Rebekah Barnett notes that the mainstream media, as usual is doing its thing by slamming anyone opposing the latest thing, as a conspiracy theorist. Of course, they said this about all aspects of Covid, including natural immunity and masks, and have been proven wrong on all aspects of this. Now, in the context of climate change hysteria, we have the 15-minute city, based upon largely stopping, or severely restricting ordinary people using cars in the city. There was recently a protest in Oxford about this, with an Asian child speaking and saying what a disaster this means to her life, just getting to school and home. There is also a major impact upon small business. However, that counts for nothing, for what matters is to look like something is being done, climate change wise, and even in conventional terms it is window dressing, given the enormous carbon footprint from free trade and globalisation. It is indeed a mad cult, that is only working to disassemble Western civilisation.
https://rebekahbarnett.substack.com/p/the-medias-new-obsession-15-minute
“‘Conspiracy theories’ about 15 minute cities are false, unhinged, dangerous, not to be believed, declares mainstream media (MSM) in unified chorus.
“In recent years, conspiracy theories that were once almost unheard of have spread like wildfire, with a growing number of Australians now sceptical of things like vaccines, 5G and election results,” reports news.com.au, under an advertising banner for Pfizer’s latest Covid vaccine ambassador, Pink. Her new album Trustfall is presumably about the global decline of trust in media and government. More on that further down.
The article explains that 15 minutes cities (also called Smart Cities) are simply a common sense way of attempting to boost liveability for residents. City dwellers in proposed Smart Cities - including Melbourne, Paris, London, Edmonton and Oxford – will have access to everything they need within a 15 to 20-minute walk, cycle or public transport trip, and that’s really all there is to it.
“Anyone who has ever faced a long and painful commute will immediately see the appeal of having the daily essentials at their fingertips,” the article assures readers.
However, ‘gullible Australians’ who cannot appreciate common sense or convenience have been ‘sucked in’ to a ‘dangerous conspiracy.’ These ‘unhinged’ conspiracy theorists actually believe that Smart Cities are, ‘part of a secret plan by global elites to restrict people’s freedom and movements’ - a form of lockdown justified by climate action. Sounds ‘wild.’
The article notes that conspiracies about 15 minute cities have been flagged as ‘false information’ on Facebook, so that really settles it, they’re definitely false and we should all just shut up and be grateful for the convenience that such plans will afford.
The Victorian Government confirms that Smart Cities are a benefits-only proposition, as depicted in the nice pastel coloured info-graphic on the official government page detailing plans for Melbourne’s transformation into a Smart City.
The take home message of the multitude of MSM reports on recent conspiracy theorist activity, is that the sensible response to governments bringing in Smart Cities around the world is complete, unquestioning acceptance.
Only morons would be skeptical of the government. Only ‘unhinged’ and ‘gullible’ conspiracy theorists would express concerns over the potential for new legislation to give more power to governments over our freedom of movement, which they have previously abused with wanton disregard for their citizens’ will or wellbeing.
Trustfall
Smart City conspiracy theory reporting comes as the latest micro-meme in the larger meme of cooker watch reporting, whereby MSM outlets clutch pearls and catastrophise over the proliferation of online ‘cookers’ expressing distrust in the government and big corporations.
For the past three years, the mainstream media (MSM) has been completely obsessed with conspiracy theories, without irony. While the MSM has relentlessly and unselfconsciously published the most outlandish and demonstrably false theories, at the same time, they have uniformly defamed and insulted anyone skeptical of their misinformation campaigns, labelling them ‘conspiracy theorists’, ‘stupid,’ ‘unhinged,’ ‘selfish’, 'cookers' and so on.
In rare edge cases, such as the tragic shooting of Queensland police officers by school teacher Gareth and Stacey Train, the MSM has been quick to blame conspiracy theorist communities for the violence, and hint at the need for increased regulation of online ‘wrongthink’ in order to prevent further violence. In reality, these things are always complex.
At no point have reports addressed the role of the government in seeding distrust, or of the media in facilitating the marginalisation and even radicalisation of mentally unstable people like Gareth Train. Recall, Train lost his job due to his vaccination status, and endured years of social and economic deprivation and isolation imposed by his government, and reinforced by a relentless media campaign in which people of his ilk were portrayed as morally bankrupt idiots unworthy of a place in society. Did anyone pause to consider the effects of such policies and campaigns on those who were already mentally vulnerable? Effects like pushing the already marginalised further out to the fringes of society and discourse? Apparently not.
Is it any wonder that trust in government and media is at an all time low, with the two institutions seen as sources of misleading information worldwide?