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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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On a personal level I can definitely admit that covid has broken me. I can't seem to let it go and I'm still hooked on lockdown and vaccine BS that a normal person would've long moved on from. I recognise that this is a problem and have actively been trying to spend less time and energy pursuing such material.

It's hard to move on though because the public response in general, and particularly that of my friends and family, to covid restrictions, was really shocking to me. How easily they rolled over and accepted the boot of tyranny in the name of safety. How quickly my friends turned on me for questioning the narrative and how even my own family turned against me and didn't want me around anymore. That stings and the trauma from that betrayal is at the root of my continued obsession.

And although they've moved on there's been no apology or acceptance that they were wrong. They still believe that they did the right thing. My friends ignore covid restrictions like everybody else now and my family invites me around again but the fact that they haven't acknowledged how easily they were manipulated and misled into evil, into pointless ostracisation, into supporting highly unethical and immoral policies, means that I can't trust them or wider society in the same way I did pre-covid.

So yes, covid has broken me. It broke my trust in my country, in my people and in my closest loved ones. Is it any wonder I can't let it go.

It really is depressing how many people can be proved so utterly wrong and yet never acknowledge it isn’t it? People are so prideful and arrogant. It’s our greatest downfall as a species

I've learned at work that if a boss never admits he is wrong, or that the team is in complete shambles, then that leaves just enough doubt that many people will not ever truly realize or conclude this. If you live in a domain where there is not complete knowledge sharing amongst people, there's always just a little bit of doubt. "Are my thoughts accurate? Maybe I'm the one who's crazy. Everyone else seems to have so much trust in this institution/team, I guess it's all just fine, and maybe the boss isn't wrong after all. Maybe the team really is going strong, and is a great place to work after all."

I’m sure this kind of denial is adaptive in the business or employment sphere but there should be a limit when it comes to personal intimate relationships. If you have a close relationship with someone who refuses to admit their wrong doing even when it’s negatively afffected you, you might want to consider whether this person is abusing you in some way

COVID measures were a tax on conscientiousness and I think corrosive to our society’s health in ways we are only beginning to understand. I think most westerners are so a-historical and complacent that they don’t think real oppression can happen to them. Most peoples response was “I support lockdowns” because that was the pro-social thing to say, while at the same time flouting all the rules personally. They lived as if there would not be personal consequences to their actions in defiance of the rules. And they were right, of course too bad about all the businesses that failed, but we needed to do it to save the marginal old person.

This is dangerous and the worst of both worlds. People don’t care about the loss of their de jure liberty and just assume the justice system won’t come for them. We eroded faith in law and order at the same time as we sent a strong signal to the state that we will accept state overreach. And the people who protested? In Canada we froze their bank accounts and declared martial law.

Say what you want about lax US gun laws, but they do deter the type of protest that we saw in Canada. Nobody would do that here, because homeowners would be outside brandishing forearms firearms.

Nobody would do that here

Sure they would- California has lots of guns, but that didn't stop the early 90s race riots; $major_US_city metropolis has lots of guns, but that didn't stop the peaceful but fiery protests from consuming them. Rittenhouse was the end of it, but they certainly gave him hell for it and his friend was convicted anyway.

The problem is that you actually need a legal leg to stand on, and the Canadian right gave no reason beyond what is typical for protests for the citizens of Ottawa to start sniping from their expensive apartment balconies. Not that they even had any guns, given they're the ones begging the government to act aggressively against the people that do, but still.

Didn't help in the US either. Instead of rioters being deterred, defenders of own homes got prosecuted for merely brandishing.

brandishing forearms.

Sun's out, guns out?

I was already immunized to government propaganda before the Covid psy-op.

After the Russia election hack psy-op, the Hunter Biden psy-op, the white supremacy psy-op, the Charlottesville psy-op... Gamergate...

Nothing bad really happened to me, ties were further strained with family, for example my mom hoping I'd lose my job to the OSHA federal mandate that was shot down.

This was a practice run for the next big thing, and hopefully we survive that one too.

I don't know how many people actually changed their view over that, but if they still have faith in their government, 'Science', 'the experts' etc, it seems that there is not much that can be done for them.