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ADs and their pampered poodles

995 replies

BogRollBOGOF · 17/01/2021 13:02

Here we are again, gaining sequels even more rapidly than the Fast and the Furious...

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MercyBooth · 17/01/2021 20:58

Meanwhile Tory MP Neil O Brien is writing for the Guardian

SirSamuelVimes · 17/01/2021 20:59

The Guardian have been shit for years now. Shame, I used to read them all the time.

TooManyPlatesInMotion · 17/01/2021 21:22

The Guardian have indeed been shit for years, but their awful coverage re Covid has pushed me to the point of not wanting to read them at all.

chocolatesweets · 17/01/2021 21:32

@Wishfulthinking1977 yes. thanks for all the support here. Seriously kept me sane over the ...year?! Serious thanks

TabbyStar · 17/01/2021 21:45

Meanwhile Tory MP Neil O Brien is writing for the Guardian

Now he's a rabid lockdowner trying to discredit anyone who disagrees. Another career politician who's never had a proper job outside of politics as far as I know and won't vote against the Government. It would be great to have politicians who've had some experience in the real world first. The problem with a lot of affluent rural areas is that you could stand a turnip for the Conservatives and it'd win.

Lostinacloud · 17/01/2021 21:45

I have been feeling more fed up than usual today and it all started when I was watching a film called “The Kid who would be King” with the DC!
Near the end of the film, the young boy is making a speech to all the other kids in his secondary school trying to rally them to stand together against the evil underworld woman and he says something along the lines of “we have to stop fighting between ourselves, evil has tricked us into blaming and picking on each other because it knows that we have no power if we are not united”.

It has really struck a cord with me and I have to admit, has sent me quite far down a rabbit hole thinking about how the government has deliberately caused people to blame and fight with each other precisely because we have no power if not united. I have known for ages (like most of us) that we have been utterly manipulated and bombarded with propaganda to cause deflection from their own failings but this is another level. This is the deliberate delivery of information, anecdotal stories and confusing messages in order to cause in-fighting and a strong inability for the masses to come together and cause any real threat to their control.

I’ve started to question whether all of these stories about people being arrested by 12 policeman for walking around a lake is equally part of the “plan”. Throw out a story that seems ludicrous on the face of it and generate some backlash against the heavy hand of the police. However, at the same time there are the stalwart lockdown lovers that flood social media with messages about how a walk around a lake is not essential and will no doubt cause 100 deaths. End result = in-fighting and blame.
Any small protests that do manage to break through are either totally ignored by MSM or if large enough to not go easily unnoticed, then quickly painted as completely irresponsible and dangerous.

I can’t work out if I am heading towards conspiracy theory here or if I have realised something that others have too? However, i am not naive enough to have not considered that along with their science experts from sage, they could well have a small army of psychologists steering their public messaging as well.

Overall it has made me feel very flat to come to this realisation because it makes me feel even less free than while we’re all in lockdown.

It didn’t help that I also randomly read a separate article about China recently which described how their deliberate and targeted attention to inequality between men and women is now working as hoped and so more and more women are choosing to put off having children or not having them at all in order to have their own careers. They celebrate this triumph of changing public opinion as helping their population problem.

It really has made me question almost everything that has ever come out of any government office!

Do I need some tin foil? (Disclaimer-of course covid is real).

justasking111 · 17/01/2021 22:22

I think someone snitched on me today. OH had gone round to DILs to work in her garden some big roots she could not get out. I dropped off some food for her at the front door. As I was leaving some very old friends passed with their dog. So OH stood in garden, I was in the road next to my car, friends on pavement. Well beyond 2 metres. We chatted for a bit. Then I noticed a police van pull up at the junction, they sat there watching us. We dispersed I saw police van move off as I pulled away. I had clocked a woman with a dog giving me the evil eye as she approached and passed us. So I did wonder if we had been dobbed in. We had not deliberately met up it was random chance that we saw them, right place, right time.

BogRollBOGOF · 17/01/2021 22:49

Justasking, I hope her dog gets the runs in the night... well maybe not for the dog's sake. It would serve her right though.

I've had another better day. DH managed to relieve me of the DCs for a few hours with exciting things like a tip run and a walk which gave me the breathing space to stick on some banging rock music, have a good sing and excavate some floors. I knew the state of the house was part of the cycle getting me down, but I find it hard to get the energy to deal with it at the best of times. I do feel better for it.

Back in October, we had a thrilling outing to the garden centre and I bought some pots, winter bedding and bulbs... tips of the bulbs are peeping now Grin

It was a symbolic act of something to look forwards to. Things weren't too bad at that moment but it was brewing towards tier changes and Nov lockdown with cases rising. I'm no winter lover and it clearly was going to be tougher than average, and it felt like a little investment in an act of optomism.

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TooManyPlatesInMotion · 17/01/2021 22:53

@Lostinacloud no, I don't think you are disappearing into a rabbit hole of conspiracy. The narrative of individual and personal blame has been around for a while. The language of the gov's briefings and subsequent media coverage encourages us to blame each other for individual failures to stick to the "rules", so discouraging us from looking at the wider picture of government failings.

MercyBooth · 17/01/2021 23:29

1980s..............Infected with HIV. You must have done something wrong

2020s.............Infected with Covid 19............You must have done something wrong.

TheOrchidKiller · 17/01/2021 23:55

Well, almost midnight, still fricking wide awake, got to get up in 6 hours...

Glad today was productive, Bogroll. I decided to make an effort with my orchids & have started feeding them properly again, though somehow doubt a namechange will be imminent.

Can see where you're coming from Lost. Remember studying the use of propaganda in WW2 for A level history. It certainly has a place in "managing" people.

HarrietteNightingale · 18/01/2021 00:07

I have lurked here for ages because I find these threads refreshing and sane.

Hopefully not going to kill Granny but it's unavoidable. My 88 yo gran has dementia and her partner who does most things for her had a stroke today and has been taken into hospital. He's relatively stable I think but not clear how much damage yet. My mum called me in a panic from her home abroad as he collapsed when he was on the phone and I called 999 but the ambulance crew was already there. She's literally just gone back abroad yesterday after coming over when my dad (her exH) died suddenly in late October, and his funeral wasn't until mid December then it was Xmas etc.

My cousin is staying with gran tonight (who is ok but isn't really aware what's going on) but has two young kids she needs to get back to, plus the sort of job where it's difficult to get leave ASAP, so I am going over tomorrow and will probably stay at least tomorrow night. Going to tell my line manager in the morning - luckily I have lots of annual leave to take before Easter. No internet there and I think it will be stressful enough without having to work! Not sure how this is all going to pan out, it's a case of playing it by ear.

BogRollBOGOF · 18/01/2021 00:45

Welcome Harriette, I hope he recovers well, and your Granny stays well. The security of family connections is particularly important in circumstances like that.

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AcornAutumn · 18/01/2021 00:57

lost "I can’t work out if I am heading towards conspiracy theory here or if I have realised something that others have too? However, i am not naive enough to have not considered that along with their science experts from sage, they could well have a small army of psychologists steering their public messaging as well."

This is in the public domain, they have SPI-B which is specifically in charge of manipulation for social control, nudge theory etc

www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-scientific-pandemic-influenza-group-on-behaviours-spi-b

just could just be police hanging around. In the beginning, i thought there'd be less spying in houses than blocks of flats but clearly I was wrong!

MercyBooth · 18/01/2021 01:20

@HarrietteNightingale Hope he gets well soon and Flowers for you and your Granny.

Worldgonecrazy · 18/01/2021 06:45

Definitely some propaganda against anti lock downers happening, plus a ramping up of the fear. We have seen two random police checks in the last week, didn’t see any during the previous two lockdowns. Interesting that we are being taught to fear the police, rather than see them as people who could help us if we needed them.

LivinLaVidaLoki · 18/01/2021 06:47

Just read this article and tbh what worried me more is that they want the cover backdated to the start of the pandemic. They were not overwhelmed then so why do they need it?
I really can't put my finger on why but it makes me feel uneasy.

ADs and their pampered poodles
ISaySteadyOn · 18/01/2021 07:30

Psy ops or propaganda. @Lostinacloud, I think Autumn's right. It's there in the public domain. SAGE deliberately set out to frighten people so they would comply with restrictions. I don't understand why this isn't a scandal at all. And why no political party used this to their advantage. Look how terrible they are, you were scared on purpose! We won't do that.

LivinLaVidaLoki · 18/01/2021 07:47

Woke up with vertigo this morning. God I hope its not as bad as last time, cannot cope with that again.
It seems to be more like BPPV this time as I don't have that crushing almost claustrophobic feeling this time.

ISaySteadyOn · 18/01/2021 07:49

Flowers hope you feel better soon.

ISaySteadyOn · 18/01/2021 08:00

@Worldgonecrazy

Definitely some propaganda against anti lock downers happening, plus a ramping up of the fear. We have seen two random police checks in the last week, didn’t see any during the previous two lockdowns. Interesting that we are being taught to fear the police, rather than see them as people who could help us if we needed them.
I wonder how the police feel about that. I certainly no longer believe they are there to help.
starfish88 · 18/01/2021 08:15

@ISaySteadyOn

Psy ops or propaganda. *@Lostinacloud*, I think Autumn's right. It's there in the public domain. SAGE deliberately set out to frighten people so they would comply with restrictions. I don't understand why this isn't a scandal at all. And why no political party used this to their advantage. Look how terrible they are, you were scared on purpose! We won't do that.
I think it will be in a few years time. Right now the sentiment from. Much of thr public would be 'good, people need to be scared' but then the fear of the virus wanes, and it will when vaccinations and better weather force the numbers to drop, then people will start seeing the propaganda.
ISaySteadyOn · 18/01/2021 08:18

I hope that's true.

Packingsoapandwater · 18/01/2021 08:21

People certainly are curtain twitching. My parents are isolating because DM is due to have an emergency operation this week, and the neighbours called up to ask if they needed anything as "we think you are isolating".

The only way they could know that in the current climate is if they saw me drop off groceries on their steps. Which I have done once. 😂

That aside, the snow was a welcome boon. We went out with DD and played in the garden after preschool and then went up to the local field where it was like powder. It was bright, clear, crisp, and lovely to be outside.

Unfortunately, now the rain has returned and it's that endless drenching rain again. 🙄 I like a bit of drizzle personally, but this stuff is unmanageable.

HarrietteNightingale · 18/01/2021 08:37

Thank you @MercyBooth and @BogRollBOGOF. I had to travel to get there so left first thing this morning, people on public transport fine so far, no disapproving looks. Not quite there yet, need to get some shopping and then have booked a taxi. It's quite rural. I explained the situation at the ticket office and they were v sympathetic.

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