The image above was inspired by a 2020 infographic from the Workplace Mental Health Institute on the warning signs of an abusive relationship. See below. I used exactly the same wording as the WMHI. Although one or two items might be exaggerated presently, it’s surprising how well the text describes Canadians’ current relationship to government - federal, provincial and civic. (Here’s an article referencing the original, that elaborates further on the connection.)
Even among the “fully vaccinated,” there’s a growing sense of health policy gaslighting from media and government. The Covidian Broadcasting Corporation - sorry, I mean the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - recently ran another of their signature health scare stories, with the headline: “If we continue waiting for more evidence about Omicron, it will already be too late.” (Yes, why wait for more evidence when you can panic immediately?)
The most-liked comment to this story, when I last checked: “I have supported our collective measures since the beginning but enough now. My patience with experts and government has run out. I really feel that this is the fear factory at work. Enough.”
Another CBC piece with the headline, “Be ‘ready to pivot’ domestic holiday travel plans amid rapidly spreading Omicron variant, medical experts say,” netted this most-liked comment: ““2 weeks to flatten the curve” team speaks again…2 years later.”
Online comments to news stories aren’t Gallup polls; they’re like rickety weather vanes to the zeitgeist. And there appears to be a shift in the wind. It seems more people - at least in my neck of the woods - are tiring of the two-year, daily drumbeat of manipulation, fearmongering and coercion over COVID-19.
This is supported by a CTV poll that found support from Canadians for another lockdown has dropped from 69 percent in July to 56 percent in December (CTV itself has been of one of the worst offenders in working the COVID fear pedal over the past two years).
The most recent announcements of holiday lockdowns from the Ontario and BC governments aren’t going down well with constituents, in spite of dogged stenography from news outlets. As for our neighbours to the south, a recent poll from Monmouth University found that 60 percent of those polled say they are “worn out” from COVID. More than half now oppose vaccine mandates. (I can hear an objection already from woke folk: this is precisely what happens when pollsters cast too wide a net and ring up rural hicks. You don’t want to catch anti-vaxxer Val on her unironic vintage rotary phone while she’s fashioning a tinfoil insert for Emmett’s tattered MAGA hat.)
Perhaps this healthy cross-border skepticism has something to do with the fact that The Little Variant That Could hasn’t been particularly lethal, with the first global death recorded on Dec. 17. Dr. John Campbell - whom no one would likely describe as a conspiracy theorist - notes that the top four reported signs of Omicron in South Africa and the UK are a runny nose, headache, fatigue/tiredness, sneezing and a sore throat. In other words, a profile nearly impossible to distinguish from the common cold without testing, he says. In a Dec. 17 report from South Africa, where Omicron has been present the longest, “the rapid increase in cases HAS NOT transferred proportionally into hospitalizations and deaths.”
As I said, people in my neck of the woods are becoming more skeptical. Just the other day the Corona Broadcasting Corporation rediscovered “pandemic fatigue,” positioning it a problem for mass obeyance to government lockdown edicts. The most-liked comments:
People are cottoning onto the flatfooted efforts to whip Omicron into The Andromeda Strain. Yet captured governments and their media enablers continue to ratchet up the gaslighting. At this stage, it looks like a deliberate attempt to fraction us into smaller and smaller fiefdoms of fear:
And this brings me to money. With our elected and unelected leaders (I’m lookin’ at you, St. Bonnie) going all Squid Game on us, I figure there’s a business opportunity for me and my Wheel of Abuse infographic. And because I like to think big, I’m thinking game show. Broadcast producers can reach me through Substack for details. Serious inquiries only!
Are You in an Abusive Relationship?
Fascinating idea to compare the two - i need to find the definition of "gaslighting" < Microsoft spell checker suggests space or hyphen between gas and lighting. The Oxford dictionary is in the process of updating. Wikipedia defines it : "Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as making someone question their own reality. The term may also be used to describe a person who presents a false narrative to another group or person which leads them to doubt their perceptions and become disoriented or distressed. Generally, this dynamic is only possible when the audience is vulnerable, such as in unequal power relationships, or when the audience is fearful of the losses associated with challenging the false narrative. Gaslighting is not necessarily malicious or intentional, although in some cases it is." Wow! good candidate for a book on this subject.
I look forward to being on your Covid Abuse Game Show....wait, I'm already on it!