Covid Misinformation in the UK, the Conservative Government, its donors and JTRIG
So this is the third part of my blog series on Covid. The first set out the evidence that the UK government (and others) went for a strategy of attempting herd immunity in the population, principally because this was the direction that their donors wanted them to go in. The main theory proposed by the alternative media was that this pandemic was all a hoax intended to lock us down indefinitely. But that didn't happen. In fact the UK hesitated for four weeks before locking down and then a mere three weeks later the lockdown was undermined by Dominic Cummings and most people abandoned the previous strict conditions. The reason they did this was simply because their donors are from the petrochemical and petrochemical refinery industries and they didn't want the world shutting down. They wanted people travelling to work and travelling internationally. The two industries that were hit the hardest in financial terms were the oil industry and the air travel industry. So rather than deal with the pandemic the UK government decided to mitigate problems for their donors. This is why travel was banned (for a short time) from the UK but not to the UK – keeping that revenue flowing. For the wider evidence of this please read my blog on Herd Immunity. The fear of being locked down provided a perfect diversion – a distraction that people focussed on to the point where the actual plans (a dangerous experiment to placate the rich elites), outrageous cronyism and purposeful degradation of the NHS were all but ignored.
In order to be able to do this the government needed to sow seeds of doubt in the severity of the disease, this also helped give the impression that they were doing much better and had a far more robust solution to the problem than they did. So to do this the government themselves spread misinformation via its media outlets and through other personalities that on the surface seemed anti establishment and highly critical of the government. This was a double bluff. Please read my second blog on the misconceptions about Covid which have littered the alternative media's response to the situation.
There is definitely something wrong. The government's messaging has been appalling – confusing and contradictory. They have flouted their own rules, applied these rules in ways that make no sense. They constantly wait before imposing measures and then implement them in the most ineffective manner. This has been interpreted by the alternative media as a way to impose control, by leading people to comply with the rules.
But this isn't what happened – there is a simpler explanation that seems to have been missed by a country mile. The point is to create chaos. This is because as well as the Oil industry (and associated industries) the governments backers are also neck deep in disaster capitalism. Disaster capitalism is the practice of making money by taking advantage of a destabilising event that causes turmoil. Put simply – you know what disaster capitalists need to grow their capital? Disasters. So the UKs response has been tailored to create this disaster that can be taken full advantage of by the government's backers.
The main target is the NHS – these disaster capitalists are in the process of destroying it by overwhelming the staff and the facilities. Once this is done they will privatise the industry.
These same government backers are behind the spread of misinformation, parroted by the alternative media. This has exacerbated the situation. Unbeknownst to them, the alternative media have spread the narratives that have caused the confusion that allows the disaster capitalists to thrive.
My position is:
Covid is real and it can be dangerous – (No I didn't get this from the MSM)this is from my own personal perspective having spoken with nurses on covid wards, biochemists in labs, care home workers and the anaesthesiologist from Nottingham's main hospital.
I have seen people with it, I know people suffering from long covid and I know people that have died from it - including one woman in her fifties who has left behind two teenage sons.
It's not the end of the world and could have been contained - it should have been done and dusted by summer 2020 (Please see my article on Herd immunity)
But the UK government - specifically its donors in the oil industry didn't want to shut down
The two most affected industries during the pandemic were the airlines industry and the oil refinery industry - both which are connected to the donors of the UK, USA, Swedish and Brazilian governments.
So the disinformation about covid actually comes from the government treasury and Nudge unit and from think tanks owned by the Tory donors - in order to lessen the projected losses - that's why our airports never closed.
So - despite publically saying they are doing otherwise - the government went for herd immunity believing it would be cheaper and less disruptive
Why -
1. To give the government an alibi – it's difficult to pin them down for their mistakes when people are arguing about the severity of the disease – whatever happens they have a group of scientists that they can claim gave them bad advice – seeing as they have diametrically opposed views from two groups of scientists who believe the opposite of one another – you have SAGE advising mitigation and then you have others who advise to just let the virus rip.
2. To help cause chaos in the NHS and facilitate its downfall and privatisation.
3. To ultimately blame the alt media for the disinformation that the government themselves spread so they have grist for their mill in regards to the online safety bill and quashing what is seen as criticism of the government.
This will ultimately neutralise and discredit the alt media - by directing the narrative of what they believe and controlling what they actually talk about.
I have said this before - they don't need to direct the mind control at the mainstream anymore - they need to direct it at those questioning things – what's the best way to control someone? Paint the pictures in their heads - control and direct the narrative – use memetic warfare. This is exactly what systems like JTRIG and Cambridge Analytica were designed to do - and they are working.
At this point they don't need to control the masses, they need to control those who are distrustful and who question the government. In fact they know that a certain swathe of the population will never trust the government. The problem is – if they know – at least to a degree - how this group will react, this reaction can be gamed in their advantage.
It's pretty much the same people who tricked the alt media regarding Brexit - telling them that what they are doing is anti establishment- when in reality these actions have been seeded by the establishment to allow them to get exactly what they want.
Please read my previous blogs on Herd Immunity and the misconceptions about covid repeated by the alternative media.
Disinformation network and their connections to the government.
So let's look at the sources of this misinformation and see If there are any commonalities that could tie them together:
Sunetra Gupta was one of the chief proponents of a herd immunity strategy, she has appeared in several publications and is a regular on TalkRadio. She claimed that the UK had already achieved herd immunity as early as March 2020. She is opposed to any type of lockdown, masks or mitigation strategies. Although appearing critical of the government she is actually supported by the UK Nudge Unit with her ideas promoted by Surgrue Communications – the publicity arm of the Behavioural Insights Team. She also received payments from Georg Von Opel – Tory donor for promoting herd immunity. Georg Von Opel was also one of the signatories for the Great Barrington Declaration which promoted herd immunity.In September of 2020 she personally advised the government to try herd immunity – this was the reason the UK didn't have a circuit break lockdown that Autumn. Gupta was also a signatory for the Great Barrington Declaration which is funded by the think tank AEIR which is populated by Tory donors from the Oil industry. Her partner Alex Caccia also works for a firm called Animal Dynamics - who do classified research for the Ministry of Defence. Caccia's business partner in Animal Dynamics is William Mark Evans - formerly of Goldman Sachs and extensively connected to the oil industry. Caccia was one of the organisers of the Great Barrington Declaration – that called on the UK government to pursue herd immunity. She also promoted the idea that lockdowns kill more than the disease. This is not true – in fact the opposite is true, lockdowns slow transmission. This idea actually came from the government themselves – specifically from the UK HM Treasury. They published the idea via their think tank Economic Insight – the reason they did this was simple – alongside the desire for frugality from the Tory donors, the treasury also didn't want to spend money bailing out people and businesses – so if they could pour water on the efficacy of lockdowns it would be cheaper for them.
Alec Caccia and Sunetra Gupta have recently set up a charity offshoot from the Great Barrington Declaration called Collateral Global. Collateral Globals main trustees are Sunetra Gupta and Alex Caccia. Its scientific advisors are Martin Kulldorf and Jay Bhattacharya who both were intergral to the Great Barrington Declaration.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pandemic Response and Recovery was set up in September and is chaired by Conservative MP Esther McVey. She is joined in the APPG by Conservative MP Miriam Cates and Conservative MP Jacqueline Foster, Baroness Foster of Oxton.
Parliamentary records show that Collateral Global is the administrative body behind the APPG and actually finances it. Collateral Global has provided over £30000 to APPG.
Another member of the APPG is Labour MP Graham Stringer. Stringer just so happens to be a trustee of the Koch-connected Global Warming Policy Foundation, Britain's most prominent climate science denial lobby group which takes funds from fossil fuels companies.
The APPG also regularly interacts with the HART group – who are supposed to be completely independent – more on them later.
Carl Heneghen of the very official sounding Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine has also been seen regularly on TalkRadio and in articles for the Telegraph, Express and Daily Mail. Heneghen has also had several (since debunked) articles published in the Spectator. Now this institution that Heneghen is from isn't quite as impartial – or evidence based - as it wants to appear. The institute was financed by donors to the Trump campaign (part of the UK/USA trade deal that seeks to privatise the NHS). Many Trump supporters spent a huge amount of time downplaying the virus for exactly the same reason as the Tory donors – an alibi. If less people died than is believed or if people are inclined to believe the stats are cooked – then Trump/Johnson didn't do as badly as it seems. It's a simple tactic but surprisingly effective. Heneghen is opposed to any type of mitigation and advised the government to go for Herd Immunity. Specifically the institution he works for is financed by the Willets – a wealthy couple who are extremely close to the Trump campaign. The Willets are board members of the RAI. The RAI or Oxford University's Rothermere American Institute, to give its full title is concerned with studying America and its place in the world. It was named after Tory donor Viscount Rothmere. Also on the board for the RAI is their friend Christopher Burnam – who worked with the Trump campaign and makes his money through investments into private healthcare.
Toby Young is connected to the Tory government and was previously appointed to the government's Office for Students. Young has also written for the Tory donor owned Daily Mail, Telegraph and the Spectator. Young runs the media outlets lockdown sceptics and the Daily sceptic – who exist to oppose any measures taken against the spread of covid. Young is also a member of the Tory government FSU (Free Speech Union). In 2020 the FSU attempted to sue OfCom for "censoring covid dissidents" – which meant censoring Toby Young when he lied about the pandemic. The FSU lost with the spurious case being described as "not properly arguable", "premised on a misinterpretation" and was ordered to pay over £16000 in costs. Young is totally against any type of mitigation against covid. IPSO – the media regulation body found that Young had spread misinformation about covid via his writing in the Telegraph. Throughout 2020 Young wrote several pieces suggesting over and over again that the pandemic was over.
Peter Hitchens has been a loud voice in the anti lockdown/masks/social distancing crowd. He is a columnist for the pro Tory, anti lockdown Daily Mail owned by John Harmsworth/Viscount Rothmere 4th a Tory donor. He is also totally against any type of protective measures and has spoken out against lockdowns, social distancing, mask wearing. Hitchens has constantly downplayed the dangers of the virus in his weekly column, on twitter and in any publication that will publish or listen to him.
Spiked online is a media outlet owned by Koch Industries (Oil refinery and tangential Tory Donors also part of UK/USA trade deal to privatise the NHS). This publication has spent the entire pandemic claiming it wasn't that serious and the alleviation measures are totally unnecessary.It gives a regular platform to various people mentioned in this article.
Turning Point UK is literally the propaganda arm of Koch Industries and has spent the entire pandemic also downplaying the severity and opposing mitigation strategies. Turning Point is particularly skilled at producing memes that spread slogans designed to antagonise and create false narratives.
John Mappin runs Turning Point UK and is also a member of the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology was aggressively pro Trump (as he gave them a huge tax break). John Mappin – who has been interviewed by several prominent members of the alternative Media and runs Camelot TV – is an avid Qanon promoter (which is at best a CIA Psyop and at worst a collective mental health incident) and was listed as having flown on Jeffrey Epsteins Lolita Express – the alternative media never pressed him on this. I wonder why?
John Mappin is also friends with John Carlton – a scientologist who helped raise funds for standupX – the group that was part of arranging the Trafalgar Square protests. John Carlton is listed as the financial officer for a company called Exotech – which was created to promote a 5G controlled automation system that can be put into people's homes – rather embarrassing as at that protests liars and self promotion experts Mark Steele and Kate Shemrani both stated that 5G was the real cause of any illness. More embarrassingly the firm Exotech also included two other Scientologists. One chap was called Peter Warren – a man who previously defrauded investors for $12million. The other was a chap called Lord McNair. Lord Duncan McNair is both a hereditary peer in the UK House of Lords and hardcore Scientologist. He spent his career in the House of Lords defending the church of Scientology earning him the nickname Lord Scientology. He is also a hard Brexit fellow.
Vernon Coleman who received a strange signal boost during the pandemic is a member of the far right anti EU English Democrats who with the Church of Scientology organised the protests in Trafalgar Square. This was done with the permission of the government, I might add. You see in order to book Trafalgar Square you have to go through the governments own website. It was rather good of this tyrannical regime to allow a protest against their tyranny. Coleman is an AIDs denialist and has written books about his desire to privatise the NHS. He has gone from covid doesn't exist, to its just the flu – to Drs and nurses are murdering patients – which is a none too subtle attempt to move any blame for deaths away from the government and to blame the NHS – which will be declared not fit for purpose. He is also a strong supporter of Brexit. He has previously written for the Sun, famously penning AIDs denial material that stated only gay people could catch the disease and inferring that it was punishment for their lifestyle choices.
The Spectator and the Telegraph are both owned by the Barclay Brothers who are Tory donors. These publications have also spent the entire pandemic telling people that no mitigation is required and that the virus isn't serious. They have criticised all lockdown and social distancing measures.
The Times, The Sun. Talk Radio, Fox News and Sky News AU are all owned by Rupert Murdoch who is a Tory donor. Similarly they have also downplayed the severity and poured scorn on any measures to lessen the effects.
Working for TalkRadio you have lifelong Tory Julia Hartley Brewer who regularly promotes people like Carl Heneghen, Toby Young, Karol Sikora, Sunetra Gupta, Desmond Swayne (Conservative MP hard core Brexiteer) and Mike Yeadon. All have the same ideas about the pandemic.
The Express newspaper is owned by Tory donor Richard Desmond and has uniformly criticised any measures to protect the public.
Tucker Carlson works for Fox news and receives money from Koch Industries – he has gone from, it doesn't exist to its just the flu to safety measures aren't needed to vaccines are pointless and might even be dangerous. The multi millionaire heir to the Swanson TV dinner fortune has for some reason been adopted by certain elements of the alternative media as a trustworthy and reliable source.
Mike Yeadon runs PCR claims with Cambridge Analytica manipulation expert Patrick Fagan, he also runs Unlocked UK which aside from Patrick Fagan includes members of the Tory governments Covid Research Group. He was behind the ridiculous claim that the PCR test (which he himself has never, ever seen done or observed or done himself) gives 91% false positives – this was spread by Toby Young and Julia Hartley Brewer. This is easily debunked – if that was true we would see 90% positive cases everywhere and we would never see 0 cases – but we do because Yeadon is simply lying.
In December 2020 – having been kicked off twitter for racism and anti Islam bigotry– Michael Yeadon started a Facebook "news" channel denying covid and the PCR tests called Unlocked United Kingdom. Yeadon was helped in this endeavour by Patrick Fagan. Unlocked's chairman and co-director of ULUK Limited is former Conservative Party donor-turned-Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib – who had previously backed Yeadon's social media career.
Karol Sikora who was connected to the Trump campaign, advised the UK government to go for Herd Immunity and is connected to the Save Our Rights Group – which is actually run via the Tory Government with the help of Conservative MP, EU critic and lockdown critic Desmond Swayne. CRG (Covid Research Group) member Steve Baker (who was also previously the chairman of the ERG – the European Research Group – a hard Brexit support group) is reportedly also involved. All have been anti lockdown, anti mask and anti social distancing. Sikora is firmly of the opinion that the NHS should be privatised - he refers to the current NHS as "the last bastion of communism."
Laurence Fox is connected to the IEA (Institute for Economic Affairs) – a think tank connected to Koch Industries, the Heritage Foundation and part of the UK/USA trade deal that seeks to privatise the NHS. The failed actor/singer/husband/human being has been a particularly gobby mouthpiece in all of this – probably because it is literally his last stab at anything approaching relevance. Fox received £5 million to start a political party called Reclaim Britain. The party was launched during "His attendance at a virtual fringe event on 'the free speech crisis' run by the IEA think tank."
Piers Corbyn has also spoken several times at the IEA. The IEA was connected to the Cambridge Analytica campaign which was ultimately designed to get us to leave the EU and privatise the NHS with American firms. Corbyn still promotes the idea that 5G causes the virus. He was behind the incredibly disingenuous FOIA campaign in which they asked for something impossible and claimed this was proof that the virus doesn't exist – a cheap con trick (see my misconceptions debunked article). His credibility – such as it is – was seriously called into doubt again when he was exposed as taking what he believed to be a bribe of £10000 in return for avoiding certain topics in his unhinged rants. He happily accepted the money, agreed to downplay certain subjects and even concocted a cover story to explain how he got the money – seeing as the sting coordinators had pretended to be representatives of big pharma. He happily took the money and agreed on camera to abandon his principles and lie about it to conceal the payment.
Patrick Vallance and David Halpern – who sit on the SAGE advisory board, are actually members of the Nudge unit. The Nudge unit seeks to surreptitiously alter the public's behaviour – without the public knowing. The Nudge Unit is the nickname for the Behavioural Insights team – which deals in mind control.
Martin Kuldorff of the Great Barrington Declaration works for the Brownstone Institute – indirectly funded by Koch Industries through Jeffrey Tucker of George Mason University – a slush fund for Koch Industries. The Great Barrington Declaration called for the isolating of the elderly and vulnerable until herd immunity was reached. They never explained how these vulnerable people would reintegrate into a society where covid is endemic and they still have no immunity – but sod them.
The Great Barrington Declaration itself was created by the think tank AEIR – who aside from covid denial promote sweat shops as a good thing – no seriously they do. AEIR receive funding from Koch Industries via the Cato institute and are populated by members of the oil industry and fossil fuel industry. This is the real reason this think tank was opposed to lockdowns.
James Dellingpole works for Breitbart – the Mercer and Bannon owned/run media outlet with connections to the Heritage Foundation, the CNP and part of the Cambridge Analytica mind control programme. Dellingpole has also spent the entire pandemic downplaying it and acting persecuted. His podcast provides a regular platform for whinging about safety measures and moaning that all this is a con.
Dominic Cummings who was influential in both the decision for the government to pursue Herd Immunity and the person who undermined the lockdown strategy after just three weeks was famously involved with Cambridge Analytica. His colleague from the Cambridge Analytica arranged Vote Leave campaign – Ben Warner was also brought in to advise the SAGE board.
KeepBritainFree was founded by billionaire tax exile Simon Dolan – he opposed all lockdowns and masks – but only after his firm was refused a contract to provide masks to the UK Government. Simon Dolan produced the 2019 David Icke film "Renegade". Dolan is a strong proponent of Brexit – despite living in tax exile Monaco and crowd funded a spurious campaign to sue the government for lockdowns using Brexit lawyer Francis Hoar. The campiagn managed to raise over £60000 for their ridiculous cause, that simply disappeared when inevitably their case was thrown out.
America's Frontline Drs – who existed solely to hype up ineffective medicines and then sell them at massively inflated prices, were financed by the CNP – the think tank above the Heritage Foundation. The group which also affiliates itself with the Koch created Tea Party movement includes grifter Simone Gold – who is currently under investigation for storming the US capitol building on January 6th and Stella Emmanuel who genuinely believes that vaginal problems are caused by demons. Yes that's right fanny demons.
The initial protests against the lockdown in America were actually arranged by the Heritage Foundation – a think tank populated mostly by members of the Oil industry – including the Kochs, Mercers, Devos family, Steve Bannon and others. The Heritage Foundation has done more to impinge on the rights of the working man than a little. They have spent years lobbying to reduce workers rights, roll back worker safety, reduce worker holidays and pay, roll back environmental protections, roll back welfare protections, reduce medical cover, reduce the numbers entitled to food stamps and gain themselves a 25% tax break Mostly they are concerned with bypassing workers rights and tax and all that pesky stuff. So the idea that they were suddenly concerned with the working man not being able to work was laughable.
Its parent think tank the CNP fabricated the #filmthehospitals debacle – claiming that hospitals were empty when they were not.
The Hart Group (Health Advisory and Recovery Team) describes itself as "a group of highly qualified UK doctors, scientists, economists, psychologists and other academic experts" who came together "over shared concerns about policy and guidance recommendations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic." This group was exposed by an investigation by logically magazine – who gained access to their private email chats. These chats revealed that the group knowingly spread false information about covid and was connected to several Conservative MPs. The group branded itself as giving a "credible second opinion for politicians, the media, businesses and the wider public" but is clearly designed to spread disinformation. They state that they want to "wrestle back control from SAGE" – that's the scientific advisory body.
As Logically magazine detailed:
"Among the group's most active and notable contributors are businessman and political activist Narice Bernard, former Pfizer executive widely cited in antivax circles Dr. Michael Yeadon, pathologist Dr. Clare Craig, export credit specialist and libertarian Baron Bernie de Haldevang, anti-mask activist Jemma Moran, retired paediatrician and UsForThem campaigner Ros Jones, and Anna Rayner, who once described herself as a "homeopath specialising in treatment of Autism and related disorders, Vaccine Damage and heavy metal toxicity."
"They also arrange campaigns of harassment against Drs and scientists who they disagree with and suggested flooding vaccination centres with fake emails. They promote ideas such as the vaccines make you magnetic, the false idea that vaccines are punishable under the Nuremberg code and they promote medicines that don't work – giving the impression of a huge government cover-up. They have been connected to the Conservative government's Covid Research Group – a collection of covid sceptical Conservative MPs. They have helped coordinate messaging discouraging mitigation strategies through these MPS. They also have relationships with Toby Young's Lockdown sceptics and the Daily sceptic and anti lockdown groups such as USforthem."
"At the thematic centre of the group's beliefs is a distrust of mainstream media and a conviction that the government's agenda was to keep the U.K. population under lockdown indefinitely" – which didn't happen.
They have also spread lies such as mRNA vaccines cannot be considered vaccines, that the vaccines were rushed through testing and they repeat the views of the HM treasury that lockdowns harm more than they help.
Unlocked is an online media out let that promotes anything anti lockdown, anti mask or anti vaccine passport. It was set up by former Brexit party MP Martin Daubney alongside Lesley Katon – the former chief of staff for the Brexit Party, and Ben Habib – of the Brexit Party. They regularly championed Simon Dolan as well as Conservative MP's Desmond Swayne, Andrew Bridgen (hard Brexit) and John Redwood (also hard Brexit). Daubney also spends a lot of time chatting with his mate Laurence Fox. The channel also promoted Mike Yeadon with a lengthy interview published in November 2020. Unfortunately for them it was taken from Youtube after just 48 hours for being littered with outright lies.
Then there is the Together Declaration who have sprung up recently saying the same thing as everyone else and organising marches against vaccine passports – that currently don't exist. They seem to be a who's who of well known disinformation artists.
They include Dr Tony Hinton, a consultant that spends his days lying about covid on twitter – even claiming that the virus has never been proven to exist. Dr Claire Craig – an unemployed pathologist and member of the HART group whose emails exposed her as knowingly lying about covid. These lies include death certificates being forged by Drs to create the image of a pandemic. Dr Craig doesn't currently hold a licence to practice medicine and deleted every single tweet that she made in the entirety of 2020 – mostly because none of her predictions came true and it was shown that she had been spreading lies. They also include Dr Renee Honderkampa GP that promoted the use of masks and social distancing until she was approached by the HART group who made her a minor celebrity on the internet. She now regularly appears on TalkRadio to say that masks don't prevent the spread of disease – which is a lie.
Dr Rosamund Jones who is part of HART is also a member of Together.Conservative MP Steve Baker who is also a member of the CRG and former chairman of the ERG is also amongst the members of Together. Conservative MPs Esther McVey (hard Brexit) and Desmond Swayne (hard Brexit) are also in the group. In a recent video released by antivaxxer Fiona Hind it is revealed that MP Mark Francois – who is the current chair of the hard Brexit support group the ERG is also backing the together declaration. MPS Philip Davies, Henry Smith and Chris Green - all hard Brexit voters are also members. Journalist Christopher Snowden who works for the Koch owned Spiked is also a member. David Kurten – horrible homophobic member of the Heritage Party is also a member. Hard Brexit desiring Richard Tice is also a member as is Brexit lawyer Francis Hoar and Brexit enthusiast Ben Habib. Toby Young of the Conservative FSU is also a member. Karol Sikora is also a member.Less illustrious members include crap comedian Lee Hurst, Richard Fairbrass of novelty band Right Said Fred, woman who sifts through human shit Gillian McKeith, piss poor journalist James Melville, Murdoch mouthpiece Julia Hartley Brewer, Idiot who lied about her psychological qualifications Emma Kenny (she's not actually a qualified psychologist she just pretends), Matt Le Tissier,Alan Partridge cohort Sue Cook, Anna Brees, Louise Creffield – founder of Tory backed SaveourRights, biased journalist and Tory cheerleader Allison Pearson, rather obvious government stooge and former founder of Quilliam, LBC's Majiid Nawaz, Dr Zoe Harcombe PHD – a rubbish nutritionist that is so desperate to show she is an authority that she uses Dr and Phd at the same time like a moron would.
Then you have a series of people such as Andrew Kaufman and Thomas Cowan seemed to come from nowhere had an enormous signal boost and basically sent out the message – its fine – there is no pandemic – which translates to – if there is no pandemic then people aren't dying and therefore the government isn't doing that badly – it's a double bluff and sadly the alternative media fell for it and just repeated the talking points raised by the above listed. You also had a series of useful idiots and grafters who took advantage of people's frustrations and lied to them to make money and draw adoration from a demographic – such as Bev Turner, Anna Brees, Gillian Mckeith, Right Said Fred etc – in propaganda these are called useful idiots.
So we can see that the common through line is - Tory donor, Hard Brexit or in some way connected to Trump/The USA trade deal – which was the whole purpose of Brexit. Similarly to Brexit, this network of covid misinformation presents itself as anti establishment. However with the fact that members of the government, donors to the government and government departments such as the Nudge Unit/ Behavioural Insights, The HM Treasury and the MOD are connected to the information proves otherwise.
Memetic warfare
Much of this misinformation is spread via the mechanism of Memetic warfare. Memetic Warfare is a modern type of information warfare and psychological warfare involving the propagation of memes on social media. Most of these anti covid ideas were spread either via memes or via short interview clips. The idea is to get certain phrases, slogans, tropes or ideas, spread by memes into the public consciousness. These could be slogans such as a 99.9% recovery rate, it's just the flu or misinformation about the validity of PCR tests – we have all seen these slogans. If you repeat these slogans long enough they become truisms – and at that point it is incredibly difficult to unpick some ones belief structure – even if the foundations of this belief structure are provably false.
As I said earlier, they don't need to control the mainstream – they are content – they need to control the alt media. How do they do this – by using the Walter Lippmann technique of painting pictures in peoples head, creating the facts and setting the narrative. This is particularly important since the dawn of the internet. Rather than the TV channels there are now dozens of avenues that people can consume information. So they need to control the information. This is called controlling the narrative and it isn't a new tactic of control.
Painting the pictures in people's heads
In his most famous work Public Opinion (1922), Lippmann compared the masses to a "great beast" and a "bewildered herd" that needed, for its own good, to be guided by a responsible governing class, namely, the established order of the elite. He described the ruling elite as "a specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality". In Lippmann's considered view, the "bewildered herd" has its function: to be "the interested spectators of action", meaning that the majority of people should not participate in anything of any real importance. The direction of the general public's lives are dictated and directed for them by the intelligentsia of the ruling classes. Participation in the running of the world, in Lippmann's opinion, was the duty of "the responsible man", namely the elites rather than the average man in the street.
One important concept presented by Lippmann was the "manufacture of consent", which is, in short, the manipulation of public opinion to accept the specific agenda of the ruling class. In Lippmann's opinion the general public was not qualified to reason and to decide on the most important issues. It is therefore important for the elite to decide 'for their own good' and then sell those decisions to the masses.
"That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough…as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power. . . . Under the impact of propaganda, not necessarily in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the old constants of our thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for example, to believe in the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to self-deception, and to forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond our reach."
The opening chapter in Lippmann's Public Opinion is titled The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads. In this he explained that the 'pictures' in people's minds, the way they 'see' things and their assumptions of what is 'real' is their method to interpret roles and positions in the world. Peoples understanding of the world through these conceptualised pictures denotes how people conduct themselves in everyday situations.
"… The object of study of the public opinion social analyst is reality as defined by internal perception or images of that reality. Public opinion deals with indirect, unseen and puzzling facts, and there is nothing obvious about them. The situations to which the public opinions refer are known as opinions…The pictures inside the heads of these human beings, the pictures of themselves, of others, of their needs, purposes and relationship, are their public opinions. Those pictures which are acted upon by groups of people, or by individuals acting in the name of groups, are Public Opinion with capital letters. The Picture inside so often misleads men in their dealings with the world outside."
Lippmann then explained how this can be best employed in the manipulation of opinions:
"This then, will be the clue to our inquiry. We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but on pictures made by himself or given to him. If his atlas tells him that the world is flat he will not sail near what he believes to be the edge of our planet for fear of falling off. If his maps include a fountain of eternal youth, a Ponce de Leon will go in quest of it. If someone digs up yellow dirt that looks like gold, he will for a time act exactly as if he had found gold. The way in which the world is imagined determines at any particular moment what men will do. It does not determine what they will achieve. It determines their effort, their feelings, their hopes, not their accomplishments and results. The very men who most loudly proclaim their "materialism" and their contempt for "ideologues," the Marxian communists, place their entire hope on what?"
Going back to Public Opinion, Lippmann defined propaganda as such:
"On the formulation by propaganda of a class-conscious group. But what is propaganda, if not the effort to alter the picture to which men respond, to substitute one social pattern for another? What is class consciousness but a way of realizing the world? National consciousness but another way?"
Lippmann believed that there must exist an independent public opinion organization that makes 'unseen facts' available to the politicians, the media and the heads of industry.
"I argue that representative government, either in what is ordinarily called politics, or in industry, cannot be worked successfully, no matter what the basis of election, unless there is an independent, expert organization for making the unseen facts intelligible to those who have to make the decisions...My conclusion is that public opinions must be organized for the press if they are to be sound, not by the press as is the case today."
The rise of the red herring
Ever since Sandy Hook the alternative media has been flooded with what I think are red herrings. Principally this is the idea that everything is fake or street theatre using crisis actors. This is just silly – the intelligence agencies kill people – why would they risk using actors (threatened with death if they reveal the truth) it would be simpler to just carry out attacks. Also – have you ever met an actor that didn't want credit for a role – praise and adoration – no, no you haven't – so how would they keep quiet?
The point of this theory is to distract from real investigation, to direct the investigation in a certain way so that anything that contradicts the idea that this is all fake is dismissed. This serves to control what is investigated but also isolates the conspiracy theorist by offending the sensibilities of the mainstream. Suggesting that children didn't die or that school massacres are elaborate hoaxes horrifies most people and demonises the "insensitive" conspiracy theorist. This is exactly what it is supposed to do – usually this leads to a doubling down from the theorist – isolating them further and convincing them that they are right.
In my mind this is because - with the rise of the internet – the Columbine shooting was poured over and several discrepancies with the "official story" came to light. That couldn't happen again.
Now if you wish to control an investigation – provide the evidence – seed red herrings that seem plausible on the surface but actually lead investigation well wide of the mark. They have had the pictures painted in their heads and acted accordingly.
Since then the alternative media has been inundated with utter, utter rubbish – such as flat earth, crisis actors for every event, everything is fake, Qanon, Trump worship, Hitler worship, the Brexit campaign and pizzagate – all total nonsense.
But the same thing is happening here – people are dying and the alternative media is not only denying this reality but has been tricked into mocking the "Sheeple" who believe the "hoax", teling bereaved relatives that they are liars and even wishing death on those who have taken the vaccine. This just serves to alienate the alternative media and push them further to the fringe to the point where everything they say is dismissed because people are sick of them – which is entirely the point. The alternative media is being used and being set up as the bad guy. They have been tricked not only into backing the wrong horse – but this will permanently stain the reputation of anyone questioning the government. Similar to flat earthers and crisis actor theorists; anti vaxxers and covid denialists will simply be dismissed as easily led fools whose theories are offensive. There is also the possibility that they are setting themselves up to take the blame for this crisis dragging on – because the politicians sure as shit won't take any responsibility.
All this reminds me of JTRIG and other similar programmes designed to manipulate users of the internet without their knowledge.
JTRIG
Put simply JTRIG is an internet manipulation programmes designed and used by GCHQ which exists to seed false information into the internet. In their own words:
"Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: "false flag operations" (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting "negative information" on various forums."
The programme exists to create beliefs on the internet that are then taken as truisms and shift the opinions and beliefs of the target.
"GCHQ describes the purpose of JTRIG in starkly clear terms: "using online techniques to make something happen in the real or cyber world," including "information ops (influence or disruption)."
As described in the Intercept magazine this is not limited to the UK:
"Critically, the "targets" for this deceit and reputation-destruction extend far beyond the customary roster of normal spycraft: hostile nations and their leaders, military agencies, and intelligence services. In fact, the discussion of many of these techniques occurs in the context of using them in lieu of "traditional law enforcement" against people suspected (but not charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, "hacktivism", meaning those who use online protest activity for political ends.
Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House's former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.
Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups" which spread what he views as false and damaging "conspiracy theories" about the government. Ironically, the very same Sunstein was recently named by Obama to serve as a member of the NSA review panel created by the White House, one that – while disputing key NSA claims – proceeded to propose many cosmetic reforms to the agency's powers (most of which were ignored by the President who appointed them)."
Cass Sunstein was the creator of Nudge Theory – the tactic of surreptitiously directing a population's behaviour. The Nudge Unit – or the Behavioural Insight Group has been behind much of the Covid response from the UK government. Patrick Vallance and David Halpern – of the Nudge unit are sitting on the SAGE advisory board for some unexplained reason.
The JTRIG documents show that GCHQ is actively involved in spreading false information to discredit its targets – and its targets are anyone that is deemed an enemy or threat to the state.
"Then there is the use of psychology and other social sciences to not only understand, but shape and control, how online activism and discourse unfolds. Today's newly published document touts the work of GCHQ's "Human Science Operations Cell," devoted to "online human intelligence" and "strategic influence and disruption"
So similarly to the tactics of programmes like Cambridge Analytica the point is to create false information that they know will appeal to a particular group (having learned about the group by studying them) then getting the group to repeat and spread the false information until it becomes core to their identity.
"Under the title "Online Covert Action", the document details a variety of means to engage in "influence and info ops" as well as "disruption and computer net attack," while dissecting how human beings can be manipulated using "leaders," "trust," "obedience" and "compliance"
The documents lay out theories of how humans interact with one another, particularly online, and then attempt to identify ways to influence the outcomes – or "game" it"
One specific article released by Edward Snowden is pertaining to JTRIG is called 'The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations'. This appears to have been compiled by GCHQ's Human Science Operations Cell, a group who focus on "online human intelligence" and "strategic influence and disruption".
Although the document contains only a slide show it is clear what techniques they are using to influence people. These include profiling of cultures and personality, research on persuasion, research on cognitive biases and scams, research on the psychology of stage magic and organisational psychology. It is clear from the documents that these techniques are aimed at groups of like minded people and not individual targets. Manipulation of groups indicates that this is a PSYOPs technique.
"Perhaps the key thing to note is the sensemaking component. Sensemaking is a key concept in management science that just describes the different ways in which people come to conclusions about the meaning and significance of things."
Put simply – JTRIG gives the audience an explanation and a backing to the narrative it is trying to sell. An example could be – groups know that the virus isn't serious and that the tests don't work etc – (created narrative) so the only possible explanation for this lie is to lock us down or gain some type of power/control (sensemaking).
The documents show that they
" treat individuals as like naive intelligence analysts who are trying to piece together their own understanding of the world and aim to exploit some of the weaknesses in this process. The big messy 'concept map' slides mentions 'destructive organisational psychology' which presumably refers to using the understanding of what keeps organisation together to break them apart."
One slide just says 'We want to build Cyber Magicians', - who are these Cyber Magicians? Trusted authority figures who unknowingly spread the false information to their followers. They feed the lies to the "influencers" who spread these to their followers creating the narrative and giving an explanation for what is happening in the world. The only problem being that the original information is incorrect – it's designed to lead people away from the truth but at the same time provide a plausible scenario/meaning for what is happening. This is definitely what happened in the UK regards covid and the alteranative media – they were convinced that this was a scam – a fake event rather than a badly run event that ignored the safety of the public to appease the rich donors to the government.
JTRIG has been active for over a decade:
"Known as "Effects" operations, the work of JTRIG had become a "major part" of GCHQ's operations by 2010. The unit's online propaganda efforts (named "Online Covert Action") utilize "mass messaging" and the "pushing [of] stories" via the medium of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube."
The Journalist Glen Greenwald published a series of NSA files in 2015 that spoke about other JTRIG operations – specifically in the arena of manipulating online communities. This ties in to the concept that it isn't the mainstream being targeted anymore – it's the alternative media. They do this by studying you to see what makes you tick, introducing information that they know will appeal to you and makes "Sense" to you but is false. They then encourage you to repeat, spread and share this false information – creating the narrative for that group/community.
In these documents was information about JTRIG activities that had started in 2011. Entitled "Behavioural Science Support for JTRIG's Effects and Online HUMINT [Human Intelligence] Operations," it describes the types of targets on which the unit focuses, the psychological and behavioural research it commissions and exploits, and its future organizational aspirations. It is authored by a psychologist, Mandeep K. Dhami who specialises in the research of judgement and decision making.
"The document explains out the tactics the agency uses to manipulate public opinion, its scientific and psychological research into how human thinking and behaviour can be influenced, and the broad range of targets that are traditionally the province of law enforcement rather than intelligence agencies.
JTRIG's domestic and law enforcement operations are made clear. The report states that the controversial unit "currently collaborates with other agencies" including the Metropolitan police, Security Service (MI5), Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Border Agency, Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and National Public Order and Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The document highlights that key JTRIG objectives include "providing intelligence for judicial outcomes"; monitoring "domestic extremist groups such as the English Defence League by conducting online HUMINT"; "denying, deterring or dissuading" criminals and "hacktivists"; and "deterring, disrupting or degrading online consumerism of stolen data or child porn."
The key take away is that this manipulation can be and is directed at domestic targets.
Evidence shows that information can be transmitted via "complex contagion," meaning the more times someone is exposed to an idea online, the more likely they are to adopt and share it. When social media tells people an item is going viral, their cognitive biases kick in and translate into the irresistible urge to pay attention to it and share it. There is also the concept of being part of a group. People are far less likely to question something if it means being ostracised from their group – particularly if the influencers at the top of the pyramid all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Popularity boosts low-quality content
Further studies have shown that the greater the number of people who respond to a low-quality item on social media, the less likely others are to question it and the more likely they are to share it. These are the average rates of liking or sharing and fact-checking low-quality social media posts depending on the posts' popularity or "engagement level."
This leads to the phenomenon of echo chambers – which we have definitely seen recently – the free thinkers of this world are surprisingly uniform in their outlook. Put simply -your social desire to conform distorts your independent judgment.
Popularity signals can be gamed. If it appears that all your trusted sources are in agreement – then why wouldn't you go along with them – the problem arises if this information is incorrect – either by error or by design.
Manipulation of the internet can be seen through the dissemination of false material, sock puppet accounts and the creation of echo chambers that present the world in a way that makes sense and provides psychological comfort for the participant – surrounded by like minded people and free from doubt – because you have worked it out in a manner that makes sense of the world.
An annual report on online freedom by the nonprofit group Freedom House found evidence of "advanced social media surveillance programs" in at least 40 of 65 countries analyzed.
The report said global internet freedom declined for a ninth consecutive year, as authorities in some countries simply cut off internet access as part of their manipulation efforts, while others employed propaganda armies to distort information on social platforms.
"Many governments are finding that on social media, propaganda works better than censorship," said Mike Abramowitz, president of Freedom House.
Other Existing programmes:
Centcom
Centcom was a sock puppet account programme used by the USA Military. Put simply a single soldier could run a farm of online personalities that interact with other users and spread information that is beneficial to the US Military. Sock puppets give the impression of a far greater number of like minded individuals and can create echo chambers. Sock puppets are often undetectable as they learn to react and develop their ways of interacting with targets to make them appear human. This allows the US Military to create a false consensus in online debates and shout down opinions that they don't want encouraging.
"The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
Smisc
The Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) programme is run by DARPA. It is described as a method for detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. DARPA have cited two reasons for its existence. Firstly to allow the military to better understand what is happening on social media and secondly to distribute its own propaganda and to control/influence online discussions. SMISC algorithms will be aimed at discovering and tracking the "formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes)" on social media, according to Darpa via "persuasion campaign structures and influence operations".
For more information on these types of programmes please read my previous blog on JTRIG
Conclusion
We can't prove that JTRIG or some other type of manipulation programme has been used here but it would not surprise me as we can certainly draw parallels with what has happened in regards to the spreading of information regarding Covid.
What we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt though is that much of the "covid denial" information has actually come from a source close to the government. Whilst this appears to be an attack on the government or anti establishment it is in reality a double bluff – a campaign to give the government an alibi, to create doubt and to ultimately cause enough confusion to contribute towards the privatisation of the NHS.
I'm afraid that the alternative media has been tricked on this one, they have built up their view of this on fallacies – lies spread by the government themselves.
References
Guest Post: Pentagon Seeks to Manipulate Social Media for Propaganda Purposes | naked capitalism
Air Force research: How to use social media to control people like drones | Ars Technica
Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale • The Register
Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media | Hacking | The Guardian
https://www.logically.ai/articles/hart-files-anti-vaccine-myths-westminster
Inside the U.K.'s anti-lockdown media machine - Coda Story
How Governments Use Social Media to Spy on You & Sway Elections (voanews.com)
Ministry of Defence Funds Man Behind Great Barrington Declaration – Byline Times
A spook's guide to the psychology of deception – Mind Hacks
Internet manipulation - Wikipedia
The Psychology of Being Scammed - Schneier on Security
Lippmann, W. Public Opinion, NewVision Publications, LLC, 2007
