67 million Americans voted for Trump

I walk around, dazed. Whatever the outcome, this one fact remains

Hi.

I have an update on the QAnon Luminate Festival at the end of this piece. But first, the elephant in the room.

Unfortunately… not a cute elephant.

I stayed up till 3am in New Zealand, watching the election results unfold in the US.

I flicked between CNN and Fox News. Those were the two I chose for the night. I was curious how they both played it.

And while the prospect of Trump winning the presidency for another four years was terrifying, so to was the realisation that 67 million people backed him.

After the blatant lies, homophobia, transphobia, racism and hatred — 67 million Americans still thought he was the man (and I use that term loosely) for the job.

I can grasp how some people are still — in 2020 — coming to terms with issues around sexuality, and don’t give a shit about their president’s views on that stuff. I don’t agree, but I grasp it.

But three things stand out to me as “Trumpisms” that I struggle to understand any human getting behind:

1. Donald Trump praising drivers that tried to run a Biden car off the road last week:

President Donald Trump on Saturday offered praise to a group of pro-Trump pickup truck drivers in Texas who surrounded and slowed a Biden campaign bus and who the Biden campaign accused of trying to run it “off the road”

You can watch the incident here, on Twitter.

2. Trump not only allowed but championed children being placed in cages.

Like — actual cages. They were not white though, so don’t worry about it I guess.

3. In 2005 Trump said this:

   “I did try and fuck her. She was married” and “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything…”

   That always struck me as just fundamentally dark and gross. Caveman-level shit.

But I can only assume 67 million Americans are okay with it, and they’re okay with locking Mexican kids in cages and they’re okay with running cars off roads.

Here in New Zealand, we’re not immune to people seemingly okay with this behaviour.

And I can see why people get annoyed when people show up in New Zealand bars in Trump hats, or find it funny to dress their kid up as a Trump supporter and drive him around Auckland in a MAGA utility vehicle.

Funny stuff. Hilarious.

I guess it’s the same reason I got annoyed at the Christian teacher who turned up at a Black Lives Matter protest in a MAGA hat.

The grabbing of women. The championing of running cars off the road. The kids in cages.

Kids in cages.

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In a roundabout way, I guess that brings me back to my newsletter earlier this week about the health and wellness retreat here in New Zealand that listed a number of Trump and QAnon supporters, anti-vaxxers and holocaust deniers on their list of “inspirations”.

I tried to reach the three organisers (Jules Harper, Rita Davies and newbie Irma Jager) for comment all week, but have heard nothing back.

Instagram, email, their website. I’ve resorted to Facebook DMs which will no doubt end up in a funk folder.

After my piece and a number of other criticisms that spread on Facebook, an open letter was penned to the festival from concerned artists and festival goers. You can read that here in its Google Doc form.

In response to that letter, Luminate issued an entirely tone-deaf statement, utterly missing the point.

Today I wanted to present that letter, along with my commentary from yours truly.

“Shining a Light on 13 Crystal Seeds of Positive Change”

“We have noticed some negativity being circulated on social media about Luminate.”

Right off the start they’ve repositioned “valid criticism” as “negativity”. This colours the rest of the letter and tells you everything you need to know about how many fucks Jules, Rita and Irma give.

“We’re also very grateful for the expressions of support and love. We are hearing people’s concerns about views expressed by some of the international people listed on the Lunasa page of Luminate’s website. I think that everyone knows that Luminate does not endorse racism. We advocate for diversity, tolerance and compassion for others.”

Okay, they don’t endorse racism. They get that off their chest pretty quickly. Which is why it’s very unusual they list anti-semite as one of their “13 Crystal Seeds of Positive Change”.

This information isn’t hidden. David Icke is racist. He is an anti-semite. He believes the Rothschilds rule the world and that Jews bankrolled Hitler.

“We are not aware that anyone listed in the 13 Crystal Seeds of Positive Change promotes racism, or is a supporter of QAnon. We haven’t heard any of them refer to it, it’s not something that Luminate has promoted  or even mentioned in a post.”

Oh please. Pete Evans is on your list. In this part of the world, he’s more well known for being a proponent of QAnon than he is a celebrity chef. Do these three organisers not know how to use Google?

Can they read?

“We, the management team of Luminate, feel a lot of empathy and care for the massive trauma and persecution of Jewish people, and many other people of the world.”

Okay, they’ve decided to address the fact they see anti-semite David Icke as an inspiration. Strap in. Hold onto your hat. Ready the barf bucket.

“We are hearing accusations that David Icke is anti-semitic and we understand that people feel very upset about that. Whilst we have not heard him speak in a racist way, and have heard him speak out against racism and fascism, it is also true to say we haven’t heard or read everything that he has published over the years.  It’s certainly not our intention to generate upset or promote negativity towards any people. We will do further research on this. He is not listed anymore on Luminate’s website, and we trust that offers peace and reassurance to people that are feeling upset.”

Actually, this is cool. They took him off the website. This is good. Maybe they’re listening.

I mean, in fairness to them, the man does write giant tomes and his talks average about eight hours, so maybe they missed the blatant racism.

But then again, Twitter has banned him. That should give them a hint.

“When a frenzy of negative and sometimes violent communication occurs on social media, we are not willing to engage at that level. When we received a couple of emails written with compassion and expressing concerns without judgement and projections, we respect that and can find empathy. We are grateful that people are willing to communicate in this way.”

Still haven’t replied to me, and I was incredibly civil.

“There are clearly misunderstandings that have been amplified through social media. For example, the people listed under the 13 Crystal Seeds of Positive Change are not people booked to present workshops at Luminate. Workshops applications are only opening this week.”

“Misunderstandings” is them talking down to anyone who criticises them. Classic gaslighting.

“Also we have had to put Luminate Festival on hold for this coming year, and instead are running a smaller fundraising event called Lunasa, with the intention of carrying through Luminate’s purpose to activate positive change beneficial to the ecology and to work towards the vision of heart-centered community flourishing in resonance with nature.”

Sounds like a bunch if hippie bullshit to me. And keep in mind… I like hippies. Just not red-pilled hippies.

“The intention with the 13 Crystal Seeds of Positive Change is to highlight themes that are alive in us and many people at present, that we think are meaningful topics for discussion and knowledge sharing…”

Oh, I wonder what meaningful topics Pete Evans would bring to the hypothetical table? Last time I checked, he said of COVID: “I think it’s a hoax. I think this whole f**king thing is a hoax!” 

Or maybe topics from Shiva Ayyadurai, the bullshitter who claims he invented email?

To clarify: “V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai is not a member of the MIT faculty and did not invent email,” says technology historian Thomas Haigh.

Maybe James Corbett could inspire topics including:

-9/11 and the JFK assassination being false flag attacks
-Water fluoridation and chemtrails lowering IQ 
-5G sending toxic electromagnetic waves
-Bill Gates being a Nazi eugenicist
-GMOs causing tumours
-Vaccines being a hoax
-Climate change being a hoax
-The moon landing is hoax
-Pizzagate being a real thing

Phew, and that’s only a fraction of the interests of three of their 13 listed inspirations!

“– such as integral health, regenerative farming, food resilience, optimal nourishment and detox protocols, compassionate communication, self-responsibility and personal health sovereignty, ancient wisdom, practical skills, freedom of movement. Our theme for Lunasa is bio-optimise and thrive- enhancing our internal biology, our external environment and power of the mind to achieve optimal health.”

But I guess they’re ignoring all the stuff I listed above, or lumping it under “ancient wisdom”.

It’s hard not to L-O-L.

“The people that we listed under the themes of the 13 Crystal Seeds are a range of doctors, scientists, researchers and others that we hear speak directly on these topics. They have all published information over a great many years and speak on a wide range of subjects.

Interesting how people assume everyone with a medical degree isn’t capable of utter lunacy. The doctor in the Plandemic documentary? Bonkers.

“Luminate cannot know and is not endorsing everything that each person has said over this time. The range of information, opinions and ideas that they share are not to be taken as the opinions of Luminate. However, we appreciate in all these people their expression of care and compassion for others, a willingness to ask questions, express concerns, and speak from their heart.”

If this festival thinks these people are are about “expression of care and compassion for others” then I would like to introduce them to the term grifter:

grifter
noun

1. a person who engages in petty or small-scale swindling.

   “I saw him as a grifter who preys upon people”

“We acknowledge that there is a plethora of contradictory information circulating, it can be confusing, and no one person has all the answers or holds the one truth – how could they?”

No, no, no — there is objective truth. Reality isn’t a game. It’s here. It exists.

I wrote about this at length in this piece: “What do we do in the absence of truth?”

You can’t go listing racists and documented liars on your website and justify it by going “no one person … holds the one truth”.

The arrogance of these three astounds me.

“An aspect of compassionate communication is being willing to listen to others with different points of views, different ways of communicating, try to hear what is coming up for them, what they are expressing concern about. Not everyone can do this, it takes practice. We enjoy hearing Charles Eisenstein encourage this practice and inviting anyone that would like to and feels comfortable to hold space for people to express different viewpoints in a non-violent way; and rather than trying to shut them down or project onto them with a meaningless label, let them know they have been heard. It’s not a requirement to agree with everything that someone else believes.”

This would be cool except whoever is writing this is incapable of hearing another viewpoint. That is what this entire letter is. Ignoring any view that is critical. Sorry — “negative”.

“We think one of the most important challenges that people all around the world are confronted with is being highlighted through the polarisation of viewpoints, and frustration around not being heard. Can we prioritise what we have in common and enhance bonds of connection and community, and be at peace with the fact that everyone perceives and engages with the world in their own unique way without feeling a compulsion to try and change others?”

This is just tiring. There is no listening going on here. Just pigheadedness and arrogance.

“Lots of people, including us, have many concerns about the state of the world. We are facing huge issues of environmental damage, species extinction, human suffering: the list is massive.  We can see that there is great need for broad perspectives and many approaches to find solutions. We advocate in particular for practical solutions that consider nature as central in importance.”

If Luminate organisers Jules Harper, Rita Davies or Irma Jager want to get in touch with me and actually answer some real questions, then I am waiting here: davidfarrier@protonmail.com.

I’m curious when they got red-pilled and if there’s any chance of getting them out.

Talk soon. If you only take one thing from today’s Webworm, please let it be “how not to take criticism”.

And hey — millions of Americans didn’t vote for Trump. Let’s not forget that.

David.