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Amtrup
3 years ago

The Spiked article “Apocalypse from now on” overlooks what in my opinion is by far the biggest reason for the increasingly doom-laden “end is nigh” thinking of the last 70+ years; the political one, which is that the “powers that be” have not only understood that fearmongering is an extremely effective way to control/herd people but they have also ( since Bernays, invention of radio/tv etc ) developed increasingly powerful targeted tools and techniques to do that fearmongering with.

Other factors may well contribute to the “end of times” tendency, including the western diet, ( coffee and sugar and high GI carbohydrates etc, and not enough Essential Fatty Acids in good fat and protein foods ), which causes anxiety, loss of sleep, among other things likely to make people vulnerable to fearmongering, but I think it’s significant that Spiked don’t mention the political factor; deliberate systematic use of fear.

Amtrup
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

… …. inculcating and cultivating this fearful/”end is nigh” mindset in order to cow and corral the population/herd/flock.

Amtrup
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

Sheepdog herding sheep gif … I deleted it because the endless gif loop was just too annoying. 🙂

Nobody2022
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

I like to term this line of thinking as “The death of now”. People who don’t like or want change see every change as killing whatever the state of the present is. They are generally myopic with what they want to learn from the past and have no vision for the medium to long term future, other than to preserve the here and now.

I had a conversation (online) with a friend about the the Catalan independence movement back in 2017. This was when they declared independence from the rest of Spain. My friend said something along the lines of “hundreds of years of history and they want to break it up”.

I asked him if he believed we have reached a point of perfection whereby nothing should ever change. I didn’t get an answer.

RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  Nobody2022

Here’s an answer: Nobody argued for universal stasis as value in itself.

Amtrup
3 years ago

Off topic but I don’t know where would be more appropriate; I wish that articles/posts still came with a Comments button/icon at the top/next to the title so that can go to the comments in one click rather than having to scroll. I’d also like it if the number of comments was once again indicated next to each article headline/title listing, as it’s a very handy way to see if discussion has advanced on a topic without having to go all the way to Comments, ( I don’t like getting txt/email notifications as quickly overwhelms my inbox ). I also wish that the change to “subscription/donation/pay to comment” changes had been explained to us in advance of the change, so that the regular commenters could have argued and complained about it freely beforehand, let off steam and adjusted to it. I know that the site already lost a significant/substantial number of its old regular readers and commenters when the site suddenly began deleting the entire comment thread under the Daily Update, and like many others I was saddened and irritated by that change but I don’t like reddit so stayed here. I thought the site would not risk losing even… Read more »

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

I broadly agree; excellent post. Have you tried emailing the editorial team?

I think the comments are slowly building up, but many good commenters have gone. Nice to see some new ones.

The idea of selling advertising space doesn’t seem to have taken off – probably predictable.

Amtrup
3 years ago

I don’t understand why they didn’t go the Voluntary Work route, as so many/most financially successful charities ( with well paid CEOs! ) do, and libraries, and surprisingly large numbers of other services now. Why didn’t the DS ask for voluntary work/help with writing, editing, IT, etc, and just run a quarterly or annual fundraising drive to cover server costs etc?

I currently do 12-16 hours a week voluntary work for a charity. I’m what is framed as “unemployed”. I think I imagined that at least a couple of the people researching and writing and running the IT at DS were doing the same, and that if they needed more help it would be voluntary. Many of the commenters now gone were doing significant research work for free. And voluntarily spreading the word about the site/free PR/advertising.

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

Maybe you are right. I’m sadly ignorant on the subject. TY comes from a professional journalism background. Maybe it’s hard to get consistent high quality content from volunteers, especially if you want that content to be topical and on topics you as site owner/runner want to focus on.
I think advertising revenue would be the ideal income source, let’s hope that materialises.

Amtrup
3 years ago

I think it’s appalling that so many often highly skilled and/or time consuming jobs in large and established organisations are now being done by volunteers, or by people on virtually volunteer levels of pay/expenses, but the DS was founded on voluntary work, by Toby Young, it was built on the voluntary work model, ( and was still small ) and I think that they should have stuck with that, with paid jobs only for otherwise unmanageable work loads. Readers and “free to comment” regulars were doing a lot of the research and PR/advertising for nothing; their goodwill and involvement was priceless. .

Amtrup
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

PS. But it’s true that you have somewhat less control over volunteers … 🙂 !

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

I always assumed most of the people who worked on LS/DS were paid, but I don’t know. Someone who seemed like they were in the know mentioned Toby had “backers” who were rich – think it was Hugh Osmond who said this to me. Perhaps they have now withdrawn as they feel it’s “job done” or perhaps they didn’t like the direction of the site. I am happy to pay the £5 a month but then I can afford it.

Amtrup
3 years ago

I’m just so sad about the loss of all those commenters who contributed so much and who created the community here. 🙁

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

Me too, but personally I think £5 is reasonable. At first glance it may be a bit counterintuitive to ask those ALREADY making a net positive contribution (those making good comments) to pay for the privilege, but if you consider that regular commenters are the most likely to be committed to the “cause” and the priority was to make sure the site was free to view, it makes more sense.

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
3 years ago

Do you have an email to contact the editorial team? I have a few minor questions I would like to ask them.

In reply to Amtrup above, I would say it’s a bit ironic that on an ostensibly ‘free speech’ platform, the actual commenters don’t get a say. Maybe they felt it would be too onerous to poll the commenters. You’re right though, the quality of the forum has suffered. I only recently decided to subscribe but, having done so, often find no comments at all under the News Round-Up.

Also, it seems people are commenting almost a day ahead of me even though I get up early. How is that possible when the DS only seems to hit my email about 5am or so on the day I read it. It means that some people are getting it the day before. How?

transmissionofflame
3 years ago

thedailysceptic@gmail.com

There’s a link for this on every day’s News Round-up article. I think that’s where most general comments go, rather than the daily newsletter.

If you want a more general forum then try https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics/

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
3 years ago

Much appreciated, ToF! Thank you.

NeilParkin
3 years ago

Britain forced to beg Belgium for power to keep the lights on

Absolute nonsense as usual. The UK buys and sells energy all through each day, through its links with mainland Europe.

https://grid.iamkate.com/, analyses the national grid, and towards the bottom of the page are graphs showing the flows via the interconnects. This is the last months.

screenshot-grid.iamkate.com-2022.07.25-06_18_39.png
JohnK
3 years ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

That’s a useful site. I often look at it – the almost real time displays of the balance between sources and demand is useful.

transmissionofflame
3 years ago

“Kemi Badenoch is feared by a Labour party that finds it difficult to attack her. So why did Tory MPs back Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss over her”

She’s a conservative. Most Tory MPs are not.

transmissionofflame
3 years ago

To the downvoter, which of my two statements do you believe to be incorrect?

A Y M
3 years ago

There’s always one…
😉

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  A Y M

The downvotes as such don’t bother me, but if you disagree with a post then engage (preferable) or ignore!

huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  A Y M

Or two in this case 😀😀

Pandora Box
Pandora Box
3 years ago

I agree with Amtrup, the new rules where readers of DS had to donate to comment were crudely and insensitively applied. The most wonderful and lively discussions stopped overnight. Some brilliant minds spent hours of their time composing thoughtful and also witty comments. We should have paid them! I miss Annie, Karenovirus, who was unwell and I hope he’s ok. Redhotscot and so many others. Please Toby how do we get them back in the fold?

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Pandora Box

What other sources of funding would you suggest? I’m not saying there are none, just that there do not appear to me to be any easy choices here.

Pandora Box
Pandora Box
3 years ago

Reader’s reluctance to pay a very reasonable five quid a month, I think has more to do with the fear of being identifiable than the money. They subtly wrote some wonderfully outrageous stuff. Oh and also the autocratic manner in which it was introduced – ie pay up or sod off!!

transmissionofflame
3 years ago
Reply to  Pandora Box

I’m no expert but unless people are using very fancy technology their posts can be traced to where they live/work as easily as any payments they make.

transmissionofflame
3 years ago

Dear Downvoter
You are clearly wiser than I on this subject (as you notice I did say “I’m no expert”) so please enlighten me as to how people can post here without being traced, and how they would be traced if they paid DS £5.

oblong
3 years ago

Chudov subtract on IgG4 antispike antibodies and the link

https://unglossed.substack.com/p/boosting-tolerance-igg4?utm_campaign=post_embed

I’ve found it hard to follow some of the science as to the dangers of repeated mRNA jabs but I get this. So clear. It’s about tolerance antibodies. Good if you are a bee keeper but not so good for against an infectious desease.

JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

His article is a must read, understand and share indeed.
This c/should be big.

huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

The article is way above my level of understanding on this subject.

huxleypiggles
3 years ago

“Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder reveals their mum found tragic brother dead.”

And Shaun believes the blood clot which killed his brother was caused by the booster.

A friend of mine died eight months ago within 12 hours of being ‘boosted.’

A massive heart attack but the coroner refused a Post Mortem as the heart attack was not linked to the “shot.”

Non smoker, hardly drank, no previous history of heart disease and not overweight. Fit for his age.

Coincidences eh?

AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
3 years ago

The more I read, watch and listen to about the vaccines, the virus, digital ID, digital currencies not to mention the climate agenda and Ukraine and so on, the more I feel that we are watching a tsunami of inescapable totalitarian control coming towards us in slow motion. When you see a crime being committed in front of you, in plain sight, you don’t just ignore it, you do something about it. Individuals need to be arrested and put on trial. It really is as simple as that. The so-called security forces – Police/Army etc – should be actively doing something about this – at least, those that can see the treason being committed against the public – they can’t ALL be brainwashed can they? For me, it has got to that stage.

huxleypiggles
3 years ago

Sadly, I agree with you.