Coronavirus Archives - The Naton State

The Age of Alternative Media is Now

1 May 20203 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

I suppose it couldn’t last. For a brief, shining moment it seemed as though the coronavirus crisis had finally brought the mainstream media to its senses. It was the perfect lifeboat to rescue them from the island of hysterical partisan hectoring they’ve managed strand themselves on in recent years. This was a once in a generation opportunity for TV and the press to reset its badly tarnished image and present a more sombre, sober and reliable face to the world.

Of course they blew it bigly.

The BBC missed the chance to change because despite a long track record of broadcasting activists disguised as witnesses, it somehow managed to slate a 100% left wing activist lineup on their recent Panorama programme concerning the NHS. What rotten luck! I mean, what are the odds of something like that happening purely by chance? Either they didn’t check their contributors, which is unforgivable, or they did check them and pressed ahead anyway, which is also unforgivable. Why do such errors never happen in the opposite direction and how many times must we be subjected to this before we can finally do away with the rotten, corrupt and regressive licence fee?

Things are looking no better across the pond, where the mainstream media has colluded in a conspiracy of silence surrounding the Tara Reade allegations against Joe Biden. It’s almost laughable watching these multi-million dollar enterprises behave as though they’re still the arbiters of what’s fit to print and talk about. By now, even the more remote tribes of Turkmenistan are aware of the US media’s staggering hypocrisy when comparing their treatment of Tara Reid to Christine Blasey Ford. Yet the mainstream media continues to behave like a man fixing a leaking tap while the ship is sinking.

Media

Conspiracy Theories are a Product of Freedom

21 April 20203 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

At first reading, Instagram’s decision to slap a “false information” label on Jelena Djokovic’s post sharing a 5G coronavirus conspiracy video seems eminently sensible and responsible. After all, the news media is awash with stories of people attacking 5G masts and in some instances even threatening engineers in the belief that there’s some connection between the new communications system and the spread of the coronavirus.

At present there is no credible reason to think that any causal connection exists between a high-frequency communications system and a novel virus variant that attacks the respiratory systems of its victims. I for one am not expecting any such information to emerge any time soon.

Be that as it may, Instagram have made a big mistake in this instance and it’s a decision they will one day come to regret. The social media giants have been under increasing scrutiny over the past couple of years, especially when it comes to their arbitrary and politically motivated decisions to suppress some users while allowing others to continue using their platforms. Facebook has already tied itself in knots trying to explain its decision to remove completely legal posts by some users and not others; and the US Senate is starting to take the matter of online censorship much more seriously.

By deciding to effectively pass a value judgement on Jelena Djokovic’s personal opinion, Instagram has followed Facebook’s lead and started to assume the role of an editor as opposed to that of a neutral platform.

Culture

All the World’s a Virtue Signalling Stage

21 April 20203 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

It’s hard to find a more perfect convergence of culture, media and politics than the recent One World benefit concert to support the beleaguered World Health Organisation. Luminaries like Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Elton John have all given their time (and presumably some of their own money) to help plug the funding gap left by Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US taxpayer funding. In one way it’s a refreshing change to see our entertainment and business elite putting their hands in their own pockets rather than trying to guilt the coins out of ours; although how much of this sudden flowering of philanthropy was a knee-jerk reaction to what the diabolical Dorito Man just happened to be doing at the time remains debatable.

Given the increasing criticism of the WHO for failing to carry out its core function of protecting the world’s health while carrying water for Communist China, one might reasonably think that savvy celebrities (or their managers) would want to steer clear of that potential minefield. But no, they fell over themselves to publicly declare their unqualified support for an increasingly discredited globalist order. I suppose their behaviour makes sense when you consider how they and their friends have been the primary beneficiaries of the current status quo.

We shouldn’t be surprised really, because the last four years have proved beyond doubt that our business and cultural elites are steadfastly incapable of learning anything. If they were capable of learning at least a little, they wouldn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again. I’m sure Einstein had something to say about that.

Politics

Our Alphabet Soup is Rotten

8 April 20203 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Donald Trump’s threat to freeze World Health Organisation funding has sparked a flurry of press interest and comment from around the globe. Not surprisingly, these hot takes on the situation range from “orange man bad” on one side of the aisle to “4-D chess” on the other. In fact, neither of these knee-jerk responses teaches us anything useful as they miss a much bigger and far more revealing picture

Whatever you might think of the President’s current attitude to the WHO, taking a step back to gain a wider view shows that far from being some Trumpian outlier, questioning the legitimacy of the WHO is in fact part of a wider pattern of dissent. The sense of weariness, disenchantment and growing hostility towards the alphabet soup agencies entrusted to run international affairs with no direct democratic mandate is now palpable, especially here in the West. Everywhere we look, nationalism is on the rise as once unimpeachable institutions are revealed to be rotten with corruption, incompetence and shameless self-interest.

This shouldn’t be surprising really, as Oscar Wilde pithily pointed out how bureaucracies primarily exist to meet their own needs and only secondly to execute the functions they were designed to carry out.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look.

Politics

EU Solidarity was a Fair Weather Fantasy

4 April 202028 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

“Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall.” Varys of Lys

So now we know. Now we know for certain that when the chips are down, Brussels has neither the authority nor the inclination to act when it really matters. Right across the continent, borders are going up and countries are looking to their own institutions for answers and action to combat the Coronavirus threat.

The current crisis has finally exposed the myth of European solidarity for the dangerous fair-weather fantasy it always has been. As Italy and Spain struggle to cope with the spiralling crisis, their calls for medical and financial aid from Brussels have effectively come to naught. Despite decades of tall talk about being stronger together, this crisis has revealed that the EU’s obsession with ever closer union was only ever driven by a pathological lust for raw political power. When the chance finally arrives to put these lofty ideals into action, both Brussels and EU member states are nowhere to be found. Platitudes about solidarity lie trampled in the dust as countries pull up the drawbridge and leave the stragglers to fend for themselves in a display of self-interest that will not soon be forgotten by Italy, Spain and many others across the continent.

In fairness, it’s only natural for nations to look to their own security in a situation like this, and it would be foolish to criticise them for acting in the best interests of their citizens. Still, it’s very telling that in times of real crisis, the most enduring and efficient power structure remains the much maligned nation state, not the EU, the UN, the WHO or any of globalism’s impotent alphabet institutions.