Though I’ve spent much time in online “alternative news” and “truther” communities on social media, I’ve been growing increasingly turned off by the lack of intelligence & discernment frequently exercised within. For as much Truth there has been to many “conspiracy theories” discussed in such circles, it’s seemed as though many forget to question their own cognitive biases, the degree to propaganda still exists in alternative media, and how often “awakening” is unconsciously thwarted as thinking they’ve “arrived,” know it all, and can do no wrong. Sad to say, it often feels there’s a self-righteous hubris & condescension that comes through the common parroting of highly-predictable replies on social media posts whose subtext exemplifies a shift from “question everything” to *’question everything mainstream, and now that we see through ‘their’ lies, we’re in a position to state things with certainty’ - blind to how many have merely exchanged one fear-based narrative for another.
One of the latest examples of this came via an Instagram post implying “social credit scores” are to be implemented in Canada… while actually digging a couple steps deeper into it, no. Fantastic clickbait, but not factually true. And meanwhile, as expected, hundreds of people were quickly triggered into reactivity in the comments, playing right into the falsehoods. (I was damn close, too, though glad to have taken the whopping couple minutes to look into the details debunking the claim.)
It was a fine example of how “question everything” has gone out the window, with nearly everyone taking a headline at face value. Most in those communities are familiar with the concept of “social credit scores,” used as a tyrannical control mechanism in China and talked of being implemented similarly in the western world; and given the common narratives surrounding the topic in “conspiracy theory,” “truther,” and “alternative news” groups & cultures, there have been some strongly oppositional programmed responses around it. Thus, when faced with the headline: cognitive bias activates, preconceptions brought to forefront of awareness, conditioned responses come into effect. ”Oh how horrible, ‘they’ xyz, we’re doomed, etc, etc.”
So I did a search for the article referenced to find out what exactly this was about. Sounded pessimistic, no surprise. Though, let’s go a step further to analyze what the article was referencing, rather than automatically concurring with it’s the author’s biased interpretation of it.
The actual matter: open banking.
Off the bat, we see a logical fallacy with the direct equation of “open banking” to “social credit scores” - with zero discernment of any details about what open banking is, having positioned the article with all the hot triggers to have readers project their preconceptions about “social credit scores” onto the matter. Objectively factual journalism? Nope. Just a creative distortion of facts to fit an entirely different narrative.
To emphasize the distinction -> some of those key overlooked details one had to dig a couple levels deeper to find:
“Change is in the works that will give Canadian consumers and businesses significantly more control over their financial data, including who they share it with… Open banking works by giving consumers the option to share their banking data with other firms.”
Sounds pretty tyrannical, huh? 🤦♂️
And there we have it, blatantly obvious once you see it: the twisting of innovations in financial systems to give the people more control over their data, providing them options as to what they share with whom… into “evidence” for confirmation bias and validating beliefs in the entrenching archetype of an Orwellian power-grab intent on enslaving citizens. But hey, the latter gets way more clicks & views, right?
As returning to the Instagram post to comment the findings with intent to bring a balanced viewpoint and some objective truth to the table, it quickly fell on deaf ears. By the time presenting such a differing perspective, the majority of people already had their preconceptions in mind. ”Yeah, but… ‘they’ xyz… yada, yada,yada.” No real openness to a balanced dialogue, just more defensiveness of the communal narrative.
Now, I ain’t stupid - I’m fully aware that developments such as these might & could be implemented such that the consumers’ “options” to share data exist, though changes in terms of service agreements automating certain sharing of data with most people unaware of their options to opt-out or exercise their potential control. That’s a realistic possibility, no doubt. But either way, *this doesn’t equate directly to “social credit score.” And if a person were to invest even a few minutes of time into educating themselves on ‘open banking’ with an open mind rather than biased preconceptions that it’s some diabolical elite-driven conspiracy, anyone with an average level of intelligence should be able to see the benefits of such innovations in financial technology designed to increase ease & accessibility for the people using it - a.k.a. you, me, and the average joe. (And if pausing their cognitive biases, easily discerning there was a drastic distortion taking place to equate such fintech developments with Orwellian “social credit scores.”)
But it would appear that a majority of “truthers” consuming clickbaity content like this don’t care, nor are interested in looking at such matters from all sides for a balanced debate.
What the fuck happened to the “truth” in this movement of identification as “truthers?”
Since when did “awakening” mean unplugging from corporate propaganda only to shut down the capacity for further discernment of any/all other viewpoints existing outside of it?
Maybe my expectations were too high, but I’m kinda disappointed.
For as much as some call the masses lulled in the dreamspells of mainstream institutions “sheep,” it’s seeming there may still be a large degree of projection going on there, with many of those name-callers merely transitioning from one herd to another.
Rewind a couple years… I couldn’t get why there seemed to be so much gaslighting from politically left-leaning critics of many in the “conspiracy” and “awakening” circles as “far-right” or whatever equivalent - many who were merely speaking truth, typecast into politicized stereotypes; those advocating for human rights & freedoms in the face of governmental & corporate tyranny, being degradingly thrust into divisive binary labels. It boggled my mind why human beings simply sharing common sense were being attacked as placed on another side of some invisible fence when the matters of politics they spoke about were never left-versus-right or conventional whateverthefuck, but fundamentally critical matters to every man, woman & child irregardless of political associations, religious ideologies, race, or whatever other abstract categorizations. (Especially considering the “left’s” supposed valuation of ’progress’ and outgrowths such as Occupy Wall Street & Antifa having been built on acknowledgements of the abundant abuses of institutional powers.) Though, perhaps over the course of time, I did begin to see why.
While certainly it’s impossible to accurately typecast every person ever entertaining a “conspiracy theory” or having dipped their toes into “alternative news” or “truther” circles, there perhaps are some archetypal patterns at play in the collective conscious of such groups & communities; and given observation in more contexts over a longer period of time, the “conservative” nature embedded in some shared beliefs common in such circles has become more apparent;
It’s interesting… how I initially saw this younger generation of “truthers” who speak of freedom often overlap with much “new-age,” also into the “spiritual” and occasionally matters of “ascension” - which one would logically assume pertains to matters of evolution; yet… how many similarities do exist with more old-school “right” conservatism, when analyzing situations as these…
How much distrust has been instilled in the collective conscious, so as to disable skills of critical thinking & discernment - patterns taking hold, so strongly reinforcing an “us versus them” victimization mentality that subconsciously presumes innovation to be intimately intertwined with “evil” intent off the bat.
(Paradoxically, the politically left at some levels having correspondence to the logical left brain, and the right brain with the politically right who’ve held close to religion, which some relate to as “spirituality” - though yet, with the right brain also pertaining to creativity, the ‘religiously-conservative-right’ having somehow exercised the creative capacity in imagining futuristic innovations moreso through restrictive fear-based lenses rather than expanding that right-brained creative capacity & spiritual connectivity to the broader spectrum inclusive of positive, constructive potentials. Good God, the mindfuckery that’s been perpetuated over generations.)
There are passionate individuals working to serve their fellow humans through innovating outdated banking systems (something we all here may appreciate, given the shared background in/with decentralized financial technology); yet, we observe their outright rejection before even being understood. Hell, guaranteed 99% reading the clickbait title reframing things into the “social credit score” narrative never even considered the possibility it could be something entirely different, let alone architected by fellow men & women (not a ‘satanic elite’) seeking to serve with integrity. And while many here on Hive grasp the turning of tides towards digitizations of our financial systems, knowing & investing in their positive potentials for both personal & collective empowerment, a good chunk of that audience failing to discern the huge distinctions between ‘open banking’ and ‘social credit’ react with a subconscious conservatism that would likely prefer devolving back to using gold & stones as money and return to living in caves & the woods, rejecting a great deal of technological development (while hypocritically doom-scrolling on their smartphones hours each day) - “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” as swayed by propagandized fear of tools being used maliciously by corrupt individuals & instutions, filtering out potentialities of also being used for good as yielded with maturity & wisdom.
As easy as it is to rationalize such reactions to clickbaity headlines, justifiably fearing tyrannical imposition when there may be evidence to suggest it, it appears that few are observing our tendencies towards extremism in our own biases cases as this - and how we may be bordering on becoming a bunch of anti-evolution conspiracy bros (and sistas), denying that technology can be used beneficially.
Another prime example: the reactions to Elon Musk and his company, Neuralink.
”Musk wants to implant a chip in your brain… all part of a huge, evil, satanic, transhumanist agenda,” spoken with certainty that closes off perception to every other possibility in existence - collapsing the quantum sea of potentialities into the particle state of a personal hell-state via projected focus of beliefs onto others they’ve never met nor have invested any energy into understanding beyond the biased judgements & opinions of others parroting fear & hate in online echo chambers. Meanwhile failing to acknowledge yin & yang - that while there may be “transhumanist agendas” at play, not everyone involved in everything that parts of them might resemble is entirely “evil;” nor is every technological development potentially reappropriated, hijacked, or utilized for nefarious means to be consequentially written off entirely, while/given it still can be used to massively improve people’s quality of life when used responsibly.
People have been projecting far too much damn power on the “elite” in these ways - not only disempowering themselves, but acting as twats with assertions inherent in these self-righteous cult-like “we’re woke and if you don’t see as we do, you’re a sheep” energetic stances that people are dumb and can’t discern or choose for themselves. Yeah, ok, Elon & Neuralink are ‘evil’… now go tell that to the seriously crippled people who now have the capacity to function somewhat closer to normal human beings thanks to them, for whom your ever-so-enlightened insistence that herbs, reiki, and suntanning one’s nutsack as the end-all-be-all cure for everything under the sun happened to unsurprisingly not work. Oh, and thanks for the votes of confidence that us sovereign beings aren’t evolved enough to exercise conscious choice over what is & isn’t correct for us individually via the ever-so-altruistic intent of shutting down technological development so those choices just aren’t available, since “them elites” gonna force everyone to get a brain-chip implant in order to use the one-world centralized currency otherwise. (Which would be Dogecoin, given Overlord-Musk’s ongoing favouritism of it, obviously.)
This making sense here yet??
Ah, the human journey.
Sometimes, it’s getting hard to tell how many comments on some of these types of social media posts are just bots programmed to fuel divisive narratives and how many are from actual people just regurgitating the exact same predictable biased, mindless opinions like verbal diaherea. Who does it serve to repeat same brainless NPC dialogue that Bill Gates is to blame for all the world’s problems yet again on every post related to any one of the seven thousand things he’s ever happened to make an investment in? Who exactly do these people think they’re “waking up” when regurgitating the same biased doomer beliefs everyone else in the same echo chamber has been eating up for the last few years? (And sure, it may be hypocritical to judge as I’ve been there & done it myself.) What fucking good does sitting at home complaining about how fucked the world is because a dying generation of psychopaths has “plans” for xyz in response to every damn piece of garbage clickbait Meta’s algorithms spits out to bait such engagement?
Yeah, the world’s kind of a messed up place. And what can we do about it? Certainly, there may be more in that domain of stuff we can’t control than that we can. But without question, persisting to focus on the shit to let it fuel the fears and detract attention away from something of a higher vibration ain’t it.
Maybe we’ve really gotten to the point of becoming so immersed in “the false matrix” and been co-creating a shared reality construct part-Idiocracy, part Black Mirror, that we’ve forgotten to step away the World Wide Web and get out to reconvene with nature - including the part of ourselves in which an innate intelligence awaits rediscovery as shedding the layers of programming & conditioning taken on from all the distorted noise of collective echo chambers.
We’ve got alot to unlearn.
Though of course, we’re all on our own unique journeys at the same time as sharing our collective one(s). None of us is gonna “wake up” anyone else by screaming from rooftops insisting they see or believe what we think is correct for them. And it might just be a good indication if there’s any temptation to take that approach, it may be ourselves who’ve still got a ways to go - myself included, as considering why the frustration with & resistance to crowds of so-called “truthers” thinking they’re awakened when having gone a couple extra steps to unveil the logical fallacies & cognitive biases of the collective belief structures they (and my former self) have been plugged into.
And that’s not to suggest I’m any better… but objectively, there is a better quality of life experience accessible for all who unplug from such distorted thinking in exchange for clarity.
And as the world may likely continue spinning into seeming-chaos as outdated institutions & systems collapse, that clarity is kinda fucking important. Whether for a matter of keeping one’s levelheaded sanity as distorted groupthink parasitically corrupts those invested in it, or matters of actual physical survival as needing to have a clear connection with our body-vehicle’s own innate guidance as the support systems of the old world aren’t there to baby us as they used to be… shit kinda is getting real.
But that doesn’t mean it has to be all apocalyptic Mad max disorder for everyone. On the contrary, the change underway is bringing much opportunity for those with the clarity to read the waves and surf them harmoniously.
i.e. with the fintech innovations.
While some anti-evolution conspiracy bros have been busy burying vacuum-sealed bags of food in their yards prepping for end times, convinced CBDCs are the “mark of the beast,” others here have embraced the wave, positioned themselves well as investing (first & foremost the time & energy into knowledge, so as to navigate their way) into crypto. While some are tripping balls over clickbaity propaganda about “social credit scores” that’s distorted out of context, there’s probably some planning to level up their financial game excitedly as embracing what opportunities are emerging out of open banking to access credit, which may be used responsibily in growing a portfolio of income-generating assets. And while some may be fanatically ranting about Elon Musk being “controlled opposition” and Neuralink yet again “the mark of the beast,” other dudes be taking care of their families well from profits of stock in the company that’s innovative actual life-changing medical solutions for people with neurological conditions such as Parkinsons, blindness, and what’d otherwise be permanent mobile paralysis.
Choosing one of those paths over the either - though we could branch off into the “no choice” predestination vs. free will debate there - isn’t inherently or morally “better” than one another. Though, the ones living from clarity and harmonizing with the abundance available probably are having at least a slightly more preferable life experience overall than the ones focused on how disempowered they are by a bunch of old men they’ve never met. And of the two, who’s really submitted to the ‘wrath of Satan’ (or whatever the term is), when one’s recoiling into a life of fear while the other is seizing life’s opportunities for living expansively in love & gratitude…?
To each their/our own.
(But the least we could do either way is honor each others’ sovereign choices, versus unintendedly gaslighting others through projecting our own beliefs about how horrible the world is and making them wrong for not agreeing.)
Yada, yada, yada.
As usual: take what thou wilt from this all, discard the rest. You do you. Etc, etc.
✌️💫🤟
If you’ve enjoyed reading this and are interested in more on similar threads, here are a couple more that may be worthwhile:
This post made me think of this meme I saw the other day: