– “Therefore I put my energy into strengthening my community.”
That’s a good thing to do. I praised you for it as soon as you revealed it.
– “Micro action – it is the only defense left.”
I know you think XR is “controlled opposition” (an idea popular with conspiracy theorists) and that global warming is a hoax (a conspiracy theory), or unimportant or whatever, but we certainly had an effect, as revealed in polls. We also affected the corporate media.
(and I can’t help it if you can’t tell proper scientific arguments from astroturf; read Bad Science.)
Craig’s blog has also forced issues into the corporate media, and my actions improved policy at Wikipedia. So here are two other methods that work – non-violent direct action, and using the independent micro-media. At least you haven’t recommended removing or breaking the restrictions, but your arguments encourage others to do so, eg. Dave.
– “You claim I’m cherry-picking. I claim you’re doing the same”
You haven’t addressed the sharp rise in overall mortality, now seen in multiple parts of the world. This refuted your “no worse than seasonal flu” cherry-pick, yet you made the same argument yet again today, complete with a cherry-picked quote-mine of a quote-mine, another common conspiracy theorist’s technique.
Of course you’ve claimed I’m cherry-picking because you don’t know how to assess an argument rationally and scientifically, so opinion versus opinion is all you have left. Read Bad Science.
– “I distrust the evidence you get through the MSM”
I don’t have a telly, I don’t listen to the radio, I don’t get a “news”paper and I only use their websites occasionally when following commenters’ links. My info was coming, privately and publicly, from Squonk. In your very own link above at 13:53 (where you claiming to be banned though you weren’t), Squonk told you:
– “I quote true experts in the field. […] I’ve been a member of two disease tracking forums for over 10 years including during the whole swine flu thing. […] I didn’t just start paying attention now with SARS-CoV-2.”
Node: – “..the MSM – it is subject to pressure from those who I believe are making the biggest power grab in history.”
It’s the corporate media; all of it is funded by advertising and much of it is owned by billionaires, so of course it projects the narrative of corporatism and the extremely wealthy. That doesn’t invalidate all reporting; you can’t just say “the Guardian says there’s global warming, therefore it’s a hoax”. Even corporatism and billionaires are right about some things, and a very few of them (one? two?) have funded XR (a tiny bit from their perspective), but maybe those few are fond of our lovely biosphere, or maybe they just have a bit more sense. Your assumption of monolithic evil is blinkering you.
And why call it the MSM, “MainStream Media”? That’s something were trying to change, isn’t it?
“Conspiracy theorist” isn’t an insult; it’s a description. Not a complimentary one, I agree, but it is a functional one; your theories are based on your assumed objectives of your purported conspiracy. Maybe your “elite” are as worried about getting covid-19 as everyone else is, so they’re encouraging media overdrive to slow it down until a vaccine is developed. Maybe they’re worried about it decimating the wage slave consumers. You don’t know what their objective might be, so you’re just seeing your own assumptions.
How they will attempt to exploit the crisis can be explored with political and economic theory, but attempting to use conspiracy theory is bound to be circular – all you’ll be able to see are your own assumptions about the “elite”. Example:
Option 1: global warming is a hoax, or unimportant.
Option 2: global warming is a major threat to humanity.
Option 1: the elite hype global warming to increase taxation.
Option 2: the elite hype global warming because they want a future for them and their kids; they want their dominance to continue.
So the elite hype global warming either way.
Political, economic and conspiracy theories are all incorrect methods for assessing global warming. You need a scientific theory, because global warming is a physical issue. Same goes for covid-19.