It’s heartening to see C J Hopkins attacking Desmet’s Mass Formation Psychosis explanation of the Covid madness of the last two years, which he ignored at first but now believes is becoming dangerous because of its increasing popularity with those people who generally did not succumb to the Mass Formation Psychosis and who opposed lockdowns, masks, testing etc. I have argued from the very beginning that there is clear evidence of malign intent, which necessarily precludes certain people from conveniently being let off the hook for crimes against humanity on the grounds of a claimed diminished responsibility due to them being ‘hypnotised’ by an emergent mass formation psychological ‘thingy’, which affected lots of people.
I’ve been arguing with Mark Changizi for a while now who also believes passionately that the last two years has borne witness to an emergent societal level complex psychological phenomenon which has gripped not only the masses, but also our leaders. He sincerely believes, for instance, that the people of the UK, hypnotised by groupthink and fear, demanded the government impose lockdowns. My experience of what happened in March 2020 strongly suggests that was not the case. Lockdowns were imposed via the executive and that same executive conspired to alter collective behaviour and thinking via the government’s ‘nudge’ units, utilising an all-pervasive propaganda/advertising campaign via a compliant media which was planned well in advance of any announcement of lockdowns. But Mark won’t have it. He’s convinced of the science of mass emergent psychological phenomena. Increasingly, so are a lot of other Covid rebels who I admire and respect greatly.
Ironically, I think Desmet’s theories are probably near the mark, but the fact is, the Covid debacle was a globalist planned psyop. Our governments colluded with Big Tech, Big Pharma, the media and other corporate interests to deliberately terrify millions of people for political and financial gain and by so doing alter their behaviour to the point that they were captured by a powerful mass delusion. Those malign actors created the mass psychosis; they were not in it. They didn’t inadvertently hypnotise themselves. That’s why they were partying and travelling to see girlfriends and having curries and what-not when we were all peering nervously past our front doors every Thursday evening to bang pans and clap the heroic NHS, then scuttling back inside in order to avoid catching the dreaded Rona, thus causing our TikTok singing, dancing health service heroes even more grief.
Here’s what CJ Hopkins says:
Well, gosh, this is kind of embarrassing. For approximately the last two and a half years, I have been documenting, analyzing, and occasionally satirizing the so-called “New Normal,” i.e., the new, pathologized, official ideology that has been rolled out all across the planet by the global-capitalist ruling classes under the pretext of combating an apocalyptic pandemic … or at least that’s what I thought was going on.
As it turns out, I was totally wrong.
Apparently, the global-capitalist ruling establishment (or “GloboCap,” as I often refer to the unaccountable, supranational network of global corporations, banks, governments, and non-governmental governing entities that unaccountably govern our world) has not been rolling out a new official ideology, or pathologized form of totalitarianism, or not intentionally in any event.
No one has been methodically gaslighting anyone, or terrorizing anyone with propaganda, or censoring or segregating anyone, or coercing anyone to get needlessly “vaccinated” with any sort of dangerous experimental drugs, or consciously conspiring with anyone to do anything.
Seriously now, I have been aware of Desmet’s theory for some time, but I had mostly held my tongue about it because (a) I considered it relatively harmless, and (b) I’m generally reluctant to tear another vocal opponent of the New Normal a new asshole. We get enough of that from the New Normal “fact checkers.” However, unfortunately, this “mass hypnosis” gibberish has gained enough traction that it has now become dangerous, so I need to do a little new-asshole-tearing. (Fanatical fans of Professor Desmet will probably want to navigate away at this point.)
Ready? OK, here we go.
What we’ve been experiencing for the past two and a half years — and arguably the last six and a half years — is not the result of “mass hypnosis.” The global-capitalist ruling establishment is destabilizing and restructuring societies, globally. The people that staged and published this photograph in January 2020 and lied to the masses about the Covid death rate (i.e., 3.4%) a few months later were not mass-hypnotized. They knew what they were doing.
I totally agree with CJ on this. I’m not so convinced about his alternative explanation:
Likewise, the people who went New Normal (i.e., the vast majority of most societies) were not “mass hypnotized” or in some kind of trance. They were simply looking out for themselves by conforming to the new official “reality.” This is standard behavior in totalitarian systems, and cults, and even non-totalitarian systems. I explained it this way in a recent interview …
Something was definitely wrong inside a lot of heads. Most people did seem to be hypnotised by the fear and media and government propaganda campaign - and it happened astonishingly quickly, almost like a switch had been flicked on in millions of impressionable (primed?) minds.
To my dismay, I am starting to see something similar - but on a lesser scale - happen within the ‘anti-vaxxer/anti-lockdown’ community. Influential opponents of lockdowns and mass vaccinations are being mesmerised by Desmet’s ideas. I call it Mass Formation Psychosis Psychosis. What is it with the human mind that it is so tempted by the allure of groupthink, even when engaged in opposing groupthink!?
I'm reading Desmet's book at the moment and I believe he is on to something although I can't agree with his attribution of its origins to the Enlightenment and subsequent 'mechanistic' thinking. I think that we are all subject to ideologies of varying degrees of reach and severity. For example, we tend to take on the same political opinions as our parents. (Some of us never grow out of that!); we adopt the 'culture' of our workplace, even if it may grate on us, for a more peaceful and successful working life, and so on.
I don't think that our elites 'hypnotised themselves' but they did believe their own propaganda - which is sort of the same thing. This seems to be the way elites work: via a sort of cognitive dissonance - they're capable, for example, of believing in total lockdown while at the same time believing it doesn't apply to them. I think this is a necessary attribute of political elites. Just as you make progress through the echelons of a big corporation by not making waves, so you make political progress by 'going along'.
It seems to me that what we should address is the propensity for people to be influenced by ideologies small and large, benign and fatal. I think that is what the Enlightenment was about. Pity it didn't take off!
Great article. I like your questioning mindset. I have one too.
Apparently groupthink pits are a very easy trap for us all to fall into, and we as individuals need to be on guard against it constantly. It looks like divisions are forming amongst all who should be in it together, standing as one against the real enemies of humanity, as a result. I’ve now read 4 articles in one evening about the Desmit issue. Why is it reaching a sort of critical mass (stating to dislike that word, lol) at this exact moment? Same thing with the virus vs terrain theory arguments, which are also popping up all over the place and getting contentious.
The divisions now occurring make the most sense to me, if I consider the idea that they are not organic, but are being deliberately seeded to derail the fight against the true tyrants. (Not in ANY way accusing you of doing that). I am beginning to find the timing of it all rather suspicious. We must avoid the divide and conquer trap. The only ones who ultimately benefit off that are the evil monsters who continue to seek to destroy us all. Stopping the evil plans being implemented is the number one priority right now.
The marxists are the ones who love ideological purity tests. I can almost feel the idea of that, as a result of these hot-button topics, waiting in the shadows ahead to derail the momentum needed to take the bastards down. My views on many things are strong and deeply held. But I reject the notion that all must think exactly like I do on every point and at all points in time. It reminds me strongly of some of the things Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians. Unite on the great core truth. Don’t get sucked into or derailed by “I am of Paul, I am of Apollo” arguments. Do you eat meat sacrificed to idols or not, heretic?
Thanks for letting me wax on about all this. I appreciate learning the new information about a facet of Desmit’s view that prior to this evening I was unaware of. Those divergent viewpoints, God willing, can be addressed down the road once we stop the madness. My heart and gut are telling me now is not the time to get caught up in that controversy.