We Need to Talk about Truth
By: Hamilton Hume
Tags: Disinformation, Conspiracy Theories, Trump, Propaganda, Social Media

And that just about brings us to where we are today. Millions of people all over the world genuinely believe that COVID is part of a conspiracy among scientists, doctors, and all levels of government, to strip our freedoms take over the world.

So again, let’s sit with this idea and explore it a little. Let’s assume that governments are trying to control everyone to implement their sinister plot for world domination. The thing is, they had control. In January 2020, governments had as much power as they could hope for. A militarised police force that could literally murder people and get away with it, surveillance everywhere, a well established and lucrative lobbying industry, a relatively complacent population happy to watch their TVs, etc. Things were cruising along. Throwing all of that into chaos by creating a virus doesn’t give them control, it’s the opposite. They were told that if they didn’t take action, many people would die. So they did.

This is not to say that the response was perfect. No one had done this before, certainly not in the modern world, and governments screw things up at the best of times. Were the lockdowns too much? Maybe. I’m neither a politician nor an epidemiologist, so I wouldn’t ask me. Has some of the police reaction been too strong? Sure. Policing has needed reform for a long time.

In this case, they are trying to save lives by stopping a virus from spreading. That involves some sacrifice. Masks and lockdowns suck. Overcoming adversity together is what Humans do. If the troops can put their lives on the line by going off to war, surely we can manage this. New Zealand took some of the strongest action, and less than a year later, they’re back dancing together.

It presents an interesting situation — pretty serious restrictions, for a pretty low death count. Which raises the question — when we take steps to avoid something, and then it doesn’t happen — does that mean the steps weren’t necessary, or that they worked? How can we know? If we look at places like America, where they didn’t take the steps, it killed half a million people. That seems to suggest the measures did do something. Again, even if we take 80% of those numbers out — that’s still 100,000 deaths. By taking the threat seriously, locking down, and implementing tracking systems, countries like Australia were able to keep the death toll pretty low. Was the disruption to the economy worth it? There is no clear answer to that question. This conversation is about the motives.

Maybe you think that loosing that many people is OK. And that’s fine, we can have a conversation about that. But that is a different conversation to whether the governments are making this up to control us. They are bureaucrats acting on the advice of the expert professionals.

Clearly a lot of things have been thrown for a loop. And that does give us a chance to take stock. Unless you’re suggesting that things were perfect before, our systems could use some redesigning. We can’t keep exploiting the planet and its resources indefinitely. The Capitalists will do their best to make sure it doesn’t happen of course, by making us think that any action is all part of a conspiracy, and sadly, there is good chance they’ll succeed.