Lessons from 9/11 and Rejecting the ‘New Normal’

The world changed three weeks ago and it’s becoming more and more evident that it’s going to be difficult to return to the way of life we once knew. Fear and disbelief have spread like wildfire as one by one, nations around the world lock down their borders and isolate their citizens to fight the COVID-19 virus. Like everyone else, I’m still processing what is happening and trying to make sense of this devastating global event. You’re probably sick of even thinking about “the virus” at this point, but I hope you’ll consider some of the less discussed corollary issues that I outline in this essay. While this is completely my own opinion, there are references to over 40 supporting articles should anyone wish to explore further. For legibility, some are linked in-text, while others are referenced via the footnotes at the bottom of the page.

Some will find the ideas I examine here controversial, maybe even offensive. I am aware that people have and will continue to die for reasons related to COVID-19, and I do not wish to be insensitive or unkind towards those who have been affected. My aim is not to prove any kind of grand theory, but rather to provide a historical context for what I believe is happening. I am deeply concerned about what is transpiring at this time, and I’m not only referring to the health risks of coronavirus. As hard as it may be, it is essential that we remain vigilant and watchful of opportunism and the abuse of power if we have any hope of returning to our normal way of life.

Propaganda Watch

When the virus first broke out in Wuhan, China in late 2019 — the official story for now — it took until late January before news articles and blog posts about the outbreak started to pop up in my RSS reader. I followed the story from a distance, but didn’t expect the global pandemonium that would follow six weeks later. The real turning point, however, came on March 11th (3/11), when the World Health Organization officially upgraded COVID-19 from an epidemic to a full blown pandemic. As of this writing, that was only three weeks ago, but given how much has transpired since then, the pre-COVID era already feels like a distant memory.

In early February, before waves of cases started appearing outside China, it was hard to get a grasp on the true nature of the outbreak. China isn’t the most transparent nation and it appeared that officials might be downplaying the threat of the virus, or even suppressing the release (either accidental or deliberate) of a dangerous bio-weapon. By the time cases started racking up in Europe, the rest of the world took notice and started asking questions. How does this new virus compare to Swine flu or Ebola? Is it more or less contagious? Is it more deadly? What’s the baseline?

Finding answers to these questions hasn’t be easy. In a sane world, we would turn to our news networks for the latest on the story. Over the past few decades, however, media ownership in the West has been reduced to a handful of major players and is far from trustworthy. ¹ Through sensationalism, fear-mongering and misrepresentation, the news today isn’t much better than Hollywood in terms of providing reliable information. Truly getting to the bottom of a story today requires an enormous amount of work. Not only must we consult multiple sources (both mainstream and alternative) and do our own research, but we also have to maneuver our way through misinformation, disinformation, censorship, and good old fashioned propaganda.

Sometimes these pitfalls are easy to spot. Actor Sean Penn recently appeared on CNN, for example, and when asked about US military involvement in the coronavirus crisis, he made the following statement: “There is no greater humanitarian force on the planet than the United States military”. ² Really, Sean? Actors are excellent agents of indoctrination because of their familiarity and powerful brand image — we like the characters they play on the big screen, so a part of us wants to believe them, even if they spout nonsense.

"There is no greater humanitarian force on the planet than the United States military... it's really time to give the military the full breadth and control of this operation."

- Actor and activist Sean Penn on battling coronavirus< a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNNTownHall?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CNNTownHall</a>https://t.co/tVVAtXQVh5 pic.twitter.com/hnAfQq5UmK
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 20, 2020

Many of us are immune to this kind of content, but sometimes propaganda is more subtle. Perhaps since this all started, you’ve revisited the 2011 film, Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh and loaded with A-list movie stars. Thanks to input from the WHO and the CDC — major players in both the fictional MEV-1 outbreak and the real life COVID-19 — the film has a chilling sense of realism, and almost feels like a documentary. From “social distancing” and lockdowns, to supermarket shortages and travel bans, so far, the real life coronavirus is following the film’s blueprint quite closely. In the movie, the MEV-1 outbreak ultimately leads to a global shutdown lasting months, followed by martial law and the roll out of FEMA camps while scientists rush to find a cure. When a vaccine is finally produced, it becomes mandatory in order to re-enter society and is enforced by a system of barcoded bracelets (more on this later).

Perhaps you recall Alan Krumwiede, the “conspiracy theorist” character played by Jude Law. In the film, he questions the vaccine, peddles a phony cure and is later arrested for “security fraud, conspiracy, and most likely manslaughter.” This may seem innocent enough, just part of the story, but we must consider the implications of such a portrayal. By depicting Krumwiede as a slimy opportunist, it subconsciously cautions us from listening to anyone that isn’t deemed a “trusted source” like the WHO and CDC. This kind of propaganda is everywhere and it doesn’t come with a warning label. Clandestine organizations like the CIA know how effectively this works and has exerted its influence through Hollywood for decades. It should be no surprise that the cast of the film were recently called up to produce a video, Control the Contagion: Spreading Facts, Not Fear, reminding us to “social distance” and wash our hands like our “life depends on it”.

The main problem here is that “trusted sources” like the WHO aren’t the squeaky clean organizations they’re presented to be. To begin with, of their $4.5 billion budget, the two largest donors are the US government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). ³ The latter of the two makes “voluntary contributions” which means they can dictate what the funding goes towards. The BMGF is the largest private foundation of its kind in the world, managing assets worth $46.8 billion. They are a powerful organization and incredibly bullish on vaccine research, an already contentious issue that will only be amplified as the COVID-19 crisis progresses. Leave vaccine-science aside for the moment and consider only the potential conflict of interest.

Equally concerning is the background of the WHO’s current director, Tedros Adhanom. Not only does he have a checkered past including leadership in a terrorist organization , but in 2017, he was scrutinized for suppressing three Cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia and Sudan. ⁴⁵ More recently, Adhanom praised China for their ‘transparency’ during the Wuhan outbreak, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. ⁶ These are only a couple items in a long list of highly questionable associations over the course of his career. Dr. Anthony Fauci — a dubious character getting a lot of face time at the moment — recently called Adhanom an “outstanding person”, prompting anyone paying attention to question recommendations coming out of the White House as well. ⁷

Just the Facts, Please

On a more individual level, there have been a variety of epidemiologists, microbiologists and other experts sharing opinions and perspectives on what is transpiring. Some have been warning people that the worst is yet to come while others have been sceptical about how the virus is being evaluated.

On March 10, an American epidemiologist named Michael Osterholm appeared on the popular Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast. Right off the bat, he warned people about the severity of the outbreak and that we should expect at least 3 to 6 months before it is under control. In Osterholm’s words, “We’re handling this like it’s a corona blizzard. This is a coronavirus winter.” The interview is very interesting, but I was concerned by a few things. First, Osterholm’s dismissal of the bio-attack theory amounted to little more than “trust me, it’s not” despite the fact that humans have been tinkering with dangerous infectious agents for decades and continue to do so. From experimental vaccines linked to the 1918 “Spanish flu” and bacteria sprayed over San Francisco in 1950 to speculation that HIV was created in a lab, bio-warfare is very real and far from new, but no one wants to discuss it.

Also concerning is how, later in the interview, Rogan unsubtly portrays people who are distrustful of vaccines as “wackos”. ⁸ This is then followed by Osterholm’s buoyant promotion of the sycophantic Peter Hotez, an aggressive vaccine pusher with dubious ties to Big Pharma. ⁹ Something to bear in mind is that JRE is one of the most popular podcasts in the world — this YouTube video alone has 13M views as of this writing. We have to consider why Osterholm, of all the epidemiologists in the United States, was the one to appear on the podcast.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are people like Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi who have expressed concerns over the testing methods and general evaluation of the virus. Both men remind us that coronaviruses are anything but new; this family of viruses has lived alongside animals and humans for decades, contributing to deaths every day that are rarely (if ever) recorded as “corona deaths”. When it comes to COVID-19, both suggest that inconsistent medical record keeping could be inflating the death rate and overall threat level.

My very limited understanding of the RT-PCR testing kits is that they evaluate the presence of a viral strain, but not necessarily the quantity of the strain. It’s possible that some countries are counting deaths for anyone with COVID-19 in their system even if that is not what they ultimately die of. There is a critical difference between dying of a coronavirus and dying with‌ a coronavirus. To tackle issues like these, this article, Facts About Covid-19, first published on March 14 and updated daily since, has kept track of the growing number of inconsistencies in the statistical reporting all over the world. It’s worth a read.

An MIT biology researcher named Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai has also criticized the fear mongering and the senseless preventative measures. ¹⁰ Like Wodarg and Bhakdi, Ayyadurai has attempted to dispel some of the misleading information regarding how viruses affect the body. In a recently published presentation, he explains, “viruses do not harm or kill us. It is the overreaction of a weakened and dysfunctional immune system to the virus that results in our own body attacking its own cells, tissues and organs.” “Dysfunctions”, he says, “are caused by underling pre-existing conditions”, information that correlates with the reports of the elderly and those with other health issues being most at risk. This is a simple, but important distinction that I don’t believe is being clarified enough by the media.

In a letter Ayyadurai recently wrote to President Trump, he outlines a plan of action that focuses on boosting the immune system instead of forcing people inside and turning everyone into paranoid, hand-washing germaphobes. He recommends a four tier triage system with quarantines only for those who test positive for COVID-19. His treatment plan focuses on varying amounts of vitamins A, C, D and iodine, depending on the severity of the case.

Is it possible the world has reacted unnecessarily due to skewed numbers and media sensationalism? Perhaps there are multiple strains, some worse than others? Maybe we could take a more conservative stance on quarantines and focus on testing while the rest of us get some sun and eat more leafy greens? Would that be so controversial?

Of course, there are many theories and opinions floating around at this time, many of which are sensational in their own right. In alternative circles, there are those calling the entire thing a “hoax”, while others, fully aware of how the media propaganda machine works, are expressing great concern over what could be a premeditated bio-attack with potentially dire consequences. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, the lack of agreement about what’s going on combined with the tsunami of reporting on the subject is a recipe for disaster. A lot could be blamed on human folly, but I’ve felt since the beginning that something doesn’t add up.

My hot take as of April 2, 2020? The virus is very real and very contagious, but not necessarily as life threatening as it’s being portrayed (especially if you’re healthy). I’m not confident that the testing is consistent, but I also believe it’s possible there are multiple strains, some worse than others. I’m sceptical that the virus is of natural origins and I remain very open to the possibility that it was deliberately exposed to the general public in different locations around the world. Bio-warfare is real and despite what anyone says, such a theory has not been “debunked” — we simply don’t have all the facts yet. The primary goal of such an action would not necessarily be to harm as many people as possible, but instead act as a cover for other social, political or economic goals. It is already serving as an excellent catalyst for rapid societal shifts that could have been planned well in advance of the outbreak. As farfetched as that sounds, stranger and more sinister things have happened before.

3/11: The New 9/11

While the coronavirus outbreak story began sometime in late 2019, it was March 11 (3/11), when it was ruled a full blown pandemic. That date will likely be remembered as the beginning of the first true global shutdown in history. When the wave of panic first hit Southern California — where I’m writing this blog post from — I started to experience an odd sense of deja vu that still hasn’t gone away. Something about all of this has a tactile familiarity to another pivotal event in the not so distant past: The September 11 attacks. I was too young to fully appreciate the implications of the event at the time, but I knew it was a big deal. As I’m sure many people do, I can still vividly remember the video footage of the planes being shown over and over and over again on the news. What I didn’t understand until years later was how pivotal that day would be in shaping the future of not only the United States, but the entire world. We now have the pre-9/11 era and the post-9/11 era.

I’m not going to try to convince anyone now that 9/11 was an orchestrated event (i.e. an “inside job”) because at this point — 19 years later — you’ve probably made up your mind. Whether you believe the whole thing was planned, the planes were “allowed” to hit the towers, or a small group of extremists managed to penetrate the security of the most powerful country in the world, it doesn’t actually matter anymore. In the year 2020, hindsight tells the story. The attacks gave the United States the perfect opportunity to roll out an agenda known famously as the “War on Terror” which lead to two highly controversial wars abroad. Perhaps the most insidious agenda push, however, came “at home” in the form of the US Patriot act giving US intelligence agencies permission to spy on its citizens.

Now I’m far from the only person to have made the connection between COVID-19 and 9/11. Much of alternative media is looking at the September 11 attacks as a blueprint for what’s to come. Barbara Honegger’s recent piece “Here We Go Again: 9/11, Coronavirus and Another ‘New Pearl Harbor’” goes back even further to 1941 to remind us of Pearl Harbor, an early example of a possible false flag in American history. The Japanese “surprise attack” on the Hawaiian naval base provided the US government the perfect reason it needed to enter WWII. There’s evidence to suggest that the US not only intercepted Japanese communications and allowed the bombings to occur, but that they even enacted geopolitical policies to provoke Japan into making an attack. ¹¹ Sound familiar?

Prior to the war, the US was still recovering from the Great Depression, but it emerged as a global superpower. Hollywood and the history books love to paint the American involvement in WWII as a story about “doing what was right”, but often neglect to mention what it stood to gain from entering the conflict. Frequently omitted are facts like how, for example, at the end of the war, the US recruited thousands of Nazi scientists to work on government contracts in what would eventually become NASA.

For anyone familiar with the term “false flag”, this is nothing new. Six decades later, when the WTC towers went down, the memory of Pearl Harbor was evoked to bolster support for America going to war in the Middle East. We were lead to believe it was yet another “surprise attack” from terrorists who sought to take down American “freedom”. Honegger writes:

After 9/11 Bush, Rice, etc. claimed that ‘no one could have imagined’ the disaster to come before Sept. 11. We now know, however, that Bush’s and Rice’s own executive branch was conducting counterterrorism ‘exercises’ on scenarios involving plane threats targeting both the WTC and the Pentagon. In fact, drills based on these very scenarios took place on the morning of 9/11, literally as the actual violent events were unfolding, i.e. How could it be that one could not know about something that one was already implemented in the hypothetical realm of military drills?

How does this relate to COVID-19, or what Honegger calls the New ‘New Pearl Harbor’? Enter Event 201, a simulation exercise in late 2019, organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The focus of the exercise: a coronavirus outbreak. Honegger again:

Now Trump is repeating the lie over and over again in every White House Coronavirus briefing that “No one could have known” what was coming.” He makes this declaration while it is a matter of well-documented public record that a U.S. Navy Admiral and top leaders from U.S. business and government conducted a Coronavirus crisis scenario involving hypothetical emergency responses in an exercise called Event 201. Under the direction of vaccine-czar Bill Gates, the 201 Event took place last October shortly before the claimed origin date for the virus in Wuhan China.

We are hearing echos of the same duplicity from 19 years ago. It took less than a day before President Bush was telling the world the WTC attacks were orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden, launching the War on Terror and creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion that terrorists were lurking around every corner. Similarly, Trump and other leaders around the world have been equally as quick to “declare war” on the coronavirus, priming citizens for “warlike” conditions. How is such a response at all appropriate if COVID-19 is of natural origins? And by the same logic, if we are at war, why then is any suggestion that the virus was released as a weapon considered “conspiracy theory”?

It’s still too soon so know what’s really going on, but Honegger’s final suggestion is apt: “We need to keep our eyes, ears and especially minds wide open in the coming days and months leading up to the Nov. 3rd presidential election.” I think the scope of our attention must expand well beyond who becomes the next American president, but her call for people to stay vigilant and alert is right on the money.

This Ain’t Normal

Perhaps I’ve lost you already by bringing up topics like 9/11. Some will roll their eyes at another “conspiracy theory” that has been “debunked”, but I know there are also many rational, level-headed people out there who have seen through the deception and are aware of how corruption has systematically infected many of the largest institutions and organizations around the globe. I’ve made this connection because I’m genuinely concerned about how quickly people are accepting the “new normal”. This pandemic could very easily be used to erode human rights in the name of “health and safety”, and we’re already seeing this unfold.

“Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks”, an article from the MIT Technology Review begins. “It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever”. This article was published only days after self-isolation and social distancing were rolled out in the US. The air of resigned inevitability is staggering. A quick search for “new normal” will return many more articles with essentially the same message.

On principle, I reject this defeatist attitude entirely. I will tolerate the limitations for now, but I will not accept these conditions as simply “the way things are now”. There is absolutely nothing normal about staying inside all day and keeping 6 feet away from other human beings on the odd occasion you do leave the house. This is not normal. Do not forget that.

Search results for New normal via DuckDuckGo

Around the world, we’re already witnessing the use of strict sanctions and invasive technology to enforce the lockdown. Smartphone data is being used in the United States, Israel, and the UK to track the spread of the virus and see which regions are respecting social distancing rules. ¹² ¹³ ¹⁴ In some countries, drones equipped with loudspeakers have started flying around neighbourhoods to make sure people are following the rules. ¹⁵ This surveillance method started in China, but has since spread to much of Europe as well. ¹⁶¹⁷ In Singapore, citizens face fines up to S$10,000 or up to six months in jail for quarantine violations. ¹⁸ Parts of Canada and the UK have set up “snitch lines” to enable people to report others who are violating self-isolation rules. ¹⁹ ²⁰

The only reason we are tolerating this is because of the current health crisis. Under any other circumstances, this would be a totalitarian nightmare. This is literally 1984 on a global scale and it only took three weeks to roll out. When the virus finally stabilizes, are we confident these draconian rules won’t linger?

Should there be an abuse of power while we are under lockdown, the directive limiting the size of gatherings has effectively taken away freedom of assembly rights. As this recent Rolling Stone article reports, the US Department of Justice has already asked Congress to draft legislation “allowing chief judges to indefinitely hold people without trial and suspend other constitutionally protected rights during the coronavirus and other emergencies”. Can you imagine the implications if these are ushered in?

Facebook has already been caught censoring posts related to coronavirus, all in the name of “fighting misinformation”. They later apologized and called the issue a “bug”, but the truth is platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been cracking down on what users are allowed to discuss for a while now. Many YouTubers who publish videos about controversial topics have been “demonetized” and videos from “official” sources are promoted in their place. This trend is only going to continue for anyone with any kind of dissenting opinion about COVID-19.

I’m not even going to touch what’s going in on the stock market, pandemic bonds, oddities in the US stimulus package or how a mysterious supplier discovered a stockpile of 39 million face masks and is selling them to California and New York for $5 a mask. All we need to know is that pandemonium begets opportunism.

Vaccine Worries

I’ve mentioned vaccines a number of times in this essay, and not in a particularly good light. Before I end this post, I feel I should briefly clarify my stance. I would praise and accept vaccines if they were 100% safe and 100% effective, but they are neither of those things. I know they can be successful for treating certain diseases in certain cases, but I object to seasonal use (e.g. the flu vaccine) or pre-emptive use (e.g. vaccinating babies or children). I believe the body is incredibly effective at healing itself if you nourish it and avoid interfering with its natural processes.

In the case of COVID-19, my primary concern with any future vaccines are the strings that may come attached to them. GAVI — known as “The Vaccine Alliance” and another recipient of over $1B from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — is the driving force behind a “digital identity” initiative called ID2020. ²¹ A 2018 article from their official blog titled “Immunization: an entry point for digital identity” outlines how they plan to use vaccinations as a way to provide “digital certificates” for infants and children. This “biometrically-linked digital ID” technology would be readable by scanning devices that provide that person’s medical history and grant (or deny) access to certain services accordingly. ²² Remember the barcode bracelets in Contagion?

Vaccines as a medical treatment strategy is one thing. When they are linked to invasive RFID technology like the Quantum Dot ‘Tattoo’ — yet another project funded by BMGF — and it’s a different conversation entirely. The potential for human rights abuse could be devastating. In the wrong hands, this could be one major leap forward towards a dystopian society the likes of Gattaca where your DNA dictates your future. The technology isn’t far away, and there are powerful forces that (I believe) are actively trying to create such a reality. COVID-19 could serve as a major catalyst in furthering such an agenda.

Staying Sane

There is nothing pleasant about this crisis. If I had faith in the system, I would sit back and “ride it out” with everyone else, but alarm bells have been going off in my head for a while now. For whatever reason, I tend to gain clarity and focus in times of crisis and I feel compelled to look closer when others look away.

Amidst all the chaos, however, it’s wonderful to see how flexible and creative people have been over the past few weeks. Already I’ve participated in group video chats, remotely watched movies with friends, and this weekend I’ll be running a “virtual race “with over 1000 other runners around the world. If we have to stay inside, we better make the best of it. This kind of ingenuity is great for the time being, but let’s not pretend it makes up for everything else that has been cancelled or postponed indefinitely.

Be responsible and take the necessary safety precautions needed at this time, but don’t get too comfortable. We are in the middle of an intermediary step, but one that may not be temporary if we aren’t careful. Assuming the threat level of the virus is genuine, the preventative measures like closing borders, shutting down non-essential businesses, and asking people to self-isolate all makes sense to a certain degree. Over the long term, however, this diminished “way of life” will drain the human spirit and lead to other much more dire consequences. Humans are innately social creatures and no matter what you call it, “social distancing” and “self-isolating” run counter to our natural way of being. Solitary confinement is used in prisons as punishment and can lead to psychotic behaviour, suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, and paranoia. ²³ There is no difference between isolation and self-isolation except for who’s enforcing it.

So please: stop spreading the message that “this is the new normal”. By repeating it over and over again, you’re training your subconscious to think something abnormal is normal. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. Are you following?

I know many people are afraid right now. Not only are some getting sick, but many have been laid off and are uncertain about the future. There is plenty to be concerned about, but remember, fear is optional. Panic is optional. The media machine is incredibly good at fear-mongering, but no external force can make you feel anything you don’t want to feel. If you’re going to follow this thing daily, ask yourself: am I reading the news to get useful information, or am I checking compulsively to get my daily dose of fear porn? There is a way to follow this coronavirus story without filling yourself with fear and anxiety. Don’t be an ostrich with your head in the sand; be a giraffe with your head above the crowd.

Like all things in life, this too shall pass. There is no better time than during a crisis to practice being kinder and more understanding. Even if we’re not “allowed” to be physically close to each other at this time, don’t let that divide us. Shaming, snitching and criticizing dissenting opinions will destroy society a lot faster than any virus will. Let’s lean into being the best version of ourselves during this time and keep our eyes, ears, minds, and our hearts open.

The Toadstone

Lessons from 9/11 and Rejecting the 'New Normal'