Re: Government By Panic (fwd)

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Noelle <noelle>
 > Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2023 17:29:10 -0800 (PST)
 >
 > yep

I don't understand why people now think that Matt Taibbi and Glen
Greenwald are right wing extremists.  Is this the Christopher Hitchens
thing, again?

 >  > From: Matt Taibbi <http://www.substack.com/~taibbi>
 >  > Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2023 23:29:36 +0000
 >  > 
 >  > View this post on the web at https://www.racket.news/p/government-by-panic
 >  > 
 >  > “This is completely an isolated and accidental incident caused by force 
 >  > majeure, but the U.S. still hyped up the incident on purpose and even used 
 >  > force to attack.” — Chinese foreign minister Mao Ning [ 
 >  > https://substack.com/redirect/6417f634-5d2d-4eaf-ba4b-c07df2c7dd42?j=eyJ1Ijoi
 >  > MXYxM2o0In0.oFPaEAXALGYvP1-282JP3ndFTjNHV6H-bwjjmH-m46c ]
 >  > Empires can’t be ruled without belief. Without confidence in official 
 >  > words, subjects will lack direction, becoming “lost at sea,” as Revolt 
 >  > of the Public [ 
 >  > https://substack.com/redirect/298f8b82-000c-4455-92d0-784c14924869?j=eyJ1Ijoi
 >  > MXYxM2o0In0.oFPaEAXALGYvP1-282JP3ndFTjNHV6H-bwjjmH-m46c ] author Martin 
 >  > Gurri put it. They’ll support Brexit, Catalan independence, Trump; they’
 >  > ll wear yellow vests, throw away masks, even refuse the shot. When you tell 
 >  > them Beto O’Rourke is Robert Kennedy, they vote as if he were Ralph Nader. 
 >  > 
 >  > Now take a hypothetical. Say you’re a member of the American political 
 >  > establishment after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. You’re staring at 
 >  > four years as part of a government-in-exile and need a new message to solve 
 >  > your belief problem. What’s your answer?
 >  > My hypothesis is such people never bothered to find one. Instead, they 
 >  > declared a state of emergency. 
 >  > What emergency? Doesn’t matter. Russian interference was a good startup 
 >  > disaster, but you can keep changing them. The important thing is the 
 >  > pattern. One, declare a crisis. Two, spread panic. Three, take emergency 
 >  > measures. If you do this over and over, you end up with permanent crisis, 
 >  > permanent panic, permanent emergency rule. So long as new crises keep 
 >  > evoking unconscious fear and anxiety, the legitimacy of the political 
 >  > establishment is continuously justified. 
 >  > An episode that took place over the weekend speaks directly to our leaders’
 >  >  new dependence on government-by-panic. A Chinese balloon of unknown 
 >  > etiology drifted into American airspace, and wigs flipped from coast to 
 >  > coast. The episode ended in Kubrickian spoof, with one unsmiling official 
 >  > after another lining up to declare victory over a balloon. And nobody 
 >  > thought it was odd. ...