Work 39 | DignityScholarship3

Our Malaise hung about for a few days but I am pleased to report that it never blossomed and we are back to health once more. I should add that we were careful to isolate ourselves so as not spread what ever we did have to others which apart from a COVID measure is just common decency in my book. I recall surprise at the amount of Japanese people wearing masks when I did my stint over there.1 In the street and on trains and busses there were always people wearing masks and at first I was slightly put out thinking that they didn't want to catch anything from the rest of us but of course it was a courtesy to spare us their germs. Those same people, on a buss in London might be attacked by some antivaxing you tuber for their mindless compliance or their blind obedience to the government 'narrative' such is the times. Indeed the question of 'the narrative' cropped up in an exchange I had recently with an old friend in the UK on the subject of the pandemic which we found shocking and have taken as evidence of the reality moshpit in session.

This person, who shall remain nameless, was a very close friend many years ago but in recent times we have kept in touch only through the odd email. In those scant exchanges were pleasantries but recently more references to the times appeared often because I have essentially always asked 'what the hell is happening over there' and this with regards, the austerity, the Tories, Brexit and now the pandemic. With no great detail we swapped comments about the horrible conservatives, about the horrible racism of Brexit, the collapsing of parliament into farce, the pandemic and lock downs. We spoke as old friends with an assumed understanding of each others attitude generally. We or I, assumed that I knew her take on matters and that it chimed with my own and I believe I was right in that. She did not want Brexit, she is appalled by the Tories, she is very climate aware, she is an active member of amnesty international, she was far more a left leaning activist than I was at school - dunderheaded rider of skateboards, that I was. To cut the saga short I would have a very strong case to describe her now as an 'antivaxxer'! This has caused us a great psychological mischief as we have freely discussed with The Borg on several occasions.

This friend of mine, whom I might add I have not in the least fallen out with over this, first surprised me when in response to one of my 'whats going on' emails regarding the first lockdown while I believe we were doing our messages to Green Dave. She sent me a reply agreeing with me that all is madness but also a link to some article by seemingly scientific experts asserting that the pandemic has been 'rehearsed'. It looked fishy and the site seemed to smack of the self institutional attempt at legitimacy rather than the real thing but reading the content was exciting. Of course it is exciting to imagine that great conspiracies are unfolding, fooling everyone and then suddenly the truth is revealed. The situation as it was I put this down to a little too much lock down researching on her part and didn't read any more into it. She sent also information about raising concerns over civil liberties and the lockdown, reasonable stuff really and something by Hitchens if I remember, arguing with a lady in M&S about distancing.

On several other occasions we exchanged on the ever more politically ambiguous concept of 'the world gone mad' and I sent her a brace of links to our Dignity Scholarship pages - our way of showing our response to the post truth era - and these it seemed went down well with her. Then a gap, more UK insanity, then a card in the post. Now, in Bowers we wrote 'thus my Christmas cards tell of abuses of power'2 in reference to the all consuming nature of the times and this was based on the card we received from our friend which even in the few short seasonal lines, included updates on the situation in the UK and a mention that said friend had taken to distributing the Light Paper in the area to spread truth in the light of government lies. Intrigued and expecting a left leaning independent journal type thing - doing the necessary activist work of bringing to light that which those in power and the media will not discuss. Yes good we thought, one sees activist pamphlets all the time, but on checking the Light Paper it was clear that this was not the case. The fact that it described itself as a truth paper immediately made it sound alt righty to my ears. Just think of 'truth social'.

This paper was founded and is run by Darren Nesbit or sometimes Smith it seems. A stone cold, flat earth conspiracy theorist entrepreneur who featured in the film Flat Out Lie!3 He believes in the usual conspiracies about new world order which are of course appealing and potentially convincing in a sense, owing to the genuine corruption of capitalism for all to see which only increases as time goes by. As is the style, this overarching conspiracy frame extends to the pandemic which he has neatly slotted into his reality matrix. The Light Paper is framed by his conspiracies and specifically focuses on the pandemic which is presented as planned and a hoax. This much is very clear with just a little look. In addition the founder sells conspiracy themed merchandise through the site under the heading of 'proud partners' so it doesn't look like what it is. He is self instituting! He is in business! And why not? Its the name of the game and he must make a mint. Other products available include David Ickes new book, healing treatments and natural remedies, a lot of nano silver, a place to retreat in Machynlleth in Wales which only caters to the unvaxinated due to owners belief that the vaccinated can cause reactions of various kinds in unvaccinated people. (The world is over for them it seems.) I only dwell on this because it is a remarkable sign of the changing times to my eyes which have only been on nautre and the season all these years while insanity has crept up in the UK.

There is also Mental Merch, another conspiracy clothing business which is a bit more obviously alt righty, selling Lets Go Brandon t-shirts4 and which sports a pepe the frog icon next to the Twitter and Instagram icons. Pepe links to Mental Merch's page on Gap, a far right 'alt tech' social media platform described as 'a haven for extremists including neo-Nazis, white supremacists and white nationalists.'

All of this too obvious to miss unless one is not curious enough to check the background of the publication which I am sure my old friend would have been considering she distributes it. Another conceivable reason is that one finds the articles of such merit on their own terms that they trump any concerns about the origin and politics of the publication as a whole. Indeed it is not to say that reasonable articles do not appear in the Light Paper, maybe they do, but that in itself is part of the trick of independent publishing of the sort which seeks to pass off not so true theories and stories as true in order to manipulate people. We know well the trick of mixing in mainstream articles to create a sense of balance and validity to the publication so that when the conspiratorial content that the paper is designed to promote crops up it appears respectable. It is easy to see on Russia Today or on smaller scale, David Ickes website site for example and we even did this trick during our work with the Open Council in the days of artistic mockstitution.5 It is a very effective devise indeed; simply let a few articles from the BBC, CNN, Reuters or whatever, share the stage with the angle one is peddling. It is the way independent news organisations work in fact there is nothing wrong with it in the sense that all news is curated to an extent it is just that precisely because this is obvious and in the case of the light paper blatantly obvious and dodgy as hell that I was surprised my friend was not only taken in but even volunteered to distribute it. Seven Hells!

Well the months went by and perhaps we became a little distant on account of the light paper business but then these last few days we have been knocking around with this malaise of ours so we sent her a line with the usual inquiry as to health, family and the 'situation'. Her reply saddened me because in it she revealed that disagreements about the pandemic has caused certain rifts in her family on account she says of their 'following the narrative' of the government regarding the pandemic. Tired of our coyness I asked her straight out what she meant by 'the narrative'. Her reply was that "the narrative is the government line-the propaganda everyone is being fed. i.e. there is a pandemic and people need a vaccine for something the majority of people (99.97%) will not die from." Okay we were expecting that even though it was hard to read as from our view it seems that this position has tipped from one of civil liberties concern to conspiracy and therefore into the realm of the far right wing. It is this point that has got us worked up and worried, because it seems that this staunchly left wing great person of great kindness and empathy cannot see the politics before her. The politics of the alt right manipulation of popular outrage at the government. Of course, as with the light paper situation, it is just possible that she sees the politics but that doesn't change her views. So I asked her in a way that I am afraid returned to the coy approach. Referencing the case of the conspiracy theorist ex nurse Kate Shemirani whose boy, in a famous BBC interview, was particularly angry because he is half Iranian and could not understand how his mother could stand the Trump flags that wave at her events, I asked: Do you worry about the far right element in groups that question the narrative? No was the answer. Not seen it. Even my mention of the case of Shemirani whose language is unsavory to say the least, was batted away saying that she is just speaking out against all the lies and manipulation. She wants liberty, freedom and justice in the world, she said.

Therein is the nub. All manner of conspiracy theorists even utterly politically unaware ones will often land on some bid for freedom and liberty for all and aim this universally popular message at the elites and of course this sentiment emanates from left wing politicals also but it is the success of the far right to co opt this sentiment and refocus it towards the authoritarian candidate. Because does not freedom and liberty for the far alt right, mean freedom from democracy, along the line of Peter Thiels neoreactionary logic?

One can see this apolitical, anti elite sentiment in the Stand in the Park phenomenon. This is something else my friend alerted me to and for me it is another sign of the times and another great spot for the far alt right to manipulate. Stand in the Park seems to be a conspiracy infused anti lockdown social movement in which people gather and stand in a park on a Sunday "to celebrate freedom, diversity and fairness for all." An Australian man named Brady Gun is the founder of this now apparently global movement which began when one fine day Brady finally 'had enough' and went to stand in his local park, alone, for his "personal truth". How about that for a sign of the post truth era! Brady has been moved to demonstrate, standing publicly, for his "personal truth" whatever that may be, and he encourages all to do likewise. He made, "a stand for freedom, for our elderly, our children, our jobs and small businesses… Against lockdowns, harmful new laws, the ‘pandemic’ and the people behind ‘The Great Reset’." He continues:

"It’s so simple!

Wear yellow in unity.
10-11am every Sunday worldwide.
It is a Stand, not a protest.
We Stand for personal truth and freedom.
Rain, hail, cyclone, Christmas day… we Stand!"

Indeed it is so simple. Occupy it is not.

So all good hearted anti government sentiment such as this which has no politics other than to cry for freedom, is food for Trumpism and will probably be twisted in that direction soon enough. That is how we have divvied it up. Is that a conspiracy? And even if the left leaning antivaxxers and posh conspiracy theorists do not follow openly right they will, as we told The Borg, be left to gather with increasing emotion having ostracized themselves in the name of freedom, and seeing how that has turned out right, are left to cry into their soup. Because look here, in this great moshing6 people do have specific interests and investments be it political (alt right, Trumpist Neoreactionary) or financial (the you tuber, social media influencer or anti vax merchant) or merely as chosen personal identity, which make it all a game to them. In all cases these invested actors care not so much about the truth or not in any sense, rather the ultimate aim is keeping the ball rolling, and they will roll on and on swapping one issue for another until election time when the traffic increases. Incidentally the Indiana Jones meme emanating from the anti vax world, unwittingly revealed the necessary strategy of the conspiracy theorist in illustrating aesthetically the COVID issue being seamlessly swapped with the climate change issue on some plinth of attention. The point we must finish on is that in the world of anti vax movements it is the people with only their outrage invested that are likely lose out. Personally, socially, psychologically.

With this mischief worling in us we were only able to do the two sketches at the new site as the rest of the time we were telling the Borg all we have just told you.

With another batch of crypto lines attached,

John

PS The gifs your youngsters have come up have hit the right note if you ask me, especially the more animated ones.

1. From 2003 -2005 John taught English at the Kumano Inter-Cultural Center in the town of Shingu, Japan.

2. See verse 12, line 1.

3. Flat Out Lie follows Darren Nesbit, a singer song writer and activist who wants to convince you that the earth, is in fact, flat.

4. Let's go Brandon became a meme following a super speedway nascar Talladega crowd live TV situation in 2021. It means 'Fuck Joe Biden'.

5. Coined by Gregory Shollete who describes Mockstitution as "informally structured art agency that overtly mimics the name and to some degree the function of larger, more established organizational entities."

6. A metaphor for the socio-political context today. First mentioned in the final work of John's second season: "...all energies seem to be travelling from different directions to the same small space where hopes, dreams, perspectives (and conspiracies) come to an end with a crunch in a kind of psycho-social moshpit..."