OK, so I lied. I said that my traditional year-end column, The Year of the Gaslighter, was my last one of the year. I said that I was finally going to take a break from the madness of the last three years and hibernate until 2023.
And here I am, not doing that, at all.
Yes, technically, this is not a column. It’s just my irregularly published newsletter. But I don’t think that gets me off the hook. I’m supposed to be relaxing, not banging out a newsletter, and conducting free PSYOPS-seminars on Twitter, and generally making a nuiscance of myself.
So, why am I doing that? Well, for several reasons.
Reason No. 1 is, I have too many readers and supporters, so I need to alienate a few of them. I have been doing a fairly good job of that recently by (a) criticizing Mattias Desmet and his popular “mass formation” theory, (b) criticizing Elon Musk and his new “free-speech Twitter 2.0,” and (c) criticizing assorted colleagues and friends in the “independent journalism” business.
I know, it’s an incredibly stupid thing to do, but, well, basically, this is my job. Or part of my job in any event. Here are few examples of my handiwork …
Yes, the “Covid Twitter Files” are looking like a textbook limited hangout. (If you are unfamiliar with the term, please look it up.) I’ll be covering it in detail in 2023. In the meantime, you can scroll through those threads on Twitter, assuming you are able to see them. The Consent Factory is being rather heavily “visibility filtered” by the new “free-speech” Twitter.
Oh, and there’s one more thread you may want to scroll through. It’s right here on this threadreader app. It’s a 257-tweet thread of headlines from the mainstream media that I compiled in March and April of 2020 during the initial “shock-and-awe” phase of the roll-out of the New Normal. You might want to do that (i.e., scroll through that thread, and recall what happened, and how it happened), because the history of 2020 and 2021 is being rewritten, right now, in real-time.
And, for any Desmet fans who I haven’t already alienated, if you need another reason to go apeshit in my comments, or send me lengthy irate emails, or inundate my inbox with phishing attacks (which, that has been a particularly nice touch!), here’s a rather lengthy but comprehensive critical review of The Psychology of Totalitarianism, posted by Unlimited Hangout.
That should keep you going for a while!
Reason No. 2 for my not taking a break, and for infuriating and alienating a lot of my readers, is … well, there is no Reason No. 2. And I was joking about having too many readers and supporters. Of course I want as many readers as possible, and I am very grateful for all my supporters, but I am not going to bullshit anyone to keep them. If you want to believe that Elon Musk is rescuing Twitter (and perhaps the world) from corporate censorship, or Wokeness, or whatever, or that the new pathologized global-capitalist totalitarianism was caused by “mass hypnosis,” or whatever, or that the last three years have been a “debate” about a virus, or a series of unfortunate “mistakes,” or an “overreaction” to a “crisis,” rather than a globally-coordinated PSYOP … go for it. Believe whatever you need to. But don’t expect me to make it easy for you.
Or, OK, maybe there is a Reason No. 2, or possibly Reason No. 3 … I have a feeling my reasons are all mixed up in the above rant, and I’m too tired and crabby to go back and numerate them. Anyway, the reason is, thank you, sincerely, for your generous support and/or readership!
I’ll be back next year with more columns and news. Until then …
Happy New Year from New Normal Germany!
Never change, CJ.
I think Greenwald comes across as he does (your shot at him is fair, I'm just playing explainer/devil's advocate) because- like a few other people like Vinay Prasad and sometimes Berenson- he's a devout Democrat apologist that can't completely condemn his "side," which leads to framing things with both-sidesism and cherry-picking of context. Or it may just be that he/they are afraid of scaring off employers/money by going all-in on anything.