"When Institutional Left elites delivered the very somber news of an emerging pandemic, the Movement Left blazed into action to launch a corporate propaganda campaign rather than a public health effort." This is it in a nutshell.
I believe SARS-COV2 continues to be a serious health concern, one that has never been properly addressed and probably never will be under capitalism. Simple preventive measures like air filtration, KN-95 masks, nasal spray, mouthwash, and existing (non-experimental) prophylactic and treatment drugs might have reduced the death toll considerably, perhaps by 75% or more. Sadly, there's no way to know.
But even more sadly, we could reduce the number of current deaths (still around 1000 per week in the US) and long-term disabilities (hard to even estimate at this point, since so little is known about "Long COVID" and its effects) by implementing these strategies NOW. If you're reading this in the US or the UK, I am almost certain that there are many people you know personally who got COVID in the past 6 months, and probably many who are still feeling its effects to this day. Maybe you call it "summer flu" or "bad cold" or whatever the powers-that-be have convinced you to call it; but the truth is, it's still SARS-COV2, and it's not going away.
We were lied to, and we're still being lied to. The tragedy of this almost completely avoidable pandemic will not end anytime soon. Our entire world has been altered, mostly for the sake of a few rich people who saw the chance to profit from our misery. What a tragic, pathetic historical moment we're living in.
the propaganda campaign had a really destructive focus: to convince ppl there was nothing they could do. just wait until you turn blue (blood ox in 80s) and report to the hospital for ventilation. coronavirus can be mitigated like any other cold virus, with the ways you mention and others like vit d, zinc, etc.
i don’t actually know anyone who’s had it in the last 6 mos. that could be b/c Floridians get more sun/vit D. maybe. but summer here is generally too hot and too stormy to get any sun, so i kinda think that a wash. ppl stay inside during the summer in FL and go outside during the winter. we’re like Australia (in so many ways 😝). reminds me to look up the data on this.
Yeah the vitamin D aspect seems to be huge. Of course there's been little research on it because there's no funding for it. I live in Washington, so every winter we take lots of Vit D supplements and try to plan a trip somewhere sunny for a few days.
You're 100% correct that a main goal of propaganda was to teach helplessness. "All you can do is get this trillion dollar experimental vaccine, anything else is just horse wormer." Of course a side benefit was the increase in anger and division of people, which coincidentally benefits the powerful. /s Ironically, it looks like one long term side effect of the virus is emotional violatilitly along with reduced cognitive function. So people were told they were helpless and encouraged to be angry; meanwhile a whole bunch of them got a disease that made them more confused and angry.
Nov 30, 2023·edited Nov 30, 2023Liked by Brook Hines
Where I disagree with your excellent work is that I think we did achieve Disaster Socialism. Any economy wide socialism was always about turning over decisions to a bureaucracy insulated from concern with profit, because the economy is simply too big and complex to be controlled by any set of elected politicians.
And this is what we have achieved. Sure, some of these bureaucrats have paycheques signed "Disney" and some are signed "USA", but at the end of the day, they are motivated by natural internal bureaucratic power seeking combined with an external motive (ESG) not related to profit.
The only way to achieve the humane vision of some old members of the Movement Left is to de-bureaucratize and decentralize the economy. Whether individual pieces of that are "owned" by small communities or individuals is not that important: either way it matches the vision of us old free-enterprise libertarians.
I’ve struggled with the cultural (ESG/DEI) vs the economic (M4A, Social Security) definitions of socialism, which reflect the divergent views of the left and the right; and come to the conclusion that 1) we need to be clearer in our language, and 2) the right’s concerns ought to be taken seriously by the left for a long list of reasons but most importantly because this is an area where there could be agreement--the possibility of agreement is what’s most resisted by the Institutional Left (mainly Dem Party). left and right leaders will link arms to send billions to other countries for war, but they won’t work together on making things better here at home.
for example: ESG/DEI programs are designed for the benefit of corporations and don’t reflect any sort of material gain for workers or the environment--the left needs to take this seriously and drop the neoliberal bullshit. Taking the environment as the example, corps gets to pat each other on the back for empty gestures on “climate change” while they continue polluting, which is how CEOs offload cost of doing business on the local community. We’re left with polluted water, air, and soil while their quarterly profits continue justify big bonuses for those at the top—and we get no traction with local leadership b/c they’re all funded by the polluting corporations.
“The left“ by insulting tokens are the only people addressing the climate crisis. Neither method is going to have any statistically significant effect on our imminent demise.
Medicare for all is a terrible corporate subsidy-based policy and Social Security is not Socialism.
Just so you know, #UniversalHealthcare #ByDefinition is by far the best practice providing the highest quality results and the most reasonable investment to do so.
Your fear of Socialism is ridiculously unfounded
First world countries three things are automatically socialized.
Education including #EarnedHigherEducationScholarship
I take "socialism" as control of the means of production by a schema other than profit-seeking private property owners. So the "socialism" I refer to is control by the (state or state-aligned, it makes no practical difference) bureaucracy rather than owners.
ESG is relevant because we always assumed that government (ie bureaucratic) control would be for the benefit of workers, even if that isn't part of the formal definition of socialism. Unfortunately, that turned out to be wrong: ESG is a way to consume the wealth created by industry without benefiting workers, just as war was in "1984".
Those at the "top", public or private, are rewarded handsomely (by bonuses, speaking fees, or simple corruption) but the real problem is the unaccountable and irrational bureaucracy which actually makes the decisions. Eugyppius has been doing a great job analyzing this.
Where that deal got the left is best summarized by the way the Biden Administration promptly chucked the "Unity Commission" proposals drafted by Bernie Sanders's people into the trash on Inauguration Day.
One of the guidelines you linked to said the right were setting up a narrative that some people are expendable, in social Darwin style. I can tell you I saw none of that and I think it’s a bit disgusting they should say such a divisive thing. I’m Australian and I’ve traditionally always been on the Left, but during the pandemic I started resonating more with Right wing or heterodox independent media. Why? Because I have a molecular biology degree, and I knew straight up that there was no way you were going to stop the spread of a respiratory disease that was already spreading in your country. I knew lockdowns would end up hurting the poor and dispossessed more in the long run (still happening), and I knew the elderly who are near death sadly will die from whatever that year’s major respiratory virus is. Right wing media that I saw reflected that basic, sensible knowledge, they did NOT say some people are expendable. They were simply REALISTIC and considered the potential negative repercussions of the interventions and weighed that against the risk of the virus, which was actually very low for most age groups, statistically (I saw that very early in the pandemic, it was available for all to see if you looked). I was alienated by a Left who seemed terrified and wanted to control everybody in ways that seemed anxiety-driven, not evidence-based. Ultimately, the majority of harm caused by the pandemic was indeed the human response to it in western nations (it was never much of a big deal in Nigeria, my Nigerian friend tells me).
I’d be curious to know who funds that so called “grass roots policy” organisation - it is indeed likely to be the the types who have historically themselves supported social Darwinism!
I’m only partway through this but I just want to wax lyrical on my irritation with the Institutional Left’s demonisation of Individualism. Individualism is CORE to Western values, and demonising it allowed attitudes that smacked of Totalitarianism to rear their ugly head during the pandemic. I saw this when I saw normally kind people wish death on people who were “unvaccinated” (a manipulative word in itself), with a “vaccine” that did not reduce transmission!
Valuing Individualism means the individual is protected from the majority - from mob rule, from the madness of crowds. It also means each individual has the responsibility to do his/her best to look after themselves and their community. Yes it can have negative connotations if taken to the extreme (I do believe we should have social safety nets for people who aren’t capable of looking after themselves completely), but protection of the individual from the collective is very important if we want to avoid the horrors perpetuated under Sovietism and Nazism (which got really bad as soon as all dissidents were silenced, which makes me really nervous about all the censorship getting put into law around the world).
There’s nothing progressive about the entities you mentioned and labeled so. The Socialism in this country is contained to corporate entities. That’s not a problem that is contained to the democratic party. The GOP answers to the donor class as well. Jesus you are a piece of work. And, a feces fillled skin bag.
I agree with all your conclusions. We need to fight censorship for the 1st Amendment to have meaning.
Sedition, incitement and libel are not within the parameters of the amendment
"When Institutional Left elites delivered the very somber news of an emerging pandemic, the Movement Left blazed into action to launch a corporate propaganda campaign rather than a public health effort." This is it in a nutshell.
I believe SARS-COV2 continues to be a serious health concern, one that has never been properly addressed and probably never will be under capitalism. Simple preventive measures like air filtration, KN-95 masks, nasal spray, mouthwash, and existing (non-experimental) prophylactic and treatment drugs might have reduced the death toll considerably, perhaps by 75% or more. Sadly, there's no way to know.
But even more sadly, we could reduce the number of current deaths (still around 1000 per week in the US) and long-term disabilities (hard to even estimate at this point, since so little is known about "Long COVID" and its effects) by implementing these strategies NOW. If you're reading this in the US or the UK, I am almost certain that there are many people you know personally who got COVID in the past 6 months, and probably many who are still feeling its effects to this day. Maybe you call it "summer flu" or "bad cold" or whatever the powers-that-be have convinced you to call it; but the truth is, it's still SARS-COV2, and it's not going away.
We were lied to, and we're still being lied to. The tragedy of this almost completely avoidable pandemic will not end anytime soon. Our entire world has been altered, mostly for the sake of a few rich people who saw the chance to profit from our misery. What a tragic, pathetic historical moment we're living in.
the propaganda campaign had a really destructive focus: to convince ppl there was nothing they could do. just wait until you turn blue (blood ox in 80s) and report to the hospital for ventilation. coronavirus can be mitigated like any other cold virus, with the ways you mention and others like vit d, zinc, etc.
i don’t actually know anyone who’s had it in the last 6 mos. that could be b/c Floridians get more sun/vit D. maybe. but summer here is generally too hot and too stormy to get any sun, so i kinda think that a wash. ppl stay inside during the summer in FL and go outside during the winter. we’re like Australia (in so many ways 😝). reminds me to look up the data on this.
Yeah the vitamin D aspect seems to be huge. Of course there's been little research on it because there's no funding for it. I live in Washington, so every winter we take lots of Vit D supplements and try to plan a trip somewhere sunny for a few days.
You're 100% correct that a main goal of propaganda was to teach helplessness. "All you can do is get this trillion dollar experimental vaccine, anything else is just horse wormer." Of course a side benefit was the increase in anger and division of people, which coincidentally benefits the powerful. /s Ironically, it looks like one long term side effect of the virus is emotional violatilitly along with reduced cognitive function. So people were told they were helpless and encouraged to be angry; meanwhile a whole bunch of them got a disease that made them more confused and angry.
What a time to be alive!
Actually no, it was a normal flu season. Only after the jabs came out, total deaths rose and rose.
https://denisrancourt.substack.com/p/there-was-no-pandemic
Where I disagree with your excellent work is that I think we did achieve Disaster Socialism. Any economy wide socialism was always about turning over decisions to a bureaucracy insulated from concern with profit, because the economy is simply too big and complex to be controlled by any set of elected politicians.
And this is what we have achieved. Sure, some of these bureaucrats have paycheques signed "Disney" and some are signed "USA", but at the end of the day, they are motivated by natural internal bureaucratic power seeking combined with an external motive (ESG) not related to profit.
The only way to achieve the humane vision of some old members of the Movement Left is to de-bureaucratize and decentralize the economy. Whether individual pieces of that are "owned" by small communities or individuals is not that important: either way it matches the vision of us old free-enterprise libertarians.
I’ve struggled with the cultural (ESG/DEI) vs the economic (M4A, Social Security) definitions of socialism, which reflect the divergent views of the left and the right; and come to the conclusion that 1) we need to be clearer in our language, and 2) the right’s concerns ought to be taken seriously by the left for a long list of reasons but most importantly because this is an area where there could be agreement--the possibility of agreement is what’s most resisted by the Institutional Left (mainly Dem Party). left and right leaders will link arms to send billions to other countries for war, but they won’t work together on making things better here at home.
for example: ESG/DEI programs are designed for the benefit of corporations and don’t reflect any sort of material gain for workers or the environment--the left needs to take this seriously and drop the neoliberal bullshit. Taking the environment as the example, corps gets to pat each other on the back for empty gestures on “climate change” while they continue polluting, which is how CEOs offload cost of doing business on the local community. We’re left with polluted water, air, and soil while their quarterly profits continue justify big bonuses for those at the top—and we get no traction with local leadership b/c they’re all funded by the polluting corporations.
this was something the left used to understand.
“The left“ by insulting tokens are the only people addressing the climate crisis. Neither method is going to have any statistically significant effect on our imminent demise.
Medicare for all is a terrible corporate subsidy-based policy and Social Security is not Socialism.
Just so you know, #UniversalHealthcare #ByDefinition is by far the best practice providing the highest quality results and the most reasonable investment to do so.
Your fear of Socialism is ridiculously unfounded
First world countries three things are automatically socialized.
Education including #EarnedHigherEducationScholarship
Incarceration
Healthcare insurance
I take "socialism" as control of the means of production by a schema other than profit-seeking private property owners. So the "socialism" I refer to is control by the (state or state-aligned, it makes no practical difference) bureaucracy rather than owners.
ESG is relevant because we always assumed that government (ie bureaucratic) control would be for the benefit of workers, even if that isn't part of the formal definition of socialism. Unfortunately, that turned out to be wrong: ESG is a way to consume the wealth created by industry without benefiting workers, just as war was in "1984".
Those at the "top", public or private, are rewarded handsomely (by bonuses, speaking fees, or simple corruption) but the real problem is the unaccountable and irrational bureaucracy which actually makes the decisions. Eugyppius has been doing a great job analyzing this.
Where that deal got the left is best summarized by the way the Biden Administration promptly chucked the "Unity Commission" proposals drafted by Bernie Sanders's people into the trash on Inauguration Day.
This is REALLY well researched and written.
One of the guidelines you linked to said the right were setting up a narrative that some people are expendable, in social Darwin style. I can tell you I saw none of that and I think it’s a bit disgusting they should say such a divisive thing. I’m Australian and I’ve traditionally always been on the Left, but during the pandemic I started resonating more with Right wing or heterodox independent media. Why? Because I have a molecular biology degree, and I knew straight up that there was no way you were going to stop the spread of a respiratory disease that was already spreading in your country. I knew lockdowns would end up hurting the poor and dispossessed more in the long run (still happening), and I knew the elderly who are near death sadly will die from whatever that year’s major respiratory virus is. Right wing media that I saw reflected that basic, sensible knowledge, they did NOT say some people are expendable. They were simply REALISTIC and considered the potential negative repercussions of the interventions and weighed that against the risk of the virus, which was actually very low for most age groups, statistically (I saw that very early in the pandemic, it was available for all to see if you looked). I was alienated by a Left who seemed terrified and wanted to control everybody in ways that seemed anxiety-driven, not evidence-based. Ultimately, the majority of harm caused by the pandemic was indeed the human response to it in western nations (it was never much of a big deal in Nigeria, my Nigerian friend tells me).
I’d be curious to know who funds that so called “grass roots policy” organisation - it is indeed likely to be the the types who have historically themselves supported social Darwinism!
I’m only partway through this but I just want to wax lyrical on my irritation with the Institutional Left’s demonisation of Individualism. Individualism is CORE to Western values, and demonising it allowed attitudes that smacked of Totalitarianism to rear their ugly head during the pandemic. I saw this when I saw normally kind people wish death on people who were “unvaccinated” (a manipulative word in itself), with a “vaccine” that did not reduce transmission!
Valuing Individualism means the individual is protected from the majority - from mob rule, from the madness of crowds. It also means each individual has the responsibility to do his/her best to look after themselves and their community. Yes it can have negative connotations if taken to the extreme (I do believe we should have social safety nets for people who aren’t capable of looking after themselves completely), but protection of the individual from the collective is very important if we want to avoid the horrors perpetuated under Sovietism and Nazism (which got really bad as soon as all dissidents were silenced, which makes me really nervous about all the censorship getting put into law around the world).
There’s nothing progressive about the entities you mentioned and labeled so. The Socialism in this country is contained to corporate entities. That’s not a problem that is contained to the democratic party. The GOP answers to the donor class as well. Jesus you are a piece of work. And, a feces fillled skin bag.
"This scam wouldn’t have worked with the politicization of public health"
Do you mean that "This scam wouldn’t have worked WITHOUT the politicization of public health"...?