According to a recent study by the World Bank, published today in the journal Nature, lockdowns and the response to Covid-19 have pushed an additional 75 million people into extreme poverty, living on less than US $1.90 a day. In the typical Walter Duranty style that has become a kind of twisted journalistic norm since March 2020, the World Bank and Nature of course blame this on “the pandemic” rather than lockdowns. I remain baffled as to how such seemingly well-meaning people are able to sleep at night repeating such nonsense—are they somehow blind to the role of
Your first error is in imagining any of them to be "well-meaning."
I worked most of my employed life for purportedly liberal or progressive organizations, which all had boards of directors made up of the powerful and well-connected. They were nice up to that awful moment in time when they were slightly inconvenienced by the needs and/or problems of ordinary people.
And then at one point in my strange life's journey I myself founded a small women's center serving the very poorest in an awful city in a poor, intensely-conservative country where the elite live in remarkable luxury that makes a NYC condo, say, seem like basic housing. We approached some international NGOs, one based in the US, for grant money, and as our grantwriter I discovered how clueless these professional do-gooders were about the lives and circumstances under which the poor must try to exist.
You do not understand that the elite truly do not care, because even if they've traveled or been stationed in posts in poor countries, they have never been exposed to the real, daily lives of the poor. They meet "representatives of the community" who themselves are crushing the really powerless under their heels daily, and they get their theses confirmed and go back to their fine offices and write nonsense.
And in any community--small-town America, slums in Mumbai, rough urban neighborhoods--"elite" is often just a comparative term, but they will fight to the death to keep their privileges and ensure their pockets are filled and no change is allowed to live for long.
Until every country can manufacture its essentials and international funding and credentialing bodies lose their power, this will remain a fight to the death and as we've seen, plenty of people are needlessly dying.
NY girl ends up in Pakistan; marries there, eventually; she and the bridegroom flee for NY when the family goes nuclear; gets a job working for a grantmaking foundation where she learns a lot about proposal-writing; they go back for a visit 16 years later and the family clutches them to its bosom; she founds a little project with a couple of in-laws and starts raising money for it.
They decide to move back there, August 2001; timing was lousy, really. But by the time they go back to NY, eighteen months later, the little project served over 100 women and girls, teaching needlework and literacy skills. They finally have to shut the program down because the Taliban made it too dangerous to keep open without a man fronting it.
I still have the letters the students wrote, telling me how it changed their lives, and the teachers' too, because they were also poor local women. More than anything a woman needs her own money. Changes the family dynamic pretty dramatically. *Empowerment* means a fistful of rupees you earned yourself. Anything else is gravy.
Taliban is Afghanistan. You are talking about Pakistan. Yes, close, but different countries.
The project sounds noble and well-intentioned but if any project challenges the community culture expect it to fail. This is the problem with Western minds interfering in other cultures.
There have been successful programmes in such places where women are loaned money to set up small businesses.
However, after many years in India, and the Pakistanis are basically Indians, I seriously doubt that much if anything changes the family dynamic which is culturally entrenched, as I observed, in the best educated, most well-travelled and intelligent Indians.
Culture runs deep and is hardwired. This is why one African President despite 30 years teaching in a top American university/college, returned home, won the election, and immediately reverted to local practices. Corrupt local practices. He was worse than if he had never spent half his life in the Western world.
We had plenty of Taliban where I was. Frontier is porous.
Local people loved the project because we were local and we mostly kept the rich people's hands off it. Local imams praised us in their sermons and local men volunteered to strengthen our slum location's security and did the work themselves.
Don't believe everything you read. Plenty of opposition to education projects is because poor people can't protect their daughters if they leave their homes to walk to a school.
Yes, when we rented a house in Bombay which belonged to one of the richest families in India. The daughter took us through and showed us a room, about the size of an average bathroom, and said it was for four servants. They would have slept on the floor, next to each other and filled the room.
We did not want servants but in such places it is often the best thing you can do - employ someone. We took on a woman who had previously worked as a maid in the house and we put a single bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers in the room - it was crammed - but for her it was a palace.
Seeing small boys, servants, sleeping on the front mat at the door of fabulously wealthy Indians is something which always shocked me. I had never encountered the inhumanity to man that I saw in India and when Westerners came through on their 'spiritual' journeys, waffling about how spiritual Indians were, I nearly choked. Religious yes, spiritual most certainly not.
But fascinating to live in such places all the same...
This is nothing to do with what I have read but what I have seen spending decades living in India and four African countries.
I also know what people say in such places is often in agreement with those to whom they are talking because that is considered to be polite. And I know that people will often help, praise, even support foreigners because who would look a gift horse in the mouth.
They know the foreigners will leave and it is to their benefit if something of value is left behind which they can take. The focus of the do-gooder is irrelevant on those counts.
An example, a mining company in Malawi set up a water treatment plant for people living in a city near the mine. After the mine was put on care and maintenance, not knowing if or when it would re-open, local powerbrokers, in league with political power-brokers, dismantled the water treatment plant and uplifted it to set up in their own water bottling factory. So, the locals no longer had safe water and a few were going to make a lot of money selling bottled water and littering the place with more plastic bottles.
And when the foreigners leave the locals bear the brunt of the blowback from being involved with projects. There is plenty of opposition to educating girls because in places like India, Pakistan, Africa, females have no value. It is considered to be a waste of money.
In such places you cannot believe anything anyone says, unfortunately. Do-goodery is best done at home where you understand the culture, the people, the society and the situation far better.
Many people are well intentioned but the combination of power, ignorance and good intentions creates a terrible mess and greater suffering much of the time.
Having lived in India, Bombay actually and the locals still call it Bombay, and four African countries, I have met more than my fair share of Aid workers, elite and the serfs on the ground, and have a good understanding of where the money does NOT go. I no longer contribute to charities, the Catholics being something of an exception, or they were, where more money goes to those in need.
As the maxim goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Meaning well is not enough but it is the flag which gets waved and the button which gets pushed in donors. Africa is littered with broken well pumps because many people were well-intentioned. However, no-one asked the right questions: Will the chief take the pump or some of its parts for his personal well? If the pump breaks who will pay to fix it? If the pump breaks who has the skills to fix it?
Despite $3 trillion US dollars poured into the African subcontinent over the past half century, the average African is worse off than they were in the beginning. The money has poured into the pockets of the ever-ready corrupt who litter the society, and in ensuring a semblance of First World life for the aid workers/industry.
Otherwise, yes, you make good points. I would end aid tomorrow as one former American ambassador opined leaving yet another basket-case, corrupt African country behind. Beyond short-term crisis aid, all other aid is destructive, disempowering and feeds mendicant cultures and even worse corruption.
One of the worst stories is those UNICEF-funded tube wells in Bangladesh that tapped into an arsenic-containing aquifer and the people drinking that water started rotting from the inside out. Genius project leaders didn't do water-quality tests before drilling...
Yes. Here is another one. I lived for more than five years in Malawi, a bad malaria zone. Some well-intentioned people decided mosquito nets could help as no doubt they could.
The locals, ever innovative decided the nets were better for fishing than keeping off mozzies, with which they had always lived. Malawi runs along a massive lake and fishing is an important food source. So, the mozzie nets became fishing nets, except, those ever so clever mzungus had sent nets drenched in poison to kill the mosquitoes. Guess what happened? The fish started dying so as well as useless mosquito nets they had no fish to eat. Duh. Malaria problem not solved and now new problem - poisoned lake. But it did seem like a good idea at the time.
I have often wondered what those poison drenched mosquito nets do to humans sleeping underneath them. it cannot be good. We used plain, pure cotton nets, no chemicals and never got malaria.
The title says it all, though, doesn't it? "How COVID has deepened inequality — in six stark graphics." Nah, ladies, your insane overreaction to Covid did this.
I so hope this is the case! And, unlike Michelle Obama, when they go low, I plan to go lower. I plan to tell everyone I know who was in favor of the lockdowns and dismissed me when I tried, in vain, to tell them how I feared the economic, political, and social consequences of it, "I told you so!"
Speaking of baffled, I'm still baffled that these monsters posing as politicians (or vice versa) would think that doing something never done in history would work better than the protocols we've used previously. You know, like isolating and/or protecting the vulnerable, advising to stay home if you think you're sick and letting the rest of society continue with their lives. This wasn't just an innocent mistake, it was an absolute disaster of criminal proportions and these politicians (and corporate media) are complicit in crimes against humanity to the nth degree. None of them are getting a free pass from me. I will never forget what's been done to our beautiful world by them. And scarier yet, it looks like they're not done with their path of destruction. We must say NO to any further madness moving forward.
Such a great article. Polititans and the media only have themselves to blame but will continue to point their fingers at everything else to avoid assuming any responsibility. THEY HAD A PANDEMIC PLAN IN PLACE PRIOR TO COVID BUT THREW THAT OUT THE WINDOW AND CONCOTED A FAKE TEST - PCR TO INFLATE THE CASES. THEN THEY TOOK MONEY THEY DIDNT HAVE, SHUT DOWN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIES AND TOLD US TO STAY AT HOME IN ORDER TO PROTECT EACH OTHER FROM NOTHING WORSE THAN A RESPIRATORY FLU.
Now I am no rocket scientist but u have to be pretty ignorant/stupid to think that there are going to be no ramifications.
Most of the peculiar behaviors we observe can be explained by stupidity. There's a lot if it in the political classes, especially media. Lockdowns were preciptated by, and tolerated because of, panic. Panic is driven by fear,, and fear is driven by stupidity. A notable characteristics of journalists is they aren't really good at anything else. It's exacerbated by poor training in the failed education system, but competent people overcome that. We really need to deal with our most pernicious epidemic of stupid. Save the schools.
NYT acknowledging higher death rates among young is a limited hangout. They blame the lockdowns to take heat off the vaccines. They are trying to guide the public awareness away from "you bullied us to get injected with deadly and ineffective gene therapies" to "they made a mistake with lockdowns that made us unhealthy." Every day in the news you can see this restless casting about for narratives to use to attribute the deaths to.
exactly. you nailed it. this is a false dichotomy and a setup. get on the poison jab hamster wheel and you can have your life back. wait til we get to the fall.
vaids deaths, sadly. when tyrants run out of ideas, they just recycle old ones so it stands to reason that's what we'll have to deal with. same old restrictive insanity. guardedly optimistic that we will have significantly large numbers of noncompliant people to throw a wrench into the works. but the wef/gates/oligarch cartel is going to throw everything they have at us because they see this going off the rails and they're scared. they're in it to win it and i think they're starting to realize they won't
Mike, your book is on my birthday wish list. Every substack article you write has me rehashing all the anger I’ve accumulated over the last 2 years. I talk facts until I’m blue in the face, and have lost many friends/family over this shitshow. Although, my liberal partner has seen the light, and is slowly swallowing the red pill. Thank God.
"I remain baffled as to how seemingly well-meaning people are able to sleep at night repeating such nonsense..."
They were paid good money for those "opinions"!! Besides, it is only the darkies in 3rd World Countries and 1st World ghettos who will suffer, victimless crime to the credentialed class.
The pandemic was deliberately sensationalized for this to happen.
Since October of 2019 the media and governments scared the public into adopting such extreme measures like the lockdowns. And now this new epidemic of poverty is another crisis for the media to exploit.
So these public expressions of shock are necessary to maintain trustworthiness. To them another crisis is an opportunity to portray themselves as rational saviors, prestigious voices the public should listen to.
Remember, these are the same people that pushed for mandatory vaccinations while simultaneously obfuscating the risks and exaggerating the benefits.
I hope the mask narrative collapses. I know mandatory face covering pales in comparison to mandatory vaxxing, but I would love to have a sign that masks won't ever come back.
The HR department at my very large US manufacturing company (which happens to have a leftist HR director) put the Mandatory Masks policy back in place a few months ago due to CDCs useless red/orange/green county charts going Omicron red. A few weeks ago the local counties went back green... and this week HR removed the requirement.
But then, to much Karen gnashing of teeth, the next day a company wide announcement (notably not from HR) was released stating that it was the last time the company would be making masks required -- even after the CDCs chart invariably goes red again.
A correction: the Times is generally considered centre-right, not centre-left, and Rod Liddle is a notorious right-wing provocateur whom the British Left generally despises. The only serious contender for "the UK’s centre-left newspaper of record" would be The Guardian.
That'd right wouldn't it? But it doesn't necessarily mean that any of them rise to the level of 'good', never mind 'excellent'.
I can't think of one right now.
Failure to find journalists leaves me following Youtube individual presenters - everyone from perhaps Dr Malone to Duran and so on.
I think the main problem is the 'journals'.
They are out of date and history and anachronistic now, I think.
What were they traditionally there for?
Had the resources to print and therefore widely disseminate.
Had within them a pool of expertise, experience, knowledge.
Had mechanical abilities re printing, layout, artwork, etc., etc.
Had resources to go looking for news and data.
In return for access to all that a journalist toed the party line and subjected self to more or less discipline.
Where's the need for any of that now?
If there are some good journalists - and I'm sure there must be, I'd hope there are - I'm not aware of who they are so I'd like it if you were - if anyone - would pass on some names/links to me.
Your first error is in imagining any of them to be "well-meaning."
I worked most of my employed life for purportedly liberal or progressive organizations, which all had boards of directors made up of the powerful and well-connected. They were nice up to that awful moment in time when they were slightly inconvenienced by the needs and/or problems of ordinary people.
And then at one point in my strange life's journey I myself founded a small women's center serving the very poorest in an awful city in a poor, intensely-conservative country where the elite live in remarkable luxury that makes a NYC condo, say, seem like basic housing. We approached some international NGOs, one based in the US, for grant money, and as our grantwriter I discovered how clueless these professional do-gooders were about the lives and circumstances under which the poor must try to exist.
You do not understand that the elite truly do not care, because even if they've traveled or been stationed in posts in poor countries, they have never been exposed to the real, daily lives of the poor. They meet "representatives of the community" who themselves are crushing the really powerless under their heels daily, and they get their theses confirmed and go back to their fine offices and write nonsense.
And in any community--small-town America, slums in Mumbai, rough urban neighborhoods--"elite" is often just a comparative term, but they will fight to the death to keep their privileges and ensure their pockets are filled and no change is allowed to live for long.
Until every country can manufacture its essentials and international funding and credentialing bodies lose their power, this will remain a fight to the death and as we've seen, plenty of people are needlessly dying.
well that's very interesting. i think many would like to hear more if you ever feel like revealing it..
NY girl ends up in Pakistan; marries there, eventually; she and the bridegroom flee for NY when the family goes nuclear; gets a job working for a grantmaking foundation where she learns a lot about proposal-writing; they go back for a visit 16 years later and the family clutches them to its bosom; she founds a little project with a couple of in-laws and starts raising money for it.
They decide to move back there, August 2001; timing was lousy, really. But by the time they go back to NY, eighteen months later, the little project served over 100 women and girls, teaching needlework and literacy skills. They finally have to shut the program down because the Taliban made it too dangerous to keep open without a man fronting it.
I still have the letters the students wrote, telling me how it changed their lives, and the teachers' too, because they were also poor local women. More than anything a woman needs her own money. Changes the family dynamic pretty dramatically. *Empowerment* means a fistful of rupees you earned yourself. Anything else is gravy.
thanks for that. :)
Appreciated your interest.
Appreciate your story. I’ve always known I need to be able to support myself and not rely on anyone else.
Taliban is Afghanistan. You are talking about Pakistan. Yes, close, but different countries.
The project sounds noble and well-intentioned but if any project challenges the community culture expect it to fail. This is the problem with Western minds interfering in other cultures.
There have been successful programmes in such places where women are loaned money to set up small businesses.
However, after many years in India, and the Pakistanis are basically Indians, I seriously doubt that much if anything changes the family dynamic which is culturally entrenched, as I observed, in the best educated, most well-travelled and intelligent Indians.
Culture runs deep and is hardwired. This is why one African President despite 30 years teaching in a top American university/college, returned home, won the election, and immediately reverted to local practices. Corrupt local practices. He was worse than if he had never spent half his life in the Western world.
We had plenty of Taliban where I was. Frontier is porous.
Local people loved the project because we were local and we mostly kept the rich people's hands off it. Local imams praised us in their sermons and local men volunteered to strengthen our slum location's security and did the work themselves.
Don't believe everything you read. Plenty of opposition to education projects is because poor people can't protect their daughters if they leave their homes to walk to a school.
And plenty of poor people invest all they have in the education of girls and boys. The elite are the absolute worst.
Yes, when we rented a house in Bombay which belonged to one of the richest families in India. The daughter took us through and showed us a room, about the size of an average bathroom, and said it was for four servants. They would have slept on the floor, next to each other and filled the room.
We did not want servants but in such places it is often the best thing you can do - employ someone. We took on a woman who had previously worked as a maid in the house and we put a single bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers in the room - it was crammed - but for her it was a palace.
Seeing small boys, servants, sleeping on the front mat at the door of fabulously wealthy Indians is something which always shocked me. I had never encountered the inhumanity to man that I saw in India and when Westerners came through on their 'spiritual' journeys, waffling about how spiritual Indians were, I nearly choked. Religious yes, spiritual most certainly not.
But fascinating to live in such places all the same...
Yes, looked it up and see the border issues.
This is nothing to do with what I have read but what I have seen spending decades living in India and four African countries.
I also know what people say in such places is often in agreement with those to whom they are talking because that is considered to be polite. And I know that people will often help, praise, even support foreigners because who would look a gift horse in the mouth.
They know the foreigners will leave and it is to their benefit if something of value is left behind which they can take. The focus of the do-gooder is irrelevant on those counts.
An example, a mining company in Malawi set up a water treatment plant for people living in a city near the mine. After the mine was put on care and maintenance, not knowing if or when it would re-open, local powerbrokers, in league with political power-brokers, dismantled the water treatment plant and uplifted it to set up in their own water bottling factory. So, the locals no longer had safe water and a few were going to make a lot of money selling bottled water and littering the place with more plastic bottles.
And when the foreigners leave the locals bear the brunt of the blowback from being involved with projects. There is plenty of opposition to educating girls because in places like India, Pakistan, Africa, females have no value. It is considered to be a waste of money.
In such places you cannot believe anything anyone says, unfortunately. Do-goodery is best done at home where you understand the culture, the people, the society and the situation far better.
Geez. I understand that culture quite well.
Wow. Love your experienced perspective.
Many people are well intentioned but the combination of power, ignorance and good intentions creates a terrible mess and greater suffering much of the time.
Having lived in India, Bombay actually and the locals still call it Bombay, and four African countries, I have met more than my fair share of Aid workers, elite and the serfs on the ground, and have a good understanding of where the money does NOT go. I no longer contribute to charities, the Catholics being something of an exception, or they were, where more money goes to those in need.
As the maxim goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Meaning well is not enough but it is the flag which gets waved and the button which gets pushed in donors. Africa is littered with broken well pumps because many people were well-intentioned. However, no-one asked the right questions: Will the chief take the pump or some of its parts for his personal well? If the pump breaks who will pay to fix it? If the pump breaks who has the skills to fix it?
Despite $3 trillion US dollars poured into the African subcontinent over the past half century, the average African is worse off than they were in the beginning. The money has poured into the pockets of the ever-ready corrupt who litter the society, and in ensuring a semblance of First World life for the aid workers/industry.
Otherwise, yes, you make good points. I would end aid tomorrow as one former American ambassador opined leaving yet another basket-case, corrupt African country behind. Beyond short-term crisis aid, all other aid is destructive, disempowering and feeds mendicant cultures and even worse corruption.
One of the worst stories is those UNICEF-funded tube wells in Bangladesh that tapped into an arsenic-containing aquifer and the people drinking that water started rotting from the inside out. Genius project leaders didn't do water-quality tests before drilling...
Yes. Here is another one. I lived for more than five years in Malawi, a bad malaria zone. Some well-intentioned people decided mosquito nets could help as no doubt they could.
The locals, ever innovative decided the nets were better for fishing than keeping off mozzies, with which they had always lived. Malawi runs along a massive lake and fishing is an important food source. So, the mozzie nets became fishing nets, except, those ever so clever mzungus had sent nets drenched in poison to kill the mosquitoes. Guess what happened? The fish started dying so as well as useless mosquito nets they had no fish to eat. Duh. Malaria problem not solved and now new problem - poisoned lake. But it did seem like a good idea at the time.
I have often wondered what those poison drenched mosquito nets do to humans sleeping underneath them. it cannot be good. We used plain, pure cotton nets, no chemicals and never got malaria.
The title says it all, though, doesn't it? "How COVID has deepened inequality — in six stark graphics." Nah, ladies, your insane overreaction to Covid did this.
The Karens were in their element.
They love a good element--as long as other Karens are watching them perform in it.
I so hope this is the case! And, unlike Michelle Obama, when they go low, I plan to go lower. I plan to tell everyone I know who was in favor of the lockdowns and dismissed me when I tried, in vain, to tell them how I feared the economic, political, and social consequences of it, "I told you so!"
indeed, it is past time to meet their ideas head-on and discredit them with the viciousness these ideas deserve. speak up for yourself in the arena!
That's right. It's time to ditch courtesy and polite conversation.
Thanks! I'm looking for ways to make myself laugh, too!
Speaking of baffled, I'm still baffled that these monsters posing as politicians (or vice versa) would think that doing something never done in history would work better than the protocols we've used previously. You know, like isolating and/or protecting the vulnerable, advising to stay home if you think you're sick and letting the rest of society continue with their lives. This wasn't just an innocent mistake, it was an absolute disaster of criminal proportions and these politicians (and corporate media) are complicit in crimes against humanity to the nth degree. None of them are getting a free pass from me. I will never forget what's been done to our beautiful world by them. And scarier yet, it looks like they're not done with their path of destruction. We must say NO to any further madness moving forward.
1. Love “monsters posing as politicians”
2. Media involvement should not be parenthetical
3. I agree they are not done.
4. I, too, will never forget
Such a great article. Polititans and the media only have themselves to blame but will continue to point their fingers at everything else to avoid assuming any responsibility. THEY HAD A PANDEMIC PLAN IN PLACE PRIOR TO COVID BUT THREW THAT OUT THE WINDOW AND CONCOTED A FAKE TEST - PCR TO INFLATE THE CASES. THEN THEY TOOK MONEY THEY DIDNT HAVE, SHUT DOWN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIES AND TOLD US TO STAY AT HOME IN ORDER TO PROTECT EACH OTHER FROM NOTHING WORSE THAN A RESPIRATORY FLU.
Now I am no rocket scientist but u have to be pretty ignorant/stupid to think that there are going to be no ramifications.
Most of the peculiar behaviors we observe can be explained by stupidity. There's a lot if it in the political classes, especially media. Lockdowns were preciptated by, and tolerated because of, panic. Panic is driven by fear,, and fear is driven by stupidity. A notable characteristics of journalists is they aren't really good at anything else. It's exacerbated by poor training in the failed education system, but competent people overcome that. We really need to deal with our most pernicious epidemic of stupid. Save the schools.
they're not even good at being journalists...
Some are better than others.
Biggest psychological operation in history. Problem is that many would (subconsciously) prefer to perpetuate this than recognise they were conned.
Exactly.
NYT acknowledging higher death rates among young is a limited hangout. They blame the lockdowns to take heat off the vaccines. They are trying to guide the public awareness away from "you bullied us to get injected with deadly and ineffective gene therapies" to "they made a mistake with lockdowns that made us unhealthy." Every day in the news you can see this restless casting about for narratives to use to attribute the deaths to.
exactly. you nailed it. this is a false dichotomy and a setup. get on the poison jab hamster wheel and you can have your life back. wait til we get to the fall.
Do you think fall will bring more covid or or vax deaths or what?
vaids deaths, sadly. when tyrants run out of ideas, they just recycle old ones so it stands to reason that's what we'll have to deal with. same old restrictive insanity. guardedly optimistic that we will have significantly large numbers of noncompliant people to throw a wrench into the works. but the wef/gates/oligarch cartel is going to throw everything they have at us because they see this going off the rails and they're scared. they're in it to win it and i think they're starting to realize they won't
Mike, your book is on my birthday wish list. Every substack article you write has me rehashing all the anger I’ve accumulated over the last 2 years. I talk facts until I’m blue in the face, and have lost many friends/family over this shitshow. Although, my liberal partner has seen the light, and is slowly swallowing the red pill. Thank God.
Great article, as usual.
Thank you CarolAnne! Likewise.
Well meaning? Separation, misery, despair, loss of community/companionship/
celebrations were designed to keep people isolated, unthinking & afraid. That was the feature, not the bug
"I remain baffled as to how seemingly well-meaning people are able to sleep at night repeating such nonsense..."
They were paid good money for those "opinions"!! Besides, it is only the darkies in 3rd World Countries and 1st World ghettos who will suffer, victimless crime to the credentialed class.
eugyppius recommended I come over... looking forward to reading through your pieces. thank you in advance. J.
Thank you Joe, great to have you!
The pandemic was deliberately sensationalized for this to happen.
Since October of 2019 the media and governments scared the public into adopting such extreme measures like the lockdowns. And now this new epidemic of poverty is another crisis for the media to exploit.
So these public expressions of shock are necessary to maintain trustworthiness. To them another crisis is an opportunity to portray themselves as rational saviors, prestigious voices the public should listen to.
Remember, these are the same people that pushed for mandatory vaccinations while simultaneously obfuscating the risks and exaggerating the benefits.
Wow, next they'll admit masks don't work.
Anything but talk about the big elephant in the room: the UNsafe and INeffective jab.
I hope the mask narrative collapses. I know mandatory face covering pales in comparison to mandatory vaxxing, but I would love to have a sign that masks won't ever come back.
The HR department at my very large US manufacturing company (which happens to have a leftist HR director) put the Mandatory Masks policy back in place a few months ago due to CDCs useless red/orange/green county charts going Omicron red. A few weeks ago the local counties went back green... and this week HR removed the requirement.
But then, to much Karen gnashing of teeth, the next day a company wide announcement (notably not from HR) was released stating that it was the last time the company would be making masks required -- even after the CDCs chart invariably goes red again.
A correction: the Times is generally considered centre-right, not centre-left, and Rod Liddle is a notorious right-wing provocateur whom the British Left generally despises. The only serious contender for "the UK’s centre-left newspaper of record" would be The Guardian.
Other than that, great article.
That'd right wouldn't it? But it doesn't necessarily mean that any of them rise to the level of 'good', never mind 'excellent'.
I can't think of one right now.
Failure to find journalists leaves me following Youtube individual presenters - everyone from perhaps Dr Malone to Duran and so on.
I think the main problem is the 'journals'.
They are out of date and history and anachronistic now, I think.
What were they traditionally there for?
Had the resources to print and therefore widely disseminate.
Had within them a pool of expertise, experience, knowledge.
Had mechanical abilities re printing, layout, artwork, etc., etc.
Had resources to go looking for news and data.
In return for access to all that a journalist toed the party line and subjected self to more or less discipline.
Where's the need for any of that now?
If there are some good journalists - and I'm sure there must be, I'd hope there are - I'm not aware of who they are so I'd like it if you were - if anyone - would pass on some names/links to me.
:)
Here's one who didn't give up his standards when the lockdowninistas took power: https://alexberenson.substack.com
Unfortunately Alex B trashed Dr.Malone. He lost many readers.
Alex B went a tad off the deep-end trying to stay in good graces with the NYT crowd.