PP NewsBrief: 2021-03-03

We need to begin to reclaim control over the institutions which have such oversized roles in our lives. As you read this people work tirelessly to see to it that you are dumb and docile. Let's stop them.

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ATF remembers fallen agents on Waco anniversary—no mention of 25 slain children

"In February of 1993, ATF agents from three different localities descended on the compound of a splinter religious group, the Branch Davidians, in order to execute a search warrant. Violence ensued, followed by a 51-day standoff.

The tragic scenario came to a horrible end, when a fire started in the compound on April 19. The compound burned to the ground, and more than 70 residents were killed, with only nine of them escaping. Many of the victims were small children.

Authorities maintain to this day that the fire was started by the residents, but there has always existed speculation that the fire was accidental, or even potentially caused on purpose by the ATF:

The tweet from the ATF's official account reads:

"We remember the fallen agents: Special Agent Conway LeBleu, Special Agent Todd McKeehan, Special Agent Robert Williams, and Special Agent Steven Willis who made the ultimate sacrifice while trying to execute a search warrant. Learn more:",linking to the complete statement on their website."

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New Zealand PM urges public to ‘call out’ family & friends who break Covid-19 rules, who let down ‘team of five million’

"New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has urged obedient members of the public to call out violators of coronavirus rules, as it emerged people have been concealing Covid-19 contacts.

Speaking on Monday about recent Covid-19 cases that are linked to breaches of anti-coronavirus restrictions, Ardern aimed mighty jabs at rule breakers.

   "Even with the full understanding of human fallibility, it is not appropriate, and it is not okay for members of a team of five million to let the rest of us down."

Ruling out punishments for the violators handed out directly by the government, and citing the separation of police and state, the PM urged the public to take the matter into their own hands and “call out” any rule-breakers they spot, family and friends included.

“If there is any question mark right now over there being consequences, you know, those individuals are facing the full judgment of the entire nation. There are consequences, undoubtedly,” Ardern stated."

Authoritarians love to outsource their dirty work to the general public.

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What Happens If Bitcoin Succeeds?

"In a week when bitcoin is setting records with a market value exceeding a trillion dollars, what would it mean if cryptocurrencies succeed?

The only reason all the bitcoins are worth a trillion dollars is the expectation of success, as they are not very useful today. Cryptocurrencies must provide some valuable service if they are to justify their high valuation, otherwise holding bitcoin is just like collecting stamps or beanie babies – a minority activity that does not justify the current $51,000 price.

But what is the valuable service that makes bitcoin successful?

To the vast majority of bitcoin investors, success means its price continues to rise. But if that is all there is to it, someday a little boy will yell, “the Emperor has no clothes”, and the price will come crashing down.

The bitcoin enthusiasts are quite vague on what success means beyond rising prices, they seem more fond of arguments wrapped in mysticism than basic economic logic. The most important criterion for success is that cryptocurrencies end up being used in commercial transactions, like Tesla accepting bitcoin today. All the other value propositions, like their use in payment systems (Fatás and Weder di Mauro 2018) or their safe-haven role (Cheema et al. 2020), flow from that. If cryptocurrencies cannot be directly exchanged for real goods, they will not be very successful.

In other words, the value proposition for bitcoin is that it will displace fiat money – the dollar, euro, renminbi and all the others – either fully or partially. As I argue below, I think it is inevitable that it will be ‘either, or’ – either full displacement or no displacement, complete success or failure. And as I said here on Vox three years ago (Danielsson 2018), I don’t think cryptocurrencies make sense.

So how do bitcoins compare to fiat?

...

...If bitcoin becomes the money we use in our daily lives, it must also become a unit of account. The current volatility of bitcoin precludes it from becoming such a unit of account because which shopkeeper wants to change their prices every time bitcoin goes up or down in value, and who wants high volatility in the purchasing power of their salary or savings?

And that contradiction may be the reason why bitcoin cannot become successful. Success means it is used in transactions, but that requires bitcoin becoming a unit of account, and for that to happen, the purchasing power of a bitcoin must stabilise.

Fortunately, the more successful bitcoin becomes, the more visible the perverse consequences and the internal contradictions become, so that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be discarded long before we get to that point. At which time, the price of bitcoin will head to zero.

Bitcoin is a bubble. It makes sense to ride the bubble as long as possible – just get out in time. Watch out for a little boy yelling “the Emperor has no clothes.”"

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The Vaccine (Dis)Information War

"So, good news, folks! It appears that GloboCap’s Genetic Modification Division has come up with a miracle vaccine for Covid! It’s an absolutely safe, non-experimental, messenger-RNA vaccine that teaches your cells to produce a protein that triggers an immune response, just like your body’s immune-system response, only better, because it’s made by corporations!

OK, technically, it hasn’t been approved for use — that process normally takes several years — so I guess it’s slightly “experimental,” but the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have issued “Emergency Use Authorizations,” and it has been “tested extensively for safety and effectiveness,” according to Facebook’s anonymous “fact checkers,” so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.

This non-experimental experimental vaccine is truly a historic development, because apart from saving the world from a virus that causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms (or, more commonly, no symptoms whatsoever) in roughly 95% of those infected, and that over 99% of those infected survive, the possibilities for future applications of messenger-RNA technology, and the genetic modification of humans, generally, is virtually unlimited at this point.

Imagine all the diseases we can cure, and all the genetic “mistakes” we can fix, now that we can reprogram people’s genes to do whatever we want … cancer, heart disease, dementia, blindness, not to mention the common cold! We could even cure psychiatric disorders, like “antisocial personality disorder,” “oppositional defiant disorder,” and other “conduct disorders” and “personality disorders.” Who knows? In another hundred years, we will probably be able to genetically cleanse the human species of age-old scourges, like racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, etcetera, by reprogramming everyone’s defective alleles, or implanting some kind of nanotechnological neurosynaptic chips into our brains. The only thing standing in our way is people’s totally irrational resistance to letting corporations redesign the human organism, which, clearly, was rather poorly designed, and thus is vulnerable to all these horrible diseases, and emotional and behavioral disorders.

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Here are just a few examples of their handiwork …

• In Norway, 23 elderly people died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. However, according to Reuters’ “fact-checkers,” it turns out, old people just die sometimes, especially in nursing homes, from a variety of causes … unless they haven’t been vaccinated, in which case they definitely died of Covid, regardless of what they actually died of. For example, a 99-year-old man suffering from dementia and emphysema, who tested negative for the virus three times, was added to the “Covid deaths” figures because a nursing home doctor “assumed” it was Covid (which GloboCap has expressly instructed him to do).
• In Germany, 13 of 40 residents of one nursing home died after being vaccinated, but this was just a “tragic coincidence,” which had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccine.
• In Spain, in another “tragic coincidence,” 46 nursing home residents who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine died within the course of one month. A further 28 of the 94 residents and 12 staff members subsequently tested positive.
• In Florida, a healthy middle-aged doctor died from an unusual blood disorder two weeks after receiving the vaccine, but, according to the experts, the sudden onset of this rare immunological blood disorder (i.e., immune thrombocytopenia) “should not be interpreted as linked to the vaccine,” and was probably just a total coincidence.
• In California, a 60-year-old X-ray technologist received a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. A few hours later he had trouble breathing. He was hospitalized and died four days later. His widow says she’s not ready at this point to link her husband’s death to the vaccine. “I’m not putting any blame on Pfizer,” she said, “or on any other pharmaceutical company.” So, probably just another coincidence.
• A 78-year-old woman in California died immediately after being vaccinated, but her death was not related to the vaccine, health officials assured the public. “(She) received an injection of the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer around noon. While seated in the observation area after the injection, [she] complained of feeling discomfort and while being evaluated by medical personnel she lost consciousness.” Despite the sudden death of his wife, her husband intends to receive a second dose.
• A former Detroit news anchor died just one day after receiving the vaccine, but it was probably just a coincidental stroke, which the “normal side effects of the vaccine may have masked.”
• Also in Michigan, a 90-year-old man died the day after receiving the vaccine, but, again, this was just a tragic coincidence. As Dr. David Gorski explained, “the baseline death rate of 90-year-olds is high because they’re 90 years old,” which makes perfect sense … unless, of course, they died of Covid, in which case their age and underlying conditions make absolutely no difference whatsoever.
• In Kentucky, two nuns at a monastery died, and more than two dozen others tested positive, in a sudden “Covid-19 outbreak” that began two days after the nuns were vaccinated. The monastery had been completely closed to visitors and Covid-free up to that point, but the nuns were old and had “health issues,” and so on.
• In Virginia, a 58-year-old grandmother died within hours after receiving the vaccine, but, as Facebook’s “fact checkers” prominently pointed out, it had to be just another coincidence, because the “vaccines have been tested for safety extensively.”"

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Israel launches Covid-tracking ‘FREEDOM BRACELET’ as alternative to quarantine, as court reins in spy agency’s contact tracing

"Israel has unveiled a coronavirus-tracking bracelet as an alternative to a two-week quarantine for incoming travelers, sparking privacy concerns as a top court moved to curb the Shin Bet spy agency’s role in contact tracing.

A pilot program for the tracking bracelet kicked off at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday, where 100 devices were doled out to arriving travelers as a way to avoid a stay at a military-administered quarantine hotel. Instead, those opting for the bracelet system – which features the electronic wristband, a smartphone app and a wall-mounted tracking device – will be free to return home to wait out the two-week isolation period.

While the device will alert authorities if participants venture too far from the wall-mounted tracker, Ordan Trabelsi, the CEO of SuperCom, the company behind the bracelet, said it does not collect any other information, insisting the tech is minimally intrusive.

“Nobody is forced to do it, but for those who are interested, it gives them another option: more flexibility,” he said.

We call it a ‘freedom bracelet’ because we are not locking anybody up, but rather giving them the opportunity to go home."

Orwell would be proud.

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Kavanaugh and Barrett’s Share of the Shame

"With Election Day looming and early voting underway, Judge Amy Coney Barrett pledged at her confirmation hearing in October she would not act as a Republican “pawn” in any election dispute.

Democrats and the media, anticipating a close vote in the Electoral College, warned Barrett would rule in favor of the man who nominated her if the ultimate decision reached the Supreme Court as it did in 2000; Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) demanded Barrett recuse herself “in any case involving Donald Trump’s election.”

Blumenthal, in essence, got his way. Democrats must be thrilled—laughing all the way to 2022 and 2024—at the de facto recusals by Justices Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh in every post-election lawsuit petitioned before the court, even those not filed by the Trump campaign.

Kavanaugh and Barrett, sold to the country as “originalists” who would counteract the bench’s Left-leaning jurists, instead joined their liberal colleagues and Chief Justice John Roberts to reject each case. In doing so, Barrett and Kavanaugh broke their promise to defend the Constitution and gave their imprimatur to lawless state elections—a clear and present danger to the future of the country.

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Numerous court challenges, including at the Supreme Court, were scuttled both before and after Election Day; Pennsylvania’s supermajority Democrat Supreme Court issued preposterous defenses of Boockvar’s actions. The highest court in the land was the last chance to redress the election’s many wrongs.

And thanks to the cowardice of Kavanaugh and Barrett—one can only assume since Kavanaugh changed his pre-election position on Pennsylvania, threats of promoting a “Big Lie” about election fraud got to him—the Supreme Court fell one vote shy of vetting two strong lawsuits filed separately by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and the Republican president of the state senate."

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School principal suspended after teaching students about Big Tech censorship

"Following the events of January 6, the Shelby County Schools superintendent Joris Ray told principals to discuss the Capitol riot as a “teachable moment.” Cordova High School’s Principal Barton Thorne did exactly what the superintendent said.

In a virtual classroom, Thorne talked to students about the threat of Big Tech censorship in the aftermath of the riot. The riot at the US Capitol was used as a justification for Facebook, Twitter and more to censor President Trump and other conservatives.

Thorne accused these platforms of deciding who gets to speak and what message or ideology to amplify.

“I’m not going to tell you what to think, I just want to help you think,” Principal Thorne told his students in a online class a few days after the Capitol Hill riot."

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Arizona professors develop VIRTUAL REALITY program to demonstrate ‘systemic racism’ & ‘microaggressions'

"The Arizona research team is capitalizing on the convergence of two hot themes: virtual reality and anti-racism narratives. A Columbia University professor made a similar effort on a smaller scale in 2019, creating a 12-minute virtual reality film that aimed to show viewers what it's like to be a black teenager being mistreated by police.

Big Tech has the same kind of messaging in mind, according to undercover journalism outlet Project Veritas. Footage from an internal meeting in January showed Roy Austin, Facebook's vice president for civil rights, questioning whether the company could use its Oculus technology to show white police officers what it's like as a young black man to be stopped, searched, and arrested."

I know it's not high-tech and won't get anyone money (grant or otherwise) but I hear if you work hard at becoming knowledgeable in a broad spectrum of topics and also practice good listening skills you can become empathetic without the manipulations of Big Tech. It might just be a rumor though...

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Apache Software Foundation (ASF) drops co-founder from the TinkerPop project over “offensive tweets”

"Following his removal from the project, several ASF members have left, including one member of the board, Niclas Hedhman. In Hedhman’s opinion, the removal of Rodriguez is “cancel culture.”

“When the internet was new, we all knew that a written message is flawed and any perceived wrong-doing is likely because I am reading it wrongly,” Hedhman wrote in an email to The Register. “Now, it is the opposite. All words/sentences are interpreted in the most absurd way possible, assigning malice when there clearly isn’t any or the other way around. Newspeak is in full swing, and professional victimhood is elevated to religion, complete with hierarchy, clergy, constituents and scribes.”

Hedhman did acknowledge the inflammatory nature of Rodriguez’s tweets, but argued that in the US it’s not against the law to be offensive.

“The tweets in question were obvious satire, ‘bad/dark humor’ and trolling for the sake of making people upset,” said Hedhman.

“It was the essence of why I am not on Twitter and think it is the worst plague that has been inflicted on humans in recent years. I didn’t like Marko’s tactics, but I can understand his angle.”

“If speech is not allowed to be offensive, it would not need protection,” he added."

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SUNY Suspends Student For Posting Views On Biological Gender

"The school reportedly maintains that such statements made on social media are grounds for suspension and other disciplinary action.  While she did not refer to him by name, SUNY-Geneseo President Denise Battles sent out a message stating that “[y]esterday, I was made aware of a current student’s Instagram posts pertaining to transgender people.” Battles acknowledges that “There are clear legal limitations to what a public university can do in response to objectionable speech. As a result, there are few tools at our disposal to reduce the pain that such speech may cause.” However, the school then suspended Stevens.

A spokesperson is quoted by the Daily Wire declaring students must follow the “professional standards” of their chosen field by acting and behaving in ways that “may differ from their personal predilections.”

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Yet, Smith is not saying that he would apply his views in classrooms or refuse to comply with “professional standards.” Instead, the school seems to be saying that one of those professional standards is conforming your views (or at least your public statements) to the accepted views of a “chosen field.” That would seem like the abridgment of free speech."

The Professional Managerial Class really believes that they and their Codes of Conduct are the one true path. When will enough see that they are no different from countless religious fanatics throughout history?

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Flipping The Byrd: Democrats Demand The Firing Of The Senate Parliamentarian After The Minimum Wage Hike Is Deemed Out of Order

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of the first to balk at any rules standing in the way of reform: “I think the parliamentarian is verging on, you know, just really intruding in this legislative process in a very concerning way.” I am not really sure what that actually means. Parliamentary rules are the thing that defines the legislative process and guarantees a neutral and ordered process of deliberation and enactment.

Yet, she was joined by others who dismissed the notion that such rules should matter. Rep. Ro Khanna declared “I’m sorry – an unelected parliamentarian does not get to deprive 32 million Americans the raise they deserve.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal declared “Twenty-seven million Americans are not going to be much convinced when we go back in two years and say, ‘Sorry, the unelected parliamentarian told us we couldn’t raise the minimum wage.’”

It was a grossly unfair statement that made it sound like MacDonough is against Americans getting deserved wages. Her job is to rule on the procedural means for bringing matters to the floor. Statements like those of Khanna and Jayapall incite those who have attacked MacDonough on the Internet and trashed her reputation.

Omar was one of the first to seek action against MacDonough: “Replace the parliamentarian. What’s a Democratic majority if we can’t pass our priority bills? This is unacceptable.” It was a telling statement. Omar would fire this woman because she is standing in the way of letting Omar and others of having their way. That is the point of parliamentary rules. You do not simply have a right to do what you want in any way that you want to.

Yet, publications like Slate noted “Democrats could also fire MacDonough and replace her with someone who’s a little more go-with-the-flow on all these tedious ‘rules’ issues.”"

I'm old enough to remember when these same people were arguing that rules and norms are the most important thing ever and must always be fought for with all your might.

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WATCH: Andy Ngo testifies to Congress on the rise of domestic terrorism in America

"Andy Ngo gave testimony to Congress urging lawmakers to treat far-left extremism with the same severity as its counterpart.

The topic of domestic terrorism has dominated 2021 after the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. Politicians are scrambling on how to best utilize federal law enforcement resources to address the issue. To that end, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing.

The Post Millennial’s editor-at-large Andy Ngo was one of the main witnesses called to testify. He was there to remind Congress to look at the bigger picture."

People: Please don't run into the trap the elite have set for you. Labeling actions and people "terrorist" will only empower the systems of domination and control the elite use to maintain their power. There already exist enough laws against these kinds of things. Use them if you need to, don't give the elite more power over you. They will not protect you. You and your "consent" are a means to an end.

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To Tell the Truth: MSM Reporting Turns Sen. Paul’s Hearing Questions into Transgender Inquisition

"Since one would be hard-pressed to find in the mainstream media an account of the exchange that goes beyond pandering to advocates for the physical destruction of the secondary sexual characteristics of America’s children, below is the large part of Paul’s questioning to Dr. Rachel Levine:

“Genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned. Genital mutilation has been condemned by the WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund. According to the WHO, genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human rights. Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious because, as the WHO notes, it is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. Most genital mutilation is not typically performed by force, but as WHO notes, that by social convention, social norm, the social pressure to conform, to do what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community.

American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics. Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers, to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor’s genitalia. Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics. The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80 to 95% of prepubertal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation. Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?”

Levine responded by telling Paul that “transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field” with “robust research and standards of care,” and offering to come to Paul’s office to discuss “the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine,” upon confirmation to the position.

“The specific question was about minors. Let’s be a little more specific since you evaded the question,” Paul responded. “Do you support the government intervening to override the parent’s consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia?”

“You have said that you’re willing to accelerate the protocols for street kids. I’m alarmed that poor kids with no parents, who are homeless and distraught, you would just go through this and allow that to happen to a minor,” Paul added before relaying a story of a 23-year-old woman who transitioned as a troubled youth and now regrets the decision. He later noted that many more such cases exist.

“What I’m alarmed at is that you’re not willing to say absolutely minors shouldn’t be making decisions to amputate their breast or to amputate their genitalia,” Paul continued. “For most of our history, we have believed that minors don’t have full rights and that parents need to be involved, so I’m alarmed that you won’t say with certainty that minors should not have the ability to make the decision to take hormones that will affect them for the rest of their life. Will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?”

Levine still did not answer the question, but rather repeated that “transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field” and expressed a willingness to teach Paul about those complexities upon confirmation."

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US Doctors Propose ‘Vaccine Bill of Rights’ to Protect Citizens from Forced Shots

"The VBOR first reviews how such an initiative is merely an actualization of established Constitutional law as well as federal law reflecting broadly recognized international norms as articulated in the Nuremberg Code of 1947.

The Nuremberg Code came about as a result of the post-World War II trials, convictions and executions of Nazi doctors who had conducted deadly experiments, without the subjects’ consent, on prisoners of war.

The Code’s first and most extensive principle provides the strict conditions for establishing voluntary consent, including that the individual may not be exposed to “any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion.” In addition, they must have “sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved.”

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The VBOR goes on to articulate those human and civil rights it seeks to ensure according to “six general categories of protections for individuals against overweening government and attempted interventions by private businesses and organizations.” These protections include the following:

• No persons will be mandated, coerced, forced or pressured to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
• No physician or nurse shall be asked by their employer to promote a COVID-19 vaccine.
• All persons reserve the right, at all times, to determine what is in their own best medical interest without threat to their livelihood or freedom of movement.
• All persons must be given access to independent information to help them determine what is in their own best medical interest, including the risk of death based upon age/condition from contracting COVID-19 naturally. This information must include information from sources that are independent of a conflict of interest such as a government, political or commercial entity. Such information can be included but cannot be the sole source of information.
• The elderly are additionally entitled to a knowledgeable, independent advocate with medical training to help them determine their own medical interest.
• Private businesses operating within the jurisdiction have no legal authority to require or mandate or coerce medication or experimental medication for any persons."

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Pfizer CEO: ‘Every Year You Will Have to Get Your Annual Shot for COVID’

"“Every year, you need to go to get your flu vaccine,” Bourla said. “It’s going to be the same with COVID. In a year, you will have to go and get your annual shot for Covid to be protected,” Bourla told NBC News."

No.

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The Evolutionary Advantages of Playing Victim

"Victimhood is defined in negative terms: “the condition of having been hurt, damaged, or made to suffer.” Yet humans have evolved to empathize with the suffering of others, and to provide assistance so as to eliminate or compensate for that suffering. Consequently, signaling suffering to others can be an effective strategy for attaining resources. Victims may receive attention, sympathy, and social status, as well as financial support and other benefits. And being a victim can generate certain kinds of power: It can justify the seeking of retribution, provide a sense of legitimacy or psychological standing to speak on certain issues, and may even confer moral impunity by minimizing blame for victims’ own wrongdoings.

Presumably, most victims would eagerly forego such benefits if they were able to free themselves of their plight. But when victimhood yields benefits, it incentivizes people to signal their victimhood to others or to exaggerate or even fake victimhood entirely. This is especially true in contexts that involve alleged psychic harms, and where appeals are made to third-parties, with the claimed damage often being invisible, unverifiable, and based exclusively on self-reports. Such circumstances allow unscrupulous people to take advantage of the kindness and sympathy of others by co-opting victim status for personal gain. And so, people do.

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Scholars from the Immorality Lab at the University of British Columbia created a victim-signaling scale that measures how frequently people tell others of the disadvantages, challenges, and misfortunes they suffer. Those who scored higher on this victim-signaling scale were found to be more likely to virtue-signal—to outwardly display signs of virtuous moral character—while simultaneously placing less importance on their own moral identity. In other words, victim signalers were more interested in looking morally good but less interested in being morally good than those who less frequently signal their victimhood.

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Historically, our ancestors may have been better able to discern habitual or false victim signalers from those in true need. We lived in smaller communities where we tended to know what was happening, and to whom—and so those who deceived others were at higher risk of getting caught.

In modern, affluent societies, by contrast, people can signal their difficult-to-verify suffering to thousands or more strangers online. Although genuine victims may benefit in such environments (because they can spread awareness of their plight, and solicit support, on a large scale), manipulative individuals inevitably will use the same mass-broadcast tools to extract resources and possibly even initiate a cycle of competitive victimhood that infects everyone. Those who most vociferously declare their victimhood to others may often be villains instead."

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America’s Yeltsin

"As unpopular and ineffective as he was at home, Yeltsin remained America’s preferred candidate. At Yeltsin’s invitation, the United States government and various private individuals got to work providing financial aid and consulting to his campaign so that Yeltsin would come out on top.

Time magazine ran a cover story after his victory on the “secret story” of how American advisors—including Clinton guru Dick Morris—used “polls, focus groups, negative ads” and other American political techniques to propel Yeltsin to victory. Bill Clinton gave Yeltsin a public endorsement and helped Russia secure a large IMF loan when his victory appeared in jeopardy.

Russian media and business interests also cooperated in the campaign. The heads of Russia’s two largest TV channels—both run by oligarchs—conspired to provide Yeltsin favorable coverage, as did most of the print media. Yeltsin may have won more votes, but the process was a managed one, designed by powerful and self-interested parties at home, dependent on propaganda, and tainted by secret foreign influence.

After winning, the Russian people continued to suffer, culminating in the country’s default to foreign creditors in 1998. Yeltsin’s physical state reflected the country’s condition: weak, disorderly, and alcoholic.

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Like Yeltsin, Joe Biden is also well past his prime and apparently in the grips of others and their interests. No one thinks Dementia Joe is coming up with reams of executive orders or otherwise deciding what to do and when to do it. His press secretary’s flailing performance when asked simple questions shows that “his” policies, including the flurry of executive orders, are being concocted behind the scenes, without presidential input other than a signature.

Biden’s victory also followed an election we know was rigged in a similar way to Yeltsin’s 1996 victory. In both cases, powerful interests from both sides of the spectrum united against what was seen as an existential threat to the system and its legitimacy. For both candidates, the media suppressed important negative information and used sophisticated propaganda to achieve their desired result. For Biden, the role of China and others in his life and accumulation of wealth remains completely unexplored.

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More important, in both cases, Time magazine described what happened only after the fact. The “shadow campaign” story about the coordinated effort to elect Biden appeared on February 4, 2021. It reported, infamously, that “it sounds like a paranoid fever dream—a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.”"