Performance Activism and Mass Prosecutions, By Brian Simpson

The Covid era, as Joshua Stylman describes,

https://www.malone.news/p/how-performative-activism-enabled

https://substack.com/home/post/p-160130863

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saw governments and institutions wield institutional power to craft a narrative that justified unprecedented restrictions: lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and passports. This wasn't just public health policy, it was a systematic erosion of freedom. The narrative claimed these measures were essential to "save lives," yet Stylman notes every pillar of it, PCR test validity, vaccine efficacy, mask utility, crumbled under scrutiny. Despite this, dissenters faced social and professional exile, revealing a deliberate suppression of individual rights under the guise of collective safety.

Take the lockdowns: rather than targeting resources to protect the vulnerable (elderly, immunocompromised), authorities imposed blanket closures, devastating economies and personal autonomy. Stylman highlights the data: small businesses lost US $4.6 trillion, with 41 percent of Black-owned firms shuttered, while Amazon's market value surged by $570 billion. This wasn't protection, it was an engineered transfer of power, stripping economic freedom from the working class while the "laptop class" preached solidarity from cushy home offices. Essential workers, meanwhile, lost the choice to assess their own risks, forced into "deadly" conditions or unemployment.

Vaccine mandates amplified this loss. Malone cites the hypocrisy: corporations like Nike and Google, touting "equity," fired workers—often minorities—who refused shots, despite historical distrust in medical systems. The unvaccinated were demonised as "enemies" (Gene Simmons) or likened to drunk drivers (Washington Post), justifying their exclusion from jobs, supermarkets, and public life. Rasmussen's 2022 poll shows nearly half of Democrats supported fines, confinement, or child removal for the unvaccinated, a chilling endorsement of state overreach into bodily autonomy and family rights. This wasn't persuasion; it was persecution enforcing compliance, shredding freedoms of choice and association.

The architecture of control, pre-rehearsed in Event 201, relied on social media and media collusion. Algorithms slashed dissent by 95 percent, while Big Pharma's $2.4 billion ad spend (e.g., Pfizer in 2021) turned news into propaganda. Stylman's examples, Fauci's "vaccinated don't get infected," Biden's "you're not going to get Covid"—were lies amplified to mandate experimental shots, bypassing normal safety protocols under military countermeasures. When data (e.g., Cleveland Clinic's finding: more shots, higher Covid risk) contradicted this, it was buried, ensuring citizens couldn't freely question or opt out without ruin.

Performative activism fuelled it all. Virtue-signalling elites posted solidarity symbols while cheering policies that crushed livelihoods and rights. Stylman's meme—"My Body, My Choice" next to "Vaccine Mandate Now!"—exposes the contradiction: the same crowd defending abortion rights backed forced medical procedures, revealing selective liberty. This hypocrisy enabled a reality where dissent was a "crime," costing friendships, jobs, and access to society.

The result? A manufactured reality where freedom—of movement, work, speech, and bodily autonomy—was sacrificed for a narrative that enriched corporations and consolidated power. Stylman's right: this wasn't just about Covid. It's a blueprint for future control, proving lockdowns were less about health and more about engineering a world where liberty is conditional.