Good old Mary H. She provided as fine a summary of our current disenfranchisement as I’ve read anywhere. There’s no end of books, filled with labored prose, that try to say in 200 pages what she managed in under 3000 words.
If I read her article correctly, she ended with a suggestion that some sort of pushback to our political disenfranchisement is underway. I don’t see it. Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.
For me, the defining event of the past decade was not Brexit or Trump, but the passive way most ordinary people in the West accepted covid lockdown (after lockdown after lockdown) and other impositions on our liberty. We really were “sheeple”. You can bet the “elites” noticed.
People complied with lockdowns for two reasons – they were not optional, and were also they right approach at the time. You’re right to mention covid however, because that was an unfortunate intervention that derailed the Johnson post Brexit government and the plans they had. That may or may not have been successful, but I’m certain the political landscape and nation state described above would be unrecognisable from what it is today, and that is a distopian wilderness across all parties.
The fact that lockdown were not optional is neither here nor there. If the people hadn’t complied, they wouldn’t even have started.
As to their necessity, well… What can I say. After the first scare at the very beginning, all they produced was partygate.
Only those who believed in the right of the state to act as a jailer complied. Like many I was forced . After that I lost permanently all respect for and interest in the state and the politics of the state. I went like many underground and there I still am. Life then becomes clear and confusion ends.
My loyalty is to the land itself and no more to those who rule it.
Only those who believed in the right of the state to act as a jailer complied. Like many I was forced . After that I lost permanently all respect for and interest in the state and the politics of the state. I went like many underground and there I still am. Life then becomes clear and confusion ends.
My loyalty is to the land itself and no more to those who rule it.
Lockdowns were not the right approach at the the time.
You cannot stop a virus, it is better to let everyone acquire natural immunity.
For most people the COOF was no worse than a nasty cold.
The lockdowns were driven by ego maniacs like Hancock who belongs in jail.
Good Lord, after all we’ve been through and here we actually have more than one person who thinks the natural immunity approach was the correct one. You crazy people, you.
I’m not crazy.
Natural immunity is a FACT.
You haven’t been keeping up.
Just about everyone now realises that the
government’s approach was seriously flawed and yet here we are with people like you STILL stuck in the past and ignoring reality.
What is wrong with you ?
People like you are dangerous, your stupidity and ignorance and blind acceptance of the government diktats puts EVERYONE in danger.
Er, methinks you’ve been asleep in this debate. Firstly Sweden never had a lockdown, and has had one of the better covid records. Peru did and one of the highest rates of mortality.
People would have responded by limiting contact anyway but this would not have been a blunt legal instrument incapable of dealing with individual circumstance.
I’m not crazy.
Natural immunity is a FACT.
You haven’t been keeping up.
Just about everyone now realises that the
government’s approach was seriously flawed and yet here we are with people like you STILL stuck in the past and ignoring reality.
What is wrong with you ?
People like you are dangerous, your stupidity and ignorance and blind acceptance of the government diktats puts EVERYONE in danger.
Er, methinks you’ve been asleep in this debate. Firstly Sweden never had a lockdown, and has had one of the better covid records. Peru did and one of the highest rates of mortality.
People would have responded by limiting contact anyway but this would not have been a blunt legal instrument incapable of dealing with individual circumstance.
Good Lord, after all we’ve been through and here we actually have more than one person who thinks the natural immunity approach was the correct one. You crazy people, you.
Just exactly what plans did Johnson’s administration have ?
To complete BREXIT, to stop the boats ?
Johnson was only in government for his own sake not the people of Britain.
The fact that lockdown were not optional is neither here nor there. If the people hadn’t complied, they wouldn’t even have started.
As to their necessity, well… What can I say. After the first scare at the very beginning, all they produced was partygate.
Lockdowns were not the right approach at the the time.
You cannot stop a virus, it is better to let everyone acquire natural immunity.
For most people the COOF was no worse than a nasty cold.
The lockdowns were driven by ego maniacs like Hancock who belongs in jail.
Just exactly what plans did Johnson’s administration have ?
To complete BREXIT, to stop the boats ?
Johnson was only in government for his own sake not the people of Britain.
Read ‘Eugypius’ who reports the reaction of the German political elites to the acceptance of lockdowns, masking etc. Public opinion, they note, can – and should – easily be reformed by nudging and appeals to safety.
‘Climate’ of course is next on the menu.
Yes, and that was the point of the exercise. It was a compliance experiment, and those who imposed it got what they wanted. Now they can move in any direction they wish (and it wonât be a positive, healthy thing for society), because too many simply did what they were told, unquestioningly. Those who did ask questions were vilified, often by their very own families. Now that itâs obvious to even the most willing believers that the Covid response wasnât really a response at all, but a test, itâs too late.
I agree but unless you’re quite new to UnHerd you must have encountered this here before, with much doubling and “tripling down” of late. The imperfectness and extremity of the anti-Covid response is treated by some as conclusive evidence of a sinister global conspiracy, while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. These views often come from otherwise sensible commenters, and going against the anti-vax herd will earn you reliable downvotes. Cheers.
Oh I’m fully aware of the herd that comes across from TCW with this stuff, it’s an echo chamber of extremities that has no place in a more intellectual arena.
“while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. ”
THERE IS NOT A MASSIVELY HIGHER DEATH COUNT AMONG THE UNVACCINATED.
THAT IS A LIE AND THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.
What is wrong with people like you ?
Why are you shouting in all caps as if that does anything but establish your head-on-fire intemperance about the whole issue, while revealing your deep emotional and ideological investment in being right against any and all evidence?
Not that it can make a dent in your zealotry, but there’s a link to detailed documentation below.
Why not use caps ?
Because some of the posters here are a bit dense and it might help them.
You have no evidence against what I say and neither does Roobie K.
Is the government Behaviour Insights Team paying you two stooges ?
BECAUSE IT IS RUDE DUDE. And doesn’t help to make your case outside of the rabid anti-vax herd you clearly belong to. You can’t even glance at the data I spoon-fed you below. That pretty well proves your eyes and mind are not open and that attempting to use logic or data to persuade you is a waste of time. Perhaps your unhinged, far-right sources will eventually come around and provide you with backtracking evidence in a form you’re able to accept. Until then, good luck using ranting and raging as form of desperate psychological self-soothing.
RUDE ?
Who cares?
Go on do tell me.
What is far right, you commie ?
You are the one ranting and RK started this by calling Allison’s post garbage.
Get off your high horse you prig.
Quoting a report or a set stats is not evidence.
It depends who authored it.
Dear me – too many shouty-crackers posters being allowed into a formerly sensible forum. People shout because they are unwilling to listen: online, in the pub or anywhere else. A few months ago silly people like this who strayed into Unherd were simply ignored & took their megaphone ‘diplomacy’ elsewhere. If you engage with them you only encourage the nastiness. Let them stew with their own kind on cruder forums…
RUDE ?
Who cares?
Go on do tell me.
What is far right, you commie ?
You are the one ranting and RK started this by calling Allison’s post garbage.
Get off your high horse you prig.
Quoting a report or a set stats is not evidence.
It depends who authored it.
Dear me – too many shouty-crackers posters being allowed into a formerly sensible forum. People shout because they are unwilling to listen: online, in the pub or anywhere else. A few months ago silly people like this who strayed into Unherd were simply ignored & took their megaphone ‘diplomacy’ elsewhere. If you engage with them you only encourage the nastiness. Let them stew with their own kind on cruder forums…
BECAUSE IT IS RUDE DUDE. And doesn’t help to make your case outside of the rabid anti-vax herd you clearly belong to. You can’t even glance at the data I spoon-fed you below. That pretty well proves your eyes and mind are not open and that attempting to use logic or data to persuade you is a waste of time. Perhaps your unhinged, far-right sources will eventually come around and provide you with backtracking evidence in a form you’re able to accept. Until then, good luck using ranting and raging as form of desperate psychological self-soothing.
I don’t have a “deep and emotional and idealogical investment in being right”.
I really don’t care what you or RK think.
There is no point in me arguing with fools
but I’d call you out anyway.
I certainly venture outside the mainstream media, which should be evident by my presence here alone. But why make the opposite mistake of consuming an only MSM diet by crediting everything that floats inside your bubble? The lunatic fringe may provide an interesting counterweight to establishment tunnel-vision, but rabbit holes have unreliable perspectives too.
This has been a largely useless exchange and I’ll take a portion of the responsibility for that. We should all resist believing everything we think. Not every opinion is a gem, nor does even the most thorough and conscientious research reliably produce a complete truth.
I certainly venture outside the mainstream media, which should be evident by my presence here alone. But why make the opposite mistake of consuming an only MSM diet by crediting everything that floats inside your bubble? The lunatic fringe may provide an interesting counterweight to establishment tunnel-vision, but rabbit holes have unreliable perspectives too.
This has been a largely useless exchange and I’ll take a portion of the responsibility for that. We should all resist believing everything we think. Not every opinion is a gem, nor does even the most thorough and conscientious research reliably produce a complete truth.
âMDâ in Private Eye has also been very informative in his coverage of the COVID situation Imo. He is also a working GP, which means he is a knowledgeable and experienced person, something I greatly appreciate, as itâs so very hard to find reliable information these days. It doesnât of course mean heâs right about everything, but it does at least mean there is a greater likelihood of what he says being accurate and of value.
Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve found a YouTube video of Dr. Phil Hammond (anonymity gone) being interviewed by Simon Wessely for RSM. I think Hammond is almost unknown here in the States, though I can’t speak for the whole nation. I really appreciated his good humor and fairmindedness, exemplified by his willingness to admit error, such as leaving up a bad Covid-prediction tweet from January, 2020. I also admire his self-described guiding ethic: “intelligent kindness”, something he says has become more important to him as he’s gotten (this usage is considered correct on this continent) older. “Is it intelligent and is it kind? It’s that simple really”. Pretty close to that simple, I think–a good reminder for many, me included. I’ll look for his opinions and jokes from now on. Thanks, Mr. Butcher.
A zinger that Wessely quoted from Hammond’s writing: “The British thirst for freedom, individualism, and ignoring experts gives us great art and comedy but dreadful infection control”!
That applies just about as well to the US I’d say. After all, we did start out as a group of (mostly) English colonists raising their flag on an inhabited continent that was declared “unsettled”. Cheers.
Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve found a YouTube video of Dr. Phil Hammond (anonymity gone) being interviewed by Simon Wessely for RSM. I think Hammond is almost unknown here in the States, though I can’t speak for the whole nation. I really appreciated his good humor and fairmindedness, exemplified by his willingness to admit error, such as leaving up a bad Covid-prediction tweet from January, 2020. I also admire his self-described guiding ethic: “intelligent kindness”, something he says has become more important to him as he’s gotten (this usage is considered correct on this continent) older. “Is it intelligent and is it kind? It’s that simple really”. Pretty close to that simple, I think–a good reminder for many, me included. I’ll look for his opinions and jokes from now on. Thanks, Mr. Butcher.
A zinger that Wessely quoted from Hammond’s writing: “The British thirst for freedom, individualism, and ignoring experts gives us great art and comedy but dreadful infection control”!
That applies just about as well to the US I’d say. After all, we did start out as a group of (mostly) English colonists raising their flag on an inhabited continent that was declared “unsettled”. Cheers.
Why not use caps ?
Because some of the posters here are a bit dense and it might help them.
You have no evidence against what I say and neither does Roobie K.
Is the government Behaviour Insights Team paying you two stooges ?
I don’t have a “deep and emotional and idealogical investment in being right”.
I really don’t care what you or RK think.
There is no point in me arguing with fools
but I’d call you out anyway.
âMDâ in Private Eye has also been very informative in his coverage of the COVID situation Imo. He is also a working GP, which means he is a knowledgeable and experienced person, something I greatly appreciate, as itâs so very hard to find reliable information these days. It doesnât of course mean heâs right about everything, but it does at least mean there is a greater likelihood of what he says being accurate and of value.
Why are you shouting in all caps as if that does anything but establish your head-on-fire intemperance about the whole issue, while revealing your deep emotional and ideological investment in being right against any and all evidence?
Not that it can make a dent in your zealotry, but there’s a link to detailed documentation below.
He doesn’t because there is none. The reason being that the authorities refuse to release the data because they know full well it will blow the myth of higher deaths among the unvaccinated out of the water.
There’s some pretty thorough data here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
If you have the time and inclination, check out the death differentials among older patients.
Nothing that is known or can be known will persuade an anti-vax fundamentalist or head-on-fire alarmist, nor establish a full defense of the government response to Covid, especially the duration of some measures. I think there were points of overreach in how the thing was handled, and multiple legitimate grievances (mostly around long-term, forced shutdowns and prohibitions on voluntary gathering).
But there is infinitely more evidence of worse outcomes for the unvaccinated (unless they would, in fact, “rather die” than get jabbed) than for any counterclaims of widespread, adverse effects from the jab, let alone the illuminati conspiracy lunacy that is commonly spouted here.
Not so.
The countries with the most people vaccinated had the worst outcomes.
We know that the vaccines are harming people though I suppose you would deny that.
Vaccination rates were higher in Europe than the US, which had worse per-capita and total mortality. Vaccines can harm people but it quite rare, and far, far less of a risk for most (with significant exception for certain patients) than being un-shielded against severe Covid, especially if you are old or very fat, or both.
Vaccination rates were higher in Europe than the US, which had worse per-capita and total mortality. Vaccines can harm people but it quite rare, and far, far less of a risk for most (with significant exception for certain patients) than being un-shielded against severe Covid, especially if you are old or very fat, or both.
Not it isn’t. Your insistent and seemingly angry assertions don’t make anything true or untrue, however thoroughly you’ve convinced yourself that they do.
Stop projecting.
You are the emotional one, you cannot accept that you are so behind the curve that you don’t know what’s going on.
I’m not angry, I just like to point out when people wrong or lying.
.
Stop projecting.
You are the emotional one, you cannot accept that you are so behind the curve that you don’t know what’s going on.
I’m not angry, I just like to point out when people wrong or lying.
.
Not it isn’t. Your insistent and seemingly angry assertions don’t make anything true or untrue, however thoroughly you’ve convinced yourself that they do.
Not so.
The countries with the most people vaccinated had the worst outcomes.
We know that the vaccines are harming people though I suppose you would deny that.
He doesn’t because there is none. The reason being that the authorities refuse to release the data because they know full well it will blow the myth of higher deaths among the unvaccinated out of the water.
There’s some pretty thorough data here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
If you have the time and inclination, check out the death differentials among older patients.
Nothing that is known or can be known will persuade an anti-vax fundamentalist or head-on-fire alarmist, nor establish a full defense of the government response to Covid, especially the duration of some measures. I think there were points of overreach in how the thing was handled, and multiple legitimate grievances (mostly around long-term, forced shutdowns and prohibitions on voluntary gathering).
But there is infinitely more evidence of worse outcomes for the unvaccinated (unless they would, in fact, “rather die” than get jabbed) than for any counterclaims of widespread, adverse effects from the jab, let alone the illuminati conspiracy lunacy that is commonly spouted here.
I wouldn’t say he’s simply a villain but I do accept that he seems a bit sinister or untrustworthy–I wish he had fewer billions to himself, just as do with Musk and Bezos.
I wouldn’t say he’s simply a villain but I do accept that he seems a bit sinister or untrustworthy–I wish he had fewer billions to himself, just as do with Musk and Bezos.
It’s easy to reject the view that there are a few sinister and controlling individuals conspiring, less easy to reject the view that what people are sensing is an emergent phenomenon of structures of control which are insulated from influence by a wider public in the traditional democratic sense.
There are those on both sides who become irritated because they can only imagine such control as being reified and embodied in definable individuals. They miss the point.
That seems true enough to me. And I’ll even accept your implication that I’m among those missing the point, in some measure. I’m just not sure what specific, less-structurally-insulated time you’d like to return to. The surveillance state and globalized mega-interests are a newish and ominous development indeed. But I think there’s an underlying, oft-hidden or insulated Us within every large-scale Us vs. Them formulation. In other words, “they” are not simply doing it to “us”. We are participating, tacitly consenting, and many of us deriving selfish benefits from the structures we deride.
That seems true enough to me. And I’ll even accept your implication that I’m among those missing the point, in some measure. I’m just not sure what specific, less-structurally-insulated time you’d like to return to. The surveillance state and globalized mega-interests are a newish and ominous development indeed. But I think there’s an underlying, oft-hidden or insulated Us within every large-scale Us vs. Them formulation. In other words, “they” are not simply doing it to “us”. We are participating, tacitly consenting, and many of us deriving selfish benefits from the structures we deride.
Oh I’m fully aware of the herd that comes across from TCW with this stuff, it’s an echo chamber of extremities that has no place in a more intellectual arena.
“while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. ”
THERE IS NOT A MASSIVELY HIGHER DEATH COUNT AMONG THE UNVACCINATED.
THAT IS A LIE AND THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.
What is wrong with people like you ?
It’s easy to reject the view that there are a few sinister and controlling individuals conspiring, less easy to reject the view that what people are sensing is an emergent phenomenon of structures of control which are insulated from influence by a wider public in the traditional democratic sense.
There are those on both sides who become irritated because they can only imagine such control as being reified and embodied in definable individuals. They miss the point.
Concerned? Are you afraid they might contaminate you in some way? Perhaps – just maybe – theyâve seen or understood something you havenât or done so from a different perspective? We can do better than this.
I agree but unless you’re quite new to UnHerd you must have encountered this here before, with much doubling and “tripling down” of late. The imperfectness and extremity of the anti-Covid response is treated by some as conclusive evidence of a sinister global conspiracy, while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. These views often come from otherwise sensible commenters, and going against the anti-vax herd will earn you reliable downvotes. Cheers.
Concerned? Are you afraid they might contaminate you in some way? Perhaps – just maybe – theyâve seen or understood something you havenât or done so from a different perspective? We can do better than this.
I’m not sure they’ll get away with it twice though.. the might I suppose. It just depends on whether the sheeple are stupid or complete cretins? I’d say the jury’s out on that one. Perhaps the next one will be “go to your bunkers and bring lots of baked beans and dehydrated water!”
To be honest I think it was much more banal than that- the sun was shining, and a lot of people were glad to stay at home and not go to their soul destroying jobs. A street near me thatâs usually crawling with cars was full of families bicycling in the sunshine – it was a beautiful thing, despite the madness going on elsewhere.
To be honest I think it was much more banal than that- the sun was shining, and a lot of people were glad to stay at home and not go to their soul destroying jobs. A street near me thatâs usually crawling with cars was full of families bicycling in the sunshine – it was a beautiful thing, despite the madness going on elsewhere.
Surely it was more than compliance experiment by the elite here. Historians will note that the Covid derangment began the very week that the new Brexit/Tory government began. Yes, it was (media induced) total panic by the Fool Boris that began the nightmare, an act of self destruction. But when you observe the full two years of the nightmare and the pro lockdown behaviour of the State’s public health blob, teachers unions, Labour and the constant hysterical fear induction and lies of the always NHS First BBC and mainstream media, there can be no doubt that lockdown was willed by them as as extension of the Brex derangment mania that was poisoning our society. Not all were conscious Leninists, but many many were. The fact that the progressives in the Blob were all actually profitting from the WFH, savings boosting lockdown makes their willingness to cripple the private sector and drown the State in impossible debt an act of criminal vandalism. By the time the Fool Johnson, who saw Covid as a way to behave in a Churchillian way and ride high in frit public opinion, was shaken awake, the damage was done. But we know who the pro lockdown forces were. And all were Remainiacs. A visceral hatred of Brex was a key factor in the Blob’s two year suffocation of the Brexit economy. They had vowed it would be a disaster. Here, on day one, was their chance to make it so.
I’m not sure they’ll get away with it twice though.. the might I suppose. It just depends on whether the sheeple are stupid or complete cretins? I’d say the jury’s out on that one. Perhaps the next one will be “go to your bunkers and bring lots of baked beans and dehydrated water!”
Surely it was more than compliance experiment by the elite here. Historians will note that the Covid derangment began the very week that the new Brexit/Tory government began. Yes, it was (media induced) total panic by the Fool Boris that began the nightmare, an act of self destruction. But when you observe the full two years of the nightmare and the pro lockdown behaviour of the State’s public health blob, teachers unions, Labour and the constant hysterical fear induction and lies of the always NHS First BBC and mainstream media, there can be no doubt that lockdown was willed by them as as extension of the Brex derangment mania that was poisoning our society. Not all were conscious Leninists, but many many were. The fact that the progressives in the Blob were all actually profitting from the WFH, savings boosting lockdown makes their willingness to cripple the private sector and drown the State in impossible debt an act of criminal vandalism. By the time the Fool Johnson, who saw Covid as a way to behave in a Churchillian way and ride high in frit public opinion, was shaken awake, the damage was done. But we know who the pro lockdown forces were. And all were Remainiacs. A visceral hatred of Brex was a key factor in the Blob’s two year suffocation of the Brexit economy. They had vowed it would be a disaster. Here, on day one, was their chance to make it so.
‘Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.’
I think we can draw some hope from the actions of the trade unions in recent times, the crucibles of the nation state, unmentioned but heavily implied here in MH’s definition of a nation state as formed through industrialistation. Who else could she mean when she talks about ‘meaningful working-class ability to hold [the elite’s] feet to the fire?’ These are the last serious institutions of resistance against the erosion of our living standards, our sense of having a collective voice and the ability to control our borders, all reasons why both Mick Lynch and Eddie Dempsey voted Leave. This power to withdraw our labour is pretty well all we have in the face of this disenfranchisement, and judging by the government’s attempts to enforce minimum service requirements that would make our anti-trade union laws worse or as bad as Russia’s, the unions must still considered a threat. In other words, by MH’s own analysis, unions helped give us a nation state; maybe they can bring it back.
PS They also helped bring down the Soviet Union and are an essential part of civil society, like Burke’s little battalions (before one of you brands me as a crazy commie)
Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.
The ones who will be the most shocked at their downfall will be the educated, professional managerial class (the laptop class in COVID terms). They’re about 30% of the population, and they think society exists for their needs mostly because their needs and the needs of the true elites have overlapped in recent years. They’re in for a rude awakening when the 1% finally kicks them to the curb.
‘Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.’
Yes that’s my suspicion also, despite the hopeful talk of some that workers from more unionised countries (i.e. any other country in Europe?) bring their solidarity with them..
Whole Foods, a subsidiary of Amazon, believes that “Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity” but they’re clearly suffering from Russian disinformation from the alt-right pipeline. Diversity is their our strength.
Very interesting that they are that frank about it. If the article you’re quoting from is the one I found (below) then it does also seem important to acknowledge that other factors like ‘distance in miles between the store and the closest union’ matter as well. So alongside lower immigration, affordable housing which is near the workplace might also strengthen the dreaded ‘team member sentiment.’
There must be some instances were immigrants do contribute to workplace solidarity though that might only apply to those who have arrived on a long-term basis? https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-foods-unionization-heat-map-union
Very interesting that they are that frank about it. If the article you’re quoting from is the one I found (below) then it does also seem important to acknowledge that other factors like ‘distance in miles between the store and the closest union’ matter as well. So alongside lower immigration, affordable housing which is near the workplace might also strengthen the dreaded ‘team member sentiment.’
There must be some instances were immigrants do contribute to workplace solidarity though that might only apply to those who have arrived on a long-term basis? https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-foods-unionization-heat-map-union
Whole Foods, a subsidiary of Amazon, believes that “Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity” but they’re clearly suffering from Russian disinformation from the alt-right pipeline. Diversity is their our strength.
‘Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.’
Yes that’s my suspicion also, despite the hopeful talk of some that workers from more unionised countries (i.e. any other country in Europe?) bring their solidarity with them..
No. Trade Unions today ARE a part of the Blairite progressive UK State, not a threat to it! The miners and shipbuilders are all gone long ago. The heart of the modern trade unionist movement is within the vast white collar public sector. They are on the streets now because they want to remove the hated Tories and to destroy baby Brexit. But if Labour gains power, trade unions will fall into line. The restoration of the nation state is not on their agenda. They embrace the internationalist pro EU Blairite New Order which still is deeply embedded in the UK State.
Firstly, they’re not all white collar or pro-EU. Look at the RMT (whose leaders campaigned for Brexit) and look at the GMB, Usdaw, TSSA, NUM, FBU etc are all blue collar and whose members may well want the downfall of the Tory government because who wouldn’t want the removal of a government which has presided over the collapse of their living standards while giving them a high immigration low wage Brexit of more untrammelled globalisation which they never voted for? Perhaps you don’t think Starmer is any likelier to stop it, but at least there are people in the Labour party (unfortunately some of which have been sidelined since Corbyn left) who are serious about reindustralising this country and making it work for the people here. Where have the Tories been doing that? Not really ever would be my answer – all they’ve done is sold off our housing, industry and public sectors (bit by bit) to foreign capital.
Firstly, they’re not all white collar or pro-EU. Look at the RMT (whose leaders campaigned for Brexit) and look at the GMB, Usdaw, TSSA, NUM, FBU etc are all blue collar and whose members may well want the downfall of the Tory government because who wouldn’t want the removal of a government which has presided over the collapse of their living standards while giving them a high immigration low wage Brexit of more untrammelled globalisation which they never voted for? Perhaps you don’t think Starmer is any likelier to stop it, but at least there are people in the Labour party (unfortunately some of which have been sidelined since Corbyn left) who are serious about reindustralising this country and making it work for the people here. Where have the Tories been doing that? Not really ever would be my answer – all they’ve done is sold off our housing, industry and public sectors (bit by bit) to foreign capital.
Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.
The ones who will be the most shocked at their downfall will be the educated, professional managerial class (the laptop class in COVID terms). They’re about 30% of the population, and they think society exists for their needs mostly because their needs and the needs of the true elites have overlapped in recent years. They’re in for a rude awakening when the 1% finally kicks them to the curb.
No. Trade Unions today ARE a part of the Blairite progressive UK State, not a threat to it! The miners and shipbuilders are all gone long ago. The heart of the modern trade unionist movement is within the vast white collar public sector. They are on the streets now because they want to remove the hated Tories and to destroy baby Brexit. But if Labour gains power, trade unions will fall into line. The restoration of the nation state is not on their agenda. They embrace the internationalist pro EU Blairite New Order which still is deeply embedded in the UK State.
Everything I read today is depressing. There was a good article yesterday – I canât remember where – pointing out that the entire G7 is headed up by leaders loathed or disliked by the majority of the population. Trudeau won two elections with less of the popular vote than the conservatives – like 32% of the voters. The rest of the leaders have similar numbers. And of course Ursula von whatever isnât elected (she really looks like a Disney villain!). Yet somehow they rule over us. I would love an Unherd series on steps to fix democracies. For example I used to be opposed to proportional representation – but now I think it might be a solution to the urban / rural divide that is ailing most democracies.
Note that Trudeau’s minority rule (the real fringe minority?) is even slimmer than that as voter turnout was so apathetically and historically low. Essentially, he used scare tactics and the clean/unclean wedge of experimental transfections to coerce 32% of the laptop population of a few big Canadian cities to return his blackguard, blackface government. Like PJ, I was an inveterate defender of FPTP but now think PR or perhaps an electoral college is required to put some demos back in our captured democracies.
Note that Trudeau’s minority rule (the real fringe minority?) is even slimmer than that as voter turnout was so apathetically and historically low. Essentially, he used scare tactics and the clean/unclean wedge of experimental transfections to coerce 32% of the laptop population of a few big Canadian cities to return his blackguard, blackface government. Like PJ, I was an inveterate defender of FPTP but now think PR or perhaps an electoral college is required to put some demos back in our captured democracies.
Compare Denmark. In Denmark there is a category of holiday houses ‘summer houses’ which foreigners (EU or not) are not allowed to buy (mainly to stop Germans). They are in beautiful areas near the coast and enable Danes to enjoy the Danish summer. Imagine that here!
Tight immigration controls have supported high wages for workers of all sorts (except perhaps bankers, who are heavily taxed!) and a relatively less disfunctional society.
I forgot the Danish author wrote ‘We are not a nation, we are a tribe’ – and there is the difference.
Divided we fall. Mary is right. Britain is being pillaged. (Not by the Danes, this time).
I have Danish neighbours in London.
They paint very different picture of Denmark (especially immigration).
However, they say that Danish society is much more cohesive than UK.
I have Danish neighbours in London.
They paint very different picture of Denmark (especially immigration).
However, they say that Danish society is much more cohesive than UK.
…noticed? …noticed? ..sure they made billions out of it and you didn’t see it, as the nation’s wealth got scooped up by the 0.1%. At least Kuasi Kwarteng was open about it!
How it is possible to write so lucidly and well about the shattering of the nation state, its governance and laws and even culture, without referring to the events which triggered this seismic revolution BY DESIGN!! Its like writing about communist Russia without mentioning Lenin & 1917. Our nation state as was was completely demolished & dismantled by the progressive Blairite State after 1997. It in turn was serving the interests of the post Mastricht EU which demanded and got an NMI New Order; the eviseration of the power and accountability of national parliaments to bolster the federal centre. Look at their works. Supreme Court. Devolution. The creation of a vast unelected permanent Technocracy to sieze the reins of power from Ministers (hence Bank of England and interest rates, the NHS & Public Health – the dark army of wfh regulators, all committed to the EU precautionary principle.) Vast chunks of quasi public sector created too, notably the ponzi university scam in its drive for mass female employment. This was the New Order we still fail to recognise, as Mary just illustrated. There was more of course; the secondary wave of deliberate anti national policies, from EU legal supremacy and human rights; undeclared mass migration via free movement and onto the EU driven insanity of Net Zero Pol Potism which thrwtebs us with blackouts and degrowth. Why even write about Brexit so much? It was a just a people driven thing. Even the shabby Tories like May were majority Pro EU. It was not their fight. So we then watched on in horror as the pro EU Order of Remainiacs trashed and debased any notion of democractic respect/,accountability with their crude Parliamentary and legal coup. Brexit never even began! The Blob/Technocracy post Covid has just sat on its hands. Brex will be seen to be rather like a minor 1950s miner protest in some far flung corner of the Soviet Union. A Peasants Revolt that got chopped up as they always do. The EU/Blairite State Revolution had 30 years to embed itself and it is crazy to imagine that the Brexit Vote could overturn that New Order. To write as if the collapse of the nation state is some accident of history is all wrong. The very nature of power was redistributed to serve the wider EU agenda. That is the sorry State we have lived in for 30 years; and it is not broken. That progressive revolution still rules us. And you wonder why nothing changes? Why Tories are not Tories? Here is your answer.
It’s a two fold attack on government by the consent of the governed. First, the governered are too stupid and ignorant to give informed consent. We need a government of regulatory “experts” instead. Second, we don’t like the existing electorate, so we import a new one with untrammelled immigration of a new, more biddable, electorate. In both ways the elite get to do whatever they want. The old hoy paloi get nothing.
This is happening in both the UK and the US. Efforts to change direction are labeled “threats to our democracy” in the US. Durham’s Report is labeled nothing new, or partisan, because vilification of Republicans is required to carry off the plot. In the UK, even the Tories are getting with the program. You guys are screwed.
100 years ago if you disagreed with taxes, military conscription or forced labor you could vacate the city, leave the country or run for the hills.
The border, for most countries, was seldom more than a few hundred kilometers away.
The distance of transporting food stuffs by animal power couldnât be more than the animal would consume over that distance. That defined the radius of most borders. Mountains, swamps and deserts defined the rest.
Now, you only have three options:
1) Go to sea in your boat.
2) Wait for Elon Musk to finish his rocket ship and you can go to Mars
3) Become homeless.
There are no more non-State options.
Every square inch of land has been mapped, claimed, titled and photographed.
Even if you donât want to jockey for political status in the hierarchy of your current state, you can no longer opt out.
People complied with lockdowns for two reasons – they were not optional, and were also they right approach at the time. You’re right to mention covid however, because that was an unfortunate intervention that derailed the Johnson post Brexit government and the plans they had. That may or may not have been successful, but I’m certain the political landscape and nation state described above would be unrecognisable from what it is today, and that is a distopian wilderness across all parties.
Read ‘Eugypius’ who reports the reaction of the German political elites to the acceptance of lockdowns, masking etc. Public opinion, they note, can – and should – easily be reformed by nudging and appeals to safety.
‘Climate’ of course is next on the menu.
Yes, and that was the point of the exercise. It was a compliance experiment, and those who imposed it got what they wanted. Now they can move in any direction they wish (and it wonât be a positive, healthy thing for society), because too many simply did what they were told, unquestioningly. Those who did ask questions were vilified, often by their very own families. Now that itâs obvious to even the most willing believers that the Covid response wasnât really a response at all, but a test, itâs too late.
‘Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.’
I think we can draw some hope from the actions of the trade unions in recent times, the crucibles of the nation state, unmentioned but heavily implied here in MH’s definition of a nation state as formed through industrialistation. Who else could she mean when she talks about ‘meaningful working-class ability to hold [the elite’s] feet to the fire?’ These are the last serious institutions of resistance against the erosion of our living standards, our sense of having a collective voice and the ability to control our borders, all reasons why both Mick Lynch and Eddie Dempsey voted Leave. This power to withdraw our labour is pretty well all we have in the face of this disenfranchisement, and judging by the government’s attempts to enforce minimum service requirements that would make our anti-trade union laws worse or as bad as Russia’s, the unions must still considered a threat. In other words, by MH’s own analysis, unions helped give us a nation state; maybe they can bring it back.
PS They also helped bring down the Soviet Union and are an essential part of civil society, like Burke’s little battalions (before one of you brands me as a crazy commie)
Everything I read today is depressing. There was a good article yesterday – I canât remember where – pointing out that the entire G7 is headed up by leaders loathed or disliked by the majority of the population. Trudeau won two elections with less of the popular vote than the conservatives – like 32% of the voters. The rest of the leaders have similar numbers. And of course Ursula von whatever isnât elected (she really looks like a Disney villain!). Yet somehow they rule over us. I would love an Unherd series on steps to fix democracies. For example I used to be opposed to proportional representation – but now I think it might be a solution to the urban / rural divide that is ailing most democracies.
Compare Denmark. In Denmark there is a category of holiday houses ‘summer houses’ which foreigners (EU or not) are not allowed to buy (mainly to stop Germans). They are in beautiful areas near the coast and enable Danes to enjoy the Danish summer. Imagine that here!
Tight immigration controls have supported high wages for workers of all sorts (except perhaps bankers, who are heavily taxed!) and a relatively less disfunctional society.
I forgot the Danish author wrote ‘We are not a nation, we are a tribe’ – and there is the difference.
Divided we fall. Mary is right. Britain is being pillaged. (Not by the Danes, this time).
…noticed? …noticed? ..sure they made billions out of it and you didn’t see it, as the nation’s wealth got scooped up by the 0.1%. At least Kuasi Kwarteng was open about it!
How it is possible to write so lucidly and well about the shattering of the nation state, its governance and laws and even culture, without referring to the events which triggered this seismic revolution BY DESIGN!! Its like writing about communist Russia without mentioning Lenin & 1917. Our nation state as was was completely demolished & dismantled by the progressive Blairite State after 1997. It in turn was serving the interests of the post Mastricht EU which demanded and got an NMI New Order; the eviseration of the power and accountability of national parliaments to bolster the federal centre. Look at their works. Supreme Court. Devolution. The creation of a vast unelected permanent Technocracy to sieze the reins of power from Ministers (hence Bank of England and interest rates, the NHS & Public Health – the dark army of wfh regulators, all committed to the EU precautionary principle.) Vast chunks of quasi public sector created too, notably the ponzi university scam in its drive for mass female employment. This was the New Order we still fail to recognise, as Mary just illustrated. There was more of course; the secondary wave of deliberate anti national policies, from EU legal supremacy and human rights; undeclared mass migration via free movement and onto the EU driven insanity of Net Zero Pol Potism which thrwtebs us with blackouts and degrowth. Why even write about Brexit so much? It was a just a people driven thing. Even the shabby Tories like May were majority Pro EU. It was not their fight. So we then watched on in horror as the pro EU Order of Remainiacs trashed and debased any notion of democractic respect/,accountability with their crude Parliamentary and legal coup. Brexit never even began! The Blob/Technocracy post Covid has just sat on its hands. Brex will be seen to be rather like a minor 1950s miner protest in some far flung corner of the Soviet Union. A Peasants Revolt that got chopped up as they always do. The EU/Blairite State Revolution had 30 years to embed itself and it is crazy to imagine that the Brexit Vote could overturn that New Order. To write as if the collapse of the nation state is some accident of history is all wrong. The very nature of power was redistributed to serve the wider EU agenda. That is the sorry State we have lived in for 30 years; and it is not broken. That progressive revolution still rules us. And you wonder why nothing changes? Why Tories are not Tories? Here is your answer.
It’s a two fold attack on government by the consent of the governed. First, the governered are too stupid and ignorant to give informed consent. We need a government of regulatory “experts” instead. Second, we don’t like the existing electorate, so we import a new one with untrammelled immigration of a new, more biddable, electorate. In both ways the elite get to do whatever they want. The old hoy paloi get nothing.
This is happening in both the UK and the US. Efforts to change direction are labeled “threats to our democracy” in the US. Durham’s Report is labeled nothing new, or partisan, because vilification of Republicans is required to carry off the plot. In the UK, even the Tories are getting with the program. You guys are screwed.
100 years ago if you disagreed with taxes, military conscription or forced labor you could vacate the city, leave the country or run for the hills.
The border, for most countries, was seldom more than a few hundred kilometers away.
The distance of transporting food stuffs by animal power couldnât be more than the animal would consume over that distance. That defined the radius of most borders. Mountains, swamps and deserts defined the rest.
Now, you only have three options:
1) Go to sea in your boat.
2) Wait for Elon Musk to finish his rocket ship and you can go to Mars
3) Become homeless.
There are no more non-State options.
Every square inch of land has been mapped, claimed, titled and photographed.
Even if you donât want to jockey for political status in the hierarchy of your current state, you can no longer opt out.
Last edited 1 year ago by tim richardson
J Bryant
1 year ago
Good old Mary H. She provided as fine a summary of our current disenfranchisement as I’ve read anywhere. There’s no end of books, filled with labored prose, that try to say in 200 pages what she managed in under 3000 words.
If I read her article correctly, she ended with a suggestion that some sort of pushback to our political disenfranchisement is underway. I don’t see it. Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.
For me, the defining event of the past decade was not Brexit or Trump, but the passive way most ordinary people in the West accepted covid lockdown (after lockdown after lockdown) and other impositions on our liberty. We really were “sheeple”. You can bet the “elites” noticed.
John Dellingby
1 year ago
Itâs quite obvious that the people running this country at all levels despise ordinary citizens who fund their salaries and lifestyles. Why on Earth for example, should British workers at the lower and medium ends of the earning spectrum be expected to compete with the rest of the world to earn a living or develop their careers due to the salary threshold for a visa being ÂŁ21k per year? Should be at least triple that.
Not to mention yesterdayâs incident on Blackfriars Bridge where the Met are happy for Just Stop Oil criminals to prevent people paid by the hour or self-employed from earning a living, but will arrest anyone who takes issue with them doing so. Had people been using similar tactics against large scale migration or the cost of living, I doubt theyâd be met with such generosity by the Met.
Even when they do report it, they go to a loon like Piers Corbyn and effectively appoint him as the figurehead of the whole movement in order to discredit it.
Even when they do report it, they go to a loon like Piers Corbyn and effectively appoint him as the figurehead of the whole movement in order to discredit it.
If you triple salaries that means the cost of our exports must increase to pay for them and who will buy British if they can buy cheaper. It will also push up costs within the UK and so there will be others demanding pay increases. It is not the answer. Britain cannot survive without imports and therefore exports must pay for imports.
If you triple salaries that means the cost of our exports must increase to pay for them and who will buy British if they can buy cheaper. It will also push up costs within the UK and so there will be others demanding pay increases. It is not the answer. Britain cannot survive without imports and therefore exports must pay for imports.
John Dellingby
1 year ago
Itâs quite obvious that the people running this country at all levels despise ordinary citizens who fund their salaries and lifestyles. Why on Earth for example, should British workers at the lower and medium ends of the earning spectrum be expected to compete with the rest of the world to earn a living or develop their careers due to the salary threshold for a visa being ÂŁ21k per year? Should be at least triple that.
Not to mention yesterdayâs incident on Blackfriars Bridge where the Met are happy for Just Stop Oil criminals to prevent people paid by the hour or self-employed from earning a living, but will arrest anyone who takes issue with them doing so. Had people been using similar tactics against large scale migration or the cost of living, I doubt theyâd be met with such generosity by the Met.
Amy Horseman
1 year ago
Interesting piece, Mary, but none of it really matters if you do set aside the context of what you refer to as âCovidâ but others would refer to as psychological warfare. In March 2020, less than two months since âBrexit Dayâ, virtually every nation in the world fell, lockstep, into imposing the most horrific attack on the rights and freedoms on people that the modern world has ever known. Even in wartime, people were not forced to close their businesses for months on end. They were not terrorised into staying indoors for two years. Schools did not close. People were not bullied into walking around with their mouths and noses covered with a piece of cloth. Hospitals did not make sudden, radical changes to how people were treated resulting in millions of deaths. People were not told they could kill someone simply by walking in a park. All this was imposed at the same time by almost every government in the world, proving that they are (at best) in collusion with each other and (at worse) controlled by some other undefined entity. So we now know that modern democracy is a sham, a theatrical performance. This very week, the âWorld Health Assemblyâ is meeting in Geneva to give itself powers to restrict the movement and rights of all people of WHO member states whenever it decides thereâs a âpublic health emergency of international concernâ, when we now know such a thing cannot even exist. In the future, our âgovernmentsâ will say, âitâs not us mandating these medical interventions, itâs the WHO.â Anyone who remotely cares about bodily sovereignty – let alone national sovereignty – should be screaming from the rooftops about this. Yet the mainstream media is silent. No one I speak to even knows it is happening. Itâs not a conspiracy, itâs a power grab, happening in plain sight. Please research it and write about it. Itâs the most dangerous elephant in the room right now. David Bell has written about it, eloquently and passionately – search for his piece on the âBrownstone Instituteâ website. On a more positive note, though, I do not believe the ânation stateâ can ever truly be over. It can be attacked and suppressed and overruled, but it will always exist in some form as a natural order in which societies organise and boundary themselves. It will just be reordered and redefined once we get past this fascistic period weâre going through.
Great comment… All other issues have been dwarfed by the successful roll out of the authoritarian Covid hoax. Given that the pseudo science of it all is being, depressingly, accepted as unquestioned history, it can only be a matter of time before, the WHO facilitated, Round 2.
Quite likely 2025, I think, when Moderna’s lab in Oxfordshire will be up and running, ready to coercively inject billions more ‘vaccines ‘. It’s also the time predicted by Bill Gates/John Hopkins Institute in October 2022 from their Catastrophic Contagion’ jolly, the follow up to their ‘Event 201’ in October 2019, which curiously anticipated Covid months later. All there, in plain sight, on respective websites.
Yes good comment about Moderna’s lab. They have just produced an mRNA flu vaccine for which our UK Government has paid them over ÂŁ1 Billion for a product that hasn’t even been tested yet. Wait!! they are testing it on 50 volunteers??? Something isn’t quite right here. What Government in any state of mind would pay upfront for a product that has not been rigidly tested.
Incidentally the Factory that Moderna are using is the relatively new Vaccine, Manufacturing, and Innovation Centre at Harwell that was built as a state of the art facility for future pandemics and as expected sold out by the Tories to the Americans as they are with most of our Tech Companies.. Sovereignty, Nation State? Pah!
It was when I understood the implications of modernaâs name (MODE RNA) and read their investment opportunity brochures that I really woke up to the game plan. There is a vast difference between medicine to improve our health and genetic tinkering. The eugenicists donât want to make us well, they want to experiment on us to achieve their dream of artificially creating human life.
It was when I understood the implications of modernaâs name (MODE RNA) and read their investment opportunity brochures that I really woke up to the game plan. There is a vast difference between medicine to improve our health and genetic tinkering. The eugenicists donât want to make us well, they want to experiment on us to achieve their dream of artificially creating human life.
Yes good comment about Moderna’s lab. They have just produced an mRNA flu vaccine for which our UK Government has paid them over ÂŁ1 Billion for a product that hasn’t even been tested yet. Wait!! they are testing it on 50 volunteers??? Something isn’t quite right here. What Government in any state of mind would pay upfront for a product that has not been rigidly tested.
Incidentally the Factory that Moderna are using is the relatively new Vaccine, Manufacturing, and Innovation Centre at Harwell that was built as a state of the art facility for future pandemics and as expected sold out by the Tories to the Americans as they are with most of our Tech Companies.. Sovereignty, Nation State? Pah!
âThis fascistic period we are going throughâ – where did this come from? The intolerance of outliers is astonishing and even frightening. We live in a world of Karenâs.
How very apposite that it should be Geneva, a city infamous for the burning witches*in the 16th century.
In 1515 it is estimated that 500 or so were incinerated, 80% of whom are thought to have been women.
In 1571 there was another burst of excitement but only 29 were burnt**on this occasion .Frankly the city should be as infamous as Auschwitz, but somehow has avoided criticism.
Perhaps the machinations of the wretched WHO will change this?
(* A very popular spectator âsportâ, for obvious reasons.)
Governments of the western democracies were surprised, but delighted, by the rapid compliance of their populations to the imposition of severe lockdown measures and the accompanying removal of so many freedoms and rights in such a short time. The ruling Woking Class elites, already abhorring ‘nation state’ concept in favour of the ‘global village’ paradigm, found it easy to continue the onslaught on freedom of speech and other freedoms by precipitating and consolidating the Woke Era to suppress and control us in a manner never before encountered in democratic societies. Covid lockdown in 2020 boosted their confidence that they could accelerate this change agenda. Such oppression is/was of course familiar to people to lived/live under dictatorship and tyrannical systems of governance – e.g. Stalinist Russia, North Korea, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Hitler’s Germany, East Germany, etc. We have arrived! We are global!
Well said! It’s totalitarianism and it’s coming to a location near you. Substack has many well-written and well-researched articles on this and I recommend Mattias Desmet’s book, the Psychology of Totalitarianism.
You are right about the threat to our liberties, but wrong about the collusion in any organised way. It is simply the “me-too” way of thinking that is so common in politics, journalism, media. Independent thinking is discouraged by a force of social.pressure brought largely by social.media
Who knows. Either Anders Tegnall had some tennis balls, or someone had him BY the tennis balls. They were big jab pushers though. Look up their ârolled-up sleeveâ campaign. Quite chilling! (Canât fool the auto censor by inserting the word âtennisâ. Very clever!)
Who knows. Either Anders Tegnall had some tennis balls, or someone had him BY the tennis balls. They were big jab pushers though. Look up their ârolled-up sleeveâ campaign. Quite chilling! (Canât fool the auto censor by inserting the word âtennisâ. Very clever!)
Great comment… All other issues have been dwarfed by the successful roll out of the authoritarian Covid hoax. Given that the pseudo science of it all is being, depressingly, accepted as unquestioned history, it can only be a matter of time before, the WHO facilitated, Round 2.
Quite likely 2025, I think, when Moderna’s lab in Oxfordshire will be up and running, ready to coercively inject billions more ‘vaccines ‘. It’s also the time predicted by Bill Gates/John Hopkins Institute in October 2022 from their Catastrophic Contagion’ jolly, the follow up to their ‘Event 201’ in October 2019, which curiously anticipated Covid months later. All there, in plain sight, on respective websites.
âThis fascistic period we are going throughâ – where did this come from? The intolerance of outliers is astonishing and even frightening. We live in a world of Karenâs.
How very apposite that it should be Geneva, a city infamous for the burning witches*in the 16th century.
In 1515 it is estimated that 500 or so were incinerated, 80% of whom are thought to have been women.
In 1571 there was another burst of excitement but only 29 were burnt**on this occasion .Frankly the city should be as infamous as Auschwitz, but somehow has avoided criticism.
Perhaps the machinations of the wretched WHO will change this?
(* A very popular spectator âsportâ, for obvious reasons.)
Governments of the western democracies were surprised, but delighted, by the rapid compliance of their populations to the imposition of severe lockdown measures and the accompanying removal of so many freedoms and rights in such a short time. The ruling Woking Class elites, already abhorring ‘nation state’ concept in favour of the ‘global village’ paradigm, found it easy to continue the onslaught on freedom of speech and other freedoms by precipitating and consolidating the Woke Era to suppress and control us in a manner never before encountered in democratic societies. Covid lockdown in 2020 boosted their confidence that they could accelerate this change agenda. Such oppression is/was of course familiar to people to lived/live under dictatorship and tyrannical systems of governance – e.g. Stalinist Russia, North Korea, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Hitler’s Germany, East Germany, etc. We have arrived! We are global!
Well said! It’s totalitarianism and it’s coming to a location near you. Substack has many well-written and well-researched articles on this and I recommend Mattias Desmet’s book, the Psychology of Totalitarianism.
You are right about the threat to our liberties, but wrong about the collusion in any organised way. It is simply the “me-too” way of thinking that is so common in politics, journalism, media. Independent thinking is discouraged by a force of social.pressure brought largely by social.media
Many good points, but how do you explain different covid policies of Sweden?
Amy Horseman
1 year ago
Interesting piece, Mary, but none of it really matters if you do set aside the context of what you refer to as âCovidâ but others would refer to as psychological warfare. In March 2020, less than two months since âBrexit Dayâ, virtually every nation in the world fell, lockstep, into imposing the most horrific attack on the rights and freedoms on people that the modern world has ever known. Even in wartime, people were not forced to close their businesses for months on end. They were not terrorised into staying indoors for two years. Schools did not close. People were not bullied into walking around with their mouths and noses covered with a piece of cloth. Hospitals did not make sudden, radical changes to how people were treated resulting in millions of deaths. People were not told they could kill someone simply by walking in a park. All this was imposed at the same time by almost every government in the world, proving that they are (at best) in collusion with each other and (at worse) controlled by some other undefined entity. So we now know that modern democracy is a sham, a theatrical performance. This very week, the âWorld Health Assemblyâ is meeting in Geneva to give itself powers to restrict the movement and rights of all people of WHO member states whenever it decides thereâs a âpublic health emergency of international concernâ, when we now know such a thing cannot even exist. In the future, our âgovernmentsâ will say, âitâs not us mandating these medical interventions, itâs the WHO.â Anyone who remotely cares about bodily sovereignty – let alone national sovereignty – should be screaming from the rooftops about this. Yet the mainstream media is silent. No one I speak to even knows it is happening. Itâs not a conspiracy, itâs a power grab, happening in plain sight. Please research it and write about it. Itâs the most dangerous elephant in the room right now. David Bell has written about it, eloquently and passionately – search for his piece on the âBrownstone Instituteâ website. On a more positive note, though, I do not believe the ânation stateâ can ever truly be over. It can be attacked and suppressed and overruled, but it will always exist in some form as a natural order in which societies organise and boundary themselves. It will just be reordered and redefined once we get past this fascistic period weâre going through.
Simon Neale
1 year ago
Two very gloomy predictions follow from this excellent analysis. The first is that our national sense of who we are is being discernibly eroded by the volume of immigrants and the attemps by the media and other opinion leaders to deal with it. Just have a look at ourselves as reflected by the BBC, for example. The worse it gets, the worse it is going to get.
Second, the justified complaints of those who think Brexit has failed will be used in a concerted attempt to reverse the process. Sir Keir is doubtless putting together a plan to save us from our past “mistakes”.
…if only. Keir Starmer is Tory light.. a tiny bit more tax and tiny bit more social services. Corbyn was GB’s last chance to remake itself just like Sanders was America’s last chance.. it’s all downhill from here (to the cliff edge)..
The great thing about Corbyn and Sanders is that they so love the sounds of their own voices that they would walk over the cliff without noticing. Then we could go back to trying to be a free society
The great thing about Corbyn and Sanders is that they so love the sounds of their own voices that they would walk over the cliff without noticing. Then we could go back to trying to be a free society
…if only. Keir Starmer is Tory light.. a tiny bit more tax and tiny bit more social services. Corbyn was GB’s last chance to remake itself just like Sanders was America’s last chance.. it’s all downhill from here (to the cliff edge)..
Simon Neale
1 year ago
Two very gloomy predictions follow from this excellent analysis. The first is that our national sense of who we are is being discernibly eroded by the volume of immigrants and the attemps by the media and other opinion leaders to deal with it. Just have a look at ourselves as reflected by the BBC, for example. The worse it gets, the worse it is going to get.
Second, the justified complaints of those who think Brexit has failed will be used in a concerted attempt to reverse the process. Sir Keir is doubtless putting together a plan to save us from our past “mistakes”.
Chris Keating
1 year ago
Bit of a laugh thinking that you could take back control when you had none in the first place. Everything is decided around you and you are then propagandised into thinking that you had some sort of say in the matter.
The Nation is falling away because the people that run it have deigned that the welfare of the Nations citizens is of no interest to them. A large number of the population are not aware that this is the case and still cling to the idea that their Nation is for them, but they are slowly realising the ugly truth.
The Nation has been stolen by a caste that uses power and connections for their own personal enrichment and could not give a fig for anyone else.
The fact that Britain is declining and unable or more likely unwilling to ensure the welfare of its people yet has billions to spare promoting war all over the planet is further evidence of the ethical bankruptcy of the Nation.
I think that the Nation is important and it will be revived but it will require a group interested in running it equitably to make it work. How you get them in and remove the current bunch of parasites is another question that will not be easily solved . Hopefully it won’t be the French solution but I think that is a distinct possibility.
The French solution ushered in the pathological society of individuals and liberalism shorn of the Imago dei – the kind of Gnostic materialism which has produced the society that Mary so eloquently describes….unless you mean the Frankish solution…Perhaps we need a Charlemagne
I used to accept the standard depiction of Stalin as some kind of irrational master.
He did however get one thing right. If you want to get rid of an lite lass you also have to deal with their families
The French solution ushered in the pathological society of individuals and liberalism shorn of the Imago dei – the kind of Gnostic materialism which has produced the society that Mary so eloquently describes….unless you mean the Frankish solution…Perhaps we need a Charlemagne
I used to accept the standard depiction of Stalin as some kind of irrational master.
He did however get one thing right. If you want to get rid of an lite lass you also have to deal with their families
Bit of a laugh thinking that you could take back control when you had none in the first place. Everything is decided around you and you are then propagandised into thinking that you had some sort of say in the matter.
The Nation is falling away because the people that run it have deigned that the welfare of the Nations citizens is of no interest to them. A large number of the population are not aware that this is the case and still cling to the idea that their Nation is for them, but they are slowly realising the ugly truth.
The Nation has been stolen by a caste that uses power and connections for their own personal enrichment and could not give a fig for anyone else.
The fact that Britain is declining and unable or more likely unwilling to ensure the welfare of its people yet has billions to spare promoting war all over the planet is further evidence of the ethical bankruptcy of the Nation.
I think that the Nation is important and it will be revived but it will require a group interested in running it equitably to make it work. How you get them in and remove the current bunch of parasites is another question that will not be easily solved . Hopefully it won’t be the French solution but I think that is a distinct possibility.
Paul Ten
1 year ago
A fascinating account and, as ever, a great read from this author. I perhaps take issue with a couple of things. Firstly, the story on immigration doesnât mean Brexit has failed. It might mean our government of the day has failed, or is unwilling to engage with all the issues to deal with the problem. But at least Brexit means we know where the accountability lies.
Secondly, the âsofteningâ of the nation state seems like a very Euro-centric view of the world. The USA, China and Japan, to name a few, donât seem to have much need of cross-national emulsifiers. There is still a strong case to say that the EU is a vehicle for advancement of national interest. And people look to nation states for support, help, furlough money when things go wrong. The idea may have some more life in it yet.
Except Florida which is trying itâs own mini-version of Brexit and as a consequence, like us, has investment leaving the state and field full of unpicked fruit and veg.
Except Florida which is trying itâs own mini-version of Brexit and as a consequence, like us, has investment leaving the state and field full of unpicked fruit and veg.
Main Edition
US
FR
Good old Mary H. She provided as fine a summary of our current disenfranchisement as I’ve read anywhere. There’s no end of books, filled with labored prose, that try to say in 200 pages what she managed in under 3000 words.
If I read her article correctly, she ended with a suggestion that some sort of pushback to our political disenfranchisement is underway. I don’t see it. Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.
For me, the defining event of the past decade was not Brexit or Trump, but the passive way most ordinary people in the West accepted covid lockdown (after lockdown after lockdown) and other impositions on our liberty. We really were “sheeple”. You can bet the “elites” noticed.
People complied with lockdowns for two reasons – they were not optional, and were also they right approach at the time. You’re right to mention covid however, because that was an unfortunate intervention that derailed the Johnson post Brexit government and the plans they had. That may or may not have been successful, but I’m certain the political landscape and nation state described above would be unrecognisable from what it is today, and that is a distopian wilderness across all parties.
The fact that lockdown were not optional is neither here nor there. If the people hadn’t complied, they wouldn’t even have started.
As to their necessity, well… What can I say. After the first scare at the very beginning, all they produced was partygate.
Spoken like a true rebel, yet you complied, along with J Bryant and indeed myself.
Only those who believed in the right of the state to act as a jailer complied. Like many I was forced . After that I lost permanently all respect for and interest in the state and the politics of the state. I went like many underground and there I still am. Life then becomes clear and confusion ends.
My loyalty is to the land itself and no more to those who rule it.
You would comply, you have the moral courage of a sheep.
Only those who believed in the right of the state to act as a jailer complied. Like many I was forced . After that I lost permanently all respect for and interest in the state and the politics of the state. I went like many underground and there I still am. Life then becomes clear and confusion ends.
My loyalty is to the land itself and no more to those who rule it.
You would comply, you have the moral courage of a sheep.
Spoken like a true rebel, yet you complied, along with J Bryant and indeed myself.
Lockdowns were not the right approach at the the time.
You cannot stop a virus, it is better to let everyone acquire natural immunity.
For most people the COOF was no worse than a nasty cold.
The lockdowns were driven by ego maniacs like Hancock who belongs in jail.
Good Lord, after all we’ve been through and here we actually have more than one person who thinks the natural immunity approach was the correct one. You crazy people, you.
I’m not crazy.
Natural immunity is a FACT.
You haven’t been keeping up.
Just about everyone now realises that the
government’s approach was seriously flawed and yet here we are with people like you STILL stuck in the past and ignoring reality.
What is wrong with you ?
People like you are dangerous, your stupidity and ignorance and blind acceptance of the government diktats puts EVERYONE in danger.
Try an act like a human being and not a sheep.
Er, methinks you’ve been asleep in this debate. Firstly Sweden never had a lockdown, and has had one of the better covid records. Peru did and one of the highest rates of mortality.
People would have responded by limiting contact anyway but this would not have been a blunt legal instrument incapable of dealing with individual circumstance.
I’m not crazy.
Natural immunity is a FACT.
You haven’t been keeping up.
Just about everyone now realises that the
government’s approach was seriously flawed and yet here we are with people like you STILL stuck in the past and ignoring reality.
What is wrong with you ?
People like you are dangerous, your stupidity and ignorance and blind acceptance of the government diktats puts EVERYONE in danger.
Try an act like a human being and not a sheep.
Er, methinks you’ve been asleep in this debate. Firstly Sweden never had a lockdown, and has had one of the better covid records. Peru did and one of the highest rates of mortality.
People would have responded by limiting contact anyway but this would not have been a blunt legal instrument incapable of dealing with individual circumstance.
Good Lord, after all we’ve been through and here we actually have more than one person who thinks the natural immunity approach was the correct one. You crazy people, you.
Just exactly what plans did Johnson’s administration have ?
To complete BREXIT, to stop the boats ?
Johnson was only in government for his own sake not the people of Britain.
The fact that lockdown were not optional is neither here nor there. If the people hadn’t complied, they wouldn’t even have started.
As to their necessity, well… What can I say. After the first scare at the very beginning, all they produced was partygate.
Lockdowns were not the right approach at the the time.
You cannot stop a virus, it is better to let everyone acquire natural immunity.
For most people the COOF was no worse than a nasty cold.
The lockdowns were driven by ego maniacs like Hancock who belongs in jail.
Just exactly what plans did Johnson’s administration have ?
To complete BREXIT, to stop the boats ?
Johnson was only in government for his own sake not the people of Britain.
Read ‘Eugypius’ who reports the reaction of the German political elites to the acceptance of lockdowns, masking etc. Public opinion, they note, can – and should – easily be reformed by nudging and appeals to safety.
‘Climate’ of course is next on the menu.
Yes, and that was the point of the exercise. It was a compliance experiment, and those who imposed it got what they wanted. Now they can move in any direction they wish (and it wonât be a positive, healthy thing for society), because too many simply did what they were told, unquestioningly. Those who did ask questions were vilified, often by their very own families. Now that itâs obvious to even the most willing believers that the Covid response wasnât really a response at all, but a test, itâs too late.
Absolutely right.
But;
They won’t dare try it again
What makes you so sure they wonât?
What makes you so sure they wonât?
Quite concerning really that I am sharing the same website with people who believe such utter garbage.
I agree but unless you’re quite new to UnHerd you must have encountered this here before, with much doubling and “tripling down” of late. The imperfectness and extremity of the anti-Covid response is treated by some as conclusive evidence of a sinister global conspiracy, while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. These views often come from otherwise sensible commenters, and going against the anti-vax herd will earn you reliable downvotes. Cheers.
Oh I’m fully aware of the herd that comes across from TCW with this stuff, it’s an echo chamber of extremities that has no place in a more intellectual arena.
Intellectual ?
Counts you right out then.
Awwwwwwww.
Awwwwwwww.
Of course The Conservative Woman is such an EXTREME site, isn’t ?
You dumb lefties.
Intellectual ?
Counts you right out then.
Of course The Conservative Woman is such an EXTREME site, isn’t ?
You dumb lefties.
“while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. ”
THERE IS NOT A MASSIVELY HIGHER DEATH COUNT AMONG THE UNVACCINATED.
THAT IS A LIE AND THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.
What is wrong with people like you ?
Why are you shouting in all caps as if that does anything but establish your head-on-fire intemperance about the whole issue, while revealing your deep emotional and ideological investment in being right against any and all evidence?
Not that it can make a dent in your zealotry, but there’s a link to detailed documentation below.
Why not use caps ?
Because some of the posters here are a bit dense and it might help them.
You have no evidence against what I say and neither does Roobie K.
Is the government Behaviour Insights Team paying you two stooges ?
BECAUSE IT IS RUDE DUDE. And doesn’t help to make your case outside of the rabid anti-vax herd you clearly belong to. You can’t even glance at the data I spoon-fed you below. That pretty well proves your eyes and mind are not open and that attempting to use logic or data to persuade you is a waste of time. Perhaps your unhinged, far-right sources will eventually come around and provide you with backtracking evidence in a form you’re able to accept. Until then, good luck using ranting and raging as form of desperate psychological self-soothing.
But just in case I’ve wrongly diagnosed you with an absence of fairmindedness on this issue, here’s the link again: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status?country=~80%2B
RUDE ?
Who cares?
Go on do tell me.
What is far right, you commie ?
You are the one ranting and RK started this by calling Allison’s post garbage.
Get off your high horse you prig.
Quoting a report or a set stats is not evidence.
It depends who authored it.
Dear me – too many shouty-crackers posters being allowed into a formerly sensible forum. People shout because they are unwilling to listen: online, in the pub or anywhere else. A few months ago silly people like this who strayed into Unherd were simply ignored & took their megaphone ‘diplomacy’ elsewhere. If you engage with them you only encourage the nastiness. Let them stew with their own kind on cruder forums…
But just in case I’ve wrongly diagnosed you with an absence of fairmindedness on this issue, here’s the link again: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status?country=~80%2B
RUDE ?
Who cares?
Go on do tell me.
What is far right, you commie ?
You are the one ranting and RK started this by calling Allison’s post garbage.
Get off your high horse you prig.
Quoting a report or a set stats is not evidence.
It depends who authored it.
Dear me – too many shouty-crackers posters being allowed into a formerly sensible forum. People shout because they are unwilling to listen: online, in the pub or anywhere else. A few months ago silly people like this who strayed into Unherd were simply ignored & took their megaphone ‘diplomacy’ elsewhere. If you engage with them you only encourage the nastiness. Let them stew with their own kind on cruder forums…
BECAUSE IT IS RUDE DUDE. And doesn’t help to make your case outside of the rabid anti-vax herd you clearly belong to. You can’t even glance at the data I spoon-fed you below. That pretty well proves your eyes and mind are not open and that attempting to use logic or data to persuade you is a waste of time. Perhaps your unhinged, far-right sources will eventually come around and provide you with backtracking evidence in a form you’re able to accept. Until then, good luck using ranting and raging as form of desperate psychological self-soothing.
I don’t have a “deep and emotional and idealogical investment in being right”.
I really don’t care what you or RK think.
There is no point in me arguing with fools
but I’d call you out anyway.
You’re arrogant and ill-informed, which is a pretty bad combination dude.
I’m very well informed thank you, I do my research.
All you are doing is parroting what you hear in the MSM.
I certainly venture outside the mainstream media, which should be evident by my presence here alone. But why make the opposite mistake of consuming an only MSM diet by crediting everything that floats inside your bubble? The lunatic fringe may provide an interesting counterweight to establishment tunnel-vision, but rabbit holes have unreliable perspectives too.
This has been a largely useless exchange and I’ll take a portion of the responsibility for that. We should all resist believing everything we think. Not every opinion is a gem, nor does even the most thorough and conscientious research reliably produce a complete truth.
I certainly venture outside the mainstream media, which should be evident by my presence here alone. But why make the opposite mistake of consuming an only MSM diet by crediting everything that floats inside your bubble? The lunatic fringe may provide an interesting counterweight to establishment tunnel-vision, but rabbit holes have unreliable perspectives too.
This has been a largely useless exchange and I’ll take a portion of the responsibility for that. We should all resist believing everything we think. Not every opinion is a gem, nor does even the most thorough and conscientious research reliably produce a complete truth.
I’m very well informed thank you, I do my research.
All you are doing is parroting what you hear in the MSM.
You’re arrogant and ill-informed, which is a pretty bad combination dude.
âMDâ in Private Eye has also been very informative in his coverage of the COVID situation Imo. He is also a working GP, which means he is a knowledgeable and experienced person, something I greatly appreciate, as itâs so very hard to find reliable information these days. It doesnât of course mean heâs right about everything, but it does at least mean there is a greater likelihood of what he says being accurate and of value.
Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve found a YouTube video of Dr. Phil Hammond (anonymity gone) being interviewed by Simon Wessely for RSM. I think Hammond is almost unknown here in the States, though I can’t speak for the whole nation. I really appreciated his good humor and fairmindedness, exemplified by his willingness to admit error, such as leaving up a bad Covid-prediction tweet from January, 2020. I also admire his self-described guiding ethic: “intelligent kindness”, something he says has become more important to him as he’s gotten (this usage is considered correct on this continent) older. “Is it intelligent and is it kind? It’s that simple really”. Pretty close to that simple, I think–a good reminder for many, me included. I’ll look for his opinions and jokes from now on. Thanks, Mr. Butcher.
A zinger that Wessely quoted from Hammond’s writing: “The British thirst for freedom, individualism, and ignoring experts gives us great art and comedy but dreadful infection control”!
That applies just about as well to the US I’d say. After all, we did start out as a group of (mostly) English colonists raising their flag on an inhabited continent that was declared “unsettled”. Cheers.
Thanks for this recommendation. I’ve found a YouTube video of Dr. Phil Hammond (anonymity gone) being interviewed by Simon Wessely for RSM. I think Hammond is almost unknown here in the States, though I can’t speak for the whole nation. I really appreciated his good humor and fairmindedness, exemplified by his willingness to admit error, such as leaving up a bad Covid-prediction tweet from January, 2020. I also admire his self-described guiding ethic: “intelligent kindness”, something he says has become more important to him as he’s gotten (this usage is considered correct on this continent) older. “Is it intelligent and is it kind? It’s that simple really”. Pretty close to that simple, I think–a good reminder for many, me included. I’ll look for his opinions and jokes from now on. Thanks, Mr. Butcher.
A zinger that Wessely quoted from Hammond’s writing: “The British thirst for freedom, individualism, and ignoring experts gives us great art and comedy but dreadful infection control”!
That applies just about as well to the US I’d say. After all, we did start out as a group of (mostly) English colonists raising their flag on an inhabited continent that was declared “unsettled”. Cheers.
Why not use caps ?
Because some of the posters here are a bit dense and it might help them.
You have no evidence against what I say and neither does Roobie K.
Is the government Behaviour Insights Team paying you two stooges ?
I don’t have a “deep and emotional and idealogical investment in being right”.
I really don’t care what you or RK think.
There is no point in me arguing with fools
but I’d call you out anyway.
âMDâ in Private Eye has also been very informative in his coverage of the COVID situation Imo. He is also a working GP, which means he is a knowledgeable and experienced person, something I greatly appreciate, as itâs so very hard to find reliable information these days. It doesnât of course mean heâs right about everything, but it does at least mean there is a greater likelihood of what he says being accurate and of value.
Why are you shouting in all caps as if that does anything but establish your head-on-fire intemperance about the whole issue, while revealing your deep emotional and ideological investment in being right against any and all evidence?
Not that it can make a dent in your zealotry, but there’s a link to detailed documentation below.
Do you have any evidence of this. I haven’t seen any that’s convincing.
He doesn’t because there is none. The reason being that the authorities refuse to release the data because they know full well it will blow the myth of higher deaths among the unvaccinated out of the water.
There’s some pretty thorough data here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
If you have the time and inclination, check out the death differentials among older patients.
Nothing that is known or can be known will persuade an anti-vax fundamentalist or head-on-fire alarmist, nor establish a full defense of the government response to Covid, especially the duration of some measures. I think there were points of overreach in how the thing was handled, and multiple legitimate grievances (mostly around long-term, forced shutdowns and prohibitions on voluntary gathering).
But there is infinitely more evidence of worse outcomes for the unvaccinated (unless they would, in fact, “rather die” than get jabbed) than for any counterclaims of widespread, adverse effects from the jab, let alone the illuminati conspiracy lunacy that is commonly spouted here.
Not so.
The countries with the most people vaccinated had the worst outcomes.
We know that the vaccines are harming people though I suppose you would deny that.
Vaccination rates were higher in Europe than the US, which had worse per-capita and total mortality. Vaccines can harm people but it quite rare, and far, far less of a risk for most (with significant exception for certain patients) than being un-shielded against severe Covid, especially if you are old or very fat, or both.
No, check out the yellow card adverse reactions supplied by the government.
No, check out the yellow card adverse reactions supplied by the government.
Vaccination rates were higher in Europe than the US, which had worse per-capita and total mortality. Vaccines can harm people but it quite rare, and far, far less of a risk for most (with significant exception for certain patients) than being un-shielded against severe Covid, especially if you are old or very fat, or both.
Your last paragraph is just an out and out lie.
Stop it.
Not it isn’t. Your insistent and seemingly angry assertions don’t make anything true or untrue, however thoroughly you’ve convinced yourself that they do.
Stop projecting.
You are the emotional one, you cannot accept that you are so behind the curve that you don’t know what’s going on.
I’m not angry, I just like to point out when people wrong or lying.
.
Stop projecting.
You are the emotional one, you cannot accept that you are so behind the curve that you don’t know what’s going on.
I’m not angry, I just like to point out when people wrong or lying.
.
Not it isn’t. Your insistent and seemingly angry assertions don’t make anything true or untrue, however thoroughly you’ve convinced yourself that they do.
Not so.
The countries with the most people vaccinated had the worst outcomes.
We know that the vaccines are harming people though I suppose you would deny that.
Your last paragraph is just an out and out lie.
Stop it.
He doesn’t because there is none. The reason being that the authorities refuse to release the data because they know full well it will blow the myth of higher deaths among the unvaccinated out of the water.
There’s some pretty thorough data here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
If you have the time and inclination, check out the death differentials among older patients.
Nothing that is known or can be known will persuade an anti-vax fundamentalist or head-on-fire alarmist, nor establish a full defense of the government response to Covid, especially the duration of some measures. I think there were points of overreach in how the thing was handled, and multiple legitimate grievances (mostly around long-term, forced shutdowns and prohibitions on voluntary gathering).
But there is infinitely more evidence of worse outcomes for the unvaccinated (unless they would, in fact, “rather die” than get jabbed) than for any counterclaims of widespread, adverse effects from the jab, let alone the illuminati conspiracy lunacy that is commonly spouted here.
So Bill Gates is not sinister ?
I wouldn’t say he’s simply a villain but I do accept that he seems a bit sinister or untrustworthy–I wish he had fewer billions to himself, just as do with Musk and Bezos.
I wouldn’t say he’s simply a villain but I do accept that he seems a bit sinister or untrustworthy–I wish he had fewer billions to himself, just as do with Musk and Bezos.
It’s easy to reject the view that there are a few sinister and controlling individuals conspiring, less easy to reject the view that what people are sensing is an emergent phenomenon of structures of control which are insulated from influence by a wider public in the traditional democratic sense.
There are those on both sides who become irritated because they can only imagine such control as being reified and embodied in definable individuals. They miss the point.
That seems true enough to me. And I’ll even accept your implication that I’m among those missing the point, in some measure. I’m just not sure what specific, less-structurally-insulated time you’d like to return to. The surveillance state and globalized mega-interests are a newish and ominous development indeed. But I think there’s an underlying, oft-hidden or insulated Us within every large-scale Us vs. Them formulation. In other words, “they” are not simply doing it to “us”. We are participating, tacitly consenting, and many of us deriving selfish benefits from the structures we deride.
That seems true enough to me. And I’ll even accept your implication that I’m among those missing the point, in some measure. I’m just not sure what specific, less-structurally-insulated time you’d like to return to. The surveillance state and globalized mega-interests are a newish and ominous development indeed. But I think there’s an underlying, oft-hidden or insulated Us within every large-scale Us vs. Them formulation. In other words, “they” are not simply doing it to “us”. We are participating, tacitly consenting, and many of us deriving selfish benefits from the structures we deride.
Oh I’m fully aware of the herd that comes across from TCW with this stuff, it’s an echo chamber of extremities that has no place in a more intellectual arena.
“while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. ”
THERE IS NOT A MASSIVELY HIGHER DEATH COUNT AMONG THE UNVACCINATED.
THAT IS A LIE AND THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.
What is wrong with people like you ?
Do you have any evidence of this. I haven’t seen any that’s convincing.
So Bill Gates is not sinister ?
It’s easy to reject the view that there are a few sinister and controlling individuals conspiring, less easy to reject the view that what people are sensing is an emergent phenomenon of structures of control which are insulated from influence by a wider public in the traditional democratic sense.
There are those on both sides who become irritated because they can only imagine such control as being reified and embodied in definable individuals. They miss the point.
It’s quite concerning that you are so naĂŻve.
The poster is EXACTLY right.
Caps lock.
Brain lock too.
(withdrawn)
(withdrawn)
Brain lock too.
Caps lock.
Concerned? Are you afraid they might contaminate you in some way? Perhaps – just maybe – theyâve seen or understood something you havenât or done so from a different perspective? We can do better than this.
You sheeple just don’t get it, do you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3yU5Z2adI
I agree but unless you’re quite new to UnHerd you must have encountered this here before, with much doubling and “tripling down” of late. The imperfectness and extremity of the anti-Covid response is treated by some as conclusive evidence of a sinister global conspiracy, while the massively higher death count among the unvaccinated is treated as no evidence at all. These views often come from otherwise sensible commenters, and going against the anti-vax herd will earn you reliable downvotes. Cheers.
It’s quite concerning that you are so naĂŻve.
The poster is EXACTLY right.
Concerned? Are you afraid they might contaminate you in some way? Perhaps – just maybe – theyâve seen or understood something you havenât or done so from a different perspective? We can do better than this.
You sheeple just don’t get it, do you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3yU5Z2adI
I’m not sure they’ll get away with it twice though.. the might I suppose. It just depends on whether the sheeple are stupid or complete cretins? I’d say the jury’s out on that one. Perhaps the next one will be “go to your bunkers and bring lots of baked beans and dehydrated water!”
To be honest I think it was much more banal than that- the sun was shining, and a lot of people were glad to stay at home and not go to their soul destroying jobs. A street near me thatâs usually crawling with cars was full of families bicycling in the sunshine – it was a beautiful thing, despite the madness going on elsewhere.
To be honest I think it was much more banal than that- the sun was shining, and a lot of people were glad to stay at home and not go to their soul destroying jobs. A street near me thatâs usually crawling with cars was full of families bicycling in the sunshine – it was a beautiful thing, despite the madness going on elsewhere.
Surely it was more than compliance experiment by the elite here. Historians will note that the Covid derangment began the very week that the new Brexit/Tory government began. Yes, it was (media induced) total panic by the Fool Boris that began the nightmare, an act of self destruction. But when you observe the full two years of the nightmare and the pro lockdown behaviour of the State’s public health blob, teachers unions, Labour and the constant hysterical fear induction and lies of the always NHS First BBC and mainstream media, there can be no doubt that lockdown was willed by them as as extension of the Brex derangment mania that was poisoning our society. Not all were conscious Leninists, but many many were. The fact that the progressives in the Blob were all actually profitting from the WFH, savings boosting lockdown makes their willingness to cripple the private sector and drown the State in impossible debt an act of criminal vandalism. By the time the Fool Johnson, who saw Covid as a way to behave in a Churchillian way and ride high in frit public opinion, was shaken awake, the damage was done. But we know who the pro lockdown forces were. And all were Remainiacs. A visceral hatred of Brex was a key factor in the Blob’s two year suffocation of the Brexit economy. They had vowed it would be a disaster. Here, on day one, was their chance to make it so.
Absolutely right.
But;
They won’t dare try it again
Quite concerning really that I am sharing the same website with people who believe such utter garbage.
I’m not sure they’ll get away with it twice though.. the might I suppose. It just depends on whether the sheeple are stupid or complete cretins? I’d say the jury’s out on that one. Perhaps the next one will be “go to your bunkers and bring lots of baked beans and dehydrated water!”
Surely it was more than compliance experiment by the elite here. Historians will note that the Covid derangment began the very week that the new Brexit/Tory government began. Yes, it was (media induced) total panic by the Fool Boris that began the nightmare, an act of self destruction. But when you observe the full two years of the nightmare and the pro lockdown behaviour of the State’s public health blob, teachers unions, Labour and the constant hysterical fear induction and lies of the always NHS First BBC and mainstream media, there can be no doubt that lockdown was willed by them as as extension of the Brex derangment mania that was poisoning our society. Not all were conscious Leninists, but many many were. The fact that the progressives in the Blob were all actually profitting from the WFH, savings boosting lockdown makes their willingness to cripple the private sector and drown the State in impossible debt an act of criminal vandalism. By the time the Fool Johnson, who saw Covid as a way to behave in a Churchillian way and ride high in frit public opinion, was shaken awake, the damage was done. But we know who the pro lockdown forces were. And all were Remainiacs. A visceral hatred of Brex was a key factor in the Blob’s two year suffocation of the Brexit economy. They had vowed it would be a disaster. Here, on day one, was their chance to make it so.
‘Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.’
I think we can draw some hope from the actions of the trade unions in recent times, the crucibles of the nation state, unmentioned but heavily implied here in MH’s definition of a nation state as formed through industrialistation. Who else could she mean when she talks about ‘meaningful working-class ability to hold [the elite’s] feet to the fire?’ These are the last serious institutions of resistance against the erosion of our living standards, our sense of having a collective voice and the ability to control our borders, all reasons why both Mick Lynch and Eddie Dempsey voted Leave. This power to withdraw our labour is pretty well all we have in the face of this disenfranchisement, and judging by the government’s attempts to enforce minimum service requirements that would make our anti-trade union laws worse or as bad as Russia’s, the unions must still considered a threat. In other words, by MH’s own analysis, unions helped give us a nation state; maybe they can bring it back.
PS They also helped bring down the Soviet Union and are an essential part of civil society, like Burke’s little battalions (before one of you brands me as a crazy commie)
Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.
The ones who will be the most shocked at their downfall will be the educated, professional managerial class (the laptop class in COVID terms). They’re about 30% of the population, and they think society exists for their needs mostly because their needs and the needs of the true elites have overlapped in recent years. They’re in for a rude awakening when the 1% finally kicks them to the curb.
‘Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.’
Yes that’s my suspicion also, despite the hopeful talk of some that workers from more unionised countries (i.e. any other country in Europe?) bring their solidarity with them..
Whole Foods, a subsidiary of Amazon, believes that “Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity” but they’re clearly suffering from Russian disinformation from the alt-right pipeline. Diversity is
theirour strength.Very interesting that they are that frank about it. If the article you’re quoting from is the one I found (below) then it does also seem important to acknowledge that other factors like ‘distance in miles between the store and the closest union’ matter as well. So alongside lower immigration, affordable housing which is near the workplace might also strengthen the dreaded ‘team member sentiment.’
There must be some instances were immigrants do contribute to workplace solidarity though that might only apply to those who have arrived on a long-term basis?
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-foods-unionization-heat-map-union
Very interesting that they are that frank about it. If the article you’re quoting from is the one I found (below) then it does also seem important to acknowledge that other factors like ‘distance in miles between the store and the closest union’ matter as well. So alongside lower immigration, affordable housing which is near the workplace might also strengthen the dreaded ‘team member sentiment.’
There must be some instances were immigrants do contribute to workplace solidarity though that might only apply to those who have arrived on a long-term basis?
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-foods-unionization-heat-map-union
Whole Foods, a subsidiary of Amazon, believes that “Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity” but they’re clearly suffering from Russian disinformation from the alt-right pipeline. Diversity is
theirour strength.‘Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.’
Yes that’s my suspicion also, despite the hopeful talk of some that workers from more unionised countries (i.e. any other country in Europe?) bring their solidarity with them..
No. Trade Unions today ARE a part of the Blairite progressive UK State, not a threat to it! The miners and shipbuilders are all gone long ago. The heart of the modern trade unionist movement is within the vast white collar public sector. They are on the streets now because they want to remove the hated Tories and to destroy baby Brexit. But if Labour gains power, trade unions will fall into line. The restoration of the nation state is not on their agenda. They embrace the internationalist pro EU Blairite New Order which still is deeply embedded in the UK State.
Firstly, they’re not all white collar or pro-EU. Look at the RMT (whose leaders campaigned for Brexit) and look at the GMB, Usdaw, TSSA, NUM, FBU etc are all blue collar and whose members may well want the downfall of the Tory government because who wouldn’t want the removal of a government which has presided over the collapse of their living standards while giving them a high immigration low wage Brexit of more untrammelled globalisation which they never voted for? Perhaps you don’t think Starmer is any likelier to stop it, but at least there are people in the Labour party (unfortunately some of which have been sidelined since Corbyn left) who are serious about reindustralising this country and making it work for the people here. Where have the Tories been doing that? Not really ever would be my answer – all they’ve done is sold off our housing, industry and public sectors (bit by bit) to foreign capital.
Firstly, they’re not all white collar or pro-EU. Look at the RMT (whose leaders campaigned for Brexit) and look at the GMB, Usdaw, TSSA, NUM, FBU etc are all blue collar and whose members may well want the downfall of the Tory government because who wouldn’t want the removal of a government which has presided over the collapse of their living standards while giving them a high immigration low wage Brexit of more untrammelled globalisation which they never voted for? Perhaps you don’t think Starmer is any likelier to stop it, but at least there are people in the Labour party (unfortunately some of which have been sidelined since Corbyn left) who are serious about reindustralising this country and making it work for the people here. Where have the Tories been doing that? Not really ever would be my answer – all they’ve done is sold off our housing, industry and public sectors (bit by bit) to foreign capital.
Trade unions can be neutered via mass immigration. Hence why the ruling class throughout the West is all-in on mass immigration.
The ones who will be the most shocked at their downfall will be the educated, professional managerial class (the laptop class in COVID terms). They’re about 30% of the population, and they think society exists for their needs mostly because their needs and the needs of the true elites have overlapped in recent years. They’re in for a rude awakening when the 1% finally kicks them to the curb.
No. Trade Unions today ARE a part of the Blairite progressive UK State, not a threat to it! The miners and shipbuilders are all gone long ago. The heart of the modern trade unionist movement is within the vast white collar public sector. They are on the streets now because they want to remove the hated Tories and to destroy baby Brexit. But if Labour gains power, trade unions will fall into line. The restoration of the nation state is not on their agenda. They embrace the internationalist pro EU Blairite New Order which still is deeply embedded in the UK State.
Noticed? They planned it.
and benefited greatly. In Australia big business and banks got lots of $ from the government.
and benefited greatly. In Australia big business and banks got lots of $ from the government.
Everything I read today is depressing. There was a good article yesterday – I canât remember where – pointing out that the entire G7 is headed up by leaders loathed or disliked by the majority of the population. Trudeau won two elections with less of the popular vote than the conservatives – like 32% of the voters. The rest of the leaders have similar numbers. And of course Ursula von whatever isnât elected (she really looks like a Disney villain!). Yet somehow they rule over us. I would love an Unherd series on steps to fix democracies. For example I used to be opposed to proportional representation – but now I think it might be a solution to the urban / rural divide that is ailing most democracies.
Note that Trudeau’s minority rule (the real fringe minority?) is even slimmer than that as voter turnout was so apathetically and historically low. Essentially, he used scare tactics and the clean/unclean wedge of experimental transfections to coerce 32% of the laptop population of a few big Canadian cities to return his blackguard, blackface government. Like PJ, I was an inveterate defender of FPTP but now think PR or perhaps an electoral college is required to put some demos back in our captured democracies.
Note that Trudeau’s minority rule (the real fringe minority?) is even slimmer than that as voter turnout was so apathetically and historically low. Essentially, he used scare tactics and the clean/unclean wedge of experimental transfections to coerce 32% of the laptop population of a few big Canadian cities to return his blackguard, blackface government. Like PJ, I was an inveterate defender of FPTP but now think PR or perhaps an electoral college is required to put some demos back in our captured democracies.
Compare Denmark. In Denmark there is a category of holiday houses ‘summer houses’ which foreigners (EU or not) are not allowed to buy (mainly to stop Germans). They are in beautiful areas near the coast and enable Danes to enjoy the Danish summer. Imagine that here!
Tight immigration controls have supported high wages for workers of all sorts (except perhaps bankers, who are heavily taxed!) and a relatively less disfunctional society.
I forgot the Danish author wrote ‘We are not a nation, we are a tribe’ – and there is the difference.
Divided we fall. Mary is right. Britain is being pillaged. (Not by the Danes, this time).
I have Danish neighbours in London.
They paint very different picture of Denmark (especially immigration).
However, they say that Danish society is much more cohesive than UK.
I have Danish neighbours in London.
They paint very different picture of Denmark (especially immigration).
However, they say that Danish society is much more cohesive than UK.
…noticed? …noticed? ..sure they made billions out of it and you didn’t see it, as the nation’s wealth got scooped up by the 0.1%. At least Kuasi Kwarteng was open about it!
Speak for yourself, some of us held the bridge.
How it is possible to write so lucidly and well about the shattering of the nation state, its governance and laws and even culture, without referring to the events which triggered this seismic revolution BY DESIGN!! Its like writing about communist Russia without mentioning Lenin & 1917. Our nation state as was was completely demolished & dismantled by the progressive Blairite State after 1997. It in turn was serving the interests of the post Mastricht EU which demanded and got an NMI New Order; the eviseration of the power and accountability of national parliaments to bolster the federal centre. Look at their works. Supreme Court. Devolution. The creation of a vast unelected permanent Technocracy to sieze the reins of power from Ministers (hence Bank of England and interest rates, the NHS & Public Health – the dark army of wfh regulators, all committed to the EU precautionary principle.) Vast chunks of quasi public sector created too, notably the ponzi university scam in its drive for mass female employment. This was the New Order we still fail to recognise, as Mary just illustrated. There was more of course; the secondary wave of deliberate anti national policies, from EU legal supremacy and human rights; undeclared mass migration via free movement and onto the EU driven insanity of Net Zero Pol Potism which thrwtebs us with blackouts and degrowth. Why even write about Brexit so much? It was a just a people driven thing. Even the shabby Tories like May were majority Pro EU. It was not their fight. So we then watched on in horror as the pro EU Order of Remainiacs trashed and debased any notion of democractic respect/,accountability with their crude Parliamentary and legal coup. Brexit never even began! The Blob/Technocracy post Covid has just sat on its hands. Brex will be seen to be rather like a minor 1950s miner protest in some far flung corner of the Soviet Union. A Peasants Revolt that got chopped up as they always do. The EU/Blairite State Revolution had 30 years to embed itself and it is crazy to imagine that the Brexit Vote could overturn that New Order. To write as if the collapse of the nation state is some accident of history is all wrong. The very nature of power was redistributed to serve the wider EU agenda. That is the sorry State we have lived in for 30 years; and it is not broken. That progressive revolution still rules us. And you wonder why nothing changes? Why Tories are not Tories? Here is your answer.
It’s a two fold attack on government by the consent of the governed. First, the governered are too stupid and ignorant to give informed consent. We need a government of regulatory “experts” instead. Second, we don’t like the existing electorate, so we import a new one with untrammelled immigration of a new, more biddable, electorate. In both ways the elite get to do whatever they want. The old hoy paloi get nothing.
This is happening in both the UK and the US. Efforts to change direction are labeled “threats to our democracy” in the US. Durham’s Report is labeled nothing new, or partisan, because vilification of Republicans is required to carry off the plot. In the UK, even the Tories are getting with the program. You guys are screwed.
You have nowhere to go.
100 years ago if you disagreed with taxes, military conscription or forced labor you could vacate the city, leave the country or run for the hills.
The border, for most countries, was seldom more than a few hundred kilometers away.
The distance of transporting food stuffs by animal power couldnât be more than the animal would consume over that distance. That defined the radius of most borders. Mountains, swamps and deserts defined the rest.
Now, you only have three options:
1) Go to sea in your boat.
2) Wait for Elon Musk to finish his rocket ship and you can go to Mars
3) Become homeless.
There are no more non-State options.
Every square inch of land has been mapped, claimed, titled and photographed.
Even if you donât want to jockey for political status in the hierarchy of your current state, you can no longer opt out.
Boat for me, then.
Boat for me, then.
People complied with lockdowns for two reasons – they were not optional, and were also they right approach at the time. You’re right to mention covid however, because that was an unfortunate intervention that derailed the Johnson post Brexit government and the plans they had. That may or may not have been successful, but I’m certain the political landscape and nation state described above would be unrecognisable from what it is today, and that is a distopian wilderness across all parties.
Read ‘Eugypius’ who reports the reaction of the German political elites to the acceptance of lockdowns, masking etc. Public opinion, they note, can – and should – easily be reformed by nudging and appeals to safety.
‘Climate’ of course is next on the menu.
Yes, and that was the point of the exercise. It was a compliance experiment, and those who imposed it got what they wanted. Now they can move in any direction they wish (and it wonât be a positive, healthy thing for society), because too many simply did what they were told, unquestioningly. Those who did ask questions were vilified, often by their very own families. Now that itâs obvious to even the most willing believers that the Covid response wasnât really a response at all, but a test, itâs too late.
‘Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.’
I think we can draw some hope from the actions of the trade unions in recent times, the crucibles of the nation state, unmentioned but heavily implied here in MH’s definition of a nation state as formed through industrialistation. Who else could she mean when she talks about ‘meaningful working-class ability to hold [the elite’s] feet to the fire?’ These are the last serious institutions of resistance against the erosion of our living standards, our sense of having a collective voice and the ability to control our borders, all reasons why both Mick Lynch and Eddie Dempsey voted Leave. This power to withdraw our labour is pretty well all we have in the face of this disenfranchisement, and judging by the government’s attempts to enforce minimum service requirements that would make our anti-trade union laws worse or as bad as Russia’s, the unions must still considered a threat. In other words, by MH’s own analysis, unions helped give us a nation state; maybe they can bring it back.
PS They also helped bring down the Soviet Union and are an essential part of civil society, like Burke’s little battalions (before one of you brands me as a crazy commie)
Noticed? They planned it.
Everything I read today is depressing. There was a good article yesterday – I canât remember where – pointing out that the entire G7 is headed up by leaders loathed or disliked by the majority of the population. Trudeau won two elections with less of the popular vote than the conservatives – like 32% of the voters. The rest of the leaders have similar numbers. And of course Ursula von whatever isnât elected (she really looks like a Disney villain!). Yet somehow they rule over us. I would love an Unherd series on steps to fix democracies. For example I used to be opposed to proportional representation – but now I think it might be a solution to the urban / rural divide that is ailing most democracies.
Compare Denmark. In Denmark there is a category of holiday houses ‘summer houses’ which foreigners (EU or not) are not allowed to buy (mainly to stop Germans). They are in beautiful areas near the coast and enable Danes to enjoy the Danish summer. Imagine that here!
Tight immigration controls have supported high wages for workers of all sorts (except perhaps bankers, who are heavily taxed!) and a relatively less disfunctional society.
I forgot the Danish author wrote ‘We are not a nation, we are a tribe’ – and there is the difference.
Divided we fall. Mary is right. Britain is being pillaged. (Not by the Danes, this time).
…noticed? …noticed? ..sure they made billions out of it and you didn’t see it, as the nation’s wealth got scooped up by the 0.1%. At least Kuasi Kwarteng was open about it!
Speak for yourself, some of us held the bridge.
How it is possible to write so lucidly and well about the shattering of the nation state, its governance and laws and even culture, without referring to the events which triggered this seismic revolution BY DESIGN!! Its like writing about communist Russia without mentioning Lenin & 1917. Our nation state as was was completely demolished & dismantled by the progressive Blairite State after 1997. It in turn was serving the interests of the post Mastricht EU which demanded and got an NMI New Order; the eviseration of the power and accountability of national parliaments to bolster the federal centre. Look at their works. Supreme Court. Devolution. The creation of a vast unelected permanent Technocracy to sieze the reins of power from Ministers (hence Bank of England and interest rates, the NHS & Public Health – the dark army of wfh regulators, all committed to the EU precautionary principle.) Vast chunks of quasi public sector created too, notably the ponzi university scam in its drive for mass female employment. This was the New Order we still fail to recognise, as Mary just illustrated. There was more of course; the secondary wave of deliberate anti national policies, from EU legal supremacy and human rights; undeclared mass migration via free movement and onto the EU driven insanity of Net Zero Pol Potism which thrwtebs us with blackouts and degrowth. Why even write about Brexit so much? It was a just a people driven thing. Even the shabby Tories like May were majority Pro EU. It was not their fight. So we then watched on in horror as the pro EU Order of Remainiacs trashed and debased any notion of democractic respect/,accountability with their crude Parliamentary and legal coup. Brexit never even began! The Blob/Technocracy post Covid has just sat on its hands. Brex will be seen to be rather like a minor 1950s miner protest in some far flung corner of the Soviet Union. A Peasants Revolt that got chopped up as they always do. The EU/Blairite State Revolution had 30 years to embed itself and it is crazy to imagine that the Brexit Vote could overturn that New Order. To write as if the collapse of the nation state is some accident of history is all wrong. The very nature of power was redistributed to serve the wider EU agenda. That is the sorry State we have lived in for 30 years; and it is not broken. That progressive revolution still rules us. And you wonder why nothing changes? Why Tories are not Tories? Here is your answer.
It’s a two fold attack on government by the consent of the governed. First, the governered are too stupid and ignorant to give informed consent. We need a government of regulatory “experts” instead. Second, we don’t like the existing electorate, so we import a new one with untrammelled immigration of a new, more biddable, electorate. In both ways the elite get to do whatever they want. The old hoy paloi get nothing.
This is happening in both the UK and the US. Efforts to change direction are labeled “threats to our democracy” in the US. Durham’s Report is labeled nothing new, or partisan, because vilification of Republicans is required to carry off the plot. In the UK, even the Tories are getting with the program. You guys are screwed.
You have nowhere to go.
100 years ago if you disagreed with taxes, military conscription or forced labor you could vacate the city, leave the country or run for the hills.
The border, for most countries, was seldom more than a few hundred kilometers away.
The distance of transporting food stuffs by animal power couldnât be more than the animal would consume over that distance. That defined the radius of most borders. Mountains, swamps and deserts defined the rest.
Now, you only have three options:
1) Go to sea in your boat.
2) Wait for Elon Musk to finish his rocket ship and you can go to Mars
3) Become homeless.
There are no more non-State options.
Every square inch of land has been mapped, claimed, titled and photographed.
Even if you donât want to jockey for political status in the hierarchy of your current state, you can no longer opt out.
Good old Mary H. She provided as fine a summary of our current disenfranchisement as I’ve read anywhere. There’s no end of books, filled with labored prose, that try to say in 200 pages what she managed in under 3000 words.
If I read her article correctly, she ended with a suggestion that some sort of pushback to our political disenfranchisement is underway. I don’t see it. Frustration, yes; organized (even semi-organized) resistance, no.
For me, the defining event of the past decade was not Brexit or Trump, but the passive way most ordinary people in the West accepted covid lockdown (after lockdown after lockdown) and other impositions on our liberty. We really were “sheeple”. You can bet the “elites” noticed.
Itâs quite obvious that the people running this country at all levels despise ordinary citizens who fund their salaries and lifestyles. Why on Earth for example, should British workers at the lower and medium ends of the earning spectrum be expected to compete with the rest of the world to earn a living or develop their careers due to the salary threshold for a visa being ÂŁ21k per year? Should be at least triple that.
Not to mention yesterdayâs incident on Blackfriars Bridge where the Met are happy for Just Stop Oil criminals to prevent people paid by the hour or self-employed from earning a living, but will arrest anyone who takes issue with them doing so. Had people been using similar tactics against large scale migration or the cost of living, I doubt theyâd be met with such generosity by the Met.
or indeed protests against lockdowns, which the media were also complicit in their silence.
Even when they do report it, they go to a loon like Piers Corbyn and effectively appoint him as the figurehead of the whole movement in order to discredit it.
Even when they do report it, they go to a loon like Piers Corbyn and effectively appoint him as the figurehead of the whole movement in order to discredit it.
Had they even been stood on the cliffs of Dover silently praying for deliverance from immigration they would no doubt have been arrested and charged
If you triple salaries that means the cost of our exports must increase to pay for them and who will buy British if they can buy cheaper. It will also push up costs within the UK and so there will be others demanding pay increases. It is not the answer. Britain cannot survive without imports and therefore exports must pay for imports.
I said the visa threshold should be tripled. ÂŁ21k is pitifully low and has a disproportionately negative effect on our poorest and most vulnerable.
I said the visa threshold should be tripled. ÂŁ21k is pitifully low and has a disproportionately negative effect on our poorest and most vulnerable.
or indeed protests against lockdowns, which the media were also complicit in their silence.
Had they even been stood on the cliffs of Dover silently praying for deliverance from immigration they would no doubt have been arrested and charged
If you triple salaries that means the cost of our exports must increase to pay for them and who will buy British if they can buy cheaper. It will also push up costs within the UK and so there will be others demanding pay increases. It is not the answer. Britain cannot survive without imports and therefore exports must pay for imports.
Itâs quite obvious that the people running this country at all levels despise ordinary citizens who fund their salaries and lifestyles. Why on Earth for example, should British workers at the lower and medium ends of the earning spectrum be expected to compete with the rest of the world to earn a living or develop their careers due to the salary threshold for a visa being ÂŁ21k per year? Should be at least triple that.
Not to mention yesterdayâs incident on Blackfriars Bridge where the Met are happy for Just Stop Oil criminals to prevent people paid by the hour or self-employed from earning a living, but will arrest anyone who takes issue with them doing so. Had people been using similar tactics against large scale migration or the cost of living, I doubt theyâd be met with such generosity by the Met.
Interesting piece, Mary, but none of it really matters if you do set aside the context of what you refer to as âCovidâ but others would refer to as psychological warfare. In March 2020, less than two months since âBrexit Dayâ, virtually every nation in the world fell, lockstep, into imposing the most horrific attack on the rights and freedoms on people that the modern world has ever known. Even in wartime, people were not forced to close their businesses for months on end. They were not terrorised into staying indoors for two years. Schools did not close. People were not bullied into walking around with their mouths and noses covered with a piece of cloth. Hospitals did not make sudden, radical changes to how people were treated resulting in millions of deaths. People were not told they could kill someone simply by walking in a park. All this was imposed at the same time by almost every government in the world, proving that they are (at best) in collusion with each other and (at worse) controlled by some other undefined entity. So we now know that modern democracy is a sham, a theatrical performance. This very week, the âWorld Health Assemblyâ is meeting in Geneva to give itself powers to restrict the movement and rights of all people of WHO member states whenever it decides thereâs a âpublic health emergency of international concernâ, when we now know such a thing cannot even exist. In the future, our âgovernmentsâ will say, âitâs not us mandating these medical interventions, itâs the WHO.â Anyone who remotely cares about bodily sovereignty – let alone national sovereignty – should be screaming from the rooftops about this. Yet the mainstream media is silent. No one I speak to even knows it is happening. Itâs not a conspiracy, itâs a power grab, happening in plain sight. Please research it and write about it. Itâs the most dangerous elephant in the room right now. David Bell has written about it, eloquently and passionately – search for his piece on the âBrownstone Instituteâ website. On a more positive note, though, I do not believe the ânation stateâ can ever truly be over. It can be attacked and suppressed and overruled, but it will always exist in some form as a natural order in which societies organise and boundary themselves. It will just be reordered and redefined once we get past this fascistic period weâre going through.
Great comment… All other issues have been dwarfed by the successful roll out of the authoritarian Covid hoax. Given that the pseudo science of it all is being, depressingly, accepted as unquestioned history, it can only be a matter of time before, the WHO facilitated, Round 2.
Quite likely 2025, I think, when Moderna’s lab in Oxfordshire will be up and running, ready to coercively inject billions more ‘vaccines ‘. It’s also the time predicted by Bill Gates/John Hopkins Institute in October 2022 from their Catastrophic Contagion’ jolly, the follow up to their ‘Event 201’ in October 2019, which curiously anticipated Covid months later. All there, in plain sight, on respective websites.
Gold star for doing your homework, Adam. General apathy will be the death of most of us.
Yes good comment about Moderna’s lab. They have just produced an mRNA flu vaccine for which our UK Government has paid them over ÂŁ1 Billion for a product that hasn’t even been tested yet. Wait!! they are testing it on 50 volunteers??? Something isn’t quite right here. What Government in any state of mind would pay upfront for a product that has not been rigidly tested.
Incidentally the Factory that Moderna are using is the relatively new Vaccine, Manufacturing, and Innovation Centre at Harwell that was built as a state of the art facility for future pandemics and as expected sold out by the Tories to the Americans as they are with most of our Tech Companies.. Sovereignty, Nation State? Pah!
It was when I understood the implications of modernaâs name (MODE RNA) and read their investment opportunity brochures that I really woke up to the game plan. There is a vast difference between medicine to improve our health and genetic tinkering. The eugenicists donât want to make us well, they want to experiment on us to achieve their dream of artificially creating human life.
It was when I understood the implications of modernaâs name (MODE RNA) and read their investment opportunity brochures that I really woke up to the game plan. There is a vast difference between medicine to improve our health and genetic tinkering. The eugenicists donât want to make us well, they want to experiment on us to achieve their dream of artificially creating human life.
Gold star for doing your homework, Adam. General apathy will be the death of most of us.
Yes good comment about Moderna’s lab. They have just produced an mRNA flu vaccine for which our UK Government has paid them over ÂŁ1 Billion for a product that hasn’t even been tested yet. Wait!! they are testing it on 50 volunteers??? Something isn’t quite right here. What Government in any state of mind would pay upfront for a product that has not been rigidly tested.
Incidentally the Factory that Moderna are using is the relatively new Vaccine, Manufacturing, and Innovation Centre at Harwell that was built as a state of the art facility for future pandemics and as expected sold out by the Tories to the Americans as they are with most of our Tech Companies.. Sovereignty, Nation State? Pah!
âThis fascistic period we are going throughâ – where did this come from? The intolerance of outliers is astonishing and even frightening. We live in a world of Karenâs.
Or even Karens.
“We live in a world of Karenâs.”
Er, Karen’s what ?
Or even Karens.
“We live in a world of Karenâs.”
Er, Karen’s what ?
Excellent comment Amy thank you
How very apposite that it should be Geneva, a city infamous for the burning witches*in the 16th century.
In 1515 it is estimated that 500 or so were incinerated, 80% of whom are thought to have been women.
In 1571 there was another burst of excitement but only 29 were burnt**on this occasion .Frankly the city should be as infamous as Auschwitz, but somehow has avoided criticism.
Perhaps the machinations of the wretched WHO will change this?
(* A very popular spectator âsportâ, for obvious reasons.)
(** lack of fire lighters or fuel?)
Ah Geneva! The most depressing city I have ever visited in Western Europe – nothing but money and extreme Protestantism.
Ah Geneva! The most depressing city I have ever visited in Western Europe – nothing but money and extreme Protestantism.
Governments of the western democracies were surprised, but delighted, by the rapid compliance of their populations to the imposition of severe lockdown measures and the accompanying removal of so many freedoms and rights in such a short time. The ruling Woking Class elites, already abhorring ‘nation state’ concept in favour of the ‘global village’ paradigm, found it easy to continue the onslaught on freedom of speech and other freedoms by precipitating and consolidating the Woke Era to suppress and control us in a manner never before encountered in democratic societies. Covid lockdown in 2020 boosted their confidence that they could accelerate this change agenda. Such oppression is/was of course familiar to people to lived/live under dictatorship and tyrannical systems of governance – e.g. Stalinist Russia, North Korea, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Hitler’s Germany, East Germany, etc. We have arrived! We are global!
Well said! It’s totalitarianism and it’s coming to a location near you. Substack has many well-written and well-researched articles on this and I recommend Mattias Desmet’s book, the Psychology of Totalitarianism.
You are right about the threat to our liberties, but wrong about the collusion in any organised way. It is simply the “me-too” way of thinking that is so common in politics, journalism, media. Independent thinking is discouraged by a force of social.pressure brought largely by social.media
Many good points, but how do you explain different covid policies of Sweden?
Who knows. Either Anders Tegnall had some tennis balls, or someone had him BY the tennis balls. They were big jab pushers though. Look up their ârolled-up sleeveâ campaign. Quite chilling! (Canât fool the auto censor by inserting the word âtennisâ. Very clever!)
Who knows. Either Anders Tegnall had some tennis balls, or someone had him BY the tennis balls. They were big jab pushers though. Look up their ârolled-up sleeveâ campaign. Quite chilling! (Canât fool the auto censor by inserting the word âtennisâ. Very clever!)
Great comment… All other issues have been dwarfed by the successful roll out of the authoritarian Covid hoax. Given that the pseudo science of it all is being, depressingly, accepted as unquestioned history, it can only be a matter of time before, the WHO facilitated, Round 2.
Quite likely 2025, I think, when Moderna’s lab in Oxfordshire will be up and running, ready to coercively inject billions more ‘vaccines ‘. It’s also the time predicted by Bill Gates/John Hopkins Institute in October 2022 from their Catastrophic Contagion’ jolly, the follow up to their ‘Event 201’ in October 2019, which curiously anticipated Covid months later. All there, in plain sight, on respective websites.
âThis fascistic period we are going throughâ – where did this come from? The intolerance of outliers is astonishing and even frightening. We live in a world of Karenâs.
Excellent comment Amy thank you
How very apposite that it should be Geneva, a city infamous for the burning witches*in the 16th century.
In 1515 it is estimated that 500 or so were incinerated, 80% of whom are thought to have been women.
In 1571 there was another burst of excitement but only 29 were burnt**on this occasion .Frankly the city should be as infamous as Auschwitz, but somehow has avoided criticism.
Perhaps the machinations of the wretched WHO will change this?
(* A very popular spectator âsportâ, for obvious reasons.)
(** lack of fire lighters or fuel?)
Governments of the western democracies were surprised, but delighted, by the rapid compliance of their populations to the imposition of severe lockdown measures and the accompanying removal of so many freedoms and rights in such a short time. The ruling Woking Class elites, already abhorring ‘nation state’ concept in favour of the ‘global village’ paradigm, found it easy to continue the onslaught on freedom of speech and other freedoms by precipitating and consolidating the Woke Era to suppress and control us in a manner never before encountered in democratic societies. Covid lockdown in 2020 boosted their confidence that they could accelerate this change agenda. Such oppression is/was of course familiar to people to lived/live under dictatorship and tyrannical systems of governance – e.g. Stalinist Russia, North Korea, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Hitler’s Germany, East Germany, etc. We have arrived! We are global!
Well said! It’s totalitarianism and it’s coming to a location near you. Substack has many well-written and well-researched articles on this and I recommend Mattias Desmet’s book, the Psychology of Totalitarianism.
You are right about the threat to our liberties, but wrong about the collusion in any organised way. It is simply the “me-too” way of thinking that is so common in politics, journalism, media. Independent thinking is discouraged by a force of social.pressure brought largely by social.media
Many good points, but how do you explain different covid policies of Sweden?
Interesting piece, Mary, but none of it really matters if you do set aside the context of what you refer to as âCovidâ but others would refer to as psychological warfare. In March 2020, less than two months since âBrexit Dayâ, virtually every nation in the world fell, lockstep, into imposing the most horrific attack on the rights and freedoms on people that the modern world has ever known. Even in wartime, people were not forced to close their businesses for months on end. They were not terrorised into staying indoors for two years. Schools did not close. People were not bullied into walking around with their mouths and noses covered with a piece of cloth. Hospitals did not make sudden, radical changes to how people were treated resulting in millions of deaths. People were not told they could kill someone simply by walking in a park. All this was imposed at the same time by almost every government in the world, proving that they are (at best) in collusion with each other and (at worse) controlled by some other undefined entity. So we now know that modern democracy is a sham, a theatrical performance. This very week, the âWorld Health Assemblyâ is meeting in Geneva to give itself powers to restrict the movement and rights of all people of WHO member states whenever it decides thereâs a âpublic health emergency of international concernâ, when we now know such a thing cannot even exist. In the future, our âgovernmentsâ will say, âitâs not us mandating these medical interventions, itâs the WHO.â Anyone who remotely cares about bodily sovereignty – let alone national sovereignty – should be screaming from the rooftops about this. Yet the mainstream media is silent. No one I speak to even knows it is happening. Itâs not a conspiracy, itâs a power grab, happening in plain sight. Please research it and write about it. Itâs the most dangerous elephant in the room right now. David Bell has written about it, eloquently and passionately – search for his piece on the âBrownstone Instituteâ website. On a more positive note, though, I do not believe the ânation stateâ can ever truly be over. It can be attacked and suppressed and overruled, but it will always exist in some form as a natural order in which societies organise and boundary themselves. It will just be reordered and redefined once we get past this fascistic period weâre going through.
Two very gloomy predictions follow from this excellent analysis. The first is that our national sense of who we are is being discernibly eroded by the volume of immigrants and the attemps by the media and other opinion leaders to deal with it. Just have a look at ourselves as reflected by the BBC, for example. The worse it gets, the worse it is going to get.
Second, the justified complaints of those who think Brexit has failed will be used in a concerted attempt to reverse the process. Sir Keir is doubtless putting together a plan to save us from our past “mistakes”.
Yes I think you’re right. “Has Brexit been a success?” is not the same as “Should we have stayed in the EU?”
…if only. Keir Starmer is Tory light.. a tiny bit more tax and tiny bit more social services. Corbyn was GB’s last chance to remake itself just like Sanders was America’s last chance.. it’s all downhill from here (to the cliff edge)..
The great thing about Corbyn and Sanders is that they so love the sounds of their own voices that they would walk over the cliff without noticing. Then we could go back to trying to be a free society
The great thing about Corbyn and Sanders is that they so love the sounds of their own voices that they would walk over the cliff without noticing. Then we could go back to trying to be a free society
Yes I think you’re right. “Has Brexit been a success?” is not the same as “Should we have stayed in the EU?”
…if only. Keir Starmer is Tory light.. a tiny bit more tax and tiny bit more social services. Corbyn was GB’s last chance to remake itself just like Sanders was America’s last chance.. it’s all downhill from here (to the cliff edge)..
Two very gloomy predictions follow from this excellent analysis. The first is that our national sense of who we are is being discernibly eroded by the volume of immigrants and the attemps by the media and other opinion leaders to deal with it. Just have a look at ourselves as reflected by the BBC, for example. The worse it gets, the worse it is going to get.
Second, the justified complaints of those who think Brexit has failed will be used in a concerted attempt to reverse the process. Sir Keir is doubtless putting together a plan to save us from our past “mistakes”.
Bit of a laugh thinking that you could take back control when you had none in the first place. Everything is decided around you and you are then propagandised into thinking that you had some sort of say in the matter.
The Nation is falling away because the people that run it have deigned that the welfare of the Nations citizens is of no interest to them. A large number of the population are not aware that this is the case and still cling to the idea that their Nation is for them, but they are slowly realising the ugly truth.
The Nation has been stolen by a caste that uses power and connections for their own personal enrichment and could not give a fig for anyone else.
The fact that Britain is declining and unable or more likely unwilling to ensure the welfare of its people yet has billions to spare promoting war all over the planet is further evidence of the ethical bankruptcy of the Nation.
I think that the Nation is important and it will be revived but it will require a group interested in running it equitably to make it work. How you get them in and remove the current bunch of parasites is another question that will not be easily solved . Hopefully it won’t be the French solution but I think that is a distinct possibility.
Well said! And I think a great number of people are now very cognisant of this.
The French solution ushered in the pathological society of individuals and liberalism shorn of the Imago dei – the kind of Gnostic materialism which has produced the society that Mary so eloquently describes….unless you mean the Frankish solution…Perhaps we need a Charlemagne
We need Christendom, the Carolingian creation..
We need Christendom, the Carolingian creation..
I used to accept the standard depiction of Stalin as some kind of irrational master.
He did however get one thing right. If you want to get rid of an lite lass you also have to deal with their families
Minor quibble with para 2 Chris.
Compared to say, 1990, “Welfare” (in strict monetary terms, of course) has soared, financed to a great extent by massive relative reductions in defence and debt payments, and the Banking boom of the mid-Blair years.
Banks are going bust, interest rates are now rising and defence commitments will also uptick in the wake of Ukraine/Russia. But welfare is practically a fixed cost, and only guaranteed to get bigger year on year.
Any attempt to manage down welfare/immigration and of course health in line with the nation’s ability to pay will be met with major organised rebellion on the street. The police force – diminished, demoralised and largely leaderless – will be unable to meet that threat. That I concede is really the extent of Conservative interest.
Labour have more skin in the game in terms of Welfare as a means of vote harvesting, across unemployed, the religiously conservative and public sector. In fact welfare successfully welds all these Labour interest groups permanently together in such a way that it might even guarantee them natural largest party status in a short space of time.
Way to go, Conservatives! But how long can this gravity-defying stunt continue?
My concern is this; outsiders Bank, WEF etc seem prepared to lend us the money to commit national suicide until the job is done. MSM journalists are their propagandists, and the civil service – Blairite it seems to a man and woman – seem determined to become the power within. The way the three work in concert has been shown to good effect in the unprecedented swift downfall of Truss/Kwarteng (challenging the current financial orthodoxy), and the endless hobbling of “Brexiteers” Johnson, Braverman and Raab.
“Pour dĂ©courager les autres”, indeed. Take control? They were having a laugh…
Well said! And I think a great number of people are now very cognisant of this.
The French solution ushered in the pathological society of individuals and liberalism shorn of the Imago dei – the kind of Gnostic materialism which has produced the society that Mary so eloquently describes….unless you mean the Frankish solution…Perhaps we need a Charlemagne
I used to accept the standard depiction of Stalin as some kind of irrational master.
He did however get one thing right. If you want to get rid of an lite lass you also have to deal with their families
Minor quibble with para 2 Chris.
Compared to say, 1990, “Welfare” (in strict monetary terms, of course) has soared, financed to a great extent by massive relative reductions in defence and debt payments, and the Banking boom of the mid-Blair years.
Banks are going bust, interest rates are now rising and defence commitments will also uptick in the wake of Ukraine/Russia. But welfare is practically a fixed cost, and only guaranteed to get bigger year on year.
Any attempt to manage down welfare/immigration and of course health in line with the nation’s ability to pay will be met with major organised rebellion on the street. The police force – diminished, demoralised and largely leaderless – will be unable to meet that threat. That I concede is really the extent of Conservative interest.
Labour have more skin in the game in terms of Welfare as a means of vote harvesting, across unemployed, the religiously conservative and public sector. In fact welfare successfully welds all these Labour interest groups permanently together in such a way that it might even guarantee them natural largest party status in a short space of time.
Way to go, Conservatives! But how long can this gravity-defying stunt continue?
My concern is this; outsiders Bank, WEF etc seem prepared to lend us the money to commit national suicide until the job is done. MSM journalists are their propagandists, and the civil service – Blairite it seems to a man and woman – seem determined to become the power within. The way the three work in concert has been shown to good effect in the unprecedented swift downfall of Truss/Kwarteng (challenging the current financial orthodoxy), and the endless hobbling of “Brexiteers” Johnson, Braverman and Raab.
“Pour dĂ©courager les autres”, indeed. Take control? They were having a laugh…
Bit of a laugh thinking that you could take back control when you had none in the first place. Everything is decided around you and you are then propagandised into thinking that you had some sort of say in the matter.
The Nation is falling away because the people that run it have deigned that the welfare of the Nations citizens is of no interest to them. A large number of the population are not aware that this is the case and still cling to the idea that their Nation is for them, but they are slowly realising the ugly truth.
The Nation has been stolen by a caste that uses power and connections for their own personal enrichment and could not give a fig for anyone else.
The fact that Britain is declining and unable or more likely unwilling to ensure the welfare of its people yet has billions to spare promoting war all over the planet is further evidence of the ethical bankruptcy of the Nation.
I think that the Nation is important and it will be revived but it will require a group interested in running it equitably to make it work. How you get them in and remove the current bunch of parasites is another question that will not be easily solved . Hopefully it won’t be the French solution but I think that is a distinct possibility.
A fascinating account and, as ever, a great read from this author. I perhaps take issue with a couple of things. Firstly, the story on immigration doesnât mean Brexit has failed. It might mean our government of the day has failed, or is unwilling to engage with all the issues to deal with the problem. But at least Brexit means we know where the accountability lies.
Secondly, the âsofteningâ of the nation state seems like a very Euro-centric view of the world. The USA, China and Japan, to name a few, donât seem to have much need of cross-national emulsifiers. There is still a strong case to say that the EU is a vehicle for advancement of national interest. And people look to nation states for support, help, furlough money when things go wrong. The idea may have some more life in it yet.
Though the US government is currently encouraging mass immigration to a degree that makes our lot seem positively xenophobic by comparison.
Except Florida which is trying itâs own mini-version of Brexit and as a consequence, like us, has investment leaving the state and field full of unpicked fruit and veg.
Would love to see a reference for that. FL is probably the most successfully run state in the nation at this point.
Would love to see a reference for that. FL is probably the most successfully run state in the nation at this point.
Not at all.
The border is secure, didn’t you know ?
I am very much afraid that that is where you are sadly mistaken. Pro rata Biden has admitted fewer immigrants than the UK government.
I think the reason you look xenophobic is because you are xenophobic..
Except Florida which is trying itâs own mini-version of Brexit and as a consequence, like us, has investment leaving the state and field full of unpicked fruit and veg.
Not at all.
The border is secure, didn’t you know ?
I am very much afraid that that is where you are sadly mistaken. Pro rata Biden has admitted fewer immigrants than the UK government.