The Covidian Cult (Part II)

Back in October of 2020, I wrote an essay called The Covidian Cult, in which I described the so-called “New Normal” as a global totalitarian ideological movement. Developments over the last six months have borne out the accuracy of that analogy.

A full year after the initial roll-out of the utterly horrifying and completely fictional photos of people dropping dead in the streets, the projected 3.4% death rate, and all the rest of the official propaganda, despite the absence of any actual scientific evidence of an apocalyptic plague (and the abundance of evidence to the contrary), millions of people continue to behave like members of an enormous death cult, walking around in public with medical-looking masks, robotically repeating vacuous platitudes, torturing children, the elderly, the disabled, demanding that everyone submit to being injected with dangerous experimental “vaccines,” and just generally acting delusional and psychotic.

How did we ever get to this point … to the point where, as I put it in The Covidian Cult, “instead of the cult existing as an island within the dominant culture, the cult has become the dominant culture, and those of us who have not joined the cult have become the isolated islands within it?”

To understand this, one needs to understand how cults control the minds of their members, because totalitarian ideological movements operate more or less the same way, just on a much larger, societal scale. There is a wealth of research and knowledge on this subject (I mentioned Robert J. Lifton in my earlier essay), but, to keep things simple, I’ll just use Margaret Singer’s “Six Conditions of Mind Control” from her 1995 book, Cults in Our Midst, as a lens to view the Covidian Cult through. (The italics are Singer. The commentary is mine.)

Six Conditions of Mind Control

1. Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at a time. Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group.

Looking back, it is easy to see how people were conditioned, step by step, to accept the “New Normal” ideology. They were bombarded with terrifying propaganda, locked down, stripped of their civil rights, forced to wear medical-looking masks in public, to act out absurd “social-distancing” rituals, submit to constant “testing,” and all the rest of it. Anyone not complying with this behavioral-change program or challenging the veracity and rationality of the new ideology was demonized as a “conspiracy theorist,” a “Covid denier,” an “anti-vaxxer,” in essence, an enemy of the cult, like a “suppresive person” in the Church of Scientology.

2. Control the person’s social and/or physical environment; especially control the person’s time.

For over a year now, the “New Normal” authorities have controlled the social/physical environment, and how New Normals spend their time, with lockdowns, social-distancing rituals, closure of “non-essential” businesses, omnipresent propaganda, isolation of the elderly, travel restrictions, mandatory mask-rules, protest bans, and now the segregation of the “Unvaccinated.” Basically, society has been transformed into something resembling an infectious disease ward, or an enormous hospital from which there is no escape. You’ve seen the photos of the happy New Normals dining out at restaurants, relaxing at the beach, jogging, attending school, and so on, going about their “normal” lives with their medical-looking masks and prophylactic face shields. What you’re looking at is the pathologization of society, the pathologization of everyday life, the physical (social) manifestation of a morbid obsession with disease and death.

3. Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.

What kind of person could feel more powerless than an obedient New Normal sitting at home, obsessively logging the “Covid death” count, sharing photos of his medical-looking mask and post-“vaccination” bandage on Facebook, as he waits for permission from the authorities to go outdoors, visit his family, kiss his lover, or shake hands with a colleague? The fact that in the Covidian Cult the traditional charismatic cult leader has been replaced by a menagerie of medical experts and government officials does not change the utter dependency and abject powerlessness of its members, who have been reduced to a state approaching infancy. This abject powerlessness is not experienced as a negative; on the contrary, it is proudly celebrated. Thus the mantra-like repetition of the “New Normal” platitude “Trust the Science!” by people who, if you try to show them the science, melt down completely and start jabbering aggressive nonsense at you to shut you up.

4. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person’s former social identity.

The point here is the transformation of the formerly basically rational person into an entirely different cult-approved person, in our case, an obedient “New Normal” person. Singer gets into this in greater detail, but her discussion applies mostly to subcultural cults, not to large-scale totalitarian movements. For our purposes, we can fold this into Condition 5.

5. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group’s ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors. Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group’s beliefs, and compliance are rewarded, while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection. If one expresses a question, they are made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.

OK, I’m going to tell you a little story. It’s a story about a personal experience, which I’m pretty sure you’ve also experienced. It’s a story about a certain New Normal who has been harassing me for several months. I’ll call him Brian Parks, because, well, that’s his name, and I no longer feel any compunction about sharing it.

Brian is a former friend/colleague from the theater world who has gone full “New Normal” and is absolutely furious that I have not. So outraged is Brian that I have not joined the cult that he has been going around on the Internet referring to me as a “conspiracy theorist” and suggesting that I’ve had some kind of nervous breakdown and require immediate psychiatric treatment because I do not believe the official “New Normal” narrative. Now, this would not be a very big deal, except that Brian is impugning my character and attempting to damage my reputation on the Facebook pages of other theater colleagues, which Brian feels entitled to do, given that I am a “Covid denier,” a “conspiracy theorist,” and an “anti-vaxxer,” or whatever, and given the fact that he has the power of the state, the media, etc., on his side.

This is how it works in cults, and in larger totalitarian societies. It isn’t usually the Gestapo that comes for you. It’s usually your friends and colleagues. What Brian is doing is working that system of rewards and punishments to enforce his ideology, because he knows that most of my other colleagues in the theater world have also gone full “New Normal,” or at least are looking the other way and staying silent while it is being implemented.

This tactic, obviously, has backfired on Brian, primarily because I do not give a fuck what any New Normals think of me, whether they work in the theater world or anywhere else, but I am in a rather privileged position, because I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish in the theater, and would rather stick my hand in a blender than submit my novels to corporate publishers for review by “sensitivity readers,” so there isn’t much to threaten me with. That, and I have no children to support, or administrations to answer to (unlike, for example, Mark Crispin Miller, who is currently being persecuted by the “New Normal” administration at NYU).

The point is, this kind of ideological conditioning is happening everywhere, every day, on the job, among friends, even among families. The pressure to conform is intense, because nothing is more threatening to devoted cultists, or members of totalitarian ideological movements, than those who challenge their fundamental beliefs, confront them with facts, or otherwise demonstrate that their “reality” isn’t reality at all, but, rather, a delusional, paranoid fiction.

The key difference between how this works in cults and totalitarian ideological movements is that, usually, a cult is a subcultural group, and thus non-cult-members have the power of the ideology of the dominant society to draw on when resisting the mind-control tactics of the cult, and attempting to deprogram its members … whereas, in our case, this balance of power is inverted. Totalitarian ideological movements have the power of governments, the media, the police, the culture industry, academia, and the compliant masses on their side. And, thus, they do not need to persuade anyone. They have the power to dictate “reality.” Only cults operating in total isolation, like Jim Jones’ People’s Temple in Guyana, enjoy this level of control over their members.

This pressure to conform, this ideological conditioning, must be fiercely resisted, regardless of the consequences, both publicly and in our private lives, or the “New Normal” will certainly become our “reality.” Despite the fact that we “Covid deniers” are currently outnumbered by the Covidian cultists, we need to behave as if we are not, and hold to reality, facts, and real science, and treat the New Normals as exactly what they are, members of a new totalitarian movement, delusional cultists run amok. If we do not, we will get to Singer’s Condition 6 …

6. Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order. The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing.

We’re not there yet, but that is where we’re headed … global pathologized totalitarianism. So, please, speak up. Call things what they are. Confront the Brians in your life. Despite the fact that they tell themselves that they’re trying to help you “come to your senses” or “see the truth,” or “trust the Science,” they are not. They are cultists, desperately trying to get you to conform to their paranoid beliefs, pressuring you, manipulating you, bullying you, threatening you. Do not engage them on their terms, or let them goad you into accepting their premises. (Once they’ve sucked you into their narrative, they’ve won.) Expose them, confront them with their tactics and their motives. You will probably not change their minds in the least, but your example might help other New Normals whose faith is slipping to begin to recognize what has been done to their minds and break with the cult.

#

CJ Hopkins
April 21, 2021
Photo: Cheri Scudder-Thomas/Twitter

DISCLAIMER: DISCLAIMER: The preceding essay is entirely the work of our in-house satirist and self-appointed political pundit, CJ Hopkins, and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Consent Factory, Inc., its staff, or any of its agents, subsidiaries, or assigns. If, for whatever inexplicable reason, you appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to support it, please go to his Substack page, or his Patreon page, or send your contribution to his PayPal account, so that maybe he’ll stop coming around our offices trying to hit our staff up for money. Alternatively, you could purchase his satirical dystopian sci-fi novel, Zone 23, or Volume I and II of his Consent Factory Essays, or any of his subversive stage plays, which won some awards in Great Britain and Australia. If you do not appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to write him an abusive email, feel free to contact him directly.

108 thoughts on “The Covidian Cult (Part II)”

  2. Here are some recommended resources that can help:

    Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan:
    https://freedomofmind.com/combating-cult-mind-control/
    “This book can help you protect or regain your sanity, freedom, and health. It can also help you protect others from the use of mind-control techniques.”

    Theramin Trees:
    https://www.youtube.com/user/TheraminTrees
    “This is an adult-oriented channel that explores issues around abuse, manipulation, dogma and systems of undue influence.”

    Like

  3. “This tactic, obviously, has backfired on Brian, primarily because I do not give a fuck what any New Normals think of me, whether they work in the theater world or anywhere else…”

    BRAVO!!!!

    Also Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

    Rather like Washington trying to make Russia and China outcasts, and finding that such tactics usually backfire…

    https://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/styles/1200xauto/public/main/2018-Jun-20/32349343_628674690814556_8856750359998103552_n.jpg?itok=OTCFoWGL

    Like

  5. Lost count of the number of times some hysterical mask-wearing goon has yelled at me while I’m out on a run or a bike ride, breathing the free air unimpeded. Just a year ago, these people were part of the Resistance™️, and have since made the seamless transition to narrative-enforcing New Normal goons.

    “What Brian is doing is working that system of rewards and punishments to enforce his ideology, because he knows that most of my other colleagues in the theater world have also gone full ‘New Normal,’ or at least are looking the other way and staying silent while it is being implemented.”

    That line got to me, C.J. The worst thing about cultists is, like a poor friend drowning in a bad relationship, they lack the necessary distance to gain some perspective and release themselves from the shackles. In the end, most people crawl their way out of those relationships and, with time, heal. I fear there is no escape from the New Normal.

    Like

  7. “Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. My name is Mr. Bill. Oh, these are my billionaire buddies beside me. Y’all all have your masks on? Ok, make sure you keep them on so you don’t breathe in too much fresh air. Keep breathing back in your old stale air and fluids. Don’t worry about looking like dehumanized, inhumane masked slaves. Because it’s for your own good. ….
    …….I almost forgot— make sure you stay away from other humans too. That warm, comforting human interaction is bad for you. Understand, Folks? Better yet, stay closed up in your houses with no foreseeable end. Oh, and wear your mask in your house too. And for heaven’s sake, Folks, don’t let your kids play with other kids. It’s for their and your own good. Because I (and my buddies) really care about you all. We really do! Yes we do……
    …..Oh yes, and for that (unproven) virus,  why don’t you all go and get tested with the (unproven) PCR test for the (never-proven) virus? Even if you all are perfectly healthy and don’t know anyone anywhere who has ever been remotely sick or died. That’s not important, Folks. Just do it. It’s for your own good and everyone else’s. We just care about you. We really do. And to further show you all how much we care, we’re going to force all of you to get this genetic engineering injection— oh, I’m sorry— I mean “vaccination”. We don’t want any of you to enjoy a normal life, traveling, gathering and having fun with other people, without the injection, uhhh…vaccine. Because we care about you all. We really do….. Thank you for your time and Keep those masks on, Folks!”…:-)

    Like

  9. Bravo.

    That said, here in Germany they just amended the Impfschutzgesetz (as I am sure you are aware) to give them even more power to physically force one to do just about whatever they want under the guise of health security. They also effectively ended over 70 years of Germany being a Federal Republic. We are now living in what is more or less a tyranny.

    Perhaps something to cover in the next article. You should check out the interviews Micheal Yeadon is doing (ex-Pfizer VP and scientist). He rightly points out (IMO) that Covid is the WEF’s means of putting us into medical tyranny, or rather a Chinese style social credit score system that will determine whether or not we may participate in New Normal life.

    Resist these tyrants.

    Like

  35. That sucks Mr Hopkins, my best wishes. I hope you have procured the necessary stopping power specifically at the entry point of your domicile to ensure that ANY scenario is on the table except one.

    He goes, you go, you both go, everybody goes are all perfectly acceptable over that killer feeling any shred of dignity or comradeship

    Thank you as always for your sacrifice

    Like

  37. Right on, CJ!

    FWIW, I’ve found positive response is a workable way of dealing with mask nazis: “It would be so nice to see your face and actually be able to understand what you’re saying, you know? It sounds like you’re gagged. Me? I refuse to be ruled by fear.” Especially when everybody around me is wallowing in it (silently).

    The best times are when you see a person who’s also flouting useless mask protocol: “It’s SO NICE to see your face, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.” Big smile, every time.

    Respond, don’t react.

    Like

  40. I wonder why none of the “New Normal” types have yet taken notice of the fact that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the tens of thousands of movies and TV series they can watch still show people in their “Old Normal” lives where masks didn’t exist and no one talks about diseases or vaccinations. Even the new stuff just produced in the last 12 months still pretends that everything is normal, everywhere.

    Like

  42. ‘demanding that everyone submit to being injected with dangerous experimental “vaccines,”’

    The moment that there is a pandemic, the world has become more dangerous. That’s a fact, and you can’t do anything about it. The vaccines contain the same dangerous stuff that the virus has, only in a precise, dosed quantity that amounts to less than you would get if you had a case of covid that required getting hospitalized. So if cases of covid that don’t require being hospitalized are nothing to be afraid of, then vaccines are nothing to be afraid of, by definition.

    Like

    2. Dear „energywatchers“,
      Good example of a cultian argument.
      Your fallacy: „vaccines contain the same dangerous stuff the virus does“. This is just … 100% wrong.
      Any conclusion you build on that is a waste of anybodies time, including yours.
      Please start reading about what you write first and not just spamming comment sections with your cultish beliefs.
      And I would recommend reading not only the corporate media, if you care about things like conflict of interest.
      Have a good day.

      Like

  43. Thanks for part II, C.J.! One thing I’ve noticed recently that makes me shiver is that many people around me who used to be, say, »a bit« critical about things are now more and more going to use their (usually high) intelligence to rationalise this craziness. That is to say, they don’t use their intelligence to hear other voices (like Prof. Ioannidis and Dr Wodarg) and make up their minds accordingly, but to »seek«, find and make up »proof« that »this virus is really extremely dangerous«, »proving« their fear and all measures against it right. And also, for example, that Klaus Schwab is a visionary… Well, of course he is … for his and his cronies’ totalitarian, transhumanistic worldview.

    Of course it is very, very, easy to find statements »confirming« the covidian cult’s view on things, including a lot of pseudo-scientific stuff (»Science says…«). It’s just about everywhere. And it means ignoring everything contradicting the general narrative…

    Like

  44. I heard someone say that wearing a mask prevents the aerosol spray of a COVID-19 infected person from infecting someone else in close proximity so does that also apply to other aerosols like farts? If I can smell it have I now been infected?

    Like

  48. The official narrative surrounding COVID insidiously organizes a societal cult termed the “new normal,” triggering germaphobia hence securing a compliant population willing to accept a biosecurity state. This “medicinal movement” eradicates more than just an imaginary virus–it decimated a worldwide populist movement, transferred trillions to the uber-wealthy further obliterating an anemic Western middle-class, and most importantly heightened the powers of the AI surveillance state paving the way for a thriving tolitarian technocracy.

    Like

  50. How do you all see this playing out in the US? At first it seemed that the US would be playing along but more and more it seems people here just don’t care about the virus anymore. The once palpable fear is nowhere to be found and people are breaking from new normal protocol in increasing numbers.

    Like

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