What Did You Think the ‘New Normal’ Meant?

2024 is the year of first harvest for the seeds of “the new normal.” What was sown is now reaped. In a previous article, I wrote:

To our horror, many of us discovered that apparently most other citizens around us were anything but normal; they were deranged freaks, willingly donning a muzzle to shop for groceries.

That article was written about Ryan Routh, the second apparent would-be Trump assassin. Apparent, because, well, that just sort of disappeared, didn’t it? Offhand, do you even know if he was sentenced yet? I bet not.

“The surreal feeling of living through a dystopian sci-fi film like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ should have remained, but perhaps many of us shook off the feeling in order to live in mental peace.”

Yeah, it’s easy to forget this stuff, because we live in such a deluge of disinformation that is now faster than you are, Anon. There was another school shooting perpetrated against a Christian school today, December 16, 2024. The disinformation response was so rapid that a screenshot of an alleged manifesto was released, which was then used to make spurious accusations against a certain radical feminist Twitter account, and then that story was all claimed to be a lie, and then that in turn was also claimed to be a lie. I’ve seen two different ages and two different names for the girl. A similar double-manifesto competition played out with the Luigi shooter, and almost everything that was wrongly celebrated by various parties turned out to be completely made up. It would seem that almost nothing people thought they knew about that case was true.

But what does it matter? What we do know is that yet another Christian school was targeted with violence.

“They will not stop multiplying until someone like Donald Trump holds them to account for their misdeeds.”

Christendom is under attack. This attack is not about whether or not the shooter was trans or which Twitter account it BTFOs. People have probably already forgotten about the shooter the day after, because their fun was had on Twitter. Likely, they know more false information about the shooter than they do true information about the victims. It has perverted all of our minds and made a mockery of truth.

“What the coronavirus should have taught us is that a large number of seemingly normal people are deranged lunatics. […] They are everywhere, and they are a threat to you…”

Yes. This year, we have seen Thomas Crooks, Ryan Routh, Luigi Mangione (I guess?), and now Natalie Rupnow engage in high-profile shootings. Why? The answers range from “no idea” to a convoluted mess of lies and a grab-bag of ideology. This time it wasn’t even a trans; it was just a girl.

The advent of teenage girl mass shooters certainly terminates the world of the post-Cold War 1990s. We might like to imagine that we aren’t that far from the ’90s, but the people of today bear little resemblance to the people of that time. Now, everyone is symbiotically (or parasitically) linked to social (or anti-social) media and YouTube, and to so-called “phones” that have as little to do with the device known as a “telephone” as the “Smart TV” has to do with a “television.”

The schizophrenia affects you, too, dear reader. A large chunk of the online activity was spent discerning which political positions this would serve best. Was she trans? Was radical feminism involved? Hyperreality fully embraced the events immediately. Inside the weapon on Twitter, it’s impossible to disambiguate truth from falsehoods and discern whose op you’re part of or being played by.

The basic defense mechanisms to avoid getting played are as follows:

1. Assume that every trend is an operation being run by someone else.
   Nothing is natural. It is all fabricated.

2. Assume that every operation has malicious intent toward you.
   If it’s not being run by you, it’s probably not being run for your benefit.

3. Assume that by the time you’ve identified a potential operation, it’s too late.
   By the time you even notice you’re being operated, your behavior has already been modified.

4. Identify all potential beneficiaries of the operation and the effects upon your person and your groups.
   You can mitigate the damage by knowing what was done to you, and try to avoid being subjected to the same in the future.

5. No one else matters. Only you and your tribe matter.
   Nebulous groups such as “the dissident right” don’t exist and are not relevant to you. The only people you need to protect are your actual friends who cross the digital threshold into physical personhood. For me, this is mostly encompassed by the members of The Old Glory Club.

6. Never tell lies.
   Do not lie, even as a joke. Even if you think it is an obvious troll, do not pollute the world with lies.

These rules are difficult to follow. Many people will read them, believe they are following them, and then proceed to violate every single one. Other people will just think they are insanely paranoid. You’re not the memelord you thought you were. You don’t wield the weapon; you’re just inside it.