So what is it: a devilish conspiracy or a genuine attempt to tackle a real problem? I think neither. Or a bit of both, take your pick. Factoring into it beyond a shadow of doubt is a lot of misinformation, some of it purposeful, some genuinely believed to be true, some parroted. Oh, and an awful lot of stupidity, I'd say. Whatever the motivation, there's no doubt in my mind that the world has gone crazy. It's the perfect recipe for divisiveness.
Well said. It would be both completely impossible and completely unnecessary to have a conspiracy this big. For one thing, with that level of scope and scale there would be too many competing factions within the conspiracy insiders. They would tear each other to shreds in short time. On that note, how would they get all of the other countries, like the Russians and and the Asians involved?
Rather, as you say, the concept of a killer virus was introduced into society and then all manner of reactions resulted from a wide variety of motivations - material based, politically based and psychologically based. Then the whole thing took on a life of its own. The leaders had a sleeping dragon by the tail. Now it's awake and the leaders are just trying to hold on for dear political life. They can't admit mistakes, etc.
There is a virus. I think anyone who denies the existence of a covid virus (or viruses generally) is just another flat earth fruit loop, of which we have a number on Skeptiko.
The question then is - or should be - how dangerous is the virus and to whom is it dangerous? A year and a half + into the phenomenon and we have the answer to those questions. Not even the CDC disputes the following, though the media tends to obfuscate the facts in favor of profit generating hype and some governments do the same because they gain more power over their subjects.
The virus is just another coronavirus that causes cold and flu symptoms. For some people these symptoms can be severe and for the vast majority, they are considerably more mild; again, like any other annual cold/flu. Just like any other cold/flu, the elderly, who were at or near their expected year of death, can succumb to the symptoms and die. There is nothing special about covid in this regard. It is however, for some people with particularly sensitive immune systems, an aggressive respiratory issue that can be fatal. The majority of those are simply the elderly and infirm who would have died due to any bad flu or cold any year. Another subset is those who have something akin to an autoimmune response to the spike proteins in the virus. This latter group can also have a severe - even fatal - reaction to the spike protein in the "vaccine".
As for "excess deaths", the % of elderly who died in 2020 is no different than any other year. Since the elderly are the by far the cohort with the highest body count, it would be impossible for the virus to be unusually deadly without increasing the % of elderly dead in 2020. This strongly suggests that normal deaths from a variety of causes are being attributed to covid.
The CDC excess deaths are failing to account for a growing and aging population. The figures should be in rates not raw numbers. The CDC knows this and this is deliberate hype and obfuscation on their part. Why? I suspect because they invested so much in the covid scourge meme that they can't admit they were wrong. The death rate (age sex adjusted) in 2020 is not higher than some years since 2000. So there is more evidence of bogus "excess deaths". Furthermore, there are many preventable deaths in 2020,but those were due to covid policy- neglected elderly, deferred care, increased suicides and drug overdoses. These deaths were somewhat mitigated by reductions in automobile deaths, etc.
people think they're right, and that's a problem. God save us all from those who think they're right. But what about those who maintain detachment, neither believing nor disbelieving all sorts of theories? I'm one of those. You could say, in a manner of speaking, I believe in God but, still, tether my camel lest it run off in the night.
Not only do most people think they are right, but that belief is psychologically based and not evidence based. Yes, they can present "evidence" to support their rightness. That evidence is usually selectively chosen, filtered and interpreted to support what the individual already believed. The belief came first, then the "evidence" to support it. Worse, people become so ego-invested in their position that they cannot alter it or admit they are wrong. It's like the position they took defines them and to have to admit wrongness is seen as a threat to their very being. This is all especially true with conspiracy theorists, but also with normals that can't handle that government and media and science do lie to us all of the time. It happens in all walks of life.
thing about the idea that it's a conscious attempt by elites to depopulate is that the elites depend on the continued existence of the status quo. What good would it do for business magnates and their cronies if there were an enormous contraction in the population and hence that many less consumers willing or able to consume? If the population were to markedly decrease, it would hardly go without notice and there'd be millions left who would be out for blood. The first targets of an incandescent populace would likely be the elites.......................
Probably all true. Careful though, none of that, alone, would necessarily stop them from trying. Here you are making the same mistake that the CTers make. You assume total rationality, omnesience, total uniformity and cohesion and total control on the part of the decision makers. Decision makers are human and plagued by all normal human foibles. They are not fully rational. They are incapable of playing well with others for long term and they are not nearly as in control as they want to be or would need to be. Ideology drives decisions. Profiteers decide how they can leverage ideologically driven decisions to make money. Sometimes they are able to influence/corrupt the ideologies, but mostly they [profiteers] are more like remora following the ideologue sharks around.
