Authored by Rob Slane via TheBlogMire.com,
Stockholm Syndrome:
A condition in which hostages develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity.
Lockdown Stockholm Syndrome:
A psychological state of mind that causes its sufferers to come to love seeing their economies and liberties being destroyed, whilst simultaneously being incapable of accepting that Sweden kept its society going without resorting to such measures.
I continue to be baffled by those who cannot bring themselves to admit that Sweden has carried out a relatively sensible policy on Covid-19, whilst the response of so many other countries has been authoritarian and frankly unhinged. The idea of quarantining millions of perfectly healthy people and stopping them from doing normal, healthy things is something that has apparently never occurred to any national leaders in the past, or at least if it did, they presumably never enacted it for fear of revolt.
No such fear today. It is simply staggering to see how so many people have not only come to accept the inevitable destruction of the economy and curtailment of civil liberties as a price worth paying to deal with an illness which is killing numbers on roughly the same levels as a bad flu season, but have actually become cheerleaders for the giant social experiment being done to them. It reminds me of the chilling and dispiriting line at the end of 1984: “He loved Big Brother.” Today, for reasons that are not at all clear to me, many appear to “Love Lockdown” — that is, they appear to be absolutely fine with having their liberties taken away from them; absolutely fine with having the right to do lawful work taken from them; and absolutely fine with having the right to do normal, healthy things taken away from them. If anyone has an explanation, do be sure to let me know.
But it gets worse. Not only do they seem to be perfectly willing to go along with these things, but they are appear to be utterly oblivious and even apathetic to the economic train wreck headed their way because of the policy they support. Why? What will shake them out of that apathy and complacency? Will it be when they hear about the Great Depression-era unemployment levels coming on us? No! Even that doesn’t do it. The chart below is one of the most genuinely frightening I’ve ever seen, showing as it does US unemployment rising by over 30,000,000 in just seven weeks to levels not seen since the 1930s. And yet when I show it, many just airily dismiss it with a shrug of the shoulders as if it’s irrelevant. Perhaps it will only be if they lose their own jobs and can’t pay the rent or can’t get stuff in the shops like they used to that it’ll hit home! Who knows?
If you try to show such people that it didn’t have to be this way, comparing the UK with Sweden, or Sweden with other countries, or Sweden with what the Imperial College model might have predicted, they either dismiss it, or get angry, or ignore it. It’s a thought they don’t want to entertain, presumably because they have thoroughly convinced themselves that “lockdown” is the only policy that can possibly work, and any data that shows that this is not the case must either be wrong or ignored (for those who want to see a real expert thoroughly debunk the idea that lockdown was or is necessary, I recommend this interview with Professor Knut Wittkowski).
Despite studying the data for a number of weeks, I have yet to find any discernible evidence that the Swedish policy has hurt that country in anything like the way the doom-mongers predicted. Just as importantly, I have been unable to find any discernible evidence that destroying your economy and wrecking civil liberties — which is what the policy of “lockdown” is — was necessary.
For instance, the chart below shows two countries with a very different policy — Sweden and the UK — by daily deaths per million population (note, the UK figures are somewhat skewed on 29th April, as the Government decided to count deaths in care homes on that day ((extraordinary that these were missed off before)). What is actually clear is that Sweden has in fact fared better than the UK, with total recorded deaths at 256.6 per million, compared to 419.1 per million for the UK, as at 3rd May:
Or we could look at weekly recorded deaths for 13 European countries, plus the US. Interestingly, in all cases (except the UK because of that care home spike on 29th April), the numbers of deaths are now clearly falling and — it would seem — beginning to peter out — including Sweden:
Or here’s a cumulative way of looking at the same data:
What I have noticed, however, is the more Sweden’s figures have failed to shoot up into the stratosphere, the more some people have ground their teeth, digging in and claiming that because Sweden’s death numbers are worse than Denmark’s, Finland’s and Norway’s, this somehow proves the point that they messed up big time. Does it? Here’s another way of looking at it.
As of today, the country has seen just short of 2,700 deaths. This is:
- Approximately 265.62 deaths per million population
- Approximately 0.0265% of their entire population.
This is not even close to what the doom-mongers were predicting. My own very conservative estimate of what Imperial College’s model might have predicted for them, under the measures they have taken, came out at approximately 32,500 deaths (approximately 3,250 deaths per million). However, a study carried out by Sweden’s Uppsala University in April applied the Imperial College model to Sweden and came out with far bigger numbers than my conservative estimate. According to their projections, if Sweden continued its current response:
- It would pass 40,000 deaths shortly after 1st May
- This would continue to rise to almost 100,000 deaths by June.
But let me again remind you: so far, Sweden has had just under 2,700 deaths, and we’ve now passed 1st May. That’s many orders of magnitude below what the Imperial College model would have predicted for it.
I think we can safely say (if we didn’t know it already) that the Imperial College model overestimated deaths from Covid-19 by a huge margin. Bit like their estimates for Mad Cow Disease. And Swine Flu. And H5N1 Bird Flu. In fact, perhaps the question we should ask is if anyone knows of an instance when Neil Ferguson’s team have got their predictions right — or at least within say a few tens of thousands at least?
And yet here’s the thing: not only is the UK Government’s draconian policy based on these faulty predictions, but many have taken to these draconian measures based on faulty so-called science like ducks to water. I find it extraordinary. I’d love to know why. Any one?
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In the software industry, ‘garbage in, garbage out’ has long been known.
‘Sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ – Ed Lorenz
Modeling can produce any output the modelers desire and hence is subject to politicization when what’s being investigated has political overtones.
But we can cut through this whole which is best argument – lockdown or no lockdown. No one, no president, no governor, no pope, no asshat of any description has the right to imprison the population on his say so. The enforcers of this lockdown, the cops, will eventually feel repercussions of their actions when the real SHTF which will occur later this year.
The economy is in the process of hatching a true depression. It was inevitable even before this virus scare popped up but TPTsB used it as their entree into the beginning of that cycle. When folks feel real pain there will be a mass reaction and the cops will experience the brunt of it. That’s when the political class will realize that there are no more money printing adventures they can muster to quell the uprising. It will be house cleaning time.
@ Solutions are obvious.
You wrote: “The enforcers of this lockdown, the cops, will eventually feel repercussions of their actions when the real SHTF which will occur later this year”.
I agree. Throughout the West (with the Cops in Spain, Italy, and the UK singled out for their extreme ‘enthusiasm’ in enforcing potentialy criminal Governemnt Decrees upon a peaceful population) the Police have themselves now completely worn through what was left of the very thin veneer remaining in the minds of the masses that the Police still had some loyalty to the Citizens.
It has been quite sobering for many to watch the extreme enthusiasm in which the Police have embraced an opertunity to engage in abuses of power, legal over reach, and even brutality in some cases.
In Spain and the UK there have been many incidents filmed by the public (and increasingly now in the US too) of the Police acting more like Gangsters and Thugs than Officers of the Law.
The public now view the Police with suspicion at best, and contempt at worse, and in every case now view any interaction with the Cops as being dangerous – especially so in the US where precedents for shoot first have already been set, but also in places such as the UK. Even a routine traffic stop is likely to result in some sort of fine everywhere, if not theft (confiscation / forefitture) of personal property by the Police. In some instances if you give the ‘wrong’ answer of stand up for your rights, you risk a beating or a bullet.
The Police, dressed often in Paramilitary Uniforms (almost always Satanic Black for some reason) now demand compliance to their every demand – even if unlawful.
We are not far away from reaching the stage where the Police feel theyy can snatch people off the street and lock them away without charge (or made up charge) – or worse – just like in the Soviet Union.
If or when SHTF comes to the land, those who are awake and have knowledge of the gang calling themselves the Police will regard them as hostile and life threatening – the same as any organised and armed gang would be in SHTF.
Bosnian war survivors have written about what happened to thug Police gangs during the Civil War.
Saw this yesterday and was hoping it would make it’s way here. The speed at which it spread is what surprised me.
We are a Nation of self loathing virtue signalers who jumped at the chance to hide in our pastel safe rooms full of teddies and unicorns.
There are a lot of people who relish this lockdown:
1. the ladies can leave the house without “putting my face on”
2. grocery stores can now sell rotten meat, with the “no returns due to cuomovirus”
3. Clerks get to yell at people for going down the aisle in the wrong direction or for not wearing a mask
4. Kids get to stay home from school, and libraries, and no longer get exposed to ObamaTranny story time.
this list is endless,
just like the lock down.
Stockholm Syndrome
Yeah, if it wasn’t for the bus in Boston, I would believe that the people have finally come to their senses.
Just because they have let you come out of the back room of the bank after the bank has been robbed, to let you walk around in the building, is not winning. Though it makes your captors seem a little nicer and it makes it seem that they didn’t really want to hurt you, that they were just doing their jobs, because they are bank robbers you know. So they’re now showing you that they are just like you in a way, working men. lol Yep, works every time.
“Why? What will shake them out of that apathy and complacency? Will it be when they hear about the Great Depression-era unemployment levels coming on us? No! Even that doesn’t do it. ”
Just wait till they are hungry
” Today, for reasons that are not at all clear to me, many appear to “Love Lockdown”.”
-Rob Slane
Well, Rob, many folks do love their lockdown. The past two decades, O.K. three, have been the inexorable and irresistible leading wave of the Cybernetic Revolution. The results are everywhere apparent -smartphone, laptop, home computer saturation close to 95% or so in much of the modern world. Most businesses are now run with computers at every work station. Even the once-center of the commercial universe: cash registers (soon to go the way of the buggy whip) – for accuracy, automatic tax functioning and inventory control you understand.
The last two generations of young people having been raised in the technotronic culture are completely inured to all of it. It is such a convenience after all.
Therefore, to be told to stay at home and not go to work or school, have access to unlimited entertainments to include a myriad of mindless video games; virtual reality devices; streaming movies; 500 channels of cable TV; climate control; a wide variety of sugary drinks; chips; snacks and the like; not even having to move one’s ass a foot to reach for the phone or computer to make a home delivery order…To ice the cake let’s have some recreational drugs, beer, wine and liquor freely available. And the cherry on top – government sanctioned as essential business.
And then throw in a couple of bucks courtesy of Uncle Donald – like an allowance. Sweet.
All without having to make any hard decisions. Isn’t it so much easier to have someone else make the rules? In a civilization that had just about no social boundaries up to just a few months ago, like a misbehaved 11 year old, yelled at, chastened and punished by grounding, the masses chilled and downright scared, they scurried to the safety and comfort of their abodes.
And then see, when finally permitted to come out of their dens, home-offices, basements, man-caves, home-theatres, living rooms and bedrooms, the overweight and obese everywhere across the once great nation.
Sort of like an indoor individual feed lot for Humans: Lazy Fatfuks by design.
Like trained pigeons in a Skinner box. The human response to stimulus is now very hard science folks.
This is what the Evil Fuckers have programmed for the Lumpen.
Auntie is quite impressed by the global results of the scheme.
“I continue to be baffled by those who cannot bring themselves to admit that Sweden has carried out a relatively sensible policy on Covid-19, whilst the response of so many other countries has been authoritarian and frankly unhinged.”
Maybe they understand rates and graphs?
The rate – the slope of those lines – is what matters. Not the values of the moment.
Sweden is headed to
Infinity, and beyond.
If you wanted an excuse to open things back up, Sweden is an awful choice. Iceland would be better propaganda tool for you guys – we’ll get the Swedish outcome, though, don’t expect an Icelandic result in America.
I think Iceland didn’t lock down internally, either – they may have curtailed foreign travel to Iceland (prudent), but I don’t know. It could be a scalar thing – Iceland has about 5% the population of Sweden. It could be that Iceland lacks Sweden’s massive imported diversity, making disease management possible. Hard to say. I’m sure we’ll see papers on it eventually.
If your graphs are believable nobody will still be alive in Sweden by Jan. 1.
Those aren’t projections. They’re the actual numbers as of Sunday.
It will start to level off as the disease infects most of the populace.
Some more facts. Depends on what narrative you want to believe.
https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Country Cases per Million Pop.
US 3,664
Spain 4,629
Italy 3,518
UK 2,869
Germany 1,998
Belgium 4,362
Switzerland 3,492
Sweden 2,199
Which country didn’t lockdown? The desperate attempt to paint Sweden as being a disaster tells me everything I need to know about narrative nazis who come on the site for the first time ever to bash Sweden’s result.
AC.
Unlike you, I read your comment and you didn’t say a thing about leveling off. You implied through your verbiage and graphs that everyone in sweden would be dead by the tie it ran its course.
You also accused us of using propaganda to make our point and then prove it with U.S. Government propaganda. I think after all the Govt. memo’s telling medical personell to lie about deaths and offering bounties for said death figures that you would give up the crusade on TBP and do talking points for Rachel Madcow. The pay is better.
I don’t trust anything from someone with a .gov in their address.
Notice the charts aren’t scaled to the size of population. Sweden population of 10.1 million versus Denmark at 5.8 million. These charts are meant to mislead and make Sweden seem extreme. Same exact post on yesterday article. Pushing a fake narrative.
Sure. Those charts were specifically for comparing the Nordic countries.
Try pretending those are companies rather than nations, and stock prices rather than cases/deaths.
Which one is growing faster?
Try not diverting the true question. The other countries listed locked down. Sweden did not lock down. They trusted their citizens and businesses to take reasonable precautions. Their results are no worse, and in many cases better than the lockdown countries.
Sweden’s method was not a failure, as you desperately are trying to prove with misleading graphs.
What’s your agenda? Certainly not seeking the truth.
The true question is which country is seeing a higher rate of infection. The rates shown on that chart clearly say Sweden’s results *are* different. You can’t work in finance and not understand rates, so please.
Sorry I pissed all over your ‘Sweden is Awesome party.’
Your charts are bullshit and you know it. Look at the fucking data I provided, along with an actual link to back up the numbers.
Sweden has 2,199 cases per million population. Dozens of locked down countries have higher rates than that. Therefore, Sweden’s method has not proven to be worse than locked down countries. So simple even an idiot can understand.
Do you understand?
Or does your willful ignorance prove something else.
Sorry your finance skills are found wanting. Go back to the drawing board pal.
I sure hope you aren’t in a financial position at the FTC.
“Sweden has 2,199 cases per million population.” At the moment.
Those are merely the numbers of the moment. The rate of infection dictates how fast they got there, and how fast it will grow from there.
The rates – the slope of those lines – are notably different. Sweden shows a much higher rate than the others, and this is directly attributable to their non-strategy of disease management.
Those charts I posted are the actual numbers as of last Sunday. The slope of those lines indicate the rates of growth – and there is no way you don’t understand this.
Find out where they live.
Why does the public put up with this suppression? Because 50-60 years of systematically dumbing down the public via our public education/indoctrination system has worked even better than they hoped.
And the total distortion and obfuscation of history.