Why does Greg Cochran support the Ukraine war?

After the coordinated bombings against the Nordstream gas pipelines by unknown actors in late September 2022, the commentator, blogger, and physicist-anthropologist Dr. Greg Cochran began promoting a theory on what happened and what it means. There were three stated or implicit tenets to his theory:

(1.) Ukrainians committed the bombings;

(2.) the Ukrainians who committed the bombings (whoever they were, be they direct state agents or otherwise) were unaided by anyone, by any other force, nation-actor, or organization; technical or logistic outside-help was either zero or minimal; the planning and execution were either entirely or practically entirely by Ukrainians; the operation took the neutral NATO members by surprise; and

(3.) the pipeline-bombing by Ukrainians is morally justified despite being an act of geoeconomic war against Germany and Western-European NATO; that is, the pipeline bombing was an overall positive-good in the context of sacred holy-war against Russia, of the noble-cause of defense of holy Ukraine’s sacrosanct borders forever, and towards the keeping together the coalition-of-the-possible-unwilling, being NATO’s lesser-members, all towards the end-goal of regime-changing the Evil Doers (Putin/Russia).

This set of positions is, for many of us, not very firmly rooted in clear or rigorous thinking. It is reckless. It fraught with risk. It may be into the realm of immorality in foreign policy, some suggesting the US/CIA/NATO goal is the promotion of war for war’s sake. Others were critical of Cochran’s pipeline-bombing theory because it seemed to let the US/CIA and most-likely-suspect Poland off entirely.

The bigger question is, why is Greg Cochran, who made his name in anthropology and genetics, backing one side or the other here? It has many of asking “What’s going on?”

(Greg Cochran, circa 2009.)

Yes, we want to know: Why do good people allow themselves to fall for the siren-song of foreign-policy adventurism? Especially in this case, with the Ukraine-Russia imbroglio.

Why does Steve Sailer support the war in Ukraine?

Steve Sailer has come out as an essentially uncritical supporter of the NATO/US/Ukraine side and of the Zelensky government.

One detects little gap between his and the standard, “mainstream media” position on this matter.

This from the man who coined the subversive slogan “invade the world, invite the world” as a satirical summation of the prevailing U.S. Regime foreign-plus-domestic policy-package, which had support from both sides for years but was generally bad for the nation and its core population, as well as reckless and destabilizing in other parts of the world.

(“Invade, Invite”: coined by Steve Sailer, mid-2000s.)

What do we make of Steve Sailer’s new pro-Ukraine, pro-war, pro-intervention position in 2022?

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On the suppression of “Hail To You” by Big Tech

I have several posts coming. But first a word on: Big Tech suppression.

It is something I have commented on before, in passing, but have never dealt with directly. I now find occasion or inspiration to do so after the latest egregious example: a full-on suppression against the “Ancestry of Ron DeSantis” post, burying it in the digital sands.

This website is under major censorship via de-listing, shadow-banning, and other tactics which prevent most visitors from reaching here.

Google results are the king of website traffic, and simply tactically blocking some results or sending one down from spot-3 to spot-30 can crush traffic. The well-known concept of “shadow-banning” as practiced on Twitter is an example of what Google (and others) have done to Hail To You. The total level of manipulation is comprehensive.

[1600 words]

While new posts occasionally produce small spikes of visits after publication, there is also a certain steady “baseline” traffic, representing people finding previous posts back to 2011 via keyword searches, image searches, or links.

Since 2017, I have seen evidence of targeted Big Tech suppression via abrupt and sustained drops in the baseline visits on either specific posts or the website entirely. I can identify cases of this suppression in 2017, 2020, and 2021, and now in September 2022, the latter being a targeted hit on my DeSantis ancestry post.

I shall tell all these stories here. I don’t know “their” side and can only reconstruct what likely happened based on my access to (anonymized) visitor data by month, week, and day.

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Suppression of the Ron DeSantis article at Hail To You, 2022

The most recent case of Big Tech suppression is with a post titled “The ancestry of Ron DeSantis: son of Florida, grandson of industrial Ohio, great-grandson of Italy” (Hail To You, Sept. 2021) (10,000 words). It was generating much interest, getting excellent traffic, and had even attracted media interest as of mid-2022. Major interest continued week after week, month after month — until late August 2022. As of September 2022, the “Ancestry of Ron DeSantis” post is now getting little attention, and little new traffic.

Here is what happened:

The Covid-activist Daniel Uhlfelder loses to the BLM-Soros candidate Aramis Ayala: an appraisal of the Florida attorney general election race of 2022

Having followed the Democratic primary elections in Florida over the past month and more on these pages, it is worthwhile to make a short post to note the results. Daniel Uhlfelder, the Covid-activist of worldwide fame in 2020, lost.

This, I expect, will close out discussion (for now) on the politically interesting figure of Daniel Uhlfelder and his significance.

[3000 words]

I have two previous long-form investigate essays on Daniel Uhlfelder, of sufficient length and detail that together (and including running commentary in the discussion-threads attached to them) they practically amount to the core of a short political-biography of one man and his place in the Corona-Panic:

• “On Daniel Uhlfelder, Corona-activist and Panic-pusher; an exploration into ‘why’ some embraced the Panic” [Oct. 2021].
  
• “Daniel Uhlfelder, the Covid-demagogue and Panic-pusher, runs for Florida attorney general 2022: his campaign and rivals” [July 2022].

For those looking for a more comprehensive study than what I can offer here, consult those first. This will be a retrospective recap, partly drawn and adapted from running commentary in the discussion threads on those posts.

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The Uhlfelder phenomenon, as it happened, 2019 to 2022

“To recap,” Daniel Uhlfelder was one of the big winners of the Corona-Panic of 2020. He is of interest for that reason, although there are also other reasons to be interested in him as a case-study in how U.S. politics works…

On elite “Neutralism” during the Corona-Panic and the nature of Power: the case of Noah Rothman

Politics, it is said, is coalition building. Politics can also involve the equal and opposite to coalition building: identifying and undermining your opponent, or the opposing coalition.

If there are “pro” and “anti” coalitions on some issue, the “pro” side can work to build and fortify its strength while also undermining “anti” strength. It may not be able to convert “antis,” but it can effectively keep them contained by making sure many potential “antis” in a safe, “neutral” column. This happens all the time. It is even a fundamental political mechanism behind the way all our capitalist-liberal democracies work.

A recent “Covid” retrospective by Noah Rothman of Commentary magazine comes to my attention and gets me thinking about this and on how the Corona-Panic worked. The article is: “The Covid Reckoning is Coming,” August 12, 2022, Commentary. (Thanks to Peak Stupidity for this.)

(Noah Rothman, July 2022, on the Meghan Kelly Show.)

That article inspired me to look into Rothman’s work. The end-product is what you are now reading, amounting to a short political biography of the man (Noah Rothman), an exploration of the role he occupies in U.S. politics and within the agenda-setting U.S. media-elite, with a focus on his shifting positions during and through and after the Corona-Panic of early 2020 to present [mid-2022]), in which he mostly stayed neutral.

[7000 words]

The question of interest: what motivated the young media-elite neoconservative Noah Rothman towards staying with “Corona-Neutralism“?

Daniel Uhlfelder, the Covid-demagogue and Panic-pusher, runs for Florida attorney general 2022: his campaign and rivals

Daniel Uhlfelder was a highly active and visible member of the Covid “Pro-Panic” coalition in 2020 and 2021, the quintessential “Panic-pusher.” (See: “On Daniel Uhlfelder, Corona-activist and Panic-pusher; an exploration into ‘why’ some embraced the Panic.”)

Now the prolific Covid-activist Uhlfelder is building upon the notoriety he gained from his role as Pro-Panic partisan during the 2020-2021 Corona-Panic. He has transitioned to a full political career. He is running for Florida attorney general in 2022.

People ask how the Panic happened and how it sustained itself. It developed a coalition of supporters and a layer of champions. Daniel Uhlfelder was one. He had been an anti-Trump and anti-DeSantis gadfly in Florida before the Corona-Panic, and he is the son of one of Florida’s most influential lobbyists. But his real emergence on the scene was with the Corona-Panic in 2020.

Given that Daniel Uhlfelder was a majorly successful “moral entrepreneur” during the Panic, in 2021 I found it of value to profile Daniel Uhlfelder, his family, life, and the influences thinking, in hopes of findings clues to why he embraced the Panic–and thereby why others (may have) embraced the Panic.

This post is a look at the Uhlfelder campaign for Florida attorney general, both his own and the campaigns of his opponents. The intent is to find insights into U.S. politics and to keep an eye on the kind of person who attached himself to the Panic. The bigger question of why the Corona-Panic happened looms over the whole…

Germany’s Wrongest Man (Lauterbach) visits Washington, warns of imminent Covid catastrophe

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The German news today informs us that the excitable and extreme CoronaPanic-loyalist Karl Lauterbach has made an appearance in Washington July 21, 2022. The White House hosted him. The visit looks to have been an international Covid strategy session by Panic-loyalists.

After leaving the White House, Lauterbach spoke to the German press in Washington and there regaled his captive audience with alarmist predictions about a coming “catastrophe.” (ZDF, “Lauterbach warns of ‘catastrophic’ autumn,” July 22, 2022). Lauterbach’s song-and-dance before the German press corps of Washington hints at the contents of the closed-door White House meeting.

Although this man is sometimes called Germany’s Doctor Fauci in U.S. media, I prefer to call Herr Professor Lautcherbach by this name: “Germany’s Wrongest Man.”

The mad-doctor seems to do this a lot, hector those willing to listen that a Covid Catastrophe is coming, very soon (believe him), if new measures are not put in place. If a “catastrophe” doesn’t come, it’s because of the heroic efforts and faith of himself and loyal Panic-supporters.

“Without new protective measures, we are threatened with a catastrophe this autumn,” [Lauterbach said.] “If we head into autumn like we’re doing, without further protective measures, that is to say without masks, without anything, that would mean that the case numbers would rise sharply and the ICUs would overflow.”

He has long been known to be an alarmist and extreme Panic-pusher with a special immunity to facts.

The visit by Germany’s Wrongest Man was not much covered by the U.S. media, as far as I’ve seen (they give so much space “January 6th hearings,” there is little time for anything else). But via the German media, we get this little snapshot of the beleaguered Corona-loyalist Pro-Panic forces regrouping.

We already see signs they want to take the offensive again. It may be hard to really get momentum again, as there are now highly committed Anti-Panic forces who will not easily surrender or allow themselves to get outmaneuevered (as they did in spring 2020). And there are important (Panic-loyal) forces still with the Biden people.

The Corona-Panic, as a social force, is a mere shadow of its former self of six months ago. Alas, aall is not quite lost to the Panickers.

Here we see mad-doctor Lauterbach with his White House by his counterpart, the Biden Covid policy Czar Ashish Jha:

(Pictures of Dr. Lauterbach’s Washington visit for a July 2022 Corona-Panic summit, Twitter.)

A “wild” Corona-Reckoning may be coming in 2022-2024, Matthew Peterson of the Claremont Institute predicts

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Will the guilty ever have to answer for the damage they did by pushing the Corona-Panic and disastrous policy responses, including the “Big V” [i.e., Covid-Vaccine]?

This week Matthew J. Peterson weighed in with dark visions of a future of CoronaPanic-politics worth some attention and consideration. Peterson is a U.S. right-wing intellectual, writer, editor, and publisher of some influence.

(Matthew Peterson speaking at a neoconservative conference, 2021.)

He hints at a coming backlash, reckoning, or other unsavory follow-on effects amounting to a kind of political insurgency to come at some time in the next two years, against the accumulated and ongoing damage from the Corona-Panic.

Peterson has, I believe, in the same commentary also signaled, indirectly, that he will support Ron DeSantis in 2024 over Trump. Read his own words (in full, below) to see if you agree with that interpretation.

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I quote Matthew Peterson, who posted the following on June 18, 2022 (lightly edited for formatting):

“Virus response is Trump’s biggest weakness and DeSantis’s greatest strength.

If Trump wants to run [in 2024,] he should make clear he wasn’t for mandates, etc., because what all the cool kids know is that when the terrible truth about the vax starts spilling over the dam, the Left will blame Trump. DeSantis knows this. And is best positioned to win as the single greatest reasoned opponent of Fauci in America.

I also think it’s unclear what kind of psychic break this development will cause in the next two years for many who have enthusiastically gone along over the last two years. It’s so difficult that it may be everyone just ignores the data and lives in denial. But if it does out—and the current numbers are bloody bad—the political and cultural consequences will be wild and unpredictable. I’m talking extremely wild, extremely unpredictable in ways I can’t state publicly without attracting federal attention.

I support both Trump and DeSantis. It was a complicated situation for everyone. But Trump will need to get ahead of this issue and address it in the next few months if he wants to position himself in the primary.” [End]

Now, understand that this statement is not a case of one private person spouting off an opinion. Matthew Peterson is the editor of The American Mind, one of the publications associated with the Claremont Institute, and holds a high position within Claremont itself (as “vice president of education”). Claremont is a right-wing think tank, and an important nexus of one kind of intellectual and respectable, more-or-less “in-system” right-wing activity and thought since the 1980s…

Former Corona-Panicker economist-blogger Tyler Cowen calls for “Covid laissez-faire” policy

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The influential economist, professor, prolific blogger, and commentator Tyler Cowen now says this:

“[U]nder current circumstances I favor complete ‘Covid laissez-faire’…” (“The new Covid equilibrium,” Marginal Revolution blog, May 18, 2022).

This is of interest in part because Tyler Cowen was long a mainstay of intellectual Corona-Panickers, those in favor of the Panic itself, those favoring and pushing Panic-driven policies like lockdowns and all the rest.

Many of us have long respected Tyler Cowen as either thinker or commentator or general-purpose intellectual, even if he gets some big things wrong (and “Covid” is not his first consistent wrong-call). The man is of interest because he qualifies, if anyone does, as a legitimate “public intellectual” in the United States today. He has a degree of global reach, and he has some degree of agenda-setting power. His direct and indirect influence is considerable. We should pay attention to what he says, for that reason, but in 2020-21 I suspected his respected-public-intellectual position broke down with his failure to recognize the dark and anti-civilizational forces of the Corona-Panic in 2020.

Professor Cowen became one of the many who failed us, so terribly failed us, in that annus horribilis of lockdowns, restrictions and disruptions of all kinds, a bizarre state-backed cult centered around a flu virus, and attendant retreat of the business of civilization. Now, the good professor has begun consistently signaling that he opposes the Corona-Panic, or at least key parts of it. He does NOT, though, claim he was “against it all along.” He lacks the kind of demagogic instinct to claim that….

Book review: “Covid-19: The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic” (2021): insights into the Corona-Panic in Canada and an intellectual framework for the Panic

(Part of an intended ongoing series of reviews-and-responses to books on the Corona-Panic of the early 2020s.)

I liked this book, though it may not suit all audiences. COVID-19: The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic packs rather a lot of value in its 134 pages.

In this “review-and-response” essay I’ll try to touch on all the points of interest. There are many good ones. The added relevance to this is what a surprise major role Canada had in the early-2022 defeat of the Panic. The book was written long before the “Freedom Convoy” movement. The Canadian perspective is useful in that sense at the least, and worth your attention.

The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic was published in late 2020 or early 2021 by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Canada and got some reach in Anti-CoronaPanic circles but because it wasn’t one of the Anti-Panic ‘celebrities’ its reach was rather less. That and the academic tone. I hope this effort, appearing here in spring 2022, helps let this mid-CoronaPanic work not be forgotten or lost.

(10,000 words)

The first thing to know about The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic is that it’s really two shorter books in one.

Part I: One part deals with the Corona-Panic in Canada, and the politics of the Panic in Canada, Canada’s “regime” reaction, profiling and dealing with some of the main actors on the Canadian stage and what they did with the Panic forces, and more Canada-related material. It covers up to September/October 2020. The manuscript’s finalization and its publication process began in about late September 2020. The actual thinking here reflects mid-2020, which is of course early in the long Corona-Panic cycle of despair (early 2020 to early 2022).

Part II: an intellectual or theoretical approach into how the Panic happened, focused on the concept of moral panic and philosophical traditions that led to this outbreak of mega-scale, catastrophic moral panic. This is the big question and we should not be arrogant enough to think we have the answer. We ought to still today treat it like the big mystery, of great importance. Things like the witchcraft-panic-like Corona/Covid episode are not supposed to happen in rationally led societies. The thing we want to know, or should want to know, or need to know, to prevent future “Corona-Panic-like events,” and as usual it starts at the Big Idea-level.

By now, we do have lots of good ideas on what the Corona-Panic was, on how it happened, and on why it happened, what made it continue so long (and so destructively), what made it so curiously averse to counter-attack in a way I believe those too young to remember it or yet unborn possibly won’t quite believe, and many who did live through it might conveniently forget. Useful additions indeed are new ideas, or connections, or syntheses of existing or older ideas. The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic accomplishes that. It’s not the “final word,” but it does give us useful new perspectives. The usefulness is how much of their writing is rooted in philosophy.

I would praise Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic in that it leaves the reader more satisfied in the search for answers (why the Panic happened) than other books of this kind. Certainly there is more of value in Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic than in comparable material published from the Pro-Panic side. The Pro-Panic material, to the extent there are serious intellectual approaches and not just prolefeed-propaganda that kept the Panic going, Pro-Panic material published during the Panic seems of limited value to our ongoing studies, or is of the losing-the-forest-for-the-trees variety. But this also applies to most books that position themselves as Anti-Panic, including the Alex Berenson Pandemia book. (The Berenson book shined bright but turned out, for me, to be “fool’s gold.”)

The two authors, Canadian academics, take the Anti-Panic position. They are not ashamed to characterize the whole thing as something like a delusion, a bizarre overreaction. Even title-skimmers who read not even one word of one page of the main contents will pick this up: “Corona”/”Covid” as social phenomenon, as a “moral panic.” This “moral panic” talk is the kind sometimes tossed out, off-hand, by people, and by many on the Anti-Panic side during the Corona-controversy, but an idea all too rarely given a full and serious treatment, which we do get here.

In search of a “Ukraine-War-Panic”–“Corona-Panic” Venn diagram

An easy observation, it was, in late February and March 2022, to (ironically) say “the Ukraine-Russia war miraculously ended Covid!”

On further consideration, it may not be so simple.

I am interested in prying into this and finding a Venn diagram between the Corona-Panic we have known for two years and the new Ukraine-War-Panic, the similarities and differences of the two phenomena and how they happened, how they are enforced, and who stands behind them, who pushes them, who joined. In what way are the two phenomena related? Is there a common cause of both?

A brief investigation.

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First, in the grand old tradition of a picture being “worth a thousand words” (near the length of this essay), let me offer this:

The masks! Everyone!

This is an anti-war and/or pro-Ukraine and/or anti-Russia protest in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate in the rear. Everyone has masks on, outdoors, conspicuous, perhaps proud of it given that none have even slipped below the nose. (I don’t know the exact date of this photo; it was either on the first day of the war or just before the war by a few days.) Other footage of protests shows the same, lots of masking. Immediately it suggests the two phenomena may exist in symbiosis…Or what?

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The Ukraine-Russia war began on February 24 when Russia invaded.

By early March 2022, the observation that “Covid” had been miraculously (apparently) cured, or some variant to that effect, had become almost trite, if certainly correct.

To be more specific about it, we suddenly saw a “Ukraine-War-Panic” displace the remnants of the “Corona-Panic,” at least temporarily. On the other hand, this Ukraine-Panic displaced an already declining Corona-Panic, which is the first twist in the story.