Take back your mind
Stop playing along with magic words
We are social beings and we all want to belong. So what happens when a bully or a bad actor comes along and creates social shame around a particular idea or behavior? Incredibly, we are totally susceptible to being manipulated. Like a simple excel formula, we are then programmed to accept some ideas and reject others… for example, how many people will reject any idea that may possibly be associated with Trump?
The other day I had coffee with a politically moderate, former military guy in his early 60s. He prefaced a sentence with “I am not a conspiracy theorist”.. in a brief discussion about local voting. Funny thing, we are in a state where one of the recent local elections uncovered flaws in the voting counts, and a candidate who did not have a single vote in the county where she lived, despite she and her husband having voted for her in that county, was able to request another ballot count and turned out to be the leading candidate.
That’s not to say that all voting counts are compromised. But it IS to say that errors and issues and flaws are possible. Life is nuanced - sometimes a thing is true, in some situations, and sometimes it is not. All that is required of us is to keep this in mind. But.. if anyone who questions any voting counts is labelled a “conspiracy theorist”, most of us won’t. I am not particularly versed in the technical definition of mind control - but this has to be it.
Consider the term anti-vaxer, which is used against anyone who calls into question the absolute safety and effectiveness of ANY vaccine. Do you see how this works yet? Let’s suppose a guy asks a woman out, and she doesn’t like him - for whatever reason. Would it make sense for people to then call her a man-hater, or assume she is gay? Insert eye roll. But ALL vaccines must be infallible, all the time. Uh huh.
I fell into this mind control trap during the first year of the pandemic, with anti-maskers. I did not want to be associated with the social stigma that had been built up around people who don’t respect the safety of others, and was also loathe to be called “a Trumpie”. So I was slow to turn my attention to studies about mask effectiveness and completely unwilling to question the prevailing opinion. Fool me once.. not twice.
You may not be ready to look at this one yet, but we need to.. what’s up with “climate change deniers” as another “magic word”? We have toxins in our drinking water, hormones and plastics in our food, WallE style dumps of allegedly recycled trash accumulating around the world, processed food that is driving diseases like diabetes and obesity, a record percent of the population dependent on prescriptions (which are not without side effects, particularly over the long term), GMOs in our food and entering the “circle of life” via mosquitos
Genetically Modified Mosquitoes: What to Know
but the ONLY action we need to take to clean up, sustain and protect our environment is reducing carbon emissions. Why only focus on that ONE thing? Is it not the government’s job to ensure safe drinking water, food, the health of its people, recycling, and basic environmental protections like eliminating toxic pesticides and genetically modified bugs? Who is championing these causes, and where are their voices in the mainstream media and corporate ERG statements? Certainly not on the main stage.
Did you know there are legitimate, qualified, reasonable people who question the climate change narrative?
Yet people throw climate change around like a qualifier in social conversations. You have to agree that it is a thing in order to be socially acceptable.
These terms and social attitudes do not just spring up organically, and go viral. Behind every one of these “magic words”.. from femi-Nazi to climate denier to anti-vaxer, you better bet there is a PR campaign, some branding people working on the name, and a media plan to get the term introduced and repeated, until it takes hold.
What to do about it? The solution is incredibly simple.. because the strategy is too. It is the same football play, over and over again. All you have do is see it - and respond - and they will have to stop running that play, at least for a while.
Next time you find yourself starting a sentence with “I am not a [corporate-funded magic word people blindly repeat, but]..”. Just don’t. Stop perpetuating the term and its importance. You can even take it back. “Sure, I am an anti-vaxer. I am smart enough to realize not every vaccine is flawless, some perform better than others and we need higher standards for safety and effectiveness. Aren’t you?”
It just takes a little courage. You can do this.. channel that one of your friends or family who did not get the jab, despite the risk and reality of losing their friends, jobs, the ability to travel, eat out, go to concerts, join family Holidays. All you have to do is return to respecting and celebrating courage, especially the kind that has you stand up, turn around and walk confidently in your own direction. Then take a moment to find it within yourself, and enjoy the invigorating rush of power that comes from being free - once again - to express your own opinion.
Its not just about terms that serve to denigrate, and stifle discourse, but also, terms misappropriated by industry and captured regulators to ramrod products through by skirting procedural protocols under the guise of emergencies.
Terms we need to take back-
Vaccine: If the injectable product contains an attenuated virus that confers immunity and stops transmission to said virus, it's a vaccine.
Treatment: If the injectable product does not confer immunity, nor stops transmission, but merely reduces the severity of a disease, it is a treatment.
Thus, being skeptical of an emergency use only product has nothing to do with being pro or anti vaccine. Furthermore, if we are to properly address the corruption, malfeasance, fraud, coercion, and force, we have to address the subject matter based on ethics, what the consequences are by allowing emergencies to be the fulcrum to set precedents for profiteering and racketeering, as well as draw good analogies for the critical thinking impaired that can help drive home why it is in their best interest to guard against the tyranny of psychopathic corporate enterprises.
This is really 80% psychological warfare. They use empathy t get us to care more about intentions than results. It is wild that we ignore results.