There is a lamentable tendency, these days, to label everything that questions the Establishment narrative a “conspiracy theory”. Like “denier”, and its antecedents, “counter-revolutionary” and “rightist subversive”, it’s a particularly nasty form of the ad hominem fallacy. A “conspiracy theorist” is not just wrong (allegedly): they’re sinister; evil.
Except that, more and more often these days, they’re right.
That’s not to say that genuinely unhinged conspiracy theories don’t exist – Moon landing hoaxers and 9/11 Truthers, for instance – but even some of the loonier-sounding conspiracy theories contain at least a grain of truth. QAnon, for instance: Hollywood and Washington are run by a cabal of paedophiles? Jeffrey Epstein, anyone?
On the flip side of the coin, the media are openly lying to us. We know they’re lying, and they know we know they’re lying. So, instead of telling the truth, anyone who calls out their lies is denounced as a “conspiracy theorist”.
The Chinese virus pandemic has unleashed “conspiracy theory” after “conspiracy theory” that have turned out to be true. The Great Reset, the lab link “hoax”.
And now… forced vaccinations.
Oh, ho, ho, ho, you believe the government is going to force people to get vaccinated? I bet you think they’re putting microchips in them, too, you crazy conspiracy theorist!
Except…
Italy significantly ramped up pressure on its unvaccinated population, announcing that a digital or printed health pass would be necessary for accessing a range of everyday leisure activities, from theatres to indoor dining.
The decision announced on Thursday puts Italy in a rare category along with France among Western nations that have been willing to leverage certain freedoms and equalities now that vaccines have become widely available.
The Age
“Certain freedoms and equalities” – basically, the freedom to do anything except remain under virtual house arrest unless you submit to a government-mandated medical procedure.
France is now threatening jail time for anyone who fails to click their heels and show, “Papers, please!” on demand from the COVID Gestapo. Businesses who fail to become stooges and enforcers for a power-drunk bureaucracy also face time in Stalag Covid.
The fact that governments now feel empowered to curtail “certain equalities” ought to bring the Human Rights troughers screeching out of their burrows, but no. The quangos know exactly which hand is feeding them.
Instead, it’s left to ageing rock stars to try and uphold the banners of freedom and human rights.
Eric Clapton has announced that he won’t perform at venues that require proof of coronavirus vaccination for people to attend, becoming one of the first major artists to rebuke a safety precaution being used for the return of live music.
The musician, a vocal critic of the British government’s response to the pandemic, responded to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement this week that vaccine passports would be required to enter nightclubs and venues. Clapton said he was “honour-bound” to push back against the public health measures.
“I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present,” Clapton said in a statement shared on the Telegram account of Robin Monotti, an Italian architect and fellow critic of the government’s response to COVID-19. “Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show.”
On the other hand, rock stars who’ve made a career out of phony “rebellion” and supposedly standing up for the common folk are willing enforcers for an increasingly dictatorial state.
His dismissal of the safety measure comes as live music is beginning to return to venues worldwide, signalling some normality despite rising concerns surrounding the highly contagious Delta variant. In the United States, artists such as the Foo Fighters and Bruce Springsteen have put on concerts and Broadway shows, respectively, in which audience members were required to show proof of vaccination. Some have applied this to the ticket price of shows, such as a Florida concert promoter who offered $US18 tickets to anyone who is vaccinated and charged $US999.99 for everyone else.
Clapton, 76, has been a vocal opponent of lockdown restrictions since the start of the pandemic. He has noted how he found anti-lockdown “heroes” such as British politician Desmond Swayne and Van Morrison, whose lyrics, he said, “echoed in my heart”. The guitar virtuoso also allegedly lent a van to a band that is performing throughout the United Kingdom to protest restrictions.
The Age
When push comes to shove, you soon find out who really believes in freedom, and who is just a kiss-ass to authoritarians and bullies.
Now, let’s just reset the clock and wait to see which “conspiracy theory” comes true next.
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