The terrifying part is that once you’re locked into one of these timelines, breaking out feels impossible. Not because people are incapable of critical thinking, but because they are only given the pieces of the puzzle that fit their pre-constructed reality. If your entire media environment tells you vaccine passports were necessary to save lives, then anyone who opposes them must be selfish or dangerous. If your reality tells you vaccine injuries are a rare anomaly, then the people raising concerns must be crackpot lunatics. Once the stage has been set, people don’t need to be actively deceived—they simply need to never see the information that contradicts their version of reality.

And the scariest part? This isn’t just about Covid. This is now the model for shaping public perception on every issue. We don’t just live in an era of misinformation. We live in an era where entire realities are constructed and assigned to us, and stepping outside of them comes at a personal and social cost. It’s not just that people were manipulated. It’s that they were placed inside an entirely different timeline—one where dissent itself is unthinkable.

https://www.malone.news/p/how-performative-activism-enabled?r=4t5cs3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false