“Public” Property Is Not What You Think

Since March of 2020, we’ve been lied to, gaslighted, and all around infantilized, but that’s not when this treatment began; that’s when many people began regarding those in government as predators, and themselves as hostages. Similarly, many more people suffer from mass Stockholm Syndrome, which didn’t begin in 2020 either; it just became more pronounced, panicked, and painfully obvious. When governors began forcing people out of work and into their homes, we were told it was for our own good, and most people—in and outside of the media—gleefully obeyed the lying parasites while ardently disparaging dissenters, just as they do today. But again, this revolting servility and the eagerness to police one’s neighbors aren’t new. “Live and let live” died decades ago. The “new normal” is repugnant, but relatively speaking, life in 2019—though likely superior for most—might not have been as great as you recall. Today’s appalling attributes were just better concealed then, which makes yearning for normality seem misguided. “Build back better” would be appealing if the intended direction of “better” were exactly opposite.

You’ve likely heard many references to George Orwell’s 1984, but now that propaganda is a bit easier to detect, Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” bolsters my point that the blatant lies we’re told today didn’t begin with the lockdowns, especially when considering that the essay was published in 1946. “Apart from avoidable ugliness,” two qualities that are common among bad writing and speaking are “staleness of imagery” and “lack of precision.” I’m not lecturing you, as I’m guilty of producing the “verbal refuse” that Orwell criticized. My point is that insincerity is a very old weapon—“the great enemy of clear language.” When any prominent parasite pukes platitudes, is their message clear or can you easily recognize that it was carefully crafted to be cloudy? “All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” Turns out that the politicization of everything is nothing new either; “cancel culture” is just a new label. “Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” We’re lied to so much that when we occasionally hear the truth, we wonder what it’s hiding. One method of shrouding the truth is to saturate sentences with “meaningless words,” which is what Orwell discusses in the following passage:

I’m adding public to the list of meaningless words.

When governments get ahold of public, they torture it in the same way they twist affordable, American people, and common sense. “This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing.” Parasites are incompetent, not because they’re naturally stupid—though I’m not ruling that out—but because their jobs aren’t responsive to private demand; however, the vagueness of public is intentional, which requires competence, albeit a sinister kind.

In November of 2020—a time too “dangerous” for “nonessentials” to work—the “essentials” at the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office found the time during this pressing crisis to unveil what so many desperately need—an “app for viewing public lands.” The Office’s director reassured everyone that “this map goes a long way to taking the mystery out of what land is owned by the public.” Just as “Recreation and Conservation” implies an approximate 50-50 split, one would be surprised if a bottle of “malbec and merlot” were comprised of, say, 5% malbec. But that’s what’s going on here. Roughly 5% of Washington’s land—excluding that which is covered with water—is devoted to public parks, and 33% is devoted to other public uses like conservation and defense. Sure, we own public lands, which means we used to own what we’re forced to pay for them.

“Owned by the public” almost always means “closed to the public,” which renders “population density” meaningless, too. You can’t build a house in a national forest, right? The state includes private and public land in its calculation, which means the reported 115 people per square mile should really be 187. Who can claim that public honestly portrays reality? But don’t worry, the state’s public lands are managed “on behalf of Washington state citizens and beneficiaries.” Great, so how do we benefit, and who are the “beneficiaries”? Beneficiaries are public buildings and the parasitic class working in them, so we “benefit” by not being taxed further. Translated for those still happy with this arrangement: after our annual mugging, we’re told that it would’ve been worse if not for public lands.

The good news about this year and the last is that sincerity is easier to find, thanks to the lying class’ brazen zeal. It’s as if the liars said “fuhgedaboudit” to “southern hospitality.” Orwell has some bad news, however: “All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” Of course 2019 seems preferable, but if that era ever returns, will more people realize that though they might be more comfortable, they’re still being robbed and manipulated? Why tolerate this then or now? Let’s never put up with it again—not even for “15 days.”

This article originally appeared on Uncle Nap.