This Week in the New Normal #68

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. Highly convenient Red meat allergies spreading

This week the US CDC reported that over 450,000 US citizens may be allergic to red meat, thanks to the spread of an (allegedly) tick-borne infection called “Alpha-gal syndrome”.

According to the BBC:

New data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday shows a steep increase in cases of alpha-gal syndrome. The allergy triggers a possibly life-threatening reaction to several types of meat or animal products. US scientists have traced alpha-gal to saliva from the lone star tick.

And, in a genius piece of narrative cross-pollination [emphasis added]:

The tick is identified by the white spot on its back and is mostly found in southern and eastern parts of the US. But experts warn that their range is expanding due to climate change.

That is a very neat piece of propaganda. Well played globalists.

See climate change can be blamed for spreading the “allergy” which means people can’t eat red meat, which they shouldn’t anyway…due to climate change.

Anyway guys, avoid ticks, or you might get the most politically convenient food allergy of all time.

2. Obama’s Personal Chef Drowned

Tafari Campbell, the Obama family’s personal chef, was found dead this week after drowning in Edgartown Pond on Martha’s Vineyard. The drowning was reportedly a paddle-boarding accident, according to authorities and the as-yet-unnamed witness.

While it was initially reported that Campbell was visiting the island while the Obamas were not there, that story was later changed.

The police have told the press there is “nothing suspicious” about the sudden death, despite the pond having a mean depth of only 5 feet, and the 45-year-old being able to swim according to posts on his social media.

Now, it’s entirely possible that it is just a tragic accident. These things do happen. But it’s also…just a bit weird.

A story to keep an eye on.

In a downright weird coincidence, Bill Clinton’s former White House chef also accidentally drowned back in 2015.

3. “I regret having a baby…I’d rather watch netflix”

This is a funky one.

At least four outlets this week have a story about the mother of a 10-month-old baby girl who apparently wishes she never had children and misses her alone time.

The kicker here, though, is there’s no evidence this woman exists.

All four stories – in the New York Post, the Daily Mail, the Sun and JOE are simply write-ups of a thread on the mumsnet advice forum, started by user “TheBerry”. That’s literally all they are.

No apparent effort was made to contact the woman and get a statement from her (and, indeed, establish she exists at all), they just wrote up the OP, then pasted the replies.

At first I thought “well, it’s just one article by a desperately stumped columnist that was syndicated across several outlets owned by the same company”. Nope. Three articles, three different *ahem* “journalists”.

I can find no reason at all for these things to exist.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why one woman maybe regretting her life choices is news.

The New York Post piece, at least, shoehorns a bit of shilling for big Pharma’s latest post-partum depression medication, but that is not mentioned in the others.

General demoralisation? Anti-children propaganda?

Who knows?

BONUS: Hysterical hysteria of the week

According to official sources, we just had the hottest week in 125,000 years (we actually didn’t, but never mind). Now, as we move “into the era of global boiling”, we want to share the funniest over-reactions of the past few days…

For example, there’s this lady, who tweeted that any outdoor activity in 90^oF weather is “potentially fatal”, and that at 95^oF you can just die standing in the shade:

Bad news to the many tens of millions who live in countries that regularly exceed those temperatures.

Or this gentleman, who claimed that it would be “instant death for millions” if air conditioners stopped working:

No government will ever admit “our country is now unliveable”. Power grids have already become as strategically important as food in uninhabitable countries. If the AC goes, it is instant death for millions #uninhabitable #ClimateBreakdown pic.twitter.com/eL0Wri9KlB

— George Tsakraklides (@99blackbaloons) July 24, 2023

Presumably, this is why – historically speaking – nobody ever lived in Greece, Spain or Italy until 70 years ago when AC units were invented.

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All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention Ukrainian cities using Pride parades to raise money for the war effort or the unvaccinated man denied an organ transplant…being asked to donate his organs.

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.