“I follow a theorist with expertise on emergent psycho-societal phenomena, but if he suggests any hypothesis that doesn’t fit my childish this-was-all-planned-long-in-advance-by-evil-mustache-twiddling-plandemic-puppeteers idea, then that theorist guy is evil and I totally hate him!”
Many are looking for witches to blame, witches that themselves sat outside the hysteria and planned it all. That’s a deep misunderstanding of evil, and of all the evil historically that caused democide and genocide.
And the UK is a paradigm case of a hysterical populace demanding lockdowns, which Boris didn’t initially want. He bent, to look like he was in control.
And the psychological psyop (with their evil nudges) happened AFTER all this, as part of the hysteria.
Although all the sheep are culpable, the ones who are disproportionately culpable are those in charge, who got swept up, joined the mobs, and set out to righteously enforce it.
Your leaders did this to you, and they believed they were helping, and that people like me fighting it were evil deniers.
THAT’S what evil IS at the societal level. Evil is almost always done by those who genuinely wish to do the “right thing.” And put you and me in prison for defying their notion of righteousness.
Some have called me ‘optimistic’ for this view, which I find bizarre. If you get it, it should depress you.
Some Moments on this…
~ Free will and mass hysteria
~ Evil comes from the KoolAid drinkers
~ Culpability doesn’t require preplanning
~ The human tendency to see witches
~ Blame the sheep
~ Three reasons the sheep are culpable
Even Trump didn't want to take drastic measures. People blamed him for being "too slow" and I remember him saying something about stopping that 2-weeks-to-slow-the-curve thing in time for Easter. The left hated him for it. The democrats were clamoring for their states to "do something" more. It's the people who were pushing the governments to "do something." Yes, the media pushed the fear-porn on them. But the media is made up of people who may have been afraid also. And we know the media thinks the noble lie is good (obviously it's not).
But the media isn't to blame. People who listen to the media and got caught up in it are. People's fear is what allowed the media to continue on. People wouldn't have clicked or watched the media if they didn't care. And if the people stopped caring the media would stop talking about it. People shouldn't have cared so much.
I don't remember any " hysterical populace demanding lockdowns".
I do remember opportunistic politicians - Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer, Murphy, Fauci, etc. - dictating lockdowns to unwilling populaces. I do remember these petty tyrants being abetted by irresponsible yellow journalists in both new and old media.
I agree that all the sheep are culpable, and especially those who contributed most to the foolishness and destruction. But Andrew Cuomo was no sheep when he issued executive orders turning his State's nursing homes into killing fields. And he certainly did not believe he was "helping" when he cynically covered up his crimes. His motivation, like many others, was political gain, not "helping".
There are sheep and there are wolves. Always. In this case, the wolves were opportunistic self-promoters, rather than evil genius planners. But they were and are wolves nonetheless. And they knew they were not "helping".