Dave – the editor
We’re approaching the first anniversary of the ‘three weeks to flatten the curve’ lockdown. Without wanting to bare too much of my soul, if I’d known a year ago we’d be where we are now, I don’t honestly know how I would have coped. Sometimes, it’s probably best to not know what the future holds and instead, take things a few days at a time and keep on fighting what’s being done to us.
However, as an activist, I have some kind of responsibility to try and anticipate what’s coming up in order to formulate a strategy to deal with it. Trying to work out what is coming has taken up a fair chunk of my time over the last year. I thought it would be a useful exercise to go through what I’ve written and pull out the paragraphs where I tried to predict how things would play out.
It gives me absolutely no pleasure whatsoever to state that more often than not, it would appear that I’ve called it right. Trust me, I would far rather be living a normal, free life, and be sitting here red faced with embarrassment with everyone taking the piss out of me because my predictions were way off the mark. If what I’ve predicted about the way the authorities would be imposing upon us hasn’t actually played out, it’s certainly being discussed.
Suffice to say, compiling this list of posts and pulling out the paragraphs where I’d tried to anticipate what’s coming was a sodding depressing exercise. Having said that, if we want a future worth living in, now is not the time to throw in the towel when it comes to resisting what’s being done to us.
As ever, comradely debate about the issues raised in this somewhat lengthy post is always welcome. Abuse and trolling will not be tolerated in any way, Be warned, I’m not in the mood to deal with that shite in any way, shape or form…
Is it over? Is it time to throw in the towel? Is further resistance pointless? – March 3, 2021
“Sadly, there’s a darker side to kicking back against lockdowns. We operate in a region where there are areas of deprivation. In those areas, there will be kids at risk of falling through the cracks. Gang violence has been an issue for a number of years. However, prior to the crisis starting back in March 2020, there was the possibility of intensive face to face interventions from a teacher that could have turned a kid’s life around towards a more positive path. With lockdowns and tiered restrictions forcing a lot of education delivery online, it’s inevitable that a number of kids on the edge will fall right through the net.”
Lockdown situation report – February 6, 2021
“With education being pretty much confined online, how many hard pressed working class households are going to have the resources let alone the time to ensure their kids continue to follow the curriculum? What about the kids who were already on the edge but who could have been saved by intensive, real life face to face interventions? The harsh truth is that a lot of kids are going to fall through the net. These will be kids who will feel that society has pretty much abandoned them. These will be kids who feel they’ve nothing else to lose – the consequences of this will not be pretty. It could well be a long, hot summer as society reaps what it sows.”
Think of the kids then think of the future of education – January 5, 2021
“Amidst the ongoing disruption and confusion, there will be a growing number of kids who will inevitably fall through the cracks. That will manifest itself from mental health crises through to a nihilistic disaffection with a society that a significant minority of kids will see as having failed them. Six months to a year and more down the line, it really will be a case of reaping what you sow…”
2020, a lot has happened – 2021, a lot more will happen – December 9, 2020
“There’s an element in society at large who have not only brought into the narrative but relish the roles they’ve adopted which allow them to nag, cajole and bully anyone who questions the wearing of face masks, the need for physical distancing and rightly have concerns about ‘vaccines’ being rushed through the development process. This element seemingly love the opportunity to make the lives of anyone who doesn’t see the world from their narrow, inflexible perspective as much of a misery as possible. From the curtain twitching neighbour looking to see who’s been breaking the ‘rules’ to security guards who think they can throw their weight around in the name of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions, there’s a range of quislings only too ready and happy to do the bidding of those who presume to rule us.”
It’s too late to go back, we have to move forwards – November 24, 2020
“The bastards think they have got us where they want us. More isolated and more fearful than ever before. The bonds that bound us together in our humanity have been weakened to be replaced by division, fear and mistrust. The divide and rule merchants have been having a field day setting us at each others throats, in particular, the rows over how real the threat from COVID-19 is and the measures put in place to ‘contain’ it. Rows that are becoming ever more bitter with the emergence of an array of vaccines which we’re being led to believe will supposedly allow us to return to ‘normality’.”
“Too much damage has been done to make that even possible. The normality we knew, however flawed and imperfect that was, can’t come back because the infrastructure that supported it has been damaged beyond repair. It’s too late to go back. All that’s left is working out how we can rebuild a communal, truly human life on our terms. What the elitist bastards who want us to lead a diminished, atomised and controlled life don’t realise is that they cannot crush the human spirit. They’ll try but we’ll always find a way to fight back.”
Resisting the ‘reset’ – a call to arms – November 11, 2020
“Whatever you may think about the COVID-19 crisis, the likes of Schwab, the WEF, the high tech and pharmaceutical industries and everyone else who stands to gain wealth and/or power from the ‘Great Reset’ haven’t exactly been slow off the mark in using it to further their dystopian agenda. Meanwhile we’ve been sidetracked into arguing about who is and isn’t a conspiracy theorist with the consequences being more of us falling out with each other and what remains of our movement becoming even more of a shadow of its former self.”
Will the ‘rule of six’ be a licence to snitch? – September 14, 2020
“You don’t need us to tell you how divisive an issue the COVID-19 crisis, lockdown and the uneasy easing into (and back out again?) the ‘new normal’ has been. It has split families, severely tested friendships and divided communities. These divisions have created a toxic climate where people aren’t quite sure who they can and can’t trust. In the midst of all of this, we now have a government minister inviting people to basically grass up other folk in their neighbourhood. If people start doing this, it will further undermine what in a growing number of areas, is an already fragile sense of social cohesion. Classic divide and rule tactics – get people fearing and not trusting each other so they have to turn to the authorities for what will ultimately be, a false sense of security.”
How the f**k did we sleepwalk to this point? – September 9, 2020
“These are things that are already in play or pretty close to it: COVID-19 monitoring apps, track and trace apps, ordering food from your table apps because you can’t order at the bar, the threat of having to have a COVID-19 pass on your smartphone otherwise it’s no admittance to anywhere…the list goes on and on.”
“You can see what’s going on can’t you? The technocratic f**kers – corporations and governments alike – in charge are making it impossible for us to have any kind of functioning life unless we own/rent a sodding smartphone. From just a few years ago of being a (possibly) nice to have luxury, they’re now a necessity if we want to just survive in this increasingly f**ked up, dystopian hellhole of a world.”
Told you so… – September 4, 2020
“Then there’s the philosophical question of what kind of society do we want to live in? Who has the right to force us to own a piece of technology, a smartphone, with our digital identity, bank account and CovidPass on it just to participate in everyday life? When the f**k were we ever asked if we wanted to live in a society where we have to plug ourselves into the matrix just so we can survive? Survive on the terms of the corporations and the governments that do their bidding that is, not surviving on our terms, let alone living a full life. If our cash and identities are out there in the ether, they could be switched off at any moment by a government that has decided we’re too much of a thorn in their sides. If these are switched off, we will not be able to survive in a society that’s digital and cashless. Once that’s widely understood among the population, imagine the chilling implications of this on any form of dissent.”
Lobbing a spanner into the workings of the new (ab)normal – August 23, 2020
“If your kids are due to go back to school but will then be expected to wear face masks, stay in small, closely supervised bubbles and not be allowed to freely interact, if at all possible, withdraw them from school and home educate them. This doesn’t have to be an individualistic, isolated gesture of defiance. If enough people are on board, this can be organised collectively. This is when we can decide what education for a full life should be and proceed accordingly.”
Are we sleepwalking towards a 21st century form of totalitarianism? – August 12, 2020
“The tech industry and big pharma have a lot riding on the current situation. For purely commercial reasons, they’re happy to see the ongoing level of anxiety carry on because it will create an audience and a market for their services and products that will reap them enormous rewards. It’s not ‘conspiracy theory’ to state that – it’s simply an understanding of and observation about how late stage capitalism functions. Follow the money, see what the connections are and it’s all too obvious that some very big players stand to make a lot of money and gain a lot of control from the current situation.”
The World Economic Forum widening the digital divide – July 31, 2020
“Your future – a digital CovidPass on your smartphone that you’ll have to present to get access to any major events and most likely, pubs, restaurants and shops as well in the future. A Q code on a smartphone. On a smartphone… Just think about that for a while.”
“Basically, what the WEF are implying is that if you don’t own a smartphone, you’ll have to forgo your right to freely move around. If you don’t own a smartphone, you won’t be considered as a full citizen – just a Luddite ‘nuisance’ to be dealt with at a later date. A fair number of people still don’t own smartphones. What the WEF are implying is that their existence doesn’t matter. The psychopaths at the WEF are knowingly widening the digital divide with seemingly no regard to the consequences to those on the ‘wrong’ side of it.”
Gaslighting – July 29, 2020
“A new (ab)normal where we’re told, quite often by high powered people with links to pharmaceutical industry raking in billions, that there will be no return to free interaction with each other until a vaccine has been developed and we’ve all ‘consented’ to take it, regardless of any legitimate concerns about the risks involved. A new (ab)normal that those who love flexing their power and imposing their judgements on and gaslighting those of us asking legitimate questions about what’s being done to us are lapping up. A new (ab)normal bolstered by the useful idiots unwittingly doing the bidding of big pharma, the rest of the asset stripping corporations making a killing out of lockdown and the wannabe totalitarians in political circles and government. We see you – we will not forget or forgive you…ever…”
Welcome to your ‘new normal’ – July 5, 2020
“From cashless payments offering a record of what you’ve brought and where, having the location on your phone switched on, through to having to book ahead and fill in a form just to have a drink to being pressured into downloading the contact tracing app, when you add all of this together, the total is greater than the sum of it’s parts. These are all steps towards a surveillance state. One in which you hand over increasing amounts of personal information to a combination of government and the corporations. Once you start to look at how they behave and how easy it would be for them to use your data to give you a hard time if you’re deemed to be ‘uncompliant’, it’s not hard to see why a growing number of people are questioning what we’re being asked to do.”
Trying to move ‘forward’ from this point – June 23, 2020
“As principled anarchists, we feel that we’re already under enough bloody surveillance as it is from the COVID-19 induced push towards a cashless society. Every purchase made with our debit cards can be tracked and every journey made on a c2c Smartcard/TfL Oystercard mapped and logged. Having every visit to a pub/cafe tracked by having to hand over our details at the door on top of the logging of every drink purchased with a debit card is a step too far. If the venues where we used to leave copies of the Heckler, Alternative Estuary and DiY Culture are pressured into adopting this level of information extraction from their patrons, then sadly, we’ll have no option but to stay away from them.”
As predicted… – June 14, 2020
“When you read through the Guardian piece, two things stand out. The first is that there isn’t going to be an ‘end’ to the COVID-19 crisis. The kind of measures being discussed take time, effort and money to implement. A future of temperature scanners, physical distancing monitoring via apps and surveillance technology, following directional arrows pretty much wherever you are, being kept apart by plastic screens – the list goes on – awaits us.”
Language is important… – June 6, 2020
“‘Social distancing’ subliminally implies a lot more that just staying two metres away from other people. When we hear the phrase ‘social distancing’, what immediately comes to mind is isolation, lack of contact, withdrawal from any meaningful social life, missing friends, family and loved ones…the list goes on. All of which is contributing to a growing mental health crisis which barely gets a mention in a media that largely seems to have lost the ability to ask some searching questions about the psyops that we’re being inflicted with. That’s not to mention the rise in alcohol and drug abuse.”
The emerging political divide – May 29, 2020
“Fear is an amazing tool for securing compliance from the populace for whatever nefarious aims the government of the day and their corporate backers may have in mind. After two months of ‘stay two metres away’ from any other human, the constant pavement dancing needed to adhere to this, interacting with masked up retail staff through plastic screens, seeing plans for school re-openings that will see kids physically kept apart from their peers, it should be all too clear we’re being conditioned to fear each other. As we’ve written before, what makes us truly human with the need for face to face and physical contact is being torn away from us as we’re reduced to atomised, fearful and increasingly easier to control individuals ever more reliant on authority to guide us through the ‘crisis’.”
Welcome to your future of controlled misery – May 9, 2020
“Less socialising, more isolation. As we said at the start of this crisis, a frightened populace is easier to control and manipulate. Look around and it’s pretty clear that a fair sized chunk of the populace is frightened and after seven weeks of lockdown, feeling pretty isolated and as a result, compliant. If opportunities for socialising remain limited into the future as a consequence of a) fewer venues to meet up in and b) people feeling too fearful to venture out, then control and manipulation of the populace will be a fecking doddle for the authorities.”
A sort of a warning… – April 27, 2020
“As we’ve written previously, it really does feel like we’re being subjected to a massive psychological experiment: A few readings and thoughts on the psychological impact of COVID-19 anxiety and the lockdown. One in which we’re simultaneously being subjected to an unprecedented level of fear-mongering and being torn apart from each other. One in which we’re being made to feel that the only option of being able to move forwards is to subject ourselves to a loss of autonomy through increased tracking and surveillance, ostensibly for our own good. One in which our hopes and plans for the future have been trashed. One in which we’re being atomised and made ever more dependent on the whims of our rulers for our survival. One which has already turned into a fucking nightmare for a lot of people and will do for many more of us.”
Some thoughts on the COVID-19 future we’re facing – April 17, 2020
“Many of the suggested routes out of lockdown involve various forms of tracking and surveillance. We’ve already seen the cops pushing the boundaries of the emergency measures aimed at enforcing social distancing out in public. It’s pretty safe to assume that as we go forward, anyone kicking off against a culture of increased surveillance and tracking will be getting the treatment from cops relishing the extended powers they’ve been granted. All with the blessing of the authorities who want a compliant populace that can be easily frightened, monitored and controlled.”
The consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for freedom and solidarity – April 13, 2020
“On the other hand, some of that anger comes from an element of the population that not only accepts measures that have already impacted many of our lives but also think they don’t go nearly far enough and need to be considerably harsher. We’re talking about the kind of people who are only too happy to contact the police to report what they feel are breaches of the emergency measures. Basically, we’re talking about curtain twitching, snitching grasses who are the willing tools of the powers that be who want us divided and at each others throats.”
Isolation and social control – March 17, 2020
“Whether the consequences of the loss of the venues where we meet and socialise and the increased home bound isolation that will make us easier to manipulate and control is intentional is probably more difficult to call without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. However, even if this is an unintended consequence, the government and the corporations will love a world where a frightened, possibly traumatised, more isolated populace can be manipulated and controlled at will. Their view is ‘why let a crisis go to waste?’ These f***ers see the crisis as an opportunity to tighten their grip on us. This is classic shock doctrine disaster capitalism in action. The question is, how can we stop the bastards inflicting this upon us?”
thestirrer.net 