what do you call a conspiracy to accuse others of being conspiracy theorists?

well, mostly, you call it "gaslighting" but it does not need to be a conspiracy.

clearly, there have been covid conspiracies. fauci and his merry band of miscreants colluded to attack and discredit the great barrington declaration and try to declare its august authors “fringe” despite the fact that any one of them has more good science lying around on their desk at any one time than tony has seen in his lifetime.

these are the same folks that closed ranks and dominated the media messaging about “covid could not possibly be a lab escape! even though were hotwiring the same viruses. in a lab. right where the breakout occurred.” and then, of course, had to recant because it was all just too blatant. but by then, it was “old news.”

but this was just the tip of the gaslighting iceberg. the made up data presented as sure science and extreme and accusatory admonition and attacks have been unlike anything i have ever experienced. this pony knew one trick, and it was “accuse anyone who can see what you are doing of being a conspiracy nutter.”

there is no “other side of the debate” just “the side of science vs the tinfoil hat kooks.”

the record speaks for itself.

i’m sure we could add 40 more.

but was this some sort of conspiracy to accuse others of being conspiracy theorists? while that would certainly be amusingly “meta” i suspect not.

it’s just monkey see, monkey do for half-informed midwits to cling to their ideas, prejudices, and predilections without having to think very hard or to engage with the data and perspective of the other side.

this does not happen because of some grand plan. it happens for the same reason that water flows though valleys and not across hilltops: it’s the low energy path.

it’s just easy. you accuse the other side of being nutters so that you need not give them a hearing. you see others do it, and give it a try, find it easy and successful, and adopt this new pose.

it not only sidesteps having to admit there might be another way to look at a situation, but it elevates you (at least in your own mind) to “high status member of the side of science and reason” despite the fact that you are, in actuality, the precise antithesis of such: you’re the closed minded bigot engaging in ad hominem presented as “settled science.”

it’s the well honed stratagem of the millennial and the crybully status seeking aggrievement vampires. you get to demand a trophy not only without winning, but without even having played.

it’s seductive stuff for the folks that desperately crave and seek status and petty authority though collectivist imposition of hallucinatory precept and fact denial. they seek to gang up and determine objective reality through some sort of affiliatory referendum.

and as we have seen, this can work for a while. you can confuse, mislead, shock, and awe. you can cow your victims into silence.

but this cannot last because, in the end, objective reality has a nasty tendency of being, well, objective. it does not care about your conjured contrivances and nonsensical narratives. and your edifice of dogmatic distortion falls to pieces, first slowly, then all at once.

in a pleasing symmetry, the selfsame social media vectors that propped up and propagated this grievous gaslighting now round upon the would be sorcerer’s apprentices and hoist them by their own petards, for the standard escape when such structures come crashing down is to change jerseys and pretend you were on the other side all along.

disavowal becomes a far more difficult task when all you have done and said are recorded indelibly. the internet remembers.

and so shall we.

Aaron Ginn @aginnt

Let’s go back in time to 3/29/21 “No we know that the vaccines work well enough that the virus stops with every vaccinated person… The virus does not infect them…It cannot use a vaccinated person as a host to get more people.”

this was all sold with false promises and half baked claims rooted in the cupidity of experts.

it was not epidemiology or science or even a best effort attempt to help.

it was partisan poo flinging.

almost none had any idea what they were talking about and few even tried to find out.

crises are not seen by the political class an opportunity for leadership, they are an opportunity to grab power and when media and government are riding around in the same car, it’s going to run you over. every time.

it won’t change not matter who we elect, so it is we who must change.

step one is internalizing one simple lesson:

start there. the rest gets far more clear once you do…

also, tinfoil can be quite a fetching look if you have the panache to pull it off…