What We Learned in 2024
So, you wanna know what we learned this year?
Well, I can take two approaches here. Either I can be my usual sarcastic self and lampoon all the ridiculous things the establishment and their media lapdogs tried to shove down our throats this year or I can be sincere and highlight things that we really should learn from the preceding 12 months.
But, as the meme says:
In the interest of keeping everyone happy all the time, here are 5 Things the Establishment TRIED to Make Us Believe This Year and 5 Things We ACTUALLY Learned In 2024.
Enjoy!
5 Things the Establishment TRIED to Make Us Believe This Year
1. You should absolutely use encryption to protect yourself from foreign governments—but not from your own government!
For years, the deep state and its cadre of alphabet soup surveillance agencies across the world have been telling us how bad encryption is. Only cybercriminals—or, worse yet, cyberterrorists—would want to hide their tracks from the government, right? And you're not a cyberterrorist, are you?
We've heard this over and over, year after year from government after government.
But then the world was hit by the Salt Typhoon, and now the FBI and their acronymed intelligence agency brethren have a new message for you: ENCRYPT EVERYTHING NOW, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
For those not in the know, "Salt Typhoon" is the dramatic (and totally made up) name that Western internet security researchers have given to the shadowy army of Chicom hackers who are supposedly hiding behind every digital corner, ready to mess with all your info and undermine civilization as we know it. Earlier this year, the Chinese were blamed for "one of the largest intelligence compromises in U.S. history," which (we are told) netted the private communications data of eight major telecommunications companies, potentially exposing the personal messages of millions of their customers to the prying eyes of the Chinese government.
Well, that's the official story, anyway. And now we're being urged to start using the very types of encrypted messaging apps that the deep state has been decrying for years . . . which might lead conspiracy realists like us to conclude that the US deep staters cracked these "encrypted" apps and now have backdoors to them that the Chinese bogeymen don't.
Anyway, let's simplify this lesson down to something punchy:
TikTok bad! PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE CHINESE!
Pokemon Go good! Catch 'em all!
Any questions?
2. AI Thinks Rats Are Incredibly Well-Endowed
On February 13, 2024, the prestigious journal "Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology" published an article, "Cellular functions of spermatogonial stem cells in relation to JAK/STAT signaling pathway," by a trio of Chinese researchers. Three days later, that article was retracted.
Why? Because (as the retraction notice states):
Following publication, concerns were raised regarding the nature of its AI-generated figures. The article does not meet the standards of editorial and scientific rigor for Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology; therefore, the article has been retracted.
Interesting. So, what subtly incorrect, AI-generated figure did the diligent editors of this prestigious journal overlook before the article was originally published?
Oh, just a horrendous, ridiculous, grotesque, mind-bendingly insane diagram of a rat with genitalia several times bigger than his body.
If you look closely, you'll note that, in addition to being anatomically impossible, the diagram is labelled with gibberish words, too!
So, I guess what we're supposed to learn from this is: Trust the (Computer-Generated Gobbledygook) science, folks!
3. Joe Biden is Sharp As A Tack
Need I say more?
4. Elections aren't rigged after all!
Here's the 2024 (s)election in a nutshell:
See, everyone? As it turns out, voting harder does work!
I mean, yes, four years ago we were reliably assured that the Big Bad Dems just pulled 20 million fake votes out of a hat. But this year we saw that there's one thing the Dems can't handle: when people *VOTE HARDER*!
See? The "deep state" is really nothing but Democrats, and when the Republicans win a (s)election, then the deep state is dead! Yay Trump!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get my Elon brain chip.
5. Every (Dinosaur Media) Girl Crazy About a Sharp Dressed Man
It's true what they say, fellas: clothes really do make the man.
Just look at the way CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh swoons over brutal terrorist kingpin al-Jolani. How many innocent civilians died in those suicide bombings? Oh, who cares! Look how well-tailored that suit is!
And check out the facelift operation they pulled off on Mohammad al-Bashir:
Hey ladies, I hear that, in addition to being the new Prime Minister of Syria, al-Bashir is also an engineer! . . . just don't ask him about the 2010s. He was going through his emo phase; you wouldn't get it. (And, for God's sake, don't ask him about that second flag!)
Now, if only someone could tell Zelensky that his army dress-up cosplay is so 2022. A snappy new business suit would do wonders for his image!
OK, OK, enough of this nonsense!
Without further ado, here are:
5 Things We ACTUALLY Learned In 2024
1. The President Doesn't Really Run the US
Extra! Extra! The President of the US is not actually running the country.
I know this is not news to anyone who has tuned out of the establishment media echo chamber and tuned into reality, but the fact that this self-evident truth is finally being acknowledged is progress of a sort.
Of course, it's not like any MSM repeaters ever outright conceded that the POTUS is just a figurehead. But, after the dumpster fire that was the Trump/Biden debate, even the administration's most skilled liars (and their mockingbirds in the dinosaur media) were forced to admit that the "leader of the free world" is not, in fact, "sharp as a tack." This concession necessarily raised the question: who, then, is running the country?
Thankfully, dedicated Corbett Reporteers have a decades-long head start in answering that question. So, by all means, share some of the work I've done on the deep state and on the networks of power who are really governing society with perplexed normies in your life. (And, more importantly, share with them the work that I've done on the real solutions to this problem!)
2. The Truth WILL Out . . . Eventually
Remember when the CDC called fluoride "one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century"?
And remember when they dissuaded you from looking into the origins of the water fluoridation scam?
And remember when they asked you to forget about the fact that most of the world DOESN'T pollute their drinking water with the industrial waste by-product masquerading as sodium fluoride into their water.
And remember when they said that drinking fluoride was good for your teeth, so we should drink sunscreen to protect us from sunburns?
OK, I made that last one up. But once upon a time the CDC and the EPA and the ADA and all the other alphabet monikers in the "Trust the Science!" coalition did tout the wonders of water fluoridation, once upon a time. They got away with it, too . . .
. . . until 2024, that is. That's when a judge finally called them out on their B.S., ruling that water fluoridation poses an unacceptable risk of IQ loss in children.
OOPS! Who could've known? Oh well. Sorry about all that, guys!
There are two silver linings to this historic ruling.
One silver lining is that city after city after city after city across the US is now in the process of ending their practice of water fluoridation (or is abandoning plans for future water fluoridation).
The other silver lining is that the establishment liars can lie for years, decades, even generations, but the truth will out . . . eventually.
Of course, a hidden truth will never emerge without the concerted effort of the tireless campaigners, activists, attorneys and journalists who are willing to suffer the slings and arrows of their opponents to bring that truth to the world. So, consider thanking the fluoride truth-tellers who brought the issue to your attention.
3. The Alternative IS the Mainstream Now
Have you seen New World Next Year 2025 yet? You know, the annual wrap-up episode of New World Next Week where James Evan Pilato and I go through our stories of the year and make predictions for next year? No? Well, what are you waiting for? Go watch it now!
Now that you're up to speed, you'll recall hearing me remark (at 10m35s) that the "alternative" media really is the mainstream now.
More evidence of that fact (as if any were needed) emerged from my home city of Calgary this week when Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek's new talk show—"Calgary Talks: The Social Series"— received a whopping total of 33 views in its first day of release.
Yes, no one listens to the lying liars in the establishment anymore, and in 2024 we finally reached the inflection point where it truly makes more sense for the grifters in the erstwhile "MSM" to go independent than to stay with the sinking ship that is the legacy media TV networks. Take Tucker Carlson and his transformation from bowtie-wearing, 9/11 truth-smearing CNN/MSNBC/Fox News talking head to Russian-supermarket-shopping "alternative" talking head.
Of course, as Tucker also demonstrates, the rise of the alternative media has just created a "Mainstream Alternative Media" beast that is potentially as pernicious as the old corporate media it is succeeding . . . but that's another story.
4. They're Still Selling Us on the Metaverse (But Who's Buying?)
Remember the bizarre scenes that emerged earlier this year of begoggled weirdos going about their daily life with an Apple Vision Pro strapped to their face? Remember how they walked about, gesticulating wildly, looking like the Tom Cruise character in Minority Report?
No? You don't remember that? Good. Tim Apple, it turns out, is not nearly as good at selling the public on the fetishization of technology as Steve Jobs was (thank God), and the Apple Vision Pro has now been safely relegated to the dung-heap of product launch failures.
But that didn't stop the eggheads, the transhumanists and the technocrats of Silicon Valley from continuing to thrust down the public's gullet the metaverse . . . or augmented reality . . . or mixed reality . . . or whatever they're calling it this week.
In this case, Meta has one-upped Apple, scoring considerably more success with their stylish and functional Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which, we are told, will allow us to "connect with friends, capture content and answer calls" while going about our daily lives. Yay!
Of course, it was no trouble at all for a pair of college students to whip up a version of the Meta glasses that can dox people in real time.
Double yay!
Perhaps it's finally time for people to read Neil Postman's 1998 lecture on "Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change" and to start taking his ideas to heart.
. . . but the way the world is heading, perhaps the best we can hope for is that the younger generation will watch the video of Postman's other 1998 lecture, "6 Questions about Technology," on their smart glasses while doxing strangers on the street. Welcome to mixed reality, everyone!
5. Resistance is Fertile
You've heard it before, but I'll say it again: Resistance is fertile.
Happily, 2024 provided yet more evidence of the accuracy of that simple observation. From the COP flop to the retreat of the treaty, the people pushed back in 2024 and they were granted a reprieve as a result.
So, what do we do now? Fold our arms and stay cynical? Whine about how hard it all is? Let out a New World Next Week sigh and simply give up?
Nope. We push back even harder against the globalist agenda next year.
Of course, the knowledge that our resistance has an impact is an insight now unique to this year. Rather, it's an insight we must rediscover every year. Every time January 1st rolls around, we must recommit ourselves to the never-ending task of defending ourselves from the psychopaths and sociopaths who seek to rule over us.
Sure, you could say the glass if half-empty. That our task is not a noble cause but a Sisyphean penance. That the thought of readying ourselves to roll the rock up the hill once again in 2025 is too agonizing to contemplate.
But I say the glass is half-full. As I've observed to you before, the massive, almost incomprehensible amount of time, resources and energy that the ruling parasites devote to manipulating our minds shows that what we think, what we believe, how we act in the world is important.
The power belongs to us. It always has.
And, after all, "il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux."
Happy New Year, everybody! See you in 2025.
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