The Great Reset, page 21
“Bullying People into Silence”
“A lot of public figures have been intimidated into not saying what they really think of lockdowns, mandatory masks, continued restrictions because they know of the attacks they’ll face if they do. Bullying people into silence/acquiescence/compliance has been a big part of the op.”
—UK journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark47
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
The censors came for feminist Naomi Wolf, former campaign adviser to Al Gore, in June 2021 when she was banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s terms.48 Wolf, who had almost 150,000 followers, repeatedly spoke out against vaccine passports, lockdowns, and mask mandates. Twitter announced that Wolf’s ban was permanent, with no possibility of appeal.49
One Twitter user wrote in reaction, “How dare you, Twitter. Naomi Wolf raised damn good questions about the rush to and ramifications of mass vax. This is unAmerican silencing of dissent.”50
Left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald called Wolf “a leading soldier” of dissent and explained the forces working behind the scenes to purge voices like hers. “I think a lot of people who constantly disseminate false claims and unhinged and dangerous conspiracy theories—such as MNSBC and CNN hosts—should nonetheless be allowed to remain on Silicon Valley monopolistic social media platforms,” Greenwald wrote in response to Wolf’s permanent Twitter ban.
“The most passionate, tireless and devoted advocates of online political censorship by the union of state and corporate monopolistic power are found at liberal corporate media outlets. Agitating and cheering for state/corporate censorship is a virtual religious mission there,” he concluded.51
The silencing of any dissent is doing the bidding of the Great Reset.
“Thinking Is Not Allowed”
“My post was removed because it made people think: Isn’t it odd that the same govt telling us that unpasteurized juice can be harmful to an unborn child is also claiming that an experimental vaccine is safe despite limited data? Thinking is not allowed in a totalitarian state.” —Candace Owens on Twitter in 202152
Despite this relentless censorship, COVID dissenters vowed not to be silenced.
“But rest assured. Whatever they throw at us, it won’t do anything to sway me—or my colleagues—from the principles that sit behind what we wrote,” Gupta wrote.
“I have all but stopped using Twitter, but I am aware that a number of academics have taken to using it to make personal attacks on my character, while my work is dismissed as ‘pseudo- science.’ Depressingly, our critics have also taken to ridiculing the Great Barrington Declaration as ‘fringe’ and ‘dangerous,’ ” Gupta explained.
“But ‘fringe’ is a ridiculous word, implying that only mainstream science matters. If that were the case, science would stagnate. And dismissing us as ‘dangerous’ is equally unhelpful, not least because it is an inflammatory, emotional term charged with implications of irresponsibility. When it is hurled around by people with influence, it becomes toxic,” Gupta added.53
Journalist Jordan Schachtel ripped social media giants for their policing policies. “YouTube has an official policy banning people who contradict info from the World Health Organization. For 16 months, YouTube has been deplatforming & censoring people for the act of telling the truth. Tech oligarch suppression has had devastating consequences for the world,” Schachtel wrote.54
Gupta was surprised at the censorship and smears directed at her. “According to Wikipedia, for instance, the Great Barrington Declaration was funded by a Right-wing think-tank with links to climate-change deniers. It should be obvious to anyone that writing a short proposal and posting it on a website requires no great financing. But let me spell it out, since, apparently, I have to: I did not accept payment to co-author the Great Barrington Declaration,” Gupta wrote.
Gupta explained how she was even forbidden to use the name of the Declaration on radio programs because it was purported to be “against the national interest.”
“The Great Barrington Declaration represents a heartfelt attempt by a group of academics with decades of experience in this field to limit the harm of lockdown. I cannot conceive how anyone can construe this as ‘against the national interest,’ ” Gupta wrote.55
A video published by Grabien Media and featuring Courtney Ann Taylor, a Georgia mother demanding that her local school board drop the mask requirement for schoolchildren, was banned from YouTube in 2021.
Grabien’s Tom Elliott reached out to YouTube to ask why the video was deleted.
“The Favored Leftist Narrative”
“Increasingly commentary on coronavirus—as in so many other areas of politics—is being censored by the left-wing media and tech Establishment, not on the basis of whether it’s true or untrue, but as to whether or not it accords with the favored leftist narrative,” wrote James Delingpole for Breitbart.56
David Marcus for The Federalist explained, “Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act gives Twitter special protection to engage in censorship, but after this week of [COVID-19–related] obviously politically motivated silencing, many in Congress are looking to stripping the company of that protection.”
“If [Twitter CEO Jack] Dorsey wants to be a mask busybody while he parties maskless with Beyonce and Jay Z on a yacht, so be it. The mask rules don’t apply to him. But the laws of the United States should and must,” Marcus added.57
“We reviewed your appeal,” YouTube responded to Elliot. “We reviewed your content carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our medical misinformation policy. We know this is probably disappointing news, but it’s our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all.”
Elliot translated YouTube’s response thus: “Mothers having opinions about whether their children should be forced into masks ‘violates our community guidelines’ and our ‘medical misinformation policy.’ ”
“Parents are allowed to express opinions over whether their children should be forced into wearing masks. Parents’ perspectives are a valid part of the public debate. This mother does not represent herself as a doctor or medical expert,” Elliot wrote. “Incidentally the WHO agrees with this mother that there is currently no scientific basis for compelling all children to wear masks indoors/outdoors as a measure to stop the spread of Covid. So YouTube’s ‘medical misinformation’ claim is entirely false,” Elliot added.
“I appealed, noting there’s nothing in the WHO guidance this mother is contradicting (supposedly the basis of the video being taken offline). @YouTube has already rejected the appeal. Apparently, the platform must remain ‘safe’ from concerned mothers,” Elliot concluded.58
The new media meme seems to be that citizens around the world are either incapable or just plain too unintelligent to evaluate medical information and must be hand-fed oft-repeated government consensus directives hourly. Don’t question why you must stay at home or why you are not allowed to go to the park, attend a wedding, host a backyard barbecue, or why you must mask up—you just have to follow orders of the public health experts.
“Please, Everyone, Stop”
“I for one am tired of YouTube or any brick-and-mortar location telling me that my health and safety is their number-one priority. Please, everyone, stop making my health and safety your number-one priority. It generally leads to useless measures that make society weirder and my life less happy, with no discernible health effect.
“How about making not living in a dystopia your number-one priority?” —historian and author Tom Woods59
Who Are the “Fact-Checkers”?
The media has presented “fact-checkers” as the holy grail of fighting alleged misinformation about COVID, climate change, the Great Reset, and almost any issue.
But who are the fact-checkers and how do they discern their “facts?”
“Fact checkers are just as susceptible to bias and narrative-pushing as any other class of journalist. Despite this, major media organizations treat them as a source of reliably unbiased information—as do social media companies like FaceBook and Twitter, who have granted them the power to flag and remove anything they deem ‘misinformation,’ ” noted Bill D’Agostino of Newsbusters in 2021.60
“One of the most common ways in which fact checkers skew their analysis is with selection bias; specifically, they are quick to pounce on any misstep by Republicans, while Democrats are often given a pass,” D’Agostino noted. “Two of the biggest names in the fact checking industry—Politifact and Snopes—abuse their role to tilt the scales in Democrats’ favor,” he added, pointing to a 2021 Media Research Center analysis.61
In 2021, the free speech alternative social media platform Parler found itself shut down by tech monopolies.
“Apple banned Parler from the AppStore using a pretext that Parler, which isn’t a publisher, didn’t stop the spread of dangerous & illegal content,” explained Chris Buskirk, the editor and publisher of American Greatness.
“This is a lie. Parler does not permit illegal content. Apple thus relies on ‘dangerous’ which in their use has no objective meaning,” Buskirk wrote. “What they mean is: Parler permits free speech with which they disagree. They also mean that Parler is a competitor that threatens their monopoly which they now use to harm Parler. They also do this as a favor to Democrats who now control all elected branches of government,” he added.
“Apple’s action against Parler, like Google’s, is a pay-off, it’s a bribe, or if you like an in-kind contribution to those in control of the state who wish to silence dissent. It is the merger of state power with corporate power against private citizens,” he added.
“Devoted to Censorship”
“Facebook has turned its fact-checking in climate and energy over to a partisan group devoted to censorship, not scholarship. They don’t fact-check whoppers by the alarmist side, just studies cited by skeptics…. Climate Feedback’s reasoning is typically superficial and often just plain wrong, and contradicts the data even as compiled by the UN climate change body…. It was founded and funded by long-time climate alarmist Eric Michelman for the express purpose of promoting the climate crisis narrative. Indeed, Climate Feedback is tech mogul Michelman’s third foray into shutting down a debate that he said, well before he created Climate Feedback, ‘is settled.’ ” —climate statistician Caleb Rossiter, then executive director of the CO2 Coalition, testifying at a 2020 hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation62
Both Apple and Google have no problems bowing to countries with poor human rights records. “Apple uses slave labor to make their products. Google worked with the Chinese military to develop technology but refused to work with the US military,” Buskirk wrote.63
Cancel Culture
Progressive activist Dan Kovalik, the author of the book Cancel This Book, lamented the Left’s cheering on the censorship and cancel culture we face today. He believes it serves the interest of the powerful against the little guy.
“I’m a longtime peace activist and anti-imperialist,” Kovalik explained. Cancel culture “destroys solidarity. The idea that I, as a worker, would unite with the administration to get another worker fired is incredible,” he said.
“People seem to think cancelling other people is somehow a form of activism. Real activism and social change have now been eschewed in favour of piling on people to get them fired or de-platformed. That’s the problem—you have a movement that cares more about that than about actually winning real gains for working people,” Kovalik said.
“Society’s cancellers are privileged for the most part. They can sit in their fuzzy slippers in bed and go on their computer and engage in activism by piling on people. It’s a very comfortable way to feel good about themselves,” he noted.
“It was inevitable that the left’s embrace of censorship would come back to bite us…. the Democrats are now taking up the mantle of suppressing speech in the name of social justice. Much of their base supports that. It’s happening at the same time as they have abandoned the working class. We are going to see the ability to protest and speak freely start to collapse—and a lot of ‘progressives’ will be clapping,” he added.64
As Jeffrey Tucker, the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, explained, “The purpose of propaganda is not to convince people of lies they do not believe. The purpose is to exhibit the use of power. It’s not power merely to say what’s true. Power consists of the ability to tell lies that everyone knows are false and still expect compliance.”65
Anne Applebaum made a similar point in The Atlantic: “A decade ago, I wrote a book about the Sovietization of Central Europe in the 1940s, and found that much of the political conformism of the early Communist period was the result not of violence or direct state coercion, but rather of intense peer pressure. Even without a clear risk to their life, people felt obliged—not just for the sake of their career but for their children, their friends, their spouse—to repeat slogans that they didn’t believe, or to perform acts of public obeisance to a political party they privately scorned.”66
Progressive Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joined other progressives in admitting that Facebook and other social media outlets are out of control with censorship. “I’m glad that [Trump’s] not on Facebook,” Warren explained about Trump being banned from the social media giant. “But I don’t think that Facebook ought to have this kind of power. We need to break up these giant tech companies, and Facebook is one of them,” Warren explained in 2021.
“They are crushing competition,” Warren said. “And in cases like Facebook, they’re acting like they’re bigger than government,” she added. “They need to be broken up. We need a chance for competition to flourish here, and we need a chance to have some power that balances out what these giants are up to.”69
“The New ‘Town Square’ ”—Censored
“The sharing of information with each other as Georgians, as Americans, that is of the highest importance and must be protected,” James Taylor, the president of the Heartland Institute, testified to a Georgia House Committee hearing in 2021. According to Taylor, the internet and social media is the new “town square.”67
“We have the right to free speech not because the government gave it to us in the First Amendment, but because it is an inalienable human right that predates and exists independently of the First Amendment. No government OR private entity can take away that inalienable right. I don’t assert that Big Tech is violating the First Amendment, but that it is violating our inalienable right to political free speech in the public discourse,” Taylor told me after the hearing.68
“Welcome to Neo-Stalinism”
“Google Promptly Vanishes Greenpeace Co-Founder Dr. Moore from the Enviro Group’s History after Then President Trump Tweeted Moore’s Skeptical Climate Views,” read the headline at Climate Depot on March 16, 2019. “Oh my! Google has removed my photo and name from the ‘Founders of @Greenpeace.’ It was still there 2 days ago but now I am erased. Tech Tyranny!!” Patrick Moore wrote. Trump had tweeted Moore’s statements that “the whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science.” As Moore explained, “I was listed as a founder of Greenpeace on their own websites for 20 years after I left. They only disowned me when I came out in favor of nuclear energy.” He also pointed out, Greenpeace “admits they listed me as a founder for 35 years. Then they took me off the list, as if that makes me ‘not a founder.’ I was also named a founder in countless media reports. Once you are recognized as a founder it cannot be taken away for political purposes.” The UK Global Warming Policy Foundation declared “welcome to Neo-Stalinism.”70
“The Party Is Always Right”
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four71
A Surveillance State
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the chair of the Children’s Health Defense (a nonprofit concerned with the effects of lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccinations), ran afoul of the censors for his dissident views.
Kennedy warned about how technology was being used for nefarious purposes by governments and international organizations and corporations. “We have 5G, which has created a surveillance state,” he explained,72 noting that phone technology is “not for you and me. It’s for Bill Gates, it’s for [Mark] Zuckerberg.”73
“They have biometric facial recognition systems, your GPS, all the satellites that—Bill Gates brags that his satellites will be able to monitor every square inch of the planet twenty-four hours a day,” he said.74 “That’s only the beginning. He also will be able to follow you on all of your smart devices, through biometric facial recognition, through your GPS. You think that Alexa is working for you? She isn’t working for you. She’s working for Bill Gates, spying on you,” Kennedy explained.75
“They have another innovation, which is digital currency. And once they have digitized our currency and gotten rid of the cash economy, they have absolute control over us because they’ll be able to tax every transaction. The banks will be able to cash in on every transfer of wealth, every transaction, no matter how minuscule no matter how small. But also they’ll be able to enforce obedience, because if you’re disobedient they’ll be able to shut down your bank account and starve you, and you’ll have no access to cash,” Kennedy warned.76
For his outspoken criticism of the COVID-19 hysteria and lockdowns, Kennedy faced de-platforming on social media outlets. Instagram banned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from its platform in 2021 for COVID wrongthink. Kennedy had eight hundred thousand Instagram followers before he was removed.
