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This Week in the New Normal #25

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.

1. Epstein Barr – the next big vaccine push?

Epstein-Barr is the virus which causes glandular fever (mono, for our American readers). It is one of the most common viruses in the world, almost never fatal, and the vast majority of infections are asymptomatic.

Nevertheless, they want to vaccinate against it.

A Guardian article from just this morning asks “Can we vaccinate against Epstein-Barr, the virus you didn’t know you had?”

They don’t stop and ask why you would need to vaccinated against a virus you don’t even know you had.

They’ve been working on EBV vaccines for decades, but now – the article claims – the new mRNA technology developed for Covid vaccines will finally make it possible. There are already three in early stages of production.

So, returning to my earlier question, why do they need to vaccinate against a virus most people never even realise they have?

Well, not because it’s a dangerous disease – it specifically isn’t – but because it is “associated” with deadly diseases.

Apparently, over 200,000 types of cancer have been “associated” with EBV infection, as have multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s these “associations” which make the virus “scary”, and that means we need the vaccine.

Now, what they don’t tell you is just how common this virus is. A paper from a couple of years ago claims up to 90% of all humans on the planet have been infected with EBV at some point in their lives.

Which, naturally, means 90% of cancer patients, and MS sufferers and people who die of literally anything have been exposed o EBV.

Statistical manipulation and wordplay to push a vaccine? We’ve seen this movie before.

2. Russell Branded “Mad Hatter” of Conspiracy Theories

At least three articles across two different publications this week took sudden aim at Russell Brand, the comedian-cum-youtuber.

The Independent ran two articles on the same day. One accusing him “peddling youtube conspiracy theories”. The other calling him the “new Joe Rogan” who is selling “pseudo-skepticism” and “weaponising the language of nuance”.

Two days later The Telegraph called him the “Mad Hatter of conspiracy theories” and claimed he had followed Joe Rogan down the “rabbit hole of misinformation”.

Now, I have watched Brand’s videos before. He seems like a decent person who is – to quote Joe Rogan – just asking questions. There’s literally nothing wrong with that.

No crimes against humanity have ever been committed because the public was too skeptical of their leaders, or had too much information, or remained too open-minded. It’s the closing down of avenues of expression and areas of discourse that leads to atrocities.

Brand’s “pseudo” skepticism, and willingness to go down the rabbit hole if that’s where the evidence leads, should be applauded.

I wonder what he could have said to suddenly draw so much ire…

…it’s unaccountable.

3. Culture is a waste of time

A new study has found that school trips to museums, theatres and art galleries have no effect on average exams results. The paper goes on to say that pupils benefit just as much from reading exercises in a classroom as they do from “experiencing cultural capital”.

Now, some might say that the primary aim of education is to help children realise their potential, and that can’t be measured through a simple quantitative metric such as exam results.

Some might say that if a trip to an art gallery inspires just one child out of every hundred to become an artist, or awakens just one teenager’s love of painting, it was worth it regardless of the apparently negligible impact on test scores.

But hey, why worry about that? Let’s just reduce schooling down to learning approved facts by rote, then regurgitating them onto a piece of paper once every few years.

It’s not like that will reduce the population down to a collection of small-minded drones with no conception of art, beauty or independent thought.

It’s not all bad…

Florida’s health authority has broken with CDC guidelines and is refusing to recommend Covid “vaccines” for healthy children. It’s not much, but its a start.

And then there’s this…

I don’t completely understand Tucker Carlson as a phenomenon. He has been, previously, one of the biggest sleazeballs on TV. For example, his refusal to show the collapse of WTC building 7 on his show was somehow simultaneously shameful and shameless.

…and yet, sometime in the last couple of years he started (occasionally) telling at least some of the truth.

I certainly don’t agree with even 30% of what he says, but he talks some very genuine good sense in the first two minutes of this clip, most especially referencing the seamless flow from Covid to Ukraine and the fact the economy was destroyed before the Ukraine war began.

You wonder how it was allowed be broadcast. And indeed why.

Also this made us laugh this week…

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All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention the mayor of chicago putting unvaccinated police officers on unpaid leave or the Daily Mail admitting we were right the whole time.

There’s a lot of change in the air, a lot of agendas in the works, if you see a headline, article, post or interview you think is a sign of the times, post it in the comments, email us or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.
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