danbashaw: (Default)
danbashaw ([personal profile] danbashaw) wrote in [personal profile] ecosophia 2023-08-29 10:06 pm (UTC)

The Liars Next Time

Given that there will be a next time in one form or another – even if the current 'Eris and Friends' trial balloon deflates over the next few weeks – I’ve started to think about what our would-be masters might do differently this time around time.

For those of us here in Canada and the 'blue' US, I would expect something like this might unfold:

1. The fear factor will be much stronger, with a designated evildoer (perhaps Putin or Xi?) and a more proximate scapegoat (Um… perhaps we’ll do?). Pangolins won’t cut it this time. Too cute. The narrative framing will have to be at the 'Ebola Meets Bioweapon' level to get much uptake at all.

2. Direct social media and communications control will hit harder and faster, with many accounts cancelled and sites 404 on day one. Domain delistings that impact both web and email are a good possibility. Indirect narrative control will be more subtle and insidious, with AI-enabled interception and modification of messaging, classic COINTELPRO-style 'lets-you-and-him-fight' provocations, and many other new and improved gaslighting techniques all widely deployed.

3. Emergency powers will be initiated as soon as the requisite provocation is arranged. Impressively rights-free mandates, fines, debanking, lawfare, and coercive nudging will be preplanned and ready to roll, targeted at both pre-identified and emergent resistant elements.

4. When the time is ripe, after some delays and setbacks to build dramatic tension, a new xRNA technology will miraculously be made available to the grateful population. (I expect the delivery system may be aerosolized/inhaled this time, to encourage higher compliance and demonstrate the benefits of 'progress').

5. If the timing and conditions are right, we can expect 'Operation Who’s Your Daddy' to sweep the Designated Saviour into office in the US. (If the timing and conditions are not auspicious… well… “we can hardly hold elections under these exceptional and unprecedented circumstances, now can we?”)

Of course things may not unfold at this level of intensity – the above is what I would expect from a well-coordinated, national intelligence-community managed campaign. If instead it is just an effort by grifters and select bureaucrats to relive their Covid 1.0 glory days, the push will be much less sweeping, and will probably fizzle out rapidly.

Also, while the above sounds impressively draconian, the scenario is almost all limited to the digital and media realms. It will be way harder to enforce the desired mandates and restrictions in the offline world this time around, especially if enough of us are willing to push back. Real-world civic resistance is not at all futile, and if it is widespread enough can effectively stop a primarily digital and media effort in its tracks.

Given the above scenario of what 'they' might do, what might we do?

Here are some things I plan to do differently:

- I will take a public stance. Covid 1.0 was a largely private matter for my wife and I, retreating into our home, garden and personal life until the madness ebbed. There were impacts on our lives, but we yielded ground to them in an organized retreat. I don’t believe that retreat is going to be a viable option this time: I will push back from the start in the ways that seem true and right to me.

- I will expect to be cut off from communications and resources. The information and resources I have on hand, and what may still be gleaned directly in the real world, will have to suffice. I will prepare to be coerced, fined and de-banked, and will do what I can to make us resilient to these pressures, including cash on hand, pre-payment of debts, and other sensible household-level preparations.

- I will observe and chronicle. Journalling and doing writing and research on an air-gapped (non-Internet connected) computer and on paper, stored in multiple formats and offline locations. I’m no Victor Klemperer – and hope I never have to be – but I can and will put words in a row to document the madness next time.

What about you? Is there something that you might do differently next time, that you are comfortable sharing on this public forum? (And that is in keeping with our host’s well-considered posting policies, of course!)

Post a comment in response:

(will be screened)
(will be screened)
(will be screened)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting