It was an inside job
By the well-connected
Your little protest
Summarily rejected — Don Henley/Michael W. Campbell
Friends and patriots, I greet you with the holy word peace, quoth the Prophet Omega.
Please allow me this. Please let me intrude upon this, your valuable moment of the day with this most important message. A critical message. A message for your soul and sanity.
I want to provide the following warning to you and suggest that you follow it to the letter. One of the biggest problems that we face right now is that of misinformation, exaggeration and just plain old make-believe bollocks: made up, deliberately concocted, coined, construed and constructed cocksure cockamamie — manufactured lies. Avoid them. Lies not in the traditional legal sense of a misrepresentation of fact with the intent to deceive but rather the negligent (at best) dissemination of information without any basis in fact or any foundation in science or reality. Pulled out of thin air. Or mindlessly repeated. Thoughtlessly retweeted or reposted. Avoid them. Avoid that intended to scare, to alarm just for the sake of freaking you out. Avoid the incessant texter with the latest death toll. I have a pal who sees fit to text and email me on ventilator horrors, as in the lack of them. He’s almost giddy. “See? Look, we’re all going to die! Bwahaahaha!” What’s the point of these? First, to blame Trump. Second, to be the Larry Flynt of Fear Porn. Avoid these people. Like the plague.
And while these may be facts, haven’t you received the latest email on how Bill Gates patented the virus? Or how Tom Hanks is part of some military unit that has him quarantined. What about Oprah’s arrest for child sacrifice. Or was it trafficking? Anyway, it never happened. And it’s getting out of control. More than anything I could have anticipated ever. Behavioral scientists will be looking at this moment in time for a variety of reasons including how information is transmitted and how quickly. How the bait is taken. What levels of suspicion or skepticism are even used by the consumer of questionable data. How mythology becomes data. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)
So we have two vectors here: (1) the disseminator of fact in order to scare the shit out of folks and (2) the bullshit spreader and transmitter. Both guided by the same principle. To . . . freak . . . you . . . out. You biting?
Just today I spoke with and texted and emailed a slew of folks. Doctors, professional types, lawyers, cops, docs, media types, name it. And what I heard was the underground skinny. The blind item. The inside poop from a doctor who knows a cop whose sister works with the Pentagon and . . . (here we go) we are definitely going to have a lockdown, quarantine, isolation, shelter in place, martial law, name it. All of these Cassandras seemed to state that it was provided on some form of good authority that NYC will be under an occupying force of cops, soldiers, National Guardsmen, FEMA Stormtroopers . . . you name the entity, they’re coming.
“So where’d you hear this?”
“Can’t say.”
“How do you know it’s true.”
“I just know.”
“Well, what’s going to happen?”
“Martial law. I think. No, wait. Lockdown, maybe. No, shelter in place.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Not sure exactly.”
“So, why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want to be a big shot. I want to spread dirt and dread and fear. I want to be important. I love pretending I know something even if it’s wrong and even if it scares people needlessly.”
And what’s beyond creepy is the look (or sound or text) of glee as these sick people get their jollies and rocks off scaring the hell out of you or impressing you with how they’ve connected the dots, deciphered the code, read the entrails of the beast and figured it all out while you, some pissant normie, just walk around dumb and dumbfounded. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I’m supposed to be the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. (Actually, it’s aluminum foil and I’m a conspiracy analyst, à la Gore Vidal.)
This is a unique communications moment where everyone in the world is at this very place in time watching and worrying about the same thing. The same identical thing. Catastrophes and disasters are indeed common (sadly) but they’re not simultaneously experienced within the same time frame. Everyone on the planet is concerned about the China Virus now. And tomorrow. We look to other nations and governments in a universality of focus. Theoretically enemies join hands with enemies to cobble together and cull and collate solutions. The commitment to the expunction and expurgation of this bioterror. Zoonotic, at least at first blush.
Which brings me to this latest iteration of insanity. Calls of Sinophobia in referring to the virus as the China Virus. What utter tripe! Even in the midst of a pandemic, PC shock troops and thought vigilantes are screaming and yelling about phraseology and taxonomy. West Nile Virus, Spanish Flu, Ebola. That’s OK, but China?! How dare you impugn the good name of this benevolent government! Now, can you imagine if this virus originated in Russia? All bets would be off and the Russophobic torch and pitchfork crowd would be in full swing. [For a list of 17 diseases named after places and people, enjoy.]
Stay focused, patriot. We’ll get through this together.