It is possible to understand the actions of government over the past years, probably going back well before the pandemic, through the lens of an abusive relationship. To understand this, first consider the characteristics of abusive relationships. These characteristics will then be examined in light of government behaviors during the pandemic period.
Characteristics of Abusive Relationships
As a preface, here are some books about abusive relationships, where the characteristics of abusive relationships are described in detail. There are many many more such books (sad to say), as abusive relationships are unfortunately quite common.
I Have Something To Tell You by Natalie Appleton
Should I Stay or Should I Go? By Lundy Bancroft
How to Be A Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist by Debbie Mirza
Gaslighting by Stephanie Sarkis
Dodging Energy Vampires by Christian Northrup
Lying: Abusers regularly lie or hide the truth from their victims
Cheating: Abusers engage in dishonest activities to get what they want
Manipulating the other to do what they want: Abusers use psychology to trick people into doing what they want them to do.
Efforts to control the other: Abusers try to get their victims to do what they want, and stop them from doing them what they don't want them to do.
Coercion through threats, forcing, begging: To control others, abusers use a variety of coercion tactics.
Controlling the other financially, increasing dependency: They try to destroy the other's financial independence, making them helpless and dependent on the abuser.
Surveilling the other's activity and communications: They monitor the other's communications and try to regulate who they communicate with.
Isolating the abused from family/friends: They try to keep the other away from those who might support them or turn them against the abuser.
Exploitation of the other for personal gain: They take advantage of others for their own benefit.
Indifference to suffering of the other, lack of interest in the other, lack of empathy: They offer only ersatz signs of caring, or none, as they really have no interest or ability to care for others.
Solipsistic, self-centered: They only understand their own wants and needs, and value them above those of others.
Gas-lighting the other: They make others doubt their sanity or judgment.
Hurting the other with words or actions or both: They physically or verbally assault the other.
Seducing the other with demonstrations of apparent caring, which tend to ring hollow in time: They make shows of caring and love, which rapidly give way to further abuse behaviors.
Dependency on the other — frantic apologies and promises when the other threatens to leave: They try to prevent the other from leaving and honestly (for once) claim emotional devastation will result should the other leave. When others leave they seem to move rapidly on to the next victim.
Lack of remorse or sincere apologies, or taking responsibility for one's errors or misdeeds. Any apologies given are not sincere, and any expressed remorse not genuine. Usually neither is acknowledged. Those who lack empathy can not experience true remorse.
Blaming, criticizing, insulting, or demeaning the other. Insulting and disrespectful language replaces honest engagement and respectful dialogue, which they are incapable of.
The relationship feels instrumental, not personal: it's all about what they can get from you. After a while, the abused start to feel the relationship is all about the abuser, and that they are only a tool by which the abuser accrues what is wanted from them in a parasitic, blood-sucking way.
Governments' Abusive Relationship With The Population
Lying: Governments have not been honest with the people from the start about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, whether the virus came from a wet market or lab, how dangerous it is, to whom, the lack of reliability of diagnostic testing, the appropriateness of masking, social distancing and lockdowns, the inappropriateness of what have long been known to be effective treatments, the safety and efficacy of the so-called vaccines, the reliability of the scientific trials that preceded their release to the public, and the plethora of serious side effects caused by the vaccines.
Cheating: Governments have collaborated with mainstream media and social media to censor information that shows the falseness of their proclamations. This includes not just well-considered and poorly considered opinions, but scientific research. They have also collaborated with research institutions to publish fraudulent research studies designed to discredit effective treatments such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. They have bribed, threatened or intimidated local authorities, within the medical and public health industries to fire, censure, delicense, or otherwise attack health professionals who reveal their lies. They have given their blessing to and possibly funded companies that have done fraudulent research studies for their products. They have worked with industry to attempt to cover up their fraud by asking for 55 or even 75 years before releasing the data demonstrating their fraudulent activity. Without telling the public. the government also secretly paid media outlets to promote as legitimate and trustworthy unscientific information that advanced their agenda, and to censor or delegitimize information that was reliable and science-based.
Manipulating others to do what they want: They falsely inflated the probable dangerousness of the COVID-19 pandemic through the statistically rigged work of Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College, London School, the infamous "Master of Disaster", thus fanning the flames of fear in the population They then falsely claimed that the virus could only be subdued if everyone in the world got vaccinated, engendering fears of massive deaths or catastrophic infection rates. This was to facilitate gaining control of the population's behavior and cooperation in accepting the planned for "vaccine" program. They initially used fear of lack of sufficient supply of the vaccine to get people more eager to want it. They used bribes and enticements, such as doughnuts, lottery tickets, cash bonuses, free child care, free rides to vaccine clinics, free hunting and fishing licenses, and even lap-dances. They used guilt, by saying you needed to prevent giving "grandma" coronavirus (what about grandpa?). They used shaming, by saying it was your civic duty to get the vaccine to protect others. They used intimidation when Biden said, "We're losing our patience" with those who aren't submitting to the vaccination.
Efforts to control others: They determined which businesses one could go to and which ones you couldn't. They determined whether you had to wear a mask and when. They regulated distances you could be from others. They prevented religious and social gatherings of certain numbers or people. They kept you from visiting sick or dying relatives in the hospital. They are have been and still are trying to prevent people from using gas-powered cars, in California, they try to prevent people from speaking out or censor them, about pandemic or other socially charges subjects. They are trying to control what you can buy, by implementing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Coercion through threats, forcing, and begging: Although governments started with admonitions, they soon progressed to enticements, begging and eventually mandates in order to make people submit to the COVID vaccinations. They indirectly (by coopting businesses and government agencies in the process) took away people's jobs ("no jab, no job") if they refused to comply with the vaccination program. They coopted businesses to do their bidding, where business refused offering service to people who were either not masked or not vaccinated.
Controlling the other financially, increasing dependency: Governments have forced a large percentage of the population out of work, and then offered them "relief" from the economic hardships the government itself created, blaming these hardships on "the virus", not their own policies. Many people were forced onto disability from the vaccine, which is funded in large part by government. Now they wish to implement a central bank digital currency and possibly negative interest rates, to force people to use up cash, and to put all their purchasing power under the control of the government. Algorithms are planned to be set up where certain purchases will automatically no longer be permitted when government has complete control of all financial transactions.
Surveilling the other's activity and communications: Thanks to the work of Edward Snowden, we know now that Intelligence agencies (I.A.) are monitoring U.S. citizens' communications and behaviors. There are plans to use A.I. to assure that people's carbon footprint isn't to great, by monitoring their traveling without their consent, using their cell phones. They are already heavily involved in surveilling people's comments on social media. Google tracks people's search results and shares these results with I.A. in some cases upon request, and in other cases probably routinely (we don't know, as this is "classified" information). These monitoring system are being used to shut down communication (using deplatforming, shadow-banning, and other mechanisms) that government doesn't want people to have with one another.
Isolating the abused from family/friends: They have prevented families from gathering during the holidays, falsely citing presumed risks of viral transmission caused by such gatherings. They have implemented "social distancing". They have prevented people from visiting loved ones in the hospital. They want to limit travel, which will ultimately curtail visits with friends and family.
Exploitation of the other for personal gain: Government agencies, federal government pharmaceutical companies, and intelligence agencies reaped huge profits from the pandemic management policies, in terms of money and power. They did not follow their own policies at least some of the time, having meetings and parties without masks or vaccinations, or got faux vaccines (placebos), so that only the population paid the price for their harmful policies.
Indifference to the suffering of the other, lack of interest in the other, lack of empathy: The implementation of the lockdowns, the masking, the social distancing occurred in spite of warnings that these measures were harmful to others. Various excuses were made which all failed to take seriously the consequences of the harmful effects. People were deliberately deprived of life-saving treatments. People's businesses and careers were ruined, without any acknowledgement of the catastrophic nature of these events in people's lives. People were subjected to toxic medical products which were carelessly developed and carelessly vetted for safety and efficacy. They were released to the public when government officials and pharmaceutical company administrators were well aware of their harmfulness. They failed to warn the public of these harms, instead falsely stating that they were safe. After the harms of the toxic medical products became apparent, they continued to deny those harms and encouraged people to get more of them. Indeed, they still do. They approved the treatment for infants and young children, and for pregnant women, knowing there was no conceivable benefit to them from the products, and only harm could and would result. They failed to revoke the products when miscarriages, menstrual problems, fertility problems became evident, and when babies and children began having serious adverse effects.
Solipsistic, self-centered: They believed themselves to be invincible, and unstoppable. They ignored the advice of other experts. They ignored the warnings of other health professionals and scientists. One of them referred to himself as being "The Science," meaning that his words were to be revered as a kind of provable doctrine from which dissent was not only heresy, but "anti-scientifc". They thought only about their increased wealth and power, and not about the welfare of those whom they supposedly were serving.
Gas-Lighting the other: They deemed dissenting views as "misinformation" or "disinformation".
They organized a campaign to make people think that people who expressed independent ideas were anti-science, selfish or a "danger to our democracy". In short they tried to make these people who offered reasonable objections to the government policies look ridiculous. They even did this to people who just distributed scientific research papers to the public, when these papers didn't support government-endorsed narratives. While these gas-lighting propaganda campaigns were done largely to discredit those whose knowledge was dangerous to the false narratives endorsed by the government, it made people who advanced these counter-narrative appear to be either crazy, irresponsible, or foolish, and necessarily made such people question whether their words were made in sanity and good judgment.
Hurting the other with words, actions or both: The economic harms caused by the government pandemic policies are legion. Closed businesses, lost jobs, decreased revenues, difficulties hiring help to run businesses are all amongst these. Emotional harms are those typical of terrorist attacks: fear, helpless feelings and sadness at losses. Emotional injury also comes from discovering one has been lied to — the harm of betrayal. Physical injuries are also legion: death, disability, and a multitude of serious adverse effects from the poisons that were injected. Murder is definitely hurtful. Maiming is also definitely hurtful. These can occur from abuse. Spiritual harm is also caused by co-opting people into being part of the abuse paradigm: making them think they are helping when they are actually carrying out others' abusive programs.
Seducing the other with demonstrations of apparent caring, which tend to ring hollow in time: The government has advanced its agenda under the guise of protecting the public, and promulgating a spirit of altruistic civic engagement ("we're all in this together"). These disingenuous manipulations encourage a kind of Stockholm syndrome, where the abused feel that the abusers are looking out for their welfare, have honorable motives, and are deserving of their support and confidence. Like all abusive appeals to the empathy of the abused, these are cynical manipulations whose only goals are instrumental: to further the implementation of the plans for further abuse. The idea of the vaccines preventing viral transmission was exploded in 2021, when Rochelle Walensky announced the vaccines were ineffective against the new Delta variant. Yet the same appeals were still used to get people to continue to get vaccinated, and many people still buy into these manipulations of their faith in government. The myth of safety was exploded with the release of the V-Safe data, and the Pfizer research data in 2022, yet the government still promotes the vaccines as safe, and many people, although thankfully, fewer and fewer, still believe they are safe and in the benign intentions of government.
Dependency on the other — frantic apologies and promises when the other threatens to leave:
In the case of the pandemic, there have been no apologies or promises to "do better". Instead there have been ramped up efforts to trick the public again with new imaginary fears of new pandemics: monkeypox, RSV, new Omicron variants, and the famed "tripledemic". The Democrats, who have largely been responsible for pushing the pandemic policies since early 2021, may demonstrate some backtracking in 2025 if they see their support dissipate and they lose the presidency and congress in the election of 2024, but possibly not even then.
Lack of remorse or sincere apologies, and not taking responsibility for one's errors or misdeeds:
To date, in spite of tens of thousands of reports of deaths in VAERS after the COVID-19 vaccination, in spite of millions of VAERS-reported adverse events, in spite of knowing that these numbers are seriously underreported, in spite of knowing that at least 7% of vaccine recipients using the V-SAFE reporting instrument had significant adverse reactions, in spite of evidence showing the futility of vaccination, masking, social distancing, and lockdowns and preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and in spite of data showing negative efficacy of the vaccinated, in terms of COVID cases, deaths, and hospitalization, the government continues to admit no harm has been done, and no errors have been made. The closest they have come is Rochelle Walensky saying she had "hoped" that the vaccines would have prevented viral transmission. Crickets from the rest.
Blaming, criticizing, insulting, or demeaning the other: Calling people names such as "anti-vaxxer", "conspiracy theorist," "COVIDiot" or others are only the beginning of the abusive language that have osmotically permeated into the realm of the acceptable amongst those who have been duped by the government's (taxpayer-funded) propaganda campaign. Scientists and those raising valid scientific questions have been labeled "fringe epidemiologists, "far-right" reactionaries, and "dangers to our democracy". Twelve of them have been cast as the "Disinformation Dozen." They are said to traffic in "disinformation", "misinformation", and even "malformation". All of these terms have been forged in the coffers of the I.C. and marketing propaganda consultants specifically to damage the reputations of responsible health practitioners, scientists, journalists and citizens in general. Shaming has been lionized, instead of censored, including statements made on social media that people who weren't vaccinated deserved to die or get sick with COVID. This kind of hurtful language is typical of abuse. Never are the actual scientific arguments fairly and respectfully met with contrary arguments.
This is also typical of abusers who dismiss legitimate objections to their extreme behaviors.
The relationship feels instrumental, not personal: it's about what they can get from you. After the glow of the seduction phase begins to wear off, abuse victims begin to appreciate that their abuser is only interested in them for what they can procure from them. It is a parasitic and exploitative relationship, dehumanizing, and completely devoid of the kind of give and take that characterizes more healthy relationships. It can take a long time for the inhumanness of the abusive relationship to be clear to people, as no-one wants to believe that other human beings can be as cruel and insensitive as abusers usually are. Also, even abusers may have more human moments where, true feelings and honesty may transiently appear, confusing those who have been weathering the storms of their coldness and dissembling for years.
Ultimately it is not up to the abused to get the abuser to stop. It is up to the abused to end the relationship. Continuing in it becomes a matter of choice, once they understand it as abusive. The Cryptocurrency movement, and the "Exit and Build" movements are part of an effort to leave the dysfunctional abusive relationship. How do you divorce your government? It's not that clear, although we once found a way in 1776. Do we need a new Declaration of Independence? If so, who will be our new Thomas Jefferson?
Washington Abusers
This one is really spot on "Lack of remorse or sincere apologies, or taking responsibility for one's errors or misdeeds"
So glad to seeing you writing on Substack, Mark!