Morning, you woke up so you’ve won already.
Remember that the manifesto left by the trans Tennessee shooter apparently couldn’t be released because it might incite violence, it’s still not officially public. But regardless of the potential next president of the USA now surviving two assassination attempts in short succession, it’s completely fine to release and distribute what is effectively a bounty on his head. I don’t think there’s a valid explanation of why this has been released taking the above into account and officials at their word. This is exactly what it looks like, ‘fuck it release it, maybe someone gives it another go. We’ll just clean the mess up afterwards’. I have to say though, I would enjoy seeing some handwriting analysis on this letter.
Or just enforce the law and you don’t have to worry about any of this. But that isn’t what’s happening here. I’ve had a look at a few extracts of this and much of what I saw wasn’t surprising, nor was it surprising that it was put together with the help of community leaders… Every time the police move in this direction instead of the other, it will become more and more dysfunctional, lose more trust from the public and further away from its founding principles. The point of a law is that what matters is whether you’ve broken it or not. Depart from that and everything gets more and more grey until it’s mush and open to interpretation based on ‘muh socioeconomic factors’. As I said yesterday, you want reality or you want lies in the shape of a hug. The results post breaking of the law are not the concern of the police and they are willfully making their job more difficult. The public are rapidly seeing the police not as members of their community who sacrifice to keep them safe, but as gatekeepers of government policy designed to protect client groups. It will not end well.
Weyland Yutani 🚀 - It’s going to be a very interesting future. What you’re seeing here is the technology sector, lead by those building AI making it clear to those invested in their success that they will not see the full potential of investment under present energy constraints. You simply cannot run a grid supporting the public and the huge demands of the infrastructure required to scale AI, data centers etc, on windmills and solar. If government won’t build nuclear, private corporations will and at a scale and efficiency government is no longer capable of. If I’m building something with government money then I’ll ensure it takes as long as I can reasonably get away with and ensure all my friends get paid too - see HS2. If I’m using shareholder money, I’m going to ensure we build quick and lean.
Now flashback to the UK where Ed Miliband is making windmills that have to be subsidised to run with your money and then you’re still charged for the electricity they produce. All of this whilst the government tries to sell the UK as some kind of potential AI tech hub - we can’t keep the lights on or our pensioners warm - By even trying to sell that idea to the pubic they’re either lying to your face, arrogantly assuming you’re too stupid to understand what they’re saying - or and perhaps more likely and certainly scarier, they don’t understand it themselves. The recent letter from Ed Milliband to energy company boss’s asking for ideas about how to hit the 2030 Netzero targets - despite gaslighting the public that there’s a plan in place for this already - all but confirms this. It’s almost as if the UK has been run for years by socialists with a blue rosette and handed over to communists intent on decline in all areas to the point of failure and emergency measures. Can you say Cloward-Piven?
There we go, that didn’t take too long. Provide privacy and anonymity for your users and we’ll arrest you until you don’t. I’m still of the view here that Pavel just lost the will to fight and effectively helped enable the whole thing. When you’re a billionaire who’s been fighting for a long time, eventually - character dependant of course - there’s a good chance you just want to boats and ho’s in peace without constantly looking over your shoulder, I can understand that. However, this isn’t about Telegram or Pavel in the macro, Telegram is just as useful for the intelligence services as it is for any criminal elements. This is about precedent setting and normalisation of arresting and pressuring the leaders of companies who will not tow the regime line, whoever that is. It all feels like a warm up to turn the screw on Elon Musk. This is a real fear of many in tech and not just those focused on secure messaging apps. There’s a conversation happening now about ‘seasteading’, creating permanent communities and infrastructure in international waters out of the jurisdiction of nation states who seek control. This is an extreme option, the alternative being that nation states, perhaps the underdogs who need a edge, read the room and create environments welcoming to those people. Elon visited with Bukele last week…
Top tier tweeting this.
This is absolutely correct and ties perfectly with what I said yesterday about reality. Bits of reality are very nice and bits are horrible, you need access to knowledge of all of it or you limit your potential for understanding. Your conclusions are yours regardless of how inconvenient - or actually wrong - they may be. Freedom to know is the starting point, if you’re not allowed there, then you should wonder why? Of course this is exactly what’s happening at scale today enabled by the internet, something that is rapidly maturing as ground zero of an information war. The war for your mind is something that unless you plan on completely off gridding and disconnecting, you have no choice but to take part in, you’ve already been conscripted - it’s a good idea to accept that and get some appropriate mental and digital weaponry.
You should realise this isn’t about drinking or your health. Closing early, banning smoking, Guardian mong thought pieces about making pints smaller, it’s all targeted at destroying pubs - see covid as the start point. This serves two purposes, demoralisation and removing venues for free expression of thought. Nothing helps to build and strengthen sentiment like voicing your opinion - especially a controversial one - and hearing someone answer that they agree. In a world where the public walk on eggshells daily in case they offend the wrong person, the flowing of alcohol loosens lips and you will hear what they really think. At scale, if you are an unpopular regime with plans to continue policies that will be unpopular, an environment like a pub is a threat.
Don’t worry though, this kind of thing wasn’t completely normal under communist regimes.
If you get some value from the The Scroll, one of the best things you can do ( other than subscribing for £3.50 a month ) is share it to people who you think will also get value from it. I include a ‘share article’ link in every post. Just drop it on your socials, chuck the link in a group chat, it all helps get different perspectives out there. As the ex military among us have drilled into us, every man is a link man - pass the message.
Have a good one.