Shut the #$%@ Up!

Anytime you get an eye roll from a sheep after you have made some comment that smacks of conspiracy, “Shut the #$%@ up” is what they are silently trying to tell you—or maybe not silently at all.

I would say this is a new phenomenon, but it probably isn’t. In the beginning, it may have been more often conveyed silently, although even then you might hear it verbatim, or hear a more watered-down version of it. The reason I say it might be new is because people now seem to know that what you are about to say, or have already said, fits neatly into their “conspiracy theory” definition. It has taken them three years to figure that out and to identify all the different ways you may be able to get a word in edgewise. There are, after all, hundreds of conspiracy theories.

“Maybe the government can control the weather,” you might utter at dinner one night after your wife exclaims that temperatures have dropped to -50°C outside.

“Shut the #$%@ up,” she politely retorts.

A few years ago, you might have gotten from them some sort of effort to have a conversation, such as, “What the hell are you talking about, are you crazy?” Still a bit dismissive, but at least a question. About a year ago maybe you would get only the ubiquitous eye roll. Today, they are now weary of hearing your crazy garbage and what comes out as a reply is, “Shut the #$%@ up.” Ironically, ten years ago the response may have been, “Really? That’s interesting, what do you know about that?” That sort of expression of rational thought is long gone.

Just the other night I was at dinner with mixed company and although I was, for the most part, minding my manners, someone made a comment about Joe Biden and how he was running the country. I, without thinking, said, “Well, the last decent president the US had was John Kennedy—then the CIA murdered him.” Silence. Everyone just stared at me (there were five other people there). “Shut the #$%@ up.” It came through loud and clear.

“You’re ruining my day,” or, “Your comment is bursting my idyllic bubble,” or, “Can’t you think more positively?” or any one of many similar comments would be suitable for continuing the conversation. But it never gets to that, because no one feels they need to elaborate on the “Shut the #$%@ up” initial response. “Just die and go away,” may be the next version a few months down the road, once “shut the #$%@ up” does not seem strong enough to them anymore.

Have you ever brushed off an ant crawling up onto your lap while sitting out in the grass enjoying a picnic? You brush it away without any concern for its survival, in fact, it doesn’t really have the right to survive, it is crawling into your space, isn’t it? You don’t even wonder what happens to it, as it rolls up in a ball, with a few of its legs stuck to your pants. “Be gone, useless, annoying, creature.” Just shut the #$%@ up.

I am a trained hypnotherapist and due to my training, I can’t help but make a comparison between people who respond this way and hypnotic suggestion. You know the story: if someone is hypnotized and while in trance it is suggested that they bark like a dog if they hear the word “dog,” then they will unconsciously comply with the hypnotic suggestion every time they hear “dog” uttered in their presence. “Woof, woof, woof!” In this case, any time the whiff of “conspiracy theory” wafts by anyone hypnotized by the agenda’s indoctrination efforts, it’s, “Shut the #$%@ up!”

How do they know what a conspiracy theory is? Well, they don’t on their own accord, they had to have been told what ideas, thoughts, complaints, etc. constitute a conspiracy theory. For example, if someone says, “I hear that Trump is in cahoots with Russia, and together with Putin they threw the US presidential election in 2004.” That doesn’t trigger the hypnotic suggestion of, “Shut the #$%@ up.” In fact, the ones hypnotized would jump right on board with that one, and don the tin-foil hat themselves. Nothing conspiratorial about it at all.

However, if you said, “Did you know that Biden is senile and obviously has no idea what he is saying or doing?” You would get the, “Shut the #$%@ up” before you could finish the sentence. So, there are definitely hotspot topics the sheep have been trained to immediately recognize: anything to do with climate change, Trump, vaccines (of all sorts), Covid, gender, transpeople, racism, Republicans, bad CIA, bad WHO, bad UN, ANY government (particularly Russia, Palestine, Iran, and a few others who are of course ALWAYS bad), pedophilia (if it pertains to celebrities or politicians), CBDCs, UBIs, Digital IDs, China (if you say anything bad about them), Russia (if you say anything good about them—even a mention of Tchaikovsky will get a “shut the #$%@ up” response,) Ukraine, Israel (anything bad, OR good) . . .whew, need I go on? The super sheep-person has become very well versed, and very well sensitized to a whole litany of suggestive conspiracy keywords that if uttered will cause a spit out of the phrase in question. It is like pushing the belly of a dog toy to hear the squeak. Shut the #$%@ up!

That’s about all I have to say about this. I’m sure you all get it and are experiencing it as well. It is very degrading, and at times embarrassing. To be labelled the dreaded “conspiracy theorist” or to have any topic that you know something about to be labelled a “conspiracy,” before you say anything at all about it, is very humiliating. Gone are the days of having opinions about things that might differ from something you read in the New York Times. Gone are the days when there were different political parties, each respected in their own right. Gone are the days when certain scientific facts about things like biological sex were held sacrosanct. Every issue is binary—there is the “right” side, and then there is the “conspiracy” side—that side doesn’t even warrant the respectability of being “bad” or “wrong.” It is a “conspiracy” which lies somewhere in the hinterland of despicable unmentionable nothingness.

So, before you even open your mouth next time regarding a thought you know will be identified as being on the conspiracy blacklist—just shut.the.#$%@.up.