I've been suspicious of Glenn Greenwald for a very long time. In addition, his writings are simply too long and deal with issues that from my point of view were settled long ago. If I read his writings, they simply divert me from more important and recent revelations. He stuck with the Intercept long after they proved themselves to be…
I've been suspicious of Glenn Greenwald for a very long time. In addition, his writings are simply too long and deal with issues that from my point of view were settled long ago. If I read his writings, they simply divert me from more important and recent revelations. He stuck with the Intercept long after they proved themselves to be a limited hangout, and only resigned when their censorship started to affect his own work. His more recent writings have done little to relieve my suspicions. That said, perhaps you're misinterpreting "questions about Covid devoid of politics." I think he was referring not to questions that actually were devoid of politics, but questions that should have been devoid of politics. Clearly, Dave Smith pointed out that those questions should have been devoid of politics. It's much more likely that GG used an ambiguous phrase than that he completely misinterpreted the video he re-tweeted. Still, what I said still goes and I shut down emails from System Update just prior to seeing this post from CJ.
Regarding Desmet, I believe he and other observers of totalitarianism are correct about "mass formation," though I don't believe in "free floating anxiety." The mass formation is a result of the simple manipulation of fear, similar to starting a stampede by firing guns in the air. Later, shame is used to to keep people within the mass. Sticking with the herd has dangers of its own, but nowhere near the danger of being a solitary cow vulnerable to top of the foodchain predators. Thus, "free floating anxiety" is an overly complicated theory to replace the manipulation of fear and shame, but in no way does Desmet shift blame to or from those who succumb to the "mass formation."
Of course, none of my agreements or disagreements with CJ about details have any bearing on his ultimate conclusions that debate was never allowed, that "mistakes were made" (or not) or that there has been no "overreaction." I am in total agreement that this was a giant psyop, and I don't think Desmet would disagree with any of that, even if his concept of "free floating anxiety" is totally unnecessary to explain what has occurred.
I've been suspicious of Glenn Greenwald for a very long time. In addition, his writings are simply too long and deal with issues that from my point of view were settled long ago. If I read his writings, they simply divert me from more important and recent revelations. He stuck with the Intercept long after they proved themselves to be a limited hangout, and only resigned when their censorship started to affect his own work. His more recent writings have done little to relieve my suspicions. That said, perhaps you're misinterpreting "questions about Covid devoid of politics." I think he was referring not to questions that actually were devoid of politics, but questions that should have been devoid of politics. Clearly, Dave Smith pointed out that those questions should have been devoid of politics. It's much more likely that GG used an ambiguous phrase than that he completely misinterpreted the video he re-tweeted. Still, what I said still goes and I shut down emails from System Update just prior to seeing this post from CJ.
Regarding Desmet, I believe he and other observers of totalitarianism are correct about "mass formation," though I don't believe in "free floating anxiety." The mass formation is a result of the simple manipulation of fear, similar to starting a stampede by firing guns in the air. Later, shame is used to to keep people within the mass. Sticking with the herd has dangers of its own, but nowhere near the danger of being a solitary cow vulnerable to top of the foodchain predators. Thus, "free floating anxiety" is an overly complicated theory to replace the manipulation of fear and shame, but in no way does Desmet shift blame to or from those who succumb to the "mass formation."
Of course, none of my agreements or disagreements with CJ about details have any bearing on his ultimate conclusions that debate was never allowed, that "mistakes were made" (or not) or that there has been no "overreaction." I am in total agreement that this was a giant psyop, and I don't think Desmet would disagree with any of that, even if his concept of "free floating anxiety" is totally unnecessary to explain what has occurred.