Early this morning we participated in one of the most ridiculous rituals in modern history — “springing forward” and setting our clocks forward an hour. “Daylight Savings” has always been a bizarre description to me — we’re obviously not actually getting any more daylight, we’re just trying to make the daylight that we do get more convenient for us. And to do that, we’re going to convince (most) everybody in the country to agree that it’s no longer noon when the sun is directly overhead. We agree to observe the “fake” time for roughly six months, then set our clocks back to “real” time in the fall.
You could call it Mass Time Psychosis. (And I just did.)
During covid, Robert Malone made headlines after going on Joe Rogan’s podcast and discussing Mass Formation Psychosis. After predictable media attacks on the idea, Malone explained exactly what he meant in a wonderful Substack post. The entire thing is worth reading, but here’s the basics:
This perfectly describes exactly what we saw during covid — and in some cases continue to see. Despite hundreds of years of studies showing that ill-fitting cloth masks can’t stop a virus, some people are STILL adamant that the masks work (it’s just PEOPLE who fail).
Now, it’s clear why Dr. Tufekci is desperate to cling to the mask narrative in the face of literally all the real-world data:
She’s literally the person who “nudged” the CDC into putting us all into masks. Here’s the original article that changed the CDC’s mind. Do you see heaps of data that suggest masks can stop the pandemic, as the “experts” repeatedly told us? Do you see ANY data at all? Of course not — there’s only the typical appeals to authority and “of course masks work” although “not perfectly”.
(This is once again time to point out that “slowing the spread” simply to slow it was always a dumb idea. We wanted to be through the crisis as quickly as possible without overwhelming the hospitals. If masks “worked” to slow the spread 5%, all we did is extend the crisis by 5%.)
Later on in the article we see what I believe was the actual point of masks:
Ah, the old “we’re all in it together” lie. If we put on masks, people will remember there’s a pandemic! It’s important that EVERYBODY DO THIS or we might forget and go about our lives without being terrified!
So while I understand why Dr. Tufekci clings to the mask lies, why do so many other people do the same? We know why Dr. Fauci is desperate to cover up his involvement in funding gain-of-function research into bat-origin coronaviruses in Wuhan, but what does the average person have to gain by running interference for him? Why are the people who hated Big Pharma a few years ago now dismissing the possibility of vaccine injuries, in the face of literally all the data AND multiple stories about how side effects are actually a GOOD thing?
The defense of all of these indefensible positions is the result of believing things that aren’t true — and steadfastly refusing to change your view in light of new evidence. I believe a huge part of this is the politicization of nearly everything in life — along with one side’s penchant for ex-communicating those who fail to toe the current party line. (This is how you have Democrats who are all-in on proxy wars while attacking journalists and free speech.)
I’m fond of saying that reality has a nasty way of interjecting itself into the conversation, and that happened over the weekend when the Mass Money Psychosis started to buckle in the form of Silicon Valley Bank spectacularly failing (after a very suspicious exit from the bank’s leaders).
A few weeks ago everybody was talking great about SVB. The bank itself was bragging about being on Forbes list of America’s Best Banks! (5 years running!)
This was posted on March 6th — after the top dogs were already paddling away from the sinking ship SVB.
Already the cries of bailout are echoing across Silicon Valley, with incredibly rich people who stand to lose a lot of cash telling us how terrible it will be for the little guy if government doesn’t step in and bail them out. Yet even a cursory glance into SVB shows that it wasn’t a serious bank in the first place — for example, the bank extended EXTREMELY favorable conditions for a home loan if a venture company kept its balance at the bank.
And here’s the person who was the risk manager:
Tim Knight, on the 2nd Smartest Guy in the Room ‘Stack, details many more ways SVB was more worried about virtue signaling than protecting the billions of dollars held by depositors at the bank. It’s almost a real-bank replay of the FTX collapse combined with a dash of Sri Lanka thrown in for good measure.
Mass Money Psychosis has “experts” thinking that you can shut down the economy for months (or years) at a time, print trillions of dollars for unproductive uses (test and trace, anybody?), give government unprecedented power over your day-to-day life, prioritize fake ESG scores and diversity over actual productivity — then dodge reality when it comes crashing into the conversation. It doesn’t work that way, and a whole lot of people are going to find that out very quickly.
SVB and countless other institutions have spent the last few years (or decades) feeling the sugar rush of freshly printed cash. They’ve bet the farm (your farm) that the government will come to their rescue when the bet goes bad — likely in the form of a huge bailout of freshly printed cash.
And the worst thing is that they’ll probably get this bailout. And the next one, and the next one. And sooner or later they’ll use that freshly printed cash to buy up the home you can no longer afford.
Fix the money. End the Fed.
I like how you show the nonsense and stupidity is not tied to just Covid topics. If it's a stupid idea, all our "leaders" seem to be all on board.
SC- Yup Masks don't work, just for virtue signaling and a training bra for slaves. Gangster & Bonnie nuptials update!!!