Suppose that there was word being spread by news and government sources that a new illness was spreading and that it would be wise to stock up on necessities. what would be your first response? “Honey, get to the store! Load up on toilet paper!”
No. Way back at the beginning of this hoax I had a doctor’s appointment, and during it someone there confided in me that “We don’t understand the toilet paper thing.” We laughed. A more rational response would be to stock up on real necessities, and that sort of behavior followed. We were not hoarding, but days later sought to get some ground beef at Whole Foods, and were told that there was none to be had in the city of Denver. Now that made sense.
What was with the toilet paper shortage? I don’t know, of course, and can only speculate. The agents behind this hoax wanted a run on necessities, and to initiate it had to do something high profile that everyone could see. A long aisle in a grocery store of empty shelves would be ideal, highly visible, and stimulate the urge to stock up. Packages of toilet paper take up much space, and so emptying shelves of them was easy and easily noticed by everyone.
As a high school kid I worked in a grocery store, and noticed that when the weather changed for the worse, we would be slammed. Fear of not having enough food is a basic instinct that manifests even now, and is part of herd behavior even in times of plenty. There is great comfort in having enough food on hand.
As with every other behavior in this fake crisis, somehow powers above made it happen. Were stores ordered to remove TP from the shelves? No … that would involve lowly clerks who would talk. More likely agents were sent out to load up, and warehouses, not family homes, stored the product. It does not take much to stimulate a run on any product, and word spreads fast.
What is behind it? It is similar to the orders to wear masks … it is contempt for humans. It made us look ridiculous. They hate us, think we are stupid and love to do things that reinforce this notion. As I look around me now, zombie apocalypse of diapered faces, damned if I don’t share the attitude. I was alive in the 60s and 70s, and remember protests and riots, college campus teach-ins, what in retrospect seems like a real awakening. It was quashed by the Tate massacre, and of course, agents provocateur were all about, but I wonder … was that an effort to expose people of independent mind and crush their spirits?
If so, it worked.
Back in March we were on a three-day ski trip and returned home to madness. There were no masks yet, of course, but at our nearby supermarket, people were lined at the cash registers with heavily loaded carts. Hoarding had begun. A little bit of fear goes a long way.
People are so remarkably manipulable and suggestible. I just read the book The Politics of Obedience by or Étienne de La Boétie, hurriedly published this year and rife with typos. He wondered, in the sixteenth century, why people so easily submit to tyranny. There are some apparent reasons, such as ease of going along and fear of reprisal, but I think there is also an aspect of our species that treasures belonging to a herd. The sense of being alone without fear of isolation, having the moral courage to resist, these may be noble traits, but they are not fun traits. I do not wear a mask when out and about, or if I must wear one that says “This Mask is Useless,” and remove it as soon as inside. It would be so much easier just to go along with the insanity. I do not want to stand out or call attention to myself.
But in the end, I must do as I do. I don’t need to explain this to readers here, however.
Piece of Mindful 
If they can pretend a mask
is protecting them from something,
they can pretend I’m wearing one…
https://is.gd/V7yxgG
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Nice Photoshop.
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TY
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MT, I agree with your conclusions here. The manufactured “run” on toilet paper was embedded into the entire scam as a humiliation/hazing ritual en masse. Speaking of “the runs” and humiliation, here is some enlightening commentary on one-ply toilet paper. It’s “spot-on”, or in this case, maybe “smear-on”? https://youtu.be/gibBlgpeLVY
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Well, since we are talking TP, I’ll give you our take: We are on a septic system and are advised to use only one-ply. This was some time ago, and I scoffed at the idea as a person would just end up using more to accomplish the job at hand. But he said yes, use more, don’t worry about it. Quantity is not the point, but rather the balls of TP that accumulate in septic tanks. That does not happen with one-ply. Two and three-ply tends not to disintegrate as well.
Under all circumstances, never flush moist wipes, Cottonelles or whatever, no matter what the mfg says. They are a curse on people who pump septic tanks, and no better for public sewers. Mfgs say they get confused with baby wipes, which clearly state non-flushable, so maybe that is the problem. If so, they need to do a campaign to clarify the issue.
Traveling abroad, more like South and Central America and Asia, we often found little garbage cans by toilets, as no paper of any kind is flushed.
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We are also on a private septic, and constantly have to remind guests (well, in the old days when we had guests!) to limit their TP use (and NO moist wipes, but my mother-in-law NEVER abides to all of our dismay!). Although, we typically use 2-ply TP here. I have been using 1-ply Charmin this week, and it’s pitiful.
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When I see the public fall for these trolling operations, and then persecute me and others bc we DON’T fall for them… It almost makes me want to troll them in self defense.
For instance, you could condemn most maskers for wearing opaque masks, which discriminate against the deaf community. Who rely on lip reading and expressions more heavily. Escalate the snottiness.
“Hey, man, I just don’t wanna be rude to deaf people. Your mask needs to have a clear plastic window or you’re obviously bigoted against the hard of hearing. I’ve been looking for one, but until then, I’m maskless in solidarity.”
They used to say things like “FFS! Just wear a dsmn mask!” and act all self righteous. I’m tempted to make a random fb post “FFS! Just wear a mask with a damn plastic window in it!” and include article about the difficulties masks pose for the deaf. As old Rushbo says, illustrating absurdity by being absurd. Guess it would be ignored, but I’m slightly curious to try.
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Fight fire with fire!
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TimR,
I don’t know anything about Thomas E. Woods or the Mises Institute, and Woods’ speaking style is a tad strident for my taste, but I loved this speech and wish there were people of influence in the world raising the questions he raises. He does an excellent takedown of the notion that the current mandates save lives by talking about estimates that UNICEF and other “trusted” organizations made about the lives we will lose as a result of our lockdown policies. What about the lives of people with other treatable but deadly illnesses who are not treated because all resources are focused on COVID? People who turn to alcohol or drugs when their businesses, livelihoods and aspirations are destroyed? There are a number of ways that mask-wearers could be shamed for contributing to the deaths of people who suffer not from COVID, but from this batshit crazy response to it. I think the video is worth a watch.
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I’ll listen to him tomorrow, thanks for the link. My brain is full today. Here’s one for you, Andrew Wakefield, who I have never listened to before, surprisingly erudite and intelligent given the public attacks on his intelligence and character. Somewhere in there he mentions that SIDS death rates are down by a third, since parents have not been taking their kids in for vaxxes.
https://www.thebernician.net/mob-interviews-andy-wakefield-the-truth-about-vaccines/
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I watched it. I do not mind the attitude. That ‘I got it all figured out’ while looking down the nose is pretty common among the Austrian School and Randians, but I repeat myself. A lot of good stuff came through, but I was disappointed he has not figured out that there is no virus. He seemed to know something when he said that the positive tests (but not deaths) were rising as a result of more testing, and he’s got a good grip on the numbers but has not taken time to compare them with overall deaths in a normal year, and thereby grasp that all they have done is reclassify deaths as Covid-19, the actual number of which are, in my view, zero.
My judgement, bright, quick, able to grasp large sets data, a good speaker, and supremely stupid.
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I agree with your assessment, Mark. I recommended the video because this hoax has so many layers of bullshit that, if I try to talk to people about it at all (which I do less and less), I have to pick and choose which piles to focus on. Otherwise, I become incoherent and crazy-sounding even to myself. It’s possible Woods knows more than he is saying, and chooses not to go into the falsity of the virus narrative itself in order to focus on the abject stupidity of shutting down the world to save ourselves from it, whether it’s real or not. In any event, within his limited range he does a good job.
Thank you for the Wakefield link. His first-hand account of CDC scientists burying data that points to a link between autism and vaccines is stunning.
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The long and short of it is that we are mired in medical fascism, with white lab coats running our lives. It is the most oppressive authoritarian rule I have ever witnessed, and all without scientific basis. Belief in the virus, like belief in global warming and vaccinations, is religious in nature. Treatment of free citizens, who blindly submit to this authority, is equivalent to a modern inquisition.
Imagine you were on a plane flight, and then later learned that someone on the flight “tested positive” and as a result you are quarantined for 14 days. Imagine that you knew the test was a hoax and that the 14-day thing was just shit that people in white lab coats made up. You should then just go on with your life, living normally. But knowing all that you know, you can, in certain places, be thrown in jail. That is fascism.
But it gets worse – imagine that you are a good citizen and believe in the nonsense and so self-quarantine. That is the most normal responsive, and the most disgusting one. Voluntary slavery is far more common than resistance. Fuck my fellow humans, that is my attitude today.
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PS – I do not imagine he knows more than he is saying. I take him at face. But I found his defiant attitude refreshing nonetheless. We need more of that.
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Yes that sounds like a good argument within the official paradigm, if the numbers are dramatic enough to give covid cultists pause.
As for influential people amplifying it, it’s the sort of thing that might get picked up by conservative pundits. Their audience is already largely opposed to the covid response. But at least if they get saturated with some talking point, it trickles into the mainstream discussion, and has to be at least addressed by its pundit class.
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Was thinking today how masks lead to further “objectification” of women. Can’t see their faces…
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IB,
So true. I’ve tried making the similar point several times that masks are dehumanizing, which seems like it would be pretty obvious to just about everyone. For reasons I don’t understand the Maskers always think this is funny.
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Present day Mark of the _________
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Present day Mark of the _________
https://is.gd/sYOqAz
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Tim,
I like this approach because maybe (just maybe) it could actually lead someone to apply critical thinking to their actions.
I try to stay away from social media conversations for the most part, but next time I come across a mask mandate discussion I’ve thought about ‘’arguing’’ that people who don’t wear goggles in public are selfish and should all just stay home if they can’t wear them. It’s just like wearing pants and should be required everywhere.
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I’ve tried that tack somewhat actually. The problem is that goggles are only considered self protection, as far as I know, in the official view of things. Maybe one could argue that by increasing their own risk, by not goggling up, they add to the burden on hospitals and society. But it’s not enough equivalency to the mask thing to be very strong ammo.
I had a really long absurd argument with one masker, telling me I should stay home. I got him to admit that, because masks are said to be only partially effective, he’s still risking peoples’ lives by going out in public. Even if less lives, one life is still too many, right? So to be consistent he should only go out if it’s absolutely necessary, if he can’t have it delivered or otherwise do without. Basically just stay home himself, the mask is no guarantee he’s not killing people.
As he had done in the whole convo when backed into corners, he claimed he was already limiting his trips to the absolutely necessary. I snarkily applauded him for saving lives and hoped he would stay home unless it was really life or death, and keep saving lives. But pointed out that his legions of masked brethren must surely be making lots of trivial trips. Should’ve pressed him to condemn those people, but by then I had too much self loathing for my part in the absurd discussion…! XD
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Actually there is something to this potentially, maskers like the idea that the mask magically makes them virtuous and has talismanic properties, in their mind, of total effectiveness— “I’m not killing other people.”
But since it’s officially only a decrease in risk, they are still officially killing/ risking peoples’ lives. So if one presses on this point, maybe it’s a chink in the armor. Because while a small hardcore contingent will stay home if told that’s virtue, a large number of maskers are just using the mask as a “get out of jail” card. They’re like “hey I’m doing my part, see, can’t blame me.” They just block out the idea that they are still “shedding virus” and infecting others, just fewer in number. So really why not berate them with being selfish? If the standard is that you shouldn’t risk even some tiny fraction of harm. Even maskers should stay home unless it’s an emergency.
Then, maybe, if berated enough, they might throw up their hands in disgust at the overall illogic of the thing, or futility of perfect virtue. Not likely, since it would have to be widely spread and memed etc. But an amusing idea perhaps.
Maybe pair this with the plastic window imperative, for ultimate absurdity and demoralization: stay home, maskers, unless absolutely vital to survival; and if you DO go out… I hope you’ll support our deaf brothers and sisters by wearing a plastic window mask!!!
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There is no virtue to masking, only people blindly following authority, like always. I saw Governor Polis wearing a mask, and thought he might be going through a ritual shaming, like the rest of us. He looked stupid. Like the rest of us. Even if viruses were the cause of disease, there is no scientific evidence that masks have any effect.
“The wide use of masks by healthy people … is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks. … There is no current evidence to make a recommendation for or against their use.” (WHO) That has some weasel wording to it, and that statement may have been rescinded, since the mask mandates are being done for reasons having nothing to do with health or some imaginary virus.
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Of course, I know, I was just foolishly arguing with them from within their own framework. Just trying to show them the absurdity of trying to live life without risk, especially when the bar is set so low that just exhaling breath, is supposedly a risk to other people.
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What is recommended for “at will” employees that have to wear a mask above their nose at all times and if they don’t they can be discharged? Mask wearing is not a law, it may be recent company policy, but there are the obvious problems, such as can’t properly breath, can’t hear what others are saying and overall dehumanizing. Any recent cases of Corporations firing employees for not keeping the mask above their noses? There has to be! There also has to be sharp attorneys out there ready to take Corporations to the court rooms for financial damages? Or if it’s “at will”, do employees have to abide by company policy whether it’s a law or interferes with the job?
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Tim,
Ahh, I see your point. The whole ‘’My mask protects you and your mask protects me,’’ may not really apply to goggles. But then again, none of it really makes sense because unless someone is actually hacking and coughing on people all over the grocery store, I still don’t understand how they are ‘’spreading the virus’’ everywhere in the first place, much less how a cloth mask could stop it.
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I’ve read this in one book and heard it repeated by Dr. Andrew Kaufman, but otherwise cannot find any mention of it on the Google – during the Spanish flu the US Public Health Service, which is now a branch of the military but I don’t know what it was then – took samples of sputum and saliva and such crud from 100 people sick with the flu, and asked 100 volunteers, prisoners who were either offered shorter sentences or release to ingest the stuff in one form or another. One person swallowed whole. They coughed in their faces, put it in their nose and eyes, did everything possible to transfer the flu to the inmates. Such an experiment would not be done these days.
The result, not one person contracted the flu. Not one.
When I was just out of high school and sowing oats, one night we met some girls doing the same, and I ended up in the back seat of a car with a girl who said she had strep throat. We made out anyway, me sure that I would be paying a price. Nada, nothing. That confused me. {Leaving out a critical element in this story, beer.]
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Over night shops all over the world started to complain about shortage of TP? And then over night this shortage was suddenly over? Come on!
This shops we are talking about are franchise chains. They are only allowed to sell what the franchise has in its program and they have to keep franchise standards and designs. They use franchise networks to get the goods for guaranteed prices and they just give back what they can’t sell. It’s actually very easy to manage a fake shortage of TP. I happen to know for sure, the shop managers of our local Lidl (sort of Aldi, in case you don’t know Lidl) just told the stuff to refill TP only one time a day and only with one sort of TP every time. There never was any shortage of TP, the factories didn’t stop producing it, it was manufactured to spread confusion, as usual. And probably to test the chain of command. There are alternatives for TP, like daily papers or printed advertisements we all get for free, so the TP never really was an issue. Of course it sucks to wipe yourself with a piece of paper but hey. You’ll survive, no? We also had a fake shortage of oil, flour, sugar and even yeast to create the impression people started backing bread at home. Bread itself never was short. And it is cheap and good here. Does it make any sense? It’s the magic in the trick. You have to distract the focus to create the impression. Also that’s why they put the stick deep in the nose for the corona test, not just wipe your gums as they do for the DNA test. And it hurts your mucous membrane possibly leading to “corona” symptoms too.
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