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Are you oblivious to the effects of lockdowns on broader society?
Do you think people may just be angry because the government basically destroyed many businesses, education, mental health, rights, etc.
People are just angry and dislike totalitarianism.
It's one issue. "Qanon" and "antivax" is the new "Nazi" bogeyman of the left. You are a prime culprit when it comes to those type of leading articles. From nazi, deniers, Trumpers to Boogaloo boy's you used every buzzword to ostracise those who went against a certain ethos.Two quite separate issues here I think
Firstly there was the governments response to out of control COVID - general lockdowns. The absolute reality was that without any effective treatment of COVID the only response left to minimise infection was quarantine. Lockdown.
Across the world the degree of death and illness was directly related to the effectiveness of quarantine programs that minimised interaction. At the same time Governments to one degree or another tried to keep people housed and fed and financed through these lockdowns.
No one wanted to destroy businesses education etc through lockdownsBut the sheer simple facts were that without such actions societies would be affected even more seriously with deaths and illnesses through COVID.
At this stage societies faced the lies, misinformation and denial of bad actors. "It's just a flu" "It doesn't affect healthy people " and so on. So we battled through lockdowns with health authorities overwhelmingly advising that lockdowns were the only effective way to bring the disease under control while a host of actors just demanded their freedom and undermined the dangers of this disease
In 2021 through amazing medical efforts scientists developed vaccines that largely protected people against the worst effects of COVID. So there was a light at the end of this tunnel.
But no. Let's back up here. Yep anti vaxxers, Q Anon and hosts of crazies found a multitude of reasons to terrify people out of using a life saving vaccine. "Vaccines were killing people like flies." "Vaccines were going to destroy your genes" "You don't need vaccines anyway - your strong enough to overpower COVID" and of course
"How DARE anyone tell you what to put in your sacred temple of a body ! "
Your quite right Moxjo. People are angry. They are furious with a range of actors who have undermined public health with an unceasing litany of lies and misinformation.And we are quietly furious that our friends and family have been sucked into this vortex of deceit that is undermining their lives as well as threatening the overall health of the community.
Whatever Moxjo.
Mmmm I see your conspiracy theory and raise you a conspiracy theory.Wokeism has poisoned vast numbers of people with dangerous and seemingly ridiculous ideas and constructed a world of conspiracies that overwhelms people. Once down the rabbit hole finding an exit is hard work. Regardless of what Moxjo tries to say this organisation is powerful, effective and dangerous. One of it's most dangerous attributes is an ability to just create whole new conspiracies that tap peoples concerns.
Wokeism began as a secret Trump inspired organisation and has morphed into a creative catch all cult. Getting outof it is a challenge.
Maybe you missed the point. The numbers are insignificant.What delicious irony Moxjo. I use a conservative leaning think tank CSIS that offers an analysis of Q ANON and the dangers/challenges it represents in terms of extremist behaviour.
You on the other hand, ignore any discussion on the analysis and then use a left liberal think tank to point out that CSIS has serious establishment/big business money behind it. Frankly that analysis of Q Anon has been done a score of times and the message is much the same - it is a highly effective, organisation that has seriously warped many peoples minds.
You then try to divert attention from one form of radicalization to another. Yep there are serious problems with Muslim radicialisation . But finally authorities are realising that the right wing extremists across the US that have been bombing police stations, killing demonstraters and trying to overthrow the last US election with the overt blessing of Donald Trump are every but as dangerous.
It does not surprise me that the opinion polls are skewed, they have been wrong for some time.But Saturday and Sunday, November 20 and 21, were different. The professional protesters were missing and so media coverage was down. I now realise similar groups appeared in most states but it was in Melbourne where the largest numbers massed on the streets. I wrote about the event because I believed I was watching middle Australia go to the streets — something they rarely do. The largest protests were on the Sunday where in Melbourne almost certainly 200,000 walked through streets in an orderly fashion.
Morgan chose to research the Saturday crowd which was about 20,000. To determine who these people were, and where they came from, Morgan ‘geo-fenced’ the area in front of Victoria’s Parliament House from 11am to 2.30pm.
The mobile devices that were seen in this area during the protest time period were then profiled by Helix group to produce a ‘Heat Map’ showing where the protesters had come from.
Missing were the normal protest groups from inner-city areas. They were replaced by people who had come from the outer suburban areas that ring Melbourne. Some even came from regional centres like Ballarat, Geelong, Ocean Grove, Torquay, Wallan, Warragul, Hastings, Traralgon and Wonthaggi.
By examining the population compositions of the suburban and regional areas who dominated the protest Morgan determined that they were mainly two groups of Australians:
• The so called “contented Australians” who embrace conventional family life. They are perennial home improvers, they see their homes as an expression of their status and achievements.
• Those further down the socio-economic ladder who are struggling to make ends meet and looking for a better deal in life. They tend to be cynical and pessimistic about their situation and authority figures generally.
Protesters gather on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne last weekend. Picture: Getty Images
These two very different groups united. Both were hit by the lockdowns and are very unhappy with the Victorian premier. The anecdotal evidence indicates similar groups attended the Sydney protests albeit on a smaller scale.
Any state government that inflicts another lockdown on these two groups can forget about being elected at their next election.
In its voter base, the ALP has a large slice of the battlers, but both parties need votes from ‘contented’ Australians who normally do not protest unless they are greatly aroused. Another lockdown in NSW or Victoria will likely see voters surge to the opposition.
Around the world opinion polls on political issues are proving inaccurate. Australia’s opinion poll record is superior to most countries but given there is turmoil in outer suburban land, opinion polling can be wrong.
While the greatest turmoil is in Victoria, it is also evident in NSW and other states. It does not appear to show up in many opinion polls so we have to wonder whether the pollsters have maintained their accuracy.
Meanwhile the economic figures that came out of the lockdowns in Victoria and NSW were stark.
Australian household spending fell by 4.8 per cent in the September quarter.
Spending on discretionary or non-essential goods and services accounted for between 80 and 90 per cent of the fall in consumption for NSW and Victoria. Spending has now bounced back very strongly and we are set for a great Christmas.
But middle Australia has spoken and both the Victorian and NSW Premiers will have got the message, which is great news for business.
Whoa.DB008, a link to the article would be nice. I checked and it is not like how you make it out to be and that photo meme that you posted is being disseminated by, guess who, read and find out.
First thing. The Atlantic didn't say that child sex trafficking (specifically referring to the US) doesn't exist. It says it is not an epidemic as the Trumpers are spouting and claiming a host of Democrats are behind it.
All over the country, well-meaning Americans are convinced that human trafficking—and specifically child sex trafficking—is happening right in their backyard, or at any rate no farther away than the nearest mall parking lot. A 2020 survey by the political scientists Joseph Uscinski and Adam Enders found that 35 percent of Americans think the number of children who are victims of trafficking each year is about 300,000 or higher; 24 percent think it is “much higher.” Online, people read that trafficking is a problem nobody else is willing to discuss: The city they live in is a “hot spot,” their state one of the worst in the country. Despite what the mainstream media are saying, this is “the real pandemic.”
I let you read the full article yourself (do you actually read the background to anything you post or just regurgitate right wing conspiracies?)
I watched the rest of the video a few minutes later, on my own phone. “We are digital soldiers, fighting the greatest war the world has never seen,” the voice-over explained. The bad guys: Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Chuck Schumer, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton. The good guys, a much smaller team: Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Barron Trump, Jesus, and an unidentified soldier holding a baby swaddled in an American flag. And, by implication, me, the viewer. “Our weapon is truth,” the voice-over continued as music swelled in the background. “We’ll never give up, even if we have to shake everyone awake one by one.”
.....
The provenance of the video was unclear—it was not affiliated with Operation Underground Railroad and bore no resemblance to the official materials its volunteers had been handing out—but the term digital soldier rang a bell. It was a reference to a QAnon conspiracy theory that emerged in 2017 on an out-of-the-way message board and describes Donald Trump as a lone hero waging war against a “deep state” and a cabal of elites who are pedophiles and child murderers; these conspirators will soon be exposed—and perhaps brutally executed—during a promised “storm.” Notably, the video isn’t asking for money, and isn’t presenting an argument. It’s more like a daily devotional for people who already believe in its premise, or something like it.
Pedophile rings have actually been exposed in elitist groups.
The greatest way to stifle growth in this insidious industry is to maintain awareness.
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