“Crisis actors” are people who have volunteered or been hired to play victims in emergency drills and training scenarios. This is a well-known and undisputed practice.

Somewhat less undisputed are the various theories floating around on the internet about crisis actors being employed by governments and large corporations to covertly produce knowingly fake “emergency” scenarios in order to promote an (often hidden) agenda.

Are crisis actors used to promote propagandist narratives? I’m not entirely convinced but given the types of things that governments openly get up to on a daily basis I certainly wouldn’t put it above them.

This is what’s running through my mind as I read articles on people protesting the imposition of face masks here in the city. They (the protesters), are invariably presented as idiots, “mostly white”, “Karens”, and other openly derisive and overtly racist terms to show the world just how despicable (and white), it is to question popular opinions and the wisdom of our benign and loving government.

Thing is, based on some of the things I’ve seen and heard I don’t entirely disagree.

Notwithstanding the unbelievable levels of blatant anti-white rhetoric being pumped out by nearly every facet of the establishment, the people being exemplified in these articles really do come across as a little dull. In fact, my own interactions with similar protests in the past has led me to the same conclusion.

When I’ve approached such people and told them that I agree with their cause, albeit for different reasons, I would’ve expected that they would be pleased to have both an ally and additional arguments to back their position. Instead, I’m often met with stone-faced ignorance, by which I mean that they quite literally turn their back and ignore me like I didn’t exist.

I can’t help wondering, are these people disinfo actors? Are they being put out there to demonstrate how stupid and ignorant one would look if one also questions the established wisdom of the authorities? Have I challenged their mission of painting dissidents as dangerous imbeciles in a way that they don’t know how to deal with?

As I said, knowing the well-established and proven public facts of how governments operate makes these suspicions perfectly reasonable. That they would engage in covert, soft censorship certainly isn’t beyond the pale for them.

Consider, for example, that the only anti-mask arguments being “advertised” like this have to do with the efficacy of face coverings, the size of the particles involved, and the illusory “rights and freedoms” of the protesters.

Why not, for example, question the general safety of masks given that the government itself provides exemptions for people with health issues?

Doesn’t that put borderline and undiagnosed individuals at dire risk of severe medical problems, especially during this hot and humid summer we’ve been having? Is it justifiable to knowingly put certain people in harm’s way — as admitted by the government in its own directives — in order to make others feel safe, especially when Covid numbers in the city are at a historic low? And if face masks are so risk-free then why have any exemptions at all, especially for people with underlying respiratory problems?

Perhaps the truth of the matter is somewhere in the middle: masks aren’t without risks but the government has deemed those risks (to individual human lives), acceptable. Similarly, the safety and efficacy of flu vaccines seem like highly germane and timely topics but you won’t hear anything even resembling a balanced discussion about them, just like the absurd and one-sided rhetoric being promulgated to support BLM. Why would individual human lives matter when there’s a false narrative based on twisted statistical aggregates, nonsensical comparisons, and “community effects” instead?

I’ve even been accused of “tricking” people and abusing their various mental conditions (only revealed after the fact), simply by having them conclude their own thought processes through a line of fairly simple and direct questioning.

“I have ADHD you asshole! You tricked me into saying that I’m okay with censorship and state murder just because I said that the government should kill anyone who disagrees! FUCK YOOOOUUUUUU!1!!!!!” This is an actual quote from an online discussion I was involved in, obviously not on the same topic but still indicative of the types of responses I’ve received.

After being accused of “weaponizing facts” and using “magical logic” for the umpteenth time I finally gave up. Their own opinions, as expressed by them, are as nothing to how they feel, and I certainly won’t convince them that what they say is what they actually mean. And heaven forbid I should engage in “bully tactics” like quoting them to demonstrate inconsistent or self-contradictory arguments.

Yes, questions are stupid (and racist, misogynistic, white supremacist, etc.), especially when someone’s own answers might lead them to conclusions that might make them feel uncomfortable. The horror. Just stab me already.

Seems like everyone’s protesting “systemic” problems and yet no one’s willing to suggest that the existence of the system or its generalized mentality of violent dominance and incessant threats might be the problem (unless it affects “racialized” people, of course).

Lately I’ve been thinking about what future generations might think of this age and its people. How will they try explain some of this era’s unusual social phenomena, the strange trends, the bizarre departures from what would more soberly be recognized as common sense?

One thing I know for sure is that enlightened historians of the future will understand that most of the mainstream media is the source of fake news and propaganda while stout stalwarts like Toronto City Life are unwavering bedrock of veracity and accuracy. It is thus my duty to inform future generations of the truth of what we in the current time call “modernity”.

So in this spirit I would like to approach relatively recent trend, the Covid pots & pan salute that’s often represented as a celebration of human tenacity and defiance in the face of the global pandemic.

On this matter the mainstream analysis could not be further from the truth.

Consider, for example, that the nightly cacophony (7:30 to 7:35 in my neighbourhood), is supposed to be directed primarily at healthcare workers.

Clearly this cannot be the case since most such workers are shut up in hospitals or trying to get some shut-eye from what are presumably grueling schedules, which would make loud noise among the worst ways to show appreciation.

The truth of the matter, as told from the first-hand experiences of a contemporary person, is that these clamorous rituals are intended to drive the evil spirits of the Covidae away from people’s homes.

It is widely believed that these malicious spirits come shortly after sunset and so the loud sounds and jubilant cheers are raised to disperse them prior to retiring for the evening.

In this way, says the superstition, the Covidae are swept away by the evening breeze and lose their way in the darkness of the night.

Of course this is preposterous to many a right-thinking person but the curious phenomenon exists nevertheless. Hopefully future analysis will yield a deeper understanding of this unusual shared delusion.

Being perennially broke I often shred newspapers for my cat to relieve herself on. Unfortunately, almost all of the mainstream media has become so toxic that I’m afraid that it’s no longer suitable for even this purpose.

Basking in brilliance, a.k.a. bummin’ around the barroom

^{Barrio Cerveceria}

Riverdale Park might just be the prefect place to surreptitiously get rid of some of that incriminating infant paraphernalia.