Crossing the Rubicon
Building a Parallel Economy
So I checked Facebook today for the first time in about a week. I'm glad I did so as I learned that my brother and his wife had recently been diagnosed with Covid.
I am one of those disappearing once daily active users on Facebook. The social media giant used to get a great deal of my attention and I'd spend between one and three hours of my day on the site. I mostly posted photos and videos of myself and my family in my many travels. I mostly got attention from my peer group from high school, or at least the movers and shakers amongst them who liked to compare themselves with others. But I expanded my group to Thais and then people from anywhere of any age and worked my way up to the 5000 friend limit.
I have an Instagram but wasn't quite selfie obsessed enough for it. I also have a Twitter account but for years I found the short form of tweets not to my liking. Everything I write turns into an essay and goes over their character limit. I don't have enough time, energy, insecurity or narcissism to waste all of my precious time on these platforms. So Facebook became my outpost for my "we're still alive and the family is doing well" pictures, joke memes and my occasional rantings of a more political or personal nature. The fact that I probably would get an award for most traveled at our high school reunion fuelled my popularity. The fact that I remain pretty easy on the eyes got some popularity too.
"You live in Phuket? That's a good one hahaha!" One high school classmate of several like thoughts messaged me in circa 2010. I messaged back that Phuket, Thailand was pronounced Poo-khet (get your mind out of the gutter) and that yes, I really did live there. Thus motivated to prove to my peer group that I wasn't making up stories from my parents basement in Ohio I proceeded to build an incredible photo and video library of my travels and life. My two daughters practically grew up on Facebook, at least to my friends list.
I'm going to build off a substack article I read and liken the censorship on social media to visiting a dearly loved, but intolerant grandmother. You know there's things you love that are really important to you that you can't talk about around her. You might have tried reasoning with her, or questioning her views. You might have gone passive aggressive or lashed out, perhaps drunk. She kicked you out of the house over it.
After awhile you grow tired of only talking about your cute new kitten or your pretty car or whatever the approved and mundane safe subjects are in her presence. Eventually you just stop visiting Grandma so much.
I have some friends that haven't gotten that memo yet, so I've become an occasional lurker. The most ardent narrative supporters seem to have gone quiet in the last few months. There's a lot of requests for prayers for a mother in the hospital, or condolences for a father or cousin who died suddenly, more than I remember in years past. There's less vacation photos posted than in years past, though restriction free Florida and Mexico seem to be popular destinations. I had a friend who posted pictures from traveling throughout Europe and a family member who went to Hawaii. In both cases I was depressed and alarmed as their choices inadvertently revealed them to be jabbed. About half of my feed is either ads or sponsored news. Many of my messages seem a little scammy lately.
I got unfriended by a few people early in the pandemic. One guy in April of 2020 was telling me he hoped they produced a Covid vaccine soon. I told him that Covid was a bad choice for a vaccine, because it was an RNA virus and would thus mutate, meaning at best they'd make a new flu type jab that would be required yearly. "Don't tell you you're an anti-vaxxer?" He messaged last with a shock emoji before blocking and unfriending me. Another vehemently pro-Biden friend posted that "If you don't vote for Biden you have no soul." I posted back "Don't bring my immortal soul into this. We're talking about a politician here." She dropped me before that quip got more widely shared. I got accused of being a Trump supporter (oh the horror!) even though I never voted for the guy.
My warnings about the conjabs started by January of 2021 as I was noticing the surge in Covid cases and deaths right as they were rolling out the shot to the elderly in nursing homes. I would have been cautious anyways but this was screaming red flags. It looked like they were hiding the bodies through a Covid diagnosis. My cautions were conveyed mostly through private messages and fell on deaf ears. A close friend who had asked me if I was getting the jab was told simply "No. I don't trust these bastards." A few weeks later she posted a strange meme on her page about how science is settled and anti-vaxxers are idiots. It was depressing to see all around. So many people I respected and admired had turned into compliant, unthinking cowards.
But I don't intend to lose my thousands of family photos and videos posted over 14 years. It's hard to put so much effort into something to see it evaporate. I tried to downloading my page but it's simply too large. Facebook apparently owns my data. I just want my pictures back, taken over 14 years on countless devices and including family members that have died and gone. I have pictures of my younger daughter as a newborn at the hospital, on Facebook only. How hard they've made it to download simple JPEG files crossed the Rubicon for me.
I can't trust that my information is secure on Facebook, or that it's even mine anymore. Canadians, I suspect, are crossing a worse Rubicon. If the Prime Minister can hide out like a coward, ignore completely legitimate demands by the truckers, freeze the accounts of the protesters, seize their money and perhaps make them unable to work ever again, then he is the terrorist. The social contract has been severed. They think they own your body, your life and your assets. There is no way to reform such a system.
I still cannot imagine that this just somehow goes away. Won't there be supply chain shortages or bank runs? Trudeau seems bent on punishing the truckers, perhaps with a January 6 capital protesters type of Inquisition. My hat has really been off to the truckers for their peaceful resistance: they've managed to out agent provocateurs, keep out of trouble and stay on a righteous path. They've shown the government Covid response for what it always was: a mass global psyop to implement a social credit system on behalf of globalist overlords. Government force tears away at government legitimacy.
I don't have any easy answers for rebuilding society. I do have suggestions though.
There needs to be a return to both private and sound money. I don't know if cryptocurrency is the answer here as I believe there are too many grid down/no phone/energy crisis situations where the ability to barter with physical money becomes too important. I know there are physical representations of Bitcoin, for example, but is there a way to verify that the seal remains unbroken (and hence the cryptowallet is still funded) in a grid down scenario? Or to seamlessly use it for day to day transactions?
Why don't doctors make house calls anymore? It sounds like hospital protocols are killing people and a lot of the more critical thinking compassionate doctors and nurses are getting pushed out of the medical system. Can they do cash only type of concierge services? The entire certification regime needs to be obsolete. Let the free market decide.
People really should be making Santa lists. Those that helped or showed compassion in public service, medicine, law et cetera get on the nice list. Those in those same fields that have been callous, violent, or vindictive should be doxxed on the naughty list. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Except have a nice list. Build on that.
The truckers showed that police are the pressure point between people and politicians. The legacy media also provides ground cover for unpopular edicts. These are the ones that need to be shamed for endorsing or enforcing orders in violation of conscience.
Science needs to return to a policy of skepticism and open debate. In the arena of public health I particularly dislike the use of surrogate measures to judge outcomes. The measure of how good a hospital is is not found in the percentage of employees jabbed (a surrogate measure) it is based on patient feedback. Most bad science uses surrogate measures, including almost all Covid related things: if the jabs reduce severe Covid, but increase all cause mortality for example. If I'm half as likely to catch Covid and die jabbed but four times more likely to drop dead of a heart attack that's not a good trade-off.
I don't know why get togethers can't be in private farmer's fields, as an example. Places where everyone is sympathetic and a new economy can be built in peace. The Canadian government could go all Ruby Ridge but I don't think it's going to happen that way. The country is too stretched out and support of the regime among the enforcers is not that strong.
The rulers have been able to leverage people's desperate desire to get back to normal to force a lot on the population. But once that trust is severed, once only force will suffice to keep it under control, then the government has already lost. It's only a matter of time.
They've already crossed the Rubicon. If my Facebook is any idea, I'm dealing with the walking dead. What do you plan to do?