Dystopia vs. Utopia

People Leaving the Cities, photo art by Zbigniew Libera, imagines a dystopian future in which people have to leave dying metropolises

Wikipedia: "A dystopia. . . is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening.^[3][4] It is an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty.  

"Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization,^[3] tyrannical governments, environmental disaster,^[4] or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many fictional works and artistic representations, particularly in stories set in the future. Some of the most famous examples are Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science or technology. Some authors use the term to refer to existing societies, many of which are, or have been, totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse." . . .

2020 or 1984?

2020 or 1984? Thoughts Reading Orwell’s 1984 for the First Time  "When the year 2020 has more similarities with a fictional, dystopic interpenetration of 1984 than the prior year, it’s evident our world has become quite familiarly unfamiliar.

"In George Orwell’s 71-year old book 1984, we follow the main protagonist Winston Smith as he navigates London in what he believes to be the year 1984. Working for the Ministry of Truth, he spends his days as a journalist altering news articles and erasing the past — not by choice, per [se]. It’s the world he lives in. A world where the past, present, and future are run by Big Brother and the Inner Party members of Ingsoc, the region of Oceania’s governing ideology.

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/ Toon added by TD

"In Oceania, privacy doesn’t exist. Telescreens and secret microphones are everywhere: the streets, workplaces, restaurants, and especially homes. They’re watching you and they’re listening to you. All you have to yourself are your thoughts, and even those are illegal if they don’t obey the beliefs of Ingsoc. Thoughtcrime, it’s called. Thoughtcrime describes a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, such as beliefs and doubts that contradict the principles of Ingsoc.

"2020 has seen a wave of pulling wrong thoughts from the minds of others. Articles and social media posts that don’t align with the story we are fed are quickly censored and taken down under the context that spreading false information is a major safety concern for the health and well-being of our society during a time of crisis.

"It’s not just the pandemic though. Personal thoughts are also under siege, resulting in cancel culture. Internet-dwellers are pulling up outdated information of previous thoughts and jokes, demanding the people responsible be “canceled” for their decade old thoughts. Its the same; thoughtcrime. It’s happening to celebrities, YouTubers, and regular folks too. They are losing their jobs and careers, and their reputations are being tarnished as a result of cancel culture and essentially 1984’s thoughtcrime.

"As for those telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, well they are also making their own appearance — beyond just our cell phones, that is. Take Moscow for example. The city introduced 178,000 surveillance cameras with facial recognition software to spy on its citizens and keep them in check during the coronavirus pandemic. Owellian, right?

"Another thing Big Brother does is alter statistics to favor the Party whether it’s used to instill fear or love in the citizens of Oceania. Take the production of boots, for example. Many people of Oceania are under educated, hungry, and living in poverty. Boots are needed. The Ministry of Truth released inflated production records, despite the fact that in reality production had decreased significantly. As a result, the records showed that there was an enormous surplus of boots, though citizens were still walking around barefoot. It’s Orwell’s word doublethink, meaning that we are supposed to accept false statements as truth.

"Beyond that, Winston believed that bombs and explosions were not actually the result of its supposed war with territories Eastasia/Eurasia (it’s constantly changing), but came straight from Big Brother and the Inner Party itself as a way to instill fear and correctness in its citizens.

How does this relate to 2020? A number of ways. For example, COVID-19 numbers are not consistently being recorded in the most accurate way. For example, in the UK COVID-19 deaths are recorded by those who die within 28 days after testing positive — for any reason. Meaning that if a person who tests positive for coronavirus dies a week later in a car accident, his or her death is added to the toll of coronavirus deaths in the UK. This means we are potentially receiving inaccurate numbers of those who have died from coronavirus.

"Like in Orwell’s 1984, we are essentially being manipulated by a greater force. We let our cell phones fuel us with fake news and we are unable to voice our opinions unless they coincide with the political agenda or general ‘wokeness’ of the world. And I can only hope this story doesn’t send me down the thoughtcrime tunnel, too."

Entire article posted here

Brain Pickings

Democrats Are Using The Recent Capitol Riot To Consolidate Power

 The Federalist

America’s Cold Civil War will only heat up as those with all the power take precisely the wrong lessons from the Capitol Hill riot.

"The Capitol Hill riot was an inexcusable, pathetic, and disgraceful display. Its consequences will extend well beyond the bloodshed and property damage inflicted by those who shamefully acceded to the left’s view that force is legitimate means of persuasion — exhibited repeatedly via the left’s normalization of political incitement and violence throughout President Trump’s term in office.

"The riot not only overshadowed the corruption that marked the 2020 election and undermined the MAGA movement’s people and principles, but set up Americans of all political stripes for an onslaught on their rights and cherished freedoms. The riot was an accelerant for what was already likely planned under Democrat rule in Washington: crushing dissenters from its leftist orthodoxy as part of an effort to achieve total power by disenfranchising the opposition.

"President Trump has personified this dissent, but the effort to delegitimize, de-platform, and ultimately destroy him and anyone around him is merely the opening scene of the “Godfather”-like settling of scores with all who threaten the ruling class’s power and privilege. This effort will directly harm not just the thousands of peaceful patriots who had descended on Washington D.C., and their tens of millions of like-minded neighbors across the country, but all Americans.

"The coming crackdown on dissenters in the political realm was pre-ordained in the wee hours of Jan. 6, when both Georgia Senate seats flipped to the Democrats. Now, should Senate Democrats successfully blow up the filibuster, they will work to pass an agenda in which any one item, let alone all, could put Democrats in a virtually unshakeable control of the federal government for years to come.

"They have made no secret of their agenda, which includes such items as mass amnesty for illegal aliens, statehood for Washington, D.C., statehood for Puerto Rico, and federal enshrinement of mail-in voting through a re-upped H.R. 1. Needless to say, total leftist political control will erode liberty and justice, and be used to target dissenters in cruel and unusual ways." . . .

Where Does He Go From Here?

Conrad Black

President Trump's political funeral has been celebrated often before, and that bell has still not tolled. The idea that Washington, D.C., will return to the status quo ante is nonsense.

"There were no objections to President Trump’s address to his followers in Washington on Wednesday until several hours later, when the outrages at the Capitol had occurred. He did not incite violence or go beyond urging his partisans to show “strength.” He and his followers sincerely believe the election was stolen from them, and he explained those reasons, apologizing for doing so in such detail. 

"Under the circumstances, there was nothing irrational about the president’s comments, and no excuse for raising the 25th Amendment, which applies to presidents who are physically or mentally incapacitated. Since the president did not break any laws, there is no serious question of impeachment. Congress lacks the time, the grounds, and the votes for it, and the only point of impeachment and removal would be to try to prevent Trump from seeking office again. Arguments that he should resign are fatuous. The invasion of the Capitol was a shocking event but the assault on the president is a confected storm of righteousness that will subside quickly. 

"The real principal issue in this immense controversy is whether the presidential election was fairly decided or not. In 44 states, there have been no significant problems at all. As everyone who has followed it knows, there are a number of questions in the voting and counting methods of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—most undertaken in professed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures reduced the verifiability of ballots and increased the dangers of fraud; opposition to these changes was generally described as “voter repression” by the Democrats. 

"To those satisfied that the election produced a fair result, everything President Trump and his followers have said and done that alleges otherwise is unfounded. To most of the 48 percent of American voters who supported Trump there are serious doubts about the fairness of the result.

"Righteous Anger

"The president and his entourage made serious mistakes. After warning accurately of the dangers of mass-mailed ballots, extended voting periods, and the invitation to ballot harvesting, they were inadequately prepared to film and document irregularities and to launch plausible, timely lawsuits." . . . 

There is no reason why someone who has real reason to believe that the world’s highest and most influential office has been taken from him unjustly should just roll over. 

Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years, and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world as owner of the British telegraph newspapers, the Fairfax newspapers in Australia, the Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times and scores of smaller newspapers in the U.S., and most of the daily newspapers in Canada. He is the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, one-volume histories of the United States and Canada, and most recently of Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other. He is a member of the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour.

Democrats and Big Tech: a perfect match like Pravda and Comintern

 

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

The deplorables — and Meghan Markle? — strike back at Big Tech  "Late last week, after a "fiery but mostly peaceful protest" in Washington DC, a slew of Big Tech media companies including Amazon, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Reddit began deplatforming — i.e., censoring, dropping, un/dehosting (I can make up words, too), banning, dropping, purging, suspending from their sites — sometimes permanently — people and/or institutions with whom they disagreed, most prominently President Donald J. Trump (R).  Twitter Safety lamely justified its censorious action:

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

"In a parallel, but unrelated, social media development, more shocking news filtered out Saturday when the millions of followers of Meghan Markle and her husband (formerly known as a Prince) Harry learned:

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have abandoned social media and will no longer use platforms such as Twitter or Facebook." . . .

There May be a Number of Ways Big Tech Implicated Themselves In Their Purge of Parler

Dumb as that premise was we actually felt something similar this weekend, in a manner that had nothing to do with the environment. The rapid way the technology sector was able to reach out and silence major figures and outlets in one day was not just chilling, but a rapid attack to freeze out opposition voices.

The web giants of this country exhibited a deeply troubling level of power in the past week, but in their zeal to exact their influence these tech titans may have unintentionally created problems for themselves. Things began with Twitter initially blocking President Trump’s account a month or so back, in the name of election security. Following the mob scene in D.C. last week they flexed these digital muscles once again, and then things escalated between the major companies driving our tech sector. 

The Left closes in "It happened in a hurry. The Left is, apparently, attempting to impose the complete destruction of First Amendment rights of roughly half of America’s citizens. In cases large and small, massive multinational corporations with no particular allegiance to the United States are colluding with members of the media and Democratic politicians to permanently silence dissent and cement their own power." . . .

. . . Republican former Congressman Ron Paul was locked out of his Facebook account by the social media giant on Monday, after he dared to share a column blasting Big Tech for silencing Americans and accusing social media platforms of engaging in a coordinated effort to stifle the speech of those with whom they disagree. Paul tweeted, "With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ @Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified."

He added, "The only thing we posted to Facebook today was my weekly 'Texas Straight Talk' column, which I have published every week since 1976."

 

Where Does He Go From Here?

https://townhall.com/political-cartoons

 Conrad Black

President Trump's political funeral has been celebrated often before, and that bell has still not tolled. The idea that Washington, D.C., will return to the status quo ante is nonsense.

"There were no objections to President Trump’s address to his followers in Washington on Wednesday until several hours later, when the outrages at the Capitol had occurred. He did not incite violence or go beyond urging his partisans to show “strength.” He and his followers sincerely believe the election was stolen from them, and he explained those reasons, apologizing for doing so in such detail. 

"Under the circumstances, there was nothing irrational about the president’s comments, and no excuse for raising the 25th Amendment, which applies to presidents who are physically or mentally incapacitated. Since the president did not break any laws, there is no serious question of impeachment. Congress lacks the time, the grounds, and the votes for it, and the only point of impeachment and removal would be to try to prevent Trump from seeking office again. Arguments that he should resign are fatuous. The invasion of the Capitol was a shocking event but the assault on the president is a confected storm of righteousness that will subside quickly. 

"The real principal issue in this immense controversy is whether the presidential election was fairly decided or not. In 44 states, there have been no significant problems at all. As everyone who has followed it knows, there are a number of questions in the voting and counting methods of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—most undertaken in professed response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures reduced the verifiability of ballots and increased the dangers of fraud; opposition to these changes was generally described as “voter repression” by the Democrats. 

"To those satisfied that the election produced a fair result, everything President Trump and his followers have said and done that alleges otherwise is unfounded. To most of the 48 percent of American voters who supported Trump there are serious doubts about the fairness of the result." . . .

Want To Talk To People Without Google, Facebook Or Apple Spying On You? Give ‘Signal’ A Try…

Weasel Zippers

Via CNBC:

Facebook’s WhatsApp is changing its privacy policy on Feb. 8, when it will begin to share some user information with Facebook, including location, phone numbers, profile names and pictures, when you last logged online and more. People are now flocking to an alternative texting app called Signal that doesn’t collect your data.

Keep reading…

Pearl-Clutchers on Parade

Pearl-clutcher: "(idiomatic, derogatory) A prim, prudish, or easily offended person."

Time to get out the ledger.

"On the left––literally––we have had nearly eight months of rampaging criminality and violence in the many Democrat-controlled cities in our country, all conducted by thugs belonging to groups called Black Lives Matter and Antifa. This is the short list of what they have done:

• Committed widespread arson, including burning down hundreds of minority-owned businesses in the Latino, Asian and black communities (the black owners clearly didn’t matter);
• Incinerated cars and burned down buildings, court houses, police stations, et al;
• Shot laser beams in the eyes of policemen;
• Assaulted civilians, resulting in 30 deaths and thousands of hospitalizations;
• Smashed plate-glass windows of numerous businesses, both large and small and then engaged in looting, stealing and grand theft;
• Terrorized and then dragged people out of restaurants;
• Tore down historic statues, including those of black icons (duh);
• Defaced streets and avenues with BLM’s block-long, block-lettered, yellow-painted name. 
• Terrorized the citizenry of entire neighborhoods and towns for months on end;
• Attacked people in locked cars;

"In all those eight months––220 dayss, over 5,000 hours––what was the reaction of Democrats, both elected and civilian? A thunderous silence. Not a word of opprobrium or disapproval or condemnation. Not. One. Word." . . .

"Before this rally, the president chalked up accomplishments that made America safer, stronger, and richer. But because he repudiated both the paltry achievements and political philosophies of all his predecessors and the corrupt shills they left behind in the swamps of D.C., and because he had access to their indictable criminality, he became the biggest threat to the political establishment that ever existed. That said, President Trump:

• Lowered taxes (which Democrats hate and never vote for);
• Boosted the economy to all-time highs (which Democrats hate, which is why they vote for socialists);
• Elevated black employment to an all-time high (which Democrats really hate, the reason why blacks have never risen during Democrat rule);
• Strengthened our military (which Democrats hate since they loathe the military);
• Signed the first law ever to make cruelty to animals a federal felony;
• Signed Right-To-Try legislation allowing terminally ill patients to try experimental treatment that wasn’t allowed before.
• Signed the First-Step Act prison-reform bill that frees mostly black prisoners from unfair sentences.
• Supported and strengthened Israel by moving her capital to Jerusalem, giving Israel control over the Golan Heights, establishing peace treaties with the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain and several to follow (which will never happen under Biden since his first priority is resurrecting the genocidal-to-Israel Iran deal––which Pres. Trump canceled––which the mullahs have oft-stated is necessary for them to fulfill their Number One goal––to eradicate Israel forever! Yet Democrats, including Jewish Democrats, support a candidate who wants to revive this deal, partly because their poor hearts bleed for the people who call themselves Palestinians….you know, the people who routinely strap suicide bombs on three-year-old toddlers and celebrate the death of Jews with streets named after the murderers and lifelong pensions).
• Supported the pro-life movement, which the Democrats hate more than anything, given their devotion to abortions. In NY, the entire Democrat legislature stood and applauded when they allowed abortion up to the moment of birth! Not to be outdone by the Democrat Governor of VA, Ralph Northam, M.D., who signed a law that allows infanticide after the baby is born!
• Here are some of President Trump’s other staggering achievements for the American people.

 Much more content here

Parler Sues Amazon

Noisy Room

How many protests were plotted and launched on big tech platforms and yet AWS targets Parler? Oh, the irony…. maybe just maybe… there should be a counter-suit against big tech or by Parler.

"There are 3 counts in the lawsuit where a temporary restraining order is demanded so that Parler can restore their network.

"Count One: Sherman Act, Section 1

"AWS is prohibited from contracting or conspiring to restrain trade or commerce.

"Count Two: Breach of Contract

"AWS breached its contract with Parler by not providing thirty days’ notice before terminating its account.

"Count Three: Tortious Interference with a Contract or Business

"Expectancy By terminating Parler’s account, AWS will intentionally interfere with the contracts Parler has with millions of its present users, as well as with the users it is projected to gain this week.

"The lawsuit is found here.

. . . "Face­book Inc. said Mon­day it is re­mov­ing all con­tent men­tion­ing “Stop the Steal,” a phrase pop­u­lar among sup­port­ers of Pres­i­dent Trump’s claims about the elec­tion, as part of a raft of emer­gency mea­sures to stem mis­in­for­ma­tion and in­cite­ments to vi­o­lence on its plat­form in the lead up to Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden’s in­au­gu­ra­tion. More censorship…Stop the Steal is hardly violent speech in a public forum.

Joe Biden will do America right by following Trump, not Obama, on Iran

 NY Post

Acting on Kerry’s advice, the Iranians waited for a Democrat to defeat Trump, and now, with their old pal Sherman ready to go to work, they can be forgiven for thinking that the obstacles Trump put in their path to a nuclear weapon will soon be lifted.

"We already knew that President-elect Joe Biden is resolved to re-enter the lousy nuclear deal his former boss, President Barack Obama, struck with Iran. But by choosing someone who has negotiated not one, but two nuclear disasters, Biden is setting up the nation for a rerun of past failures, as well as worsening relations with key Mideast allies.

"Normally, a new administration’s pick for deputy secretary of state doesn’t get much attention. But Biden’s decisions to tap Wendy Sherman for the post and to give her the task of reviving the Iran deal indicate that he lacks a leader’s humility to learn from the achievements of his reviled predecessor.

"If repeating the same action again and again and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity, then Biden’s choice of Sherman is one of the most ­insane nominations for office in American history.

"Sherman is a living, breathing example of how overrated diplomatic experience can be. A veteran of both the Clinton and Obama State Departments, she can claim credit for two of the worst national-security negotiations ever conducted by a US envoy.

"Under President Bill Clinton, Sherman was the architect of a series of deals with North Korea meant to freeze and dismantle the Hermit Kingdom’s nuclear program, as well as limit its illegal missile production. In ­exchange, Sherman offered generous concessions to the monstrous totalitarian regime — concessions Pyongyang pocketed without either denuclearizing or disarming.

"But that abject and failed act of appeasement didn’t deter Obama from hiring her to negotiate a nuclear deal with the Tehran regime. Sherman, along with John Kerry, was taken to the cleaners by her Iranian counterparts. The pair gave in on every Western demand in the talks, including reneging on ­Obama’s promise to end Iran’s nuclear program.

Franklin Graham: Those Who Broke Into Capitol Are 'Thugs', but Impeaching Trump Only Adds 'Fuel on the Fire'

 CBN News  "Rev. Franklin Graham, one of the president's most loyal supporters, called out those who breached the Capitol building Jan. 6th, saying they're "thugs" and should be prosecuted.

"Other prominent faith leaders, including Rev. Sam Rodriguez, Pastor Robert Jeffress, worship leader Sean Feucht, Dr. Russell Moore, and Dr. Ed Stetzer, have also condemned the people who illegally entered the building.

"Graham spoke on CBN News' Newswatch program, responding to a question about Christian symbols such as the Christian flag and a Jesus flag, seen in the crowd as rioters forced their way into the Capitol.

"Graham acknowledged the flags and defended the right of Christians to protest. But he forcefully spoke against those who broke into the building, one of the most prominent symbols of American democracy. 

" 'Those are thugs. They should not have done that. They broke the law," Graham said.

"He noted the presence of security cameras which he said could be used to accurately identify those illegally entering. "I hope they'll be able to identify every one of them and prosecute them. Put them into jail where they belong - because what happened was wrong," he said.

House Homeland Security Chair Suggests Putting Cruz, Hawley on No-fly List

The Democrat oppression begins.

 Leah Barkoukis

"He explained further: “Even a member of Congress that commits a crime, you know, they expel from the body. There are ethics charges that can be brought against those individuals. And people are looking at all this. What Hawley did and what Cruz did was horrible. What—the new member from Colorado, who basically tweeted directions and everything that was going on—that’s not something you do. Somebody said, well she’s new. Well the point is ignorance of the law is no excuse. So if you don’t know, you’ve still done something wrong.”

"Cruz and Hawley both denounced the violence that took place last Wednesday. Nevertheless, some lawmakers have called on the two to resign while others have argued that they should “at least” be kicked off some of the committees they’re on. \

"Thompson later doubled down on his suggestion.