wind farm with some sort of RELIABLE BASE-LOAD power supply FOREVER.
IOW Wind energy costs would be horrendous if you add in the unreliability and the real cost of supplying enough EXTRA energy to the system for 70% of the time. Or about 20 years of the 30 years until 2050.
The above applies for global wind net zero costs until 2030.
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Nev, the article is focused on the extreme treatment of ‘Apostates’, as opposed to Heretics. Apostates is a relative term with respect to a belief system which they have once declared to believe in, then decided to update their position, and recant or forsake the former beliefs, and declare being against them, thus treated as an inside traitor to the cause, and especially damnable, a target of retribution and personal venom of leaders for the former memes and beliefs. Heretics are closer to fringe-dwellers who accept no conventional view at any point, closer to being ‘dissenters’ from mainstream though and establishment edict. I sort of have more respect for Apostates, as they are the more hated, they have learned hard lessons, and have had the courage to inconveniently stick with what they understand to be right, they have in the process became an independent light to their own path from there, whereas it’s unclear if the Heretic has ever been right about anything, and is more interested in avoiding any consensus, and ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ are not necessarily involved in their choices.
Apostates from cAGW are more interesting to me.
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Don’t forget “Fahrenheit 451” (Ray Bradbury)/ film by François Truffaut.
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It seems that Native Americans are also pushing back against more TOXIC desecration of their lands, so that Biden can meet their so called net ZERO targets by 2050.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/29/native-americans-rejecting-green-energy-revolution-infrastructure/
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“I’d rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned”. Feynman….
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“If science can’t be questioned it’s not science, it’s propaganda”
https://newcatallaxy.blog/2021/12/30/if-science-cant-be-questioned-its-not-science-its-propaganda/
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I’ve not posted personal stuff before, but thus struck a chord.
I’m about to be out of a job because of not wanting the jab options. No..not antivax.
I accept choices have consequences, so do principles.
Lucky I reckon I’ll get by.
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The first thing you will enjoy is the freedom! Not to be on holiday, you’ll be busier than you ever were when employed, but the freedom to do as you want!
Then all sorts of offers and options come up and before you know it you’re working again, but in a new job that gets you excited.
I figure everyone should get fired every 10years and not be allowed their old job back!
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Dr. Roger Hodkinson: “It’s All Been A Pack of Lies”
We need a great reset of the great reset. The ballot box is the first option as it would be peaceful. Failing that then those who are awake already know what it will take. We get the government we elect and so richly deserve. It’s time for a great awakening, although I doubt it will happen for obvious reasons. Far too many people are so clueless and asleep. They need a big kick to wake up, and I am certain they will get it, and it will hurt very badly.
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PeterS:
A big thank you for posting that link to Dr Hodkinson.!
It’s just what I’ve needed. I’ve emailed it to my two `know-nothing’ brothers in the hope it will shut them up.
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Brilliant! Short and sweet.
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Thanks Peter,
To echo Soph and Brenda, that’s brilliant.
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That was a brilliant article and gives me hope. It makes me realise that I am not the only one dismayed by what has been going on in politics in recent years.
As a product of a very working class background, and you can’t get much more working class than a mother who was a coal miners daughter and a father who grew up in the slums of Redfern and Newtown in Sydney and spent most of his working life as a labourer in sawmills, I was always a staunch supporter of the Labor Party, it stood for the little people, the working people and the downtrodden. The Liberal Party on the other hand stood for the “toffs” , the ruling classes, the people who listened to the ABC.
For some years now I have struggled with what has happened to my parents Labor Party, and I thought, my party. This article summed up many of my questions and dilemmas, I didn’t necessarily agree with everything he said, but isn’t that the whole point.
I still believe in many “socialist” ideals but my beliefs have become much more eclectic and that is the problem, my political beliefs don’t quite fit neatly anywhere anymore. I believe in climate change, I believe in social justice, I believe in fighting racism, I believe in vaccination, but I also, as a scientist, like to look at the research and question how all these things are solved and implemented. Apparently that is not allowed by the left of politics anymore.
An excellent article.
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So Graham I’d like to ask about your version of climate change and what you really believe?
I too think that the climate changes for short periods and longer periods for thousands of years.
But I’m also sure that we humans are now living in the very best of times and the data supports my case.
Fully evolved Humans have existed for at least 200,000 years and the first 1 billion of us could be counted by 1810.
Up to 1810 all Humans were poor and sick and had a life expectancy UNDER 40 years and today 7.8 billion Humans have a life expectancy of 73 and are much wealthier than 30 years ago or 50 years ago or 100 years ago etc.
I’ll leave it there for now but I can easily support my claims from UN data etc.
BTW here AGAIN is Dr Rosling’s 5 minute video of the Human journey since the start of the Ind REV in 1810 to 2010 and all because of the use of reliable coal ,oil and gas.
Fossil fuels still supply 80%+ of our TOTAL energy needs in 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
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I’m a geologist, the climate changes. What else do you want me to say?
My working life has been exploring for oil and coal.
Humans are an insignificant part of the earths history.
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Its a pity that we have to “turn” when as supposedly we are the most intelligent creatures on this planet . Humans have been making the same mistakes again and again . We have to stop our emotions from hijacking our brains…..
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If you are reading this, you are the Resistance.
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I recently had to appear for work at a host ofpeople’s homes in the city, all of them I am quite familiar with and get on well. If they were a covid aware type, theyd freak out if they found out I was of the unvaccinated. Id placate them easily by quickly saying, im not an anti vaxxer. Relaxed them immediately. Then I’d follow up with, “im just waiting for the best time to take the vax because there is no covid where I live” and they were fine.
I certainly avoided any argument, I just agreed with what they said or said what they wanted to hear. Most weren’t that interested in talking too much about it actually.
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Whenever people visit my home they don’t seem to care about masking and social distancing, perhaps they think I’m already vaccinated (I’m not).
On the rare occasion the subject arises, I tell them I’m not vaccinated because I’m waiting for a vaccine that actually works. They seem to understand that angle (or they secretly think I’m insane).
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One of the hallmarks of a “friend” is “friends are people you can tell anything to”. You could even take that as a functional definition of a friend.
Question to general readers: What percentage of people you thought of as being your friends 2 years ago would meet this narrower definition of “friend” today?
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I have been saddened to the point of despair when I speak to otherwise good people who are rabidly pro vax/mandates/passports.
And then I turned a corner of my own. Rather than dwell on those individuals I have made a conscious decision to reach out to any acquaintance who seems to have views similar to my own. I get a tangible sense of relief that I am not alone. Some have provided further accounts of what is going on. We share our perspectives and stories and trade information.
It keeps hope alive.
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Excellent!
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An interesting share from Ben Davidson of Suspicious Observers.
Our planet is a dangerous place.
Enjoy.
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“A Perfect Summation of Years of B.S.”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2021/12/29/a-perfect-summation-of-years-of-b-s/
Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ZY3VWYKzQ
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Just to (unwisely) point out Jo, and I’m sure you’re aware of this being a general case, the same process has occurred to me and many others in here, for much the same reason. It’ll probably happen to several people within this thread again. Group-think is a ubiquitous problem and I don’t accept it’s a left-of-politics feature.
I personally detest both left and right extremes because both are inaccurate, unbalanced and to some degree counterproductive and unhelpful, even if the left is almost always thoroughly wrong on the basic scientific and detail facts, and the right is generally more sensible and accurate, but far too angry, and anger-inducing.
I really detest the Left of politics and media for being so gratuitously assuming, arrogant, ignorant, and profoundly dishonest–and obviously quite deliberately lying, to the point of being malign and ‘evil’. I also really detest how the Right of politics, and also the right media, as they always try desperately to make me as angry and enraged as possible, which is also not particularly useful, nor productive as a process, and it wears on me and turns me off at least as much, and also creates the evil works of hatred.
The ostracism and group condemnations are more about the politics of cheap and nasty thumbs-up verses thumbs-down button-politics and a tendency of that to polarize discussion in groups, to narrow the discuss-able and to limit plus shorten the imposed leash on minds in the readership, and limit the bounds of allowable curiosity and inquiry for everyone.
So I speak my mind and if you object because you feel all proper and Right-ish, and you’ve ignorantly presumed my questioning is a derivative of me being improper and Left-ish, then you are being an idiot. That’s on you.
And your rejection of my right to speak freely even when or if I’m more-or-less wrong, is your lack of upholding of the essential role of free speech and indicative of your personal tendency toward authoritarian rule and and exclusive policies.
Even though you will otherwise swear black-‘n-blue on a stack of Bibles that you have no such personal tendency, and think it deplorable. Well, stop lying to yourself, as you aren’t fooling me, just clean up your act as you plainly do see free-speech as a political tool of exclusion, and not to be exercised freely.
If you think people have no right to speak if they are wrong (in your opinion or in your current set of more enlightened facts) they’re not going away because of your knowledge-edge or self-presumed superiority. But you will be the one in the wrong, and being clearly counter-productive, if discussion then turns into a rejection, on alleged or presumed political polarization grounds.
My mind is open to reasonable corrections and informing, I do not think ‘re-education’ is a bad thing, if it’s openly testable, questionable, and proves correct. But that can not be used as a tool to justify rejecting free speech of those you disagree with. And more importantly, knowledge and opinion must not to be used to undermine or limit freedom of association, based on shallow cognitive prejudice, especially for the lowest of all reasons, namely, polarized political prejudices the evoke hatred of others, based on what you think is absolutely correct.
Knowledge is relative, it can not be, or become absolute, because not everything is ever known. There is always missing date and always incorrect interpretive information. So there is never any excuse for absolutist extreme views, or assumptions about knowledge, or about what others think, based on a knowledge you do not possess in any complete form.
Our topics are broad in here, but I do detest the politicization of discussions, as it’s simply breeding-grounds for prejudging others to exclude, to incite a sly hatred, and to limit the length of the leach on free-minds, to openly test and decide for themselves what’s personally approximately ‘correct’, rather than absolutely politically-correct, in group-think lore.
Which is why I quoted this back.
Make sure the kettle doesn’t become as black as the pot.
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Seeing as politics are destroying the west and openly so, your post is rather self-righteous and while I can agree with its theoretical point, you are pursuing an impossible ideal.
How nice to be so pure!
If only life and the universe were so!
Your bar is set far too high for reality.
Those who hold the moral high ground usually are the first to die as this is a war.
You do know this don’t you?
Just because there is not yet any fighting does not make it not one.
There will be no truce or peace.
There will ONLY be win or loss and currently we are losing on all fronts.
I am allied with my once enemies, who do not like me but endure me as any ally is welcome in wartime.
You should remember that.
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Verbalism at its finest.
Jo’s post is short and neat in illuminating a core pattern in human behaviour; very useful.
Yours is long, focused on the most important thing in your mind and full of criticism while condemning that in everybody else.
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All those leftists who want to, can be,
Liberated, contented and free,
If they turn to the right,
Take a walk in the light,
And embrace their epiphany.
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If you can question it, it’s science. If you can’t it’s propaganda. Cults, like the cult of covid, thrive on propaganda. Anyone who seeks scientific truth by daring to ask intelligent questions will be regarded as a threat.
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I think I” turned “back in about 1983- that’s the first time I heard about this thing called the Greenhouse effect. Knew it was rubbish back then and know it now- the earth’s atmosphere works nothing like a greenhouse. Then I was a 3rd year science undergraduate, now been working 36 years as a professional multi disciplanry science technologist. Soon as COVID appeared in 2020 I was skeptical. For starters there were too many basic science tenets being overturned. So for COVID, I “turned” in about March 2020. Question everything, accept nothing at first appraisal is now my motto.
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remember, if they float they are guilty…
30
What else floats?
30
All you have to do to see this in action is to watch any of those Leftists who have stepped out of line to disagree on even one tiny point: JK Rowling, multiple non transgender feminists etc. While they happily “hate” everyone they call a “fascist”/infidel they will hang, draw and quarter anyone they see guilty of such daringly, blatant treason. Very islamic that. Hang on!
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Aloha! I have the unique perspective of living in Venezuela in the 1960s, California after that and Australia in the 1970s then back to California in the 1980s. Then in 1998 we moved to Hawaii and since 2014 I am in Texas. That’s a range of military junta poverty to silicon valley super wealth with Australia sensibilities and Texas Alamo values somewhere in between with a little Paradise sprinkled on top! I prefer 1970s Australia and 2000s Texas but since covid started I see Texas is best in terms of Freedom. As much as the democrat marxists want Texas to turn blue they are doing the opposite by just talking on tv.
I have to say my days in Perth in the 1970s I would never have thought the fair dinkum Aussies would ever tolerate government lockdowns and the current covid madness now on display. I can only attribute the dumbing down to marxist educators for the past three decades. Similar to US public school indoctrination and higher education marxist dogma degrees! You succumb or you don’t get a degree!
I was once a Republican because my Father was. After Reagan I went Independent and voted for the likes of Ross Perot and Ron Paul, but I discovered I wasn’t voting party I was voting policy. Why do you need a “party”? Policy is all that has ever mattered. If you value Freedom you don’t vote party!
In Texas today, and I suspect in Florida as well, the hatred of big government marxism is alive and well. We have said “f’in NO” to ever edict Fauci has flip flopped! Now with sleepy joe and his obama marxist circus there may not be a single blue left! Now the only way any election would have a blue win would be rigged dominion machines and 100mil mail-in ballots for a state with 21 mil voting age residents.
All that said there are some “bluies” left over in the dinge of the major cities like Austin and Houston and Dallas, but they are being rapidly exterminated by the soros sponsored “equal murder” for all! Once you are out of the downtown davos democrat death traps you can drive in a subdivision and still see Trump 2020 signs on lawns! You can still walk without masks or vaccination cards. Nobody cares about your “covid hype” any more here!
There are two AA(Alcoholics Anonymous) sayings that apply here.
1-Let Go and Let God
2-All your best thinking got you here
Eyes wide shut but humbling indeed!
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🙂 🙂 🙂
00
A left-wing workmate uses the phrase “They need to be educated” when expressing dismay upon hearing a ‘denier’ express views different from his. Yes – correct opinions are seen as a foundation of ‘education’ now.
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I experienced The Turn in 2009. I was a staunch climate alarmist, until I read the UNIPCC AR4 Summary for Policy Makers. I was devastated by what was written there, it opened my eyes. It forced me to actually research the subject rather than simply accept the pronouncements of celebrity climate alarmists like Michael Mann and James Hansen. The Turn took about 6 months to a year to complete.
10