I am becoming pretty concerned about large chunks of our population becoming disengaged from mainstream society. We've seen protestors at parliament throwing cobblestones at police and setting fire to things, people gluing themselves to busy roads to disrupt traffic, signs up at retailers urging their customers not to threaten and abuse staff, and on it goes.

I hope I'm wrong, but I am starting to wonder about the potential for this type of behaviour to escalate into domestic terrorism incidents. It's going to be a big challenge for the incoming government to get a handle on it. 

There has always been conspiracy nuts, but until the internet they were dispersed, few in number, had little if any cross contamination from other groups and were generally considered "A harmless nut job" in their local communities.

By able to form bigger communities they reaffirm each other strengthening their beliefs, and they get fed a diet of conspiracy taking them further away from reality. I suspect a lot of this is also foreign state funded to cause anarchy.

We also have religious groups who believe the Palestinian war is further proof that the 2nd coming is almost here and that they need to push harder to start Armageddon so they can have the rapture.

sir1963:

 

I suspect a lot of this is also foreign state funded to cause anarchy.

 

You don't have to suspect it, there's plenty of published evidence to show that it's a deliberate strategy by Russia/Putin.

Yablokov, I. Russian disinformation finds fertile ground in the West. Nat Hum Behav 6, 766–767 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01399-3

How a Kremlin-Linked Influence Operation is Systematically Manipulating Western Media to Construct & Communicate Disinformation https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/2560274/OSCAR-report-September-2021.pdf

https://www.state.gov/russias-top-five-persistent-disinformation-narratives/

etc.

sir1963:

Got a flyer in my letter box telling me how "15 minute cities" are going to take everyones rights away, we will be digitally tracked, etc etc etc.

What a pack of nut jobs.

old3eyes:

sir1963:

 

Got a flyer in my letter box telling me how "15 minute cities" are going to take everyones rights away, we will be digitally tracked, etc etc etc.

 

 

 

What a pack of nut jobs.

 

I wouldn't write it off as a conspiracy nut job yet as it's happening in the UK already. 15 minute cities.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-27/the-15-minute-city-conspiracy/102015446

old3eyes:

sir1963:

 

Got a flyer in my letter box telling me how "15 minute cities" are going to take everyones rights away, we will be digitally tracked, etc etc etc.

 

What a pack of nut jobs.

 

I wouldn't write it off as a conspiracy nut job yet as it's happening in the UK already. 15 minute cities.

Citation required.

Edit: Walkable cities, livable cities and 15 minute cities as urban planning concepts are nothing new. The conspiracy about them is just the latest.

I lived in a 15 minute city for much of my life. It is called Amsterdam.

Rikkitic:

 

I lived in a 15 minute city for much of my life. It is called Amsterdam.

 

 

 

Having spent a few days in Amsterdam I walked a lot of it.

Rikkitic:

I lived in a 15 minute city for much of my life. It is called Amsterdam.

 

Otago Daily Times: One of the "attorneys at law" in the experts list was New Zealander Claire Deeks, one of the founders of Voices for Freedom and Reality Check Radio. While Ms Deeks has law degrees, she has not worked as a lawyer since 2016. Before founding VFF in December 2020, with knitting pattern designer Libby Jonson and crochet designer Alia Bland, Ms Deeks was a fulltime food blogger

gzt: Voices For Freedom type people failed in national elections trying to get on local councils instead I think:

Otago Daily Times: One of the "attorneys at law" in the experts list was New Zealander Claire Deeks, one of the founders of Voices for Freedom and Reality Check Radio. While Ms Deeks has law degrees, she has not worked as a lawyer since 2016. Before founding VFF in December 2020, with knitting pattern designer Libby Jonson and crochet designer Alia Bland, Ms Deeks was a fulltime food blogger

Thats basically the same leaflet that I have. Wording is the same, layout differs

This one has the web address of p n 1 5.nz on it.

sir1963: Got a flyer in my letter box ...

Here's a good explainer: RNZ: Convenient cities become conspiracy targets

How did the '15-minute city' concept get so out of hand?
Tom Kitchin talks to Auckland University senior lecturer in architecture and planning Bill McKay about the concept, and extremism researcher and author Byron C Clark about the conspiracy.

Is it just me or have these beliefs been significantly accelerated through the Covid and vaccine era?  I feel like that has just triggered a whole bunch of disenfranchised people.  Perhaps they were always there, just needed a rabbit hole to go down?  

gzt: Is it this one?

https://centralapp.nz/news/news/conspiracy-theory-reaches-central-otago-mailboxes?id=64ab9d2b18a9200028bd211e

Apparently the nutjobs have Oxford UK and Oxfordshire Otago confused.

BUT..they "did their own research"...Idiots.