I agree that media are quite bad about covid, but that has been unfortunately true about most of the crises since media had start to fight for readership vs social networks. Objectivity has gone out of the window and now it is much more about positioning and providing echo chambers for their audiences. There are certain remnants of objectivity, but they seem few and far between.

That said, tvnet, delfi and lsm (state media!) do report news about claims that people have died after taking covid vaccines; if you scroll through lsm covid news you can see articles about side effects that vaccine may cause, about health professionals who didn't want to innoculate, etc.

> If there is such a thing as a Soros-Globalist

There isn't. Do you honestly believe that there exist people in Latvia who wholeheartedly care about some globalist agenda? All that crap is just next level of name-calling, same as the other way round talking about nationalists, reactionaries and automatically considering Trump supporting people dumb. It is just a fundamental us-and-them ape society thing with virtue signaling.


> denuded of financial independence

Funny you should say it. Because we don't have actual financial independence and haven't had since maybe 1930ies. Our financial system is deeply dependent on the US, as evidenced by the speed with which Ministry of Finance is pushing through anti-laundering laws, as per request of the US Department of Treasury. But we are NOT unique in this respect, AT ALL. It is the fate of most small countries, and the US is currently the global money power. A delicate position, but not something that needs any supranational conspiracy. It is perfectly US-national one, and the only players who have enough clout to deal with it are larger countries. But the price of disrupting existing economies (even for larger countries) is so high, that I believe the US will continue to wield this power for some time.

> it wouldn't be hard to hide it. No official media would report it, only a few would even need to know about it,

But we have no official media. Or rather, we are not getting majority of our news through them. We have a number of news portals who are in no way official (tvnet, delfi, apollo) and wouldn't really care to be censored -- I mean they would probably cause quite a stir, and they are not locally owned. I mean, 5-10 years ago, the government couldn't really do anything about Lemberg's owned newspapers, has something changed in their powers that now they can shut up media as they wish? Tbh I doubt it very much.

But more importantly, "few would even need to know about it" - now you got me. So you think everybody in government and business circles is a retard, who just agrees to any measures government proposes because they don't know any better? Our government can't even make a change in VAT rates without howling of various interest groups and without having their hands slapped every now and then, and now everybody agrees because they can't do anything about it?

I find it quite extraordinary. And, as Carl Sagan wrote, "extraordinay claims require extraordinary evidence" .

P.S. Not to speak about that it is not only our media who could be quite vocal about it. What would Russian media give for whiff of conspiracy (granted they are not interested much in Latvia, but then again we are talking about supranational conspiracies, not some local muddled affair)! It would be all over the news there, out for everybody who cares to listen.

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just a couple of quick points as I am off to bed in a bit.
You misunderstood (I didn't make it clear) my point about 'denuded of financial independence'. Here I am talking about individuals unable to earn money - not the state. the state is in debt - even more now, of course, but I would never make the point that it is independent - as it clearly isn't.

"If there is such a thing as a Soros-Globalist" - there is. You are, I am quite sure, wrong about that. The thing is, I taught above the Soros Hall at SSE for 6 years. I know Vjačelavs D and the young student who was set up to start a Left-wing group in LV a while back. He even tried to get me involved. I used to work in that Birojnica. I saw who came in and who went and held events and recorded parts to the camera. I am pretty sure I got 4 from 2+2. I may be many things, but I am not blind. It doesn't matter to me if you think I am wrong. I know what I have seen and heard, so I am pretty immovable on this one.

Other than that, I would ask you to consider the evidence that strict lockdowns don't actually help (or help much). Take a look at the info in the US states, or between European countries who pursued different policies. I think this data will show that your assertion we would be in an even worse financial state if we had not imposed these kinds of restrictions is conjecture.

What else? 'few would even need to know about it'- yeah absolutely. Think about the banking system as an example. How many people know about that really works? How many people who do know are ready to say anything about it? I'm thinking of the guy doing his masters after the crisis (I was helping him with his English) who said to me his career would be over if he talked about the real nature of the banking system. It took me 2 hours to get an ex-student at SSE who was a chief economist at a bank to confirm my understanding was correct, basically. It isn't even taught in the syllabus. My mate who did PPE at Oxford said it was a small part of the curriculum at PHD level. I rather imagine the political class just go along with whatever is perceived as the accepted wisdom. They know what happens to them if they stop reading from the song sheet, too: they will get targeted like Gobzems. Of course, many will think what we are doing is more or less correct: we need to impose strict restrictions, we need to vaccinate, and if there are new strains, we should impose more restrictions and on and on and on. They will only change their tune if their feathers get ruffled by mass demonstrations - which might - just might be in the offing.

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> "If there is such a thing as a Soros-Globalist" - there is. You are, I am quite sure, wrong about that.

Now you're talking. Personal experience and personal evidence is much more impressive than any internet publication. I have had personal dealings with SSE public, so I am interested.

> It doesn't matter to me if you think I am wrong.

You certainly can be wrong, but not neccessarily are. The untenous position that I am trying to occupy is being skeptical, but not implicitly dismissive of any arguments and evidence. When we are able to do personal meetings again, then we'll be able to discuss this, if you are up to it.

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Vai tu nepiekrīti pašam "globālisma" konceptam vai, ka Soross būtu par tādu uzskatāms, vai arī, ka arī starp latviešiem ir šī kluba biedri?

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Tas ir jautājums, uz ko es nevaru ātri atbildēt ar jā/nē; jo man būtu jāsaka "BET".

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You could also view it using an argument that you have made well in our discussions, namely that Latvia is a small country whose independence is conditional to say the least. I agree with you, by the way. Latvia has no real financial independence and is a small voice in the EU. It would be, therefore, in a very weak position if it chose to buck the global currents - be it in how the 4th Industrial Revolution is implemented, or how the global (or European citizenry) is managed (as in Tony Blair's recommendation for a global vaccine passport scheme through the G7).

These decisions will roll over Latvia like the weather. It will just be assumed that this is the way we are going, and this is how we have to adjust. Those opposing it will just be dismissed as idiot Luddites.

The 'shadowy figures' pushing for these policies could be found among the members of the WEF, for example. The members (about 1,000) are major corporations, banks etc that each have more than five billion dollars in turnover. Just on a non-conspiracy level, they have enormous lobbying power on the European Commission - for example, far more than small indebted nation states. The Gates foundation, through its funding also has enormous influence on the WHO. What can the Latvia government do to stand against this? Nothing - even if they wanted to. None of this is extraordinary. It is just happening relentlessly and remorselessly.

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