Truth, Beauty, Lies and Ugliness – Should Awake Equal Antisemitism?

Just what exactly does "awake" stand for anyway?

The so called “awake community” is a loose term for those who do not subscribe to mainstream media narratives and believe, instead, that something big is going down in the world. In my sphere at least, such people are often unvaxxed, although by no means exclusively so.

I’ve never been comfortable with the word “awake” myself, for the name suggests that alternate views may readily be disregarded as belonging to those who are simply “asleep”. It implicitly carries with it the idea that an awake person is in possession of The Truth with a capital “T”, which I am certainly not.

However, I do believe that the media has been lying to us and I know where awake people and “truthers” are coming from. Furthermore, I suspect that given the events of recent years, there is indeed a global agenda. It may also be taken as read that I do not think “vaxxines” are a good idea, although these topics are not going to be the primary focus of what follows. I do not actually enjoy contemplating on them in any case.

Sometimes it is important to contemplate nevertheless and, with this piece, I intend to bring out into the open something else I do not enjoy. I’ve agonised over this one, writing many drafts before almost concluding that I should not publish at all. In the end, I chose to publish, but as a perspective on moral convictions let’s say, rather than any kind of exposé. As a result, the reader should not assume where I’m ultimately going with this train — it will not arrive at any station of easy answers.

For years, I’ve wrestled with a particular question and its opposite: Should I step back and leave the world to its own devices — let things go to hell — whilst keeping my head down and protecting my sanity? Or should I engage the world — speak the truth even if my voice shakes — knowing that I may not only be shunned and targeted, but may actually get things badly wrong in some final analysis?

The answer to both questions, I suspect, is yes.

There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true. — Niels Bohr

In any case, I generally no longer use social media. One exception for the moment is Telegram, but it's easy to be overloaded with channels, so I try to avoid the ones which merely circulate air-currents in the echo chamber and focus on those concerned with social events in the real world.

Last week, one I shall refer only to as “The Redacted Group” — a social group for “awake” people in my area — caught my eye. I began to see things I wasn't entirely comfortable with a few weeks earlier but, to be honest, it was only when the words “Jew whore” appeared in its feed that my attention was caught sufficiently to take a closer look.

I had thought that the purpose of this group was to arrange social events. As I looked now however, I could see that things had become decidedly toxic.

What's happened here? I wondered, as I knew many of the people in this group. Most here, I thought, would not consciously subscribe to any of this and let me state clearly: I still think that to be the case.

Nevertheless, I was reminded that a Jewish friend of mine had told me that she had attended a couple of the pub meet-ups but had not felt comfortable and didn’t want to go back. On reflection, I have to admit that the reason she had given me at the time was “homophobia”. I hadn’t related to her reason because I could understand that people may be discussing things they are struggling to make sense of, such as drag queens in nursery schools, just as I am.

But this was different, and I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t see what was painted all over the group’s Telegram channel right now, and had been for quite some time. I have to say, also, that I regarded it in a straight-forward manner as antisemitism. My friend, having remained a member of the online group, had seen it also and agreed.

Without thinking much further, I posted a short rebuff (above as “Andy”) in which I referred to my friend's experience, and added that if the commentator had a point to make, he or she should make it, rather than posting what I instinctively called “dumb-ass racist shit”. I recall feeling confident that my post was entirely appropriate and assumed that most of the group’s silent members would be of the same mind.

As the immediate responses to my comment came in, I wasn't particularly surprised except to say that I was a little taken aback by the “Jew Detected” radar meme (shown above right). Surely, I reasoned, the group owner must have simply let things slide and wasn't aware of what was on there.

On reflection, I realised that I had long cancelled my subscription to The Surely School of Reasoning and found myself initially bemused by the reactions of people I had thought worthy of respect. For example, I left the channel immediately when it became clear to me that group owner was perfectly aware and accepting of its content.

I was saddened to discover later that it was lost on some people at least, that I was trying to protect the group from a few bad actors, or at least that is what I thought. I found this experience to be worse than anything else in its own unique minor kind of way.

After I had left, I was informed that the group owner had posted a message asking people to “play nicely” in the future — a reference only to the abuse I had received — followed by a kiss. Those members shown above continued as they were, with one posting a photograph of a hand-drawn swastika.

I do indeed see a problem with referring to people with broad dehumanising language in this way, whether they be: Jewish, Christian, gay, straight, white, black, vaxxed or unvaxxed. The unvaxxed, for example, did not like it when politicians, celebrities and the mainstream media whipped up a storm of hate against us.

Those who haven't had jabs but could have jabs need to have a badge saying 'unjabbed'. — Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (Journalist)

I haven't forgotten those the dark days, less than two years ago now, when sane people stood in their gardens at night to bang on saucepans and clap at the sky. This was when the loudspeakers on the trams mocked their hapless, masked and terrified passengers with the crazy-making contradiction: “Let's come together by staying apart.”

Boris Johnson had declared that “anti-vaxxers” were “nut jobs”, and for a time I had been contemplating on the possibility that I would be dragged out of my home and injected with the experimental genetic slurry.

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In an attempt to escape the madness, I had turned for sanctuary to the discussion boards of purely technical websites, for surely they would be places far removed from such events. I can't find the quote now (perhaps it was actually removed?), so I won't name the site, but I distinctly recall seeing one post on a Linux forum (Linux for God’s sake!) calling for the death of those who were unvaxxed.

I recall it because it had deeply upset me when I was at my lowest point, and had given me cause to be afraid, for I understood that this is what happens when it becomes legitimate to target people for harm and aggression. By way of justification, for example, the post’s author had stated with absolute certainty: “the unvaccinated want to die anyway.”

His comment, of course, was untrue and people like me have stubbornly refused to die — perhaps to the chagrin of those who were eager to dance on our graves.

Returning to the online posts in the Telegram group, I am aware that David Icke and his theories concerning an organised takeover of the world are popular fair amongst many and note the references to the “elders of Zion” in the exchanges. I do not dismiss Icke, although some of his theories seem a little bizarre for me. I have seen some of his videos, but have not read his books.

What is relevant here is that Icke has also been accused of spouting antisemitic vitriol and barred entry from many countries around the world. I have never heard him spout vitriol like that which appeared on The Redacted Group, however. I have never heard him, for example, refer to Jewish people themselves as: whores, cunts, satanists and docile nobodies.

Instead, I note how he defends himself:

My use of extracts from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was too much for political purity to take. It didn't matter that I had emphasised, as I do in this book, that this is not a plot by Jewish people; it didn't matter that I renamed them the “Illuminati Protocols” for the specific reason of getting away from their association with Jewish people; it didn't matter that these Protocols, which came to light in the late-1800s, contain details of the very plan of manipulation which has provably unfolded through the twentieth century. — David Icke, And the truth shall set you free p. 453

Regardless of the validity of his claims or otherwise, it would seem that Icke qualifies his words here, at least, and differentiates between the political organisations of his allegations from an entire swath of innocent humanity. It should go without saying, but perhaps it can’t, that I do believe the holocaust really happened and make no suggestion otherwise.

It is perfectly valid, however, to seek out the truth and to fearlessly question what we have been told about history. But this is not the same as conflating an entire human subgroup, based only on superficial characteristics, with those individuals who may be legitimately accused of crimes. If such individuals have white skin, will it mean that all whites, the majority of whom are guilty of no more than toiling in factories for the last several hundred years, are to be classed as “white scum” for example?

I still believe that people should be judged on “the content of their character”. It is now almost sixty years since Martin Luther King’s famous speech and, as the 21st century rolls on, I find myself wondering sometimes whether I am already a relic of a bygone age?

The establishment media routinely smears those it wishes to suppress as: racist, misogynistic, homophobic and far-right, regardless of their true beliefs or content of character. Given this, is there any valid reason to care about our own behaviour any longer? Would it be such a surprise if those the media attack begin to respond in kind? Will it be that ideas of tolerance are to become luxuries that can no longer be afforded by those who do not accept radical state-approved thinking?

However, if the only choice I have is between New World Order lies and propaganda, and some “awake post-liberal fundamentalism”, I choose neither!

As I’ve said, I agonised over publishing this piece, but not because I was afraid of what people will think. Ultimately, I concluded that those posting to The Redacted Group are responsible for their own words, as well as those who would support them. While I do not know The Truth with a capital “T”, this is me speaking that which is in my soul even if my voice shakes!

Sometimes, however, I really do feel that I should simply cease to think and feel altogether, and retreat into Zen-Buddhism and soothing lectures from Alan Watts. As I suggested in the opening of this piece, this would be me stepping back from the world to preserve my sanity.

In moments like these, I prefer to look back in history to those I hold as role models. And thank God I still have a history! For holocaust survivor and author Hannah Arendt once wrote on the refusal of individuals to think and feel, and ultimately their refusal to be a human being:

The manifestation of the wind of thought is no[t] knowledge; it is the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. And this indeed may prevent catastrophes, at least for myself, in the rare moments when the chips are down. ― Hannah Arendt, Thinking and Moral Considerations, 1971

In the years ahead, I suspect that whatever remains of sanity will be cast to the four winds whatever we do as digital media is used to lie and manipulate us, irrespective of any organised agenda or otherwise.

If we want to “prep”, perhaps we should find things that are beautiful now, rather than ugly, so that we may have something to cling on to later. Perhaps “awake” should also mean being able to tell beautiful from ugly, as well as bravely seeking truth with a small “t”.

Andrew Thomas

Banner credit: From Jud Süß, 1940 Nazi German propaganda film

Trivial updates have been made for spelling corrections.