Is someone pulling all our strings?

I posted the following on a thread in AIBU about the immediate rush to declare NAMALT in response to various debates kicking off there. I wanted to put it here because this thread reflects alot of my thoughts on the way the world is going at present. I think it might be a bit relevant here too (Not the first bit particularly, but maybe the rest)

The pushback against "conspiracy theories" as dangerous, has made me feel as though when people smell a rat, want to examine it, and maybe even find some truth, the response can easily be "You're seeing a rat when no rat exists. Your personal agenda is making you biased. If you pursue this rat you're delusional". This may allow genuine conspiracies to hide in fairly plain site for far longer, and as others have mentioned we're in a time when truth is a very subjective animal on the internet - which is now our main source of information.

We see what people want us to see first and foremost, and not all have the luxury of enough time to deep dive contentious and divisive issues and be fully formed with all the facts to prove their opinion.
If someone is immediately shut down with the implication that even trying to unravel things suggests a personal character flaw leading to negative consequences to them and their families and the wider community - well, it's very hard not to think "Family First" and STFU.
Just my opinion of course, but would appreciate any thoughts.

"In my community, our local mosque has worked really hard to prove they are part of the community and showed an amazing amount of tolerance and understanding of people's prejudices to prove that the actions of a few extremists do not represent the truly faithful.

Should they have had to? No. Because they weren't involved, nor supporting those who committed outrageous acts in their name. But they were gracious enough to recognise and deal with hatred stirred up by those with vested interests, both ideological and financial in sowing as much division as possible in communities. By doing this they protected themselves and the stability of the community. This is how problems are supposed to be resolved.

Peaceful, tolerant society's aren't good for a capitalist model. Money is made by solving problems. If a problem diminishes and affects the return, and a genuine new problem can't be found, a problem can be artificially created. I have watched videos about how to make yourself rich. An example is Geoff Bezos. He identified a problem, and was amply rewarded for it. He has the monopoly on that problem. Find a problem and market a solution. Create a problem, get it into people's heads by fair means or foul, and offer a solution. If it is a problem that makes people fearful, then people will pay a higher premium to solve it. Keep adding more and more nuance to the problem, your market expands. You make more money. There is a thing called disaster capitalism which exploits bad things for profit, because it's a free market and everyone has the right to make a living right? But everyone doesn't. Few people do. Those with enough power, influence and structure do. And they ringfence it here. Dubious motivations, morals and ethics are less important than profit. And when one transgression is allowed to slip though the net, they get more daring, more bold, because there is always a justification - "But this is just a bigger version of this strategy, and you didn't complain about that...."

Male violence is a problem. Women want a solution. Any solution proposed may be seen by some as a good thing, a bad thing by others. The one that gains the proposers the most advantage, be it power or money, will be pushed and pushed until we think it is the only solution. Social media and algorithms make spreading what is essentially propaganda so very easy.

You may say I'm a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but much of this is tried and tested economic fact, which should not be ignored.

However this genuine problem is addressed, and by Goddess it needs to be addressed, and should have been a long time ago, for the good of society all round, we have to be rigorous in examining who is offering the solutions, and whether the motivation is genuine or driven by something else."

Totally agree about AI. Bias is being built into the fundamental system and the truly scary thing is it's invisible.

The Green Party has nullified any respect for their views on science with their ludicrous approach to sex and gender

The biggest threat to life on this planet is climate catastrophe and there's a lot of stuff dividing our attention.

I don't think it's a huge conspiracy but I think there are a few influential groups who welcome the confusion. Single minded attention on the climate would mean a real push for real and accelerated change and that would be a problem for a lot of industries.

The Green Party has no innate right to exist. Lots of people voted Green when it was the only party taking environmentalism seriously. They changed tack to evangelising about post-modern gender theory. Now it is imploding. Somebody else will get the protest votes that used to go to Green.

One big issue Munro is that many women who are in the gp who might have voted the other way, are struggling with lockdown and kids at the moment and couldn't attend.

I'm one, my sister definitely and I can certainly name several more.

By chance I discovered proxy voting. However couldn't log on to upvote some stuff as they'd changed the log on thing a few weeks ago, a few of us missed that.

Those who are most obsessed with destroying women's rights tend to have more time on their hands to do this stuff.

www.the11thhourblog.com/post/follow-the-money-how-the-pritzker-family-makes-a-killing-from-the-transgender-industry-flow-chart

(Haven't read the full thread as Mother's Day etc...)

Far right conservative group who want to strip us of reproductive rights are not "just pro-business

Nearly half of Americans are pro-life. It’s not a far-right position and not considered extremist at all.

To be clear, I don’t personally hold these positions. But it’s fairly common opinion held by both men and women

Divide and conquer? To what end?

More like divide and destroy by fomenting civil war on multiple fronts.
Just think who benefit.

The only sad constants are continued male dominance over woman, racism and religious conflicts

True. But at least things are starting to be heard by the grownups who can change things for the better and can't be sacked in the High Court and HoL. no amount of goady fuckers can remove women and girls rights once it's heard in court.

Divide and conquer policy.

To what end?

I believe the reality is many millions of people are being sexist because that's their normal. Patriarchy runs deep.

Yes. People truly believe that men and women have fundamentally different brains and motivations. That women are wired to be better at nuturing and homemaking and that men are inherently better leaders and drivers (for sake of example).

Turn women against each other. Turn LGBTQ+ people against each other by finding areas there are philosophical differences (for a lack of a better term) - so in the feminist case, sex work, trans people etc.

It's neither a new thing nor a complicated concept. They just need to find people within the groups looking to make easy money or zealots willing to ignore their stances on other areas.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/20/alliance-defending-freedom-multimillion-dollar-conservative-christian-group-attacking-lgbtq-rights

Guardian piece from last year on it.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trump-us-christian-spending-global-revealed/

For a more in depth look.

If that's happening, do these "American far-right christian groups" do this knowing they are "funding" lesbian feminists who support abortion rights (among other not very far right christian aims)?

*Omg not the Heritage Foundation 😱

Please. They are just a conservative, pro-business group. Think establishment Republicans. You don’t have to like them, but they aren’t a far-right hate group ffs 🤦‍♀️*

...This is what I mean when I say infiltration.

Far right conservative group who want to strip us of reproductive rights are not "just pro-business."

Take a look where the ADF and Graham Institute money's been going over here.

I can't help feeling that the vigils and women's marches are part of or feeding into the SJM narrative

I agree with this. Someone on R4 today talked about it being a "moment" for women's safety or some such, and I thought yes, it's become the fashion that everyone must have their "moment" and protest loudly about the injustices afflicted on them and that becomes flavour of the month for a bit, and gets exploited by business to sell stuff, and gets plastered all over everyone's twitter banner, until it's the next thing. The issues themselves don't matter as much as being seen to be having a moment, so the inequalities can be perpetuated.

I believe the reality is many millions of people are being sexist because that's their normal. Patriarchy runs deep.

I don't know about any more "hidden" conspiracies or plotting, though it's interesting to hear some of the ideas here.

But I think the above is true either way. Everyone is saturated with misogynist attitudes from birth; some of us gain more awareness than others for various reasons, some of us fight back. But an idea that embodies misogyny, whether it's come about through normal cultural changes or sinister scheming, will appeal to people's misogyny and get perpetuated.

Liberal feminists who bully other women on twitter for saying that sex matters, for example, think they are just being kind and accommodating without realising that being socialised to put males first is part of misogyny, doing what males want when they behave threateningly is part of misogyny, picking on women who don't bow down to misogyny is part of misogyny.

Meanwhile misogynist men jump on the TRA bandwagon whether they are invested in the trans cause or not, because it just feels good to hit back at feminists and display dominance – again they may not realise that and fully believe themselves to be woke and caring, but IMO it's under the surface.

Do you believe in a collective consciousness?

I think nobody is as autonomous as they think they are. Mumsnet feminists included, though I don't think second wave feminists are an 'identity group' in the same way as LGBTQ + and intersectional feminists have become, they are still being used in the oppressed minority narrative of SJM.

We all have inherently tribal instincts. Most people have a will to power. Most people are prone to peer pressure to a certain extent. We all have the same endogenous endorphin systems which can be manipulated with likes and agreement and we would all like to avoid cognitive dissonance, discomfort and censure. Everyone can fall prey to echo chambers. Our conscious reasonable self is a tiny part of our brain compared to our unconscious.

I do think this recent outpouring of fear and anger over personal safety is emotionally driven and reactionary. I am not personally fearful for my physical safety because I am female. I am fearful for my freedom and liberal rights because I am gc though.

I strongly believe that Queer Theory and CRT and the SJM are not accidental. They may not be engineered by an individual, but they are ideologically power driven (which is also emotional to a certain extent) and cynically exploiting the subconscious vulnerabilities of the 'proletariat' using old techniques adapted for the new age.

The new tech tools(the internet), machine learning algorithms, targeted propaganda and advertising have given players on both sides an ideological and financial lever.

The far left are using reified postmodern techniques under the Social Justice rallying cry , there no end goal other than blur reality and destroy what is. There will how ever be a power vacuum into which players will step, (so there may be people waiting in the wings and subtly steering now).

The far right will not be able to steer with these particular reins, so it isn't them . Though they could still use their favoured tactic of extreme violence to suppress.

The liberal center must hold. The pushback against this is rational and necessary but I can't help feeling that the vigils and women's marches are part of or feeding into the SJM narrative and I want no part of them.

However my point was and always will be - this is not women's job to do, we have our own problems (as this weeks events have clearly shown).
As a previous poster has mentioned, women are often socialised to put others first, even at the expense of ourselves.

I'm not talking about being a good ally to the trans activists. Certainly not. They want to cancel us. I'm hoping they are not representative of all trans people, and many are supportive of sex based rights. But you don't hear their voices so maybe I am wrong.

"The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth, and truth be defamed as lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world - and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end - is being destroyed."

Hannah Arendt

Think about that quote, then watch the Yuri Bezmenov clips on youtube posted on the first page.

I don't generally believe conspiracy theories (sometimes find them amusing/entertaining/intellectual popcorn etc) but I do believe in one grand "meta"-conspiracy... that both conspiracy theories and queer theory/postmodernism are being leveraged to culturally undermine and split us, in order for us to be ruled by authoritarian forces, not necessarily a nation state, but ideological. If "truth" is undermined to the extent that men can be declared women in law and policy by legislative fiat, and swathes of the population unquestioningly accept this, then as a society we are done for, if we can't find our bearings as we move through history and time. If men can be women, up can be down, east can be west, war can be peace, stripping can be empowering, forest clearcutting to fuel former coal stations can be sustainable etc etc. We're ripe for subjugation and authoritarian rule by PR and propaganda, and we can't rely on our "critical thinking" to parse out the truth any more, cos it's been skewed by the influence of conspiracy theories and identitarian based politics. Even the "fact-checking" services are now politically skewed and biased. We're a lost population, and a lost population creates a huge power vacuum into which authoritarianism can blow in.

Keep hold of the basic bearings of truth and fact, stop giving clicks, data and ££ to big tech, shop at small and medium sized businesses, triangulate your news and information sources to a variety of viewpoints, have time away from screens/social media... do something hand-based like bread making or wood carving or out in nature like gardening or long dog walks etc. Shift a lot of online focus/energies to a face-to-face community level focus, rather then endless twitter clicks and doom-scrolling that gets lost in the data cloud. Disempower the technocrats and the transhumanists.