Friday, April 10, 2020

Death By Propaganda

These strange times are becoming stranger. Never in human history have so many people been under such strict control of so few. If that does not make the whole world pause for thought, then it should (Figure 128.1).


Figure 128.1: The words of the great American essayist Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) have never been more apposite.

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Despite mainstream media being in overdrive, worldwide panic is unwarranted. The UK, for example, is witnessing the equivalent of a slightly-worse-than-average flu season. The total number of deaths (per unit time) bears no statistically significant difference from previous years. However, infection and mortality data are being presented in a shamelessly deceptive manner.

Data manipulation has been a standard government tactic for decades. When the unemployment rate rocketed from the 1980s onwards, millions were subsequently omitted from the overall figures. The rate of inflation has been similarly altered, with the Retail Price Index (RPI) having been substituted for the (conveniently lower) Consumer Price Index (CPI). Public information is routinely designed to mislead rather than inform. It is Orwellian.

COVID-19 mortality figures are being ‘adjusted for the same reasons. Numbers include not only those who have died of acute infectious respiratory disease, but also those who have died with it, and even those merely suspected of having died with it. Hence, the figures, published daily to a great media fanfare, are grossly inflated (Figure 128.2). Such fraudulent criteria have never applied to any other infectious illness, so why now, with COVID-19?


Figure 128.2: If these COVID-19 cases are undiagnosed, then how can they possibly be known to have had it? Bottom of the class, Mr Badcock ...

Copyright © 2020 Telegraph Media Group Ltd

We must, therefore, ask two questions: (a) why the blatant lies; and (b) what other propaganda is being fed to the public? A few days ago, it was reported that prime minister Boris Johnson had been admitted to a hospital intensive care unit. None of the ordinary government ministers have been hospitalized, indeed none of the other 649 Members of Parliament, just the premier himself. A mere coincidence? As a result of his highly-publicized confinement, popularity ratings of him and his party have increased, and the British people have been distracted from his irrational policy U-turns. While I might accept that the PM remains ill, and wish him well, is his condition being exaggerated for propaganda purposes? It smells familiar.

The lockdown strategy risks making the cure more devastating than the problem itself. Forgive me for sounding heartless, but, to a very small approximation, only a proportion of the elderly and chronically ill are being ‘nudged off the perch’  hardly anyone else. Why not recommened isolation for them only? The rare occurrence of a young, seemingly healthy individual dying from infectious respiratory disease is presented in such a melodramatic way by the media that it is clear that they are following a script.

Latest estimates state that developed economies are set to contract by between 10 and 30% as a direct consequence of the lockdown. This will lead to a dramatic fall in tax revenue; millions more people will require welfare support (from a smaller tax base); and funding for healthcare will become perilously inadequate. That said, a massive crash, followed by a 1930s-style economic depression, would have happened anyway. COVID-19 is a catalyst, not the cause itself, as the turnaround had already begun. Stock markets have fallen by more than 20% since the beginning of this year; currency printing presses in the US and EU have been cranked up to unprecedented levels; and the debt bubbles continue to inflate. In Article 127, We Are Being Played, I asked: is COVID-19 a convenient pretext to bring down the entire system in a controlled fashion before it does so in a random one? If you say no, then why all the lies and propaganda?

Since the police and other officials were given their new powers, some, inevitably, have morphed into goose-stepping day-glo warriors, finding any spurious reason to intimidate the public. British police, while renowned for patience and common sense, have, to date, prevented homeowners from sitting in their own front gardens, and grocery bags have been searched for unapproved purchases. These, fortunately, are isolated cases. However, people are forbidden by law to go for a leisurely drive in their cars, even if they do not get out of them. Most astoundingly, beaches have been closed, despite fresh salty air being far more beneficial than indoor air; and, furthermore, coronaviruses are highly sensitive to ultraviolet light.

One minor consolation: outside, it has never been more peaceful (Figure 128.3). Despite parks and other public spaces having been cordoned off (Figure 128.4), the sun is shining during the Easter weekend, and traffic noise has abated almost to nothing, leaving the sounds of nature more distinct.


Figure 128.3: The only other person on the beach. (Enlarge to view.)

Copyright © 2020 Paul Spradbery


Figure 128.4: Nature behind bars: wind-bent trees in a field of daisies.

Copyright © 2020 Paul Spradbery

It seems quite possible that life will never revert to how it was. I suspect that is the plan, and it appears to be working. I repeat: we are being played.

Copyright © 2020 Paul Spradbery

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