During the Great Gangster Disappearance, I was sitting outside hoping for his return when it seemed like the entire world came crashing down on my shoulders. Was I a terrible pet parent? (No.) Was I responsible for Gangster’s disappearance? (Again, no.) Did I let him down? (No.) What am I even DOING? (Still no clue.) Am I giant disappointment? (No.) Is this even about the cat anymore? (No.) Is this just the ‘shrooms talking? (Probably.)
I’ve talked a bit in the past about the need to keep our spirits up as the world spirals dangerously out of control — this is the reason for my Monday pawsitivity posts. Staying negative all the time isn’t healthy OR productive — but the cold truth is that a lot of things I Scream about ARE negative, and sometimes that affects me as well.
So why do subject myself to this onslaught of negativity?
The answer is simple: because it has to be done. In a world in which governments and media are working hand-in-glove to curate and disseminate the “proper” narrative, sometimes it can feel like nobody out there is asking the important questions to the rich and powerful.
That’s where Screamers come in.
Covid provides the most obvious and most recent example of this. Many people had perfectly valid questions about the government’s response and the logic of covid rules. (Why mask until you sit down at a restaurant? Why is 50% the ‘correct’ capacity? Why are we closing schools? Why are we leaving seniors to die alone in nursing homes? If we can’t keep the virus out of nursing homes, how on earth can we keep it out of the general public?)
Yet the government’s wide-reaching censorship apparatus struck down such questions — often before they were even asked — with a combination of social pressure, ostracization, and mischaracterization. Only the most ardent Screamers stood against the crowd and demanded answers from “leaders” who refused to give them.
Some people Scream against the powerful because that’s their job (Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi). Some people turned into Screamers because their expertise butted up against the covid nightmare (Robert Malone, A Midwestern Doctor). Others simply couldn’t sit by and watch while government ran over anybody who dared speak up (myself, el gato malo, eugyppius, and Alex Berenson, among many others).
During covid, many of these Screamers were vital lifelines to people being drowned out by the biggest propaganda machine in history. I’ve previously talked about “rock bottom” and my belief that for many of us, it came when we could see through the sham but thought we were the only one. The people we thought were trustworthy were suddenly revealed to be paid propaganda-peddling presstitutes, leaving us adrift on a sea of crazy.
Screamers were like lighthouses in that sea of crazy……….but more like reverse lighthouses, because people were drawn together by them. Suddenly we could see that we WEREN’T alone — other people were seeing the exact same things that we were. Our voices joined together to eventually push back on — and destroy — mask and vaccine mandates. The injustice continued until it was resisted by a critical mass of the people.
Before I was Screaming into the Void on Substack, I was Screaming into the void that was Jay Inslee’s Twitter page. I wasn’t doing this because I thought I could change Jay Inslee’s mind (I knew he was just following orders), but because I thought I could reach other “normal” people who were reading his page. (This worked well until I was banned from the platform.) Every person who starts Screaming makes it easier for the next person to join in, and sooner or later the mass of Screaming voices can’t be ignored.
With apologies to the great Fred Rodgers, when things get confusing and you can’t tell up from down, it helps to look for the Screamers.
When the government is telling us that Russia blew up the Nordstream pipeline, Seymour Hersh was Screaming so loudly that now the entire narrative has changed and “we always knew” it was Ukraine. (Somebody should have let Zelensky know.)
And the wonderful about Screaming out the truth is that you don’t have to be dragged along by the rising tide of the official narrative, only to be forced to reverse course later. How many people who were gung-ho about the war in Iraq have quietly tried to change their tune? How many people are trying to quietly delete their support for lockdowns and vaccine mandates? (Fast forward a few years, how many people are going to be deleting posts surrounding the current “Men are women if they say they are” narrative after the world understands the harm it’s causing?)
Instead of listening to the weathervanes, it seems like we should be listening to the Screamers who were ultimately vindicated on things like inflation, covid, the Nord Stream pipelines, Hunter’s laptop, January 6th, and nearly every other “conspiracy theory” under the sun.
Now to be fair, Screamers aren’t always correct just because they oppose the current government narrative. But they’re quite often correct, because government is a massive lying propaganda machine that’s mainly interested in increasing its power and wealth. When its telling the truth, government should be able to adequately explain its reasoning for its policies and actions. When they instead resort to calling citizens grandma-killers or racist, that should be a huge red flag that they’re lying.
And it’s more difficult for them to pass their lies as truth when we have more Screamers joining the chorus, pushing back on the line of “injustice and wrong” that government keeps trying to inch forward.
That’s why I decided to start Screaming, and why I recommend that you do, as well. (Lord knows we have enough to Scream about!) Not only will you be able to sleep soundly at night, you just might help save society while you’re at it.
It's disheartening to see all the shit, all the time. I do really appreciate the Pawsitivity Mondays.
Good advice. I sent it to you before I read your comment. We can both have look. Thanks for all your help and encouragement.