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orionsangel86 · 4 years ago

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SPN Conspiracies - Applying Logic to Chaos

Its been over 2 months now since the Supernatural finale aired. I am still so angry, hurt, and confused by it and I don’t think I will ever get closure unless someone like Andrew Dabb, or Jensen Ackles, actually opens up and gives us an explanation that makes sense.

What annoys me most right now is people trying to gaslight fans into believing that we should accept the narrative we have been given at face value: That the finale was always planned to be that way, that Destiel was never on the cards, that there was no Network interference, that the only changes made were due to covid and were minor at best.

This harmful gaslighting is FALSE.

NO ONE KNOWS THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENED.

Look, I don’t agree with some of the crazier conspiracy theories. I don’t believe that there was some huge campaign among the CW Network execs to remove anything remotely gay out of homophobia. I don’t believe that the finale was changed because of some desire to make it into a Walker promo. I don’t believe that the finale was really bad on purpose in protest by Dabb for not getting to do an ending he truly wanted. I don’t believe that Dabb left us smart fans a bunch of secret messages in the finale to hint that he was on our side all along and that everything was fake.

I do, however, believe that all of these conspiracy theories have some elements in them that are plausible. At least, more plausible than the bullshit narrative mentioned above that some people are pushing in some desperate attempt to defend the Network (which imo is really strange behaviour anyway - why would anyone care about a TV network with a history of terrible behaviour?!?)

We have facts, based on information provided before the covid lockdown, which for some reason, people like Misha have since backpeddled on. So let me try to outline some of the information that makes no sense.

Below the cut I go on a deep dive into the conspiracies and statements I have heard about the SPN finale and try to make some sense of this whole fucked up situation. It gets long.

1. “Cas was never gonna be in the finale”.

False: We have many fan accounts of Misha confirming that he was filming the finale. We have video evidence of Misha confirming he was going back to film the finale after the lockdown. We have confirmation from fans in Misha M&Gs from March that he had about 5 days of filming left.

We also had fan accounts of discussions with Alex Calvert (I think) where he confirmed the final shot of the final episode was all four of them though I would LOVE if someone can find a source for this.

2. Okay, Misha was gonna be in the finale, but only as Jimmy Novak

False: I heavily side eyed Misha when he said this. But I think I can come up with a plausible explanation for it. Per above, Misha was supposed to film for 5 days. This does not align with the half a day he described of filming as Jimmy Novak. My own belief is that after Cas was cut from the finale (for whatever reason we don’t know) someone (probably Jensen Ackles) put up a fight and complained that Misha should be there for the final episode. The writers probably tried to come up with a way to bring Misha back without having to deal with Cas, and pitched the idea of Jimmy Novak being in Heaven. Misha, obviously annoyed about this, turned this stupid pitch down.

3. Destiel was never a thing, never planned, never part of Dabb’s ending. Bobo and Misha pushing the confession was the part of the season that was Wrong.

False: We have a SPN writer on record saying that Castiel’s confession was the first thing written for Season 15 when the writers returned to the writers room. If it wasn’t planned, why was it the first thing written, why does it align so well with the rest of season 15? Look I know some people either a. hate destiel and refuse to see it even if it slaps them in the face, or b. have major heteronormative goggles on, or c. are just homophobes in denial, but 15x18 fits in perfectly with the narrative of season 15. Everything Cas says, everything that happened in that scene was so in character it just works. It fit. If you just rewatch the season whilst applying some critical thinking skills and pay attention to the narrative and character arcs, trust me, the confession fits in with pretty much every other plot point, and character story in the season.

Also: We have known for a while that the network did market research into Destiel, wanting to know if it would go down well or not. They were well aware of its popularity and considering it. Where would this have come from if not pitched by the showrunner? Dabb must have at least been considering it. If you take all of Dabb era into consideration, starting with mid season 11, all the way through the season 12 build up, season 13 grief arc, and then Bobo’s Destiel break up arc in late season 14, early season 15, it is clear that there was some toing and froing on the issue of Destiel, but ultimately, I still believe that Dabb was on board. He wrote 13x01 for christs sake. No way he wasn’t taking it seriously.

4. It’s always been about the brothers. The finale just stays true to what Supernatural is all about.

*rubs temples* Fundamentally FALSE: The show has time and again reasserted the message of “Family don’t end with blood”, as well as the messages of AKF and YANA. Sam and Dean may be at the heart of the show, but a heart can’t exist without a body to support it. Without bones, and lungs, and blood, and muscles, and a BRAIN. The finale abandons the shows core messages. It forces the characters back into their season 1 characterisations and the whole thing becomes hollow and souless. But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to lay down the facts. Dean’s heaven was supposed to be surrounded by loved ones right? We know OG Charlie Bradbury was gonna be in his Heaven, we also know CAS was gonna be in there. So this idea that the finale as it currently stands was how it was meant to be is wrong. Dean was supposed to die and reunite with his found family and loved ones. This alone would have been a far better ending than the one given. Do I think this was solely a covid issue? Fuck no.

The randoms that WERE in the finale are proof alone that they could have got people in and quarantined. We also have several actors on record saying that they WOULD have quarantined for the finale had they been asked to return but they WEREN’T.

Lies have been told. Samantha Ferris and Chad Limberg have confirmed that we have been lied to about the original plans for the finale.

This alone is proof enough that there is more plausibility in some of the conspiracy theories than any bullshit narrative some people are pushing in defence of the barbaric mess of a finale we were given.

So lets address some of the conspiracy theories now:

Conspiracy No.1: The CW Network reviewed Supernatural during the covid break, and due to homophobia, refused any Destiel arc that wasn’t already filmed, shut down any potential reciprocation from Dean, and forced Dabb to change his finale.

I don’t think this is entirely what happened. But I do think it is very strange how there is a such a huge disconnect particularly in Dean’s characterisations between what had come before the lockdown, and what came after. The one fact we have here, and please someone provide a source if you can find it because I know there is one, the finale script was still going through changes up to only 2 weeks before it was filmed. We know that there was some weird editing in 15x18 (which was still in post and uncompleted before lockdown) and we know from Jensen’s own mouth that there was more to the confession scene on Dean’s side that was cut. We also know that this isn’t the first time that Destiel heavy moments have been changed in post - the prayer scene is another big scene that went through a lot of changes and Bobo fought to have his script play out the way he wanted it.

There are certain things that in my own opinions, are basically true of SPN which I have put together from years of keeping one eye on the writers room, the network, and all the various comments made. My opinion is this:

The writers room has always been split on Destiel. Some writers heavily supported making it canon, others did not care, or were against it.

The Network considered it over the course of several years, did market research, green lit it, then changed their minds, possibly several times over the course of Dabb’s era. Destiel was pitched to the Network early in Dabb era.

The crew on set were also split. Some people heavily supported it, and worked to assist the reading, whereas others did not care/did not support it. The same can be said for the editing room.

Bob Singer supported the subtextual homoeroticism, but never supported bringing it into text (this is an opinion, but I think it aligns with everything we know about him.) IMO Bob Singer also supported subtextual homoeroticism between Sam and Dean - the guy is gross is what I’m saying. He isn’t exactly a progressive person.

Fun fact - a while back our old enemy Sera Gamble went on a Twitter rant about writers rooms and the ways a script goes through changes. I don’t think this was in relation to the SPN finale wank but she basically inadvertantly confirmed that the Network can step in and make sweeping changes to a script if they want to and if they decide they don’t like the direction of a story. Sera Gamble confirmed this as a fact.

Now. I’m not saying that this is what the CW did with Destiel. I just think its very strange how pre lockdown, the last thing filmed is a heartfelt homosexual declaration of love between Dean and Cas, and we have a finale script that Misha had not seen, but knew that he was meant to film as Castiel for 5 days (5 days on set is over half of an episode as far as I know). Then all of a sudden, Covid happens, and Cas is cut from the finale completely, a desperate attempt to bring Misha back only as Jimmy Novak takes place, which Misha rightly refuses, leading to a finale which makes zero sense narratively and appears in every way completely and utterly butchered.

The only explanation provided by anyone involved is that Covid meant changes had to happen - but that covid didn’t change the actual story at all.

But this makes no sense because we know that Cas was cut from the finale. This is FACT. Do not let anyone gaslight you into thinking otherwise. Misha was preparing to quaranting to return to set as Cas post Covid, so whatever happened to cut Cas from the finale, it wasn’t Covid.

I’m gonna have to Occum’s Razor this and say that the most logical explanation here is the one that is most likely true. Someone got cold feet with the Destiel story, and to prevent any possible interpretation that included Dean reciprocating, any hints of Destiel were removed from the finale script, including Castiel’s whole appearance.

Now, this isn’t me saying I think that Dabb’s original finale was full of Destiel love confessions and a homosexual kiss or whatever, but I am asking you all to really think about it and ask yourselves WHY Cas would have been totally cut from an episode he was supposed to be in at LEAST half of?

We will probably never know the real reason Cas was cut, but he WAS cut. I’m not saying it was all homophobia, but some fuckery went down.

Conspiracy No. 2: The CW Network changed the finale to make it into a Walker promo because they only cared about raising up Jared and not Jensen and Misha as they were losing them anyway.

I don’t agree with this in terms of the finale being butchered solely to make it into a Walker promo. There are however moments in the finale that are clearly supposed to be Walker Easter Eggs and added to excite fans of Jared/Sam in particular such as Sam’s gratuitous and unnecessary topless scene, as well as the call on the “case in Austin”.

I will take this moment to say something pretty damn controversial though.

*Deep breath*

The fact is, Dean Winchester has been the “lead” character of Supernatural’s narrative for years now, with Sam often being sidelined and not given great storylines himself. Even in Season 15, right up until the finale, I myself felt bad for Sam sometimes because so much of this show has become all about Dean. Jensen Ackles is clearly the better actor when it comes to emotional story arcs, so the emotional heart of the story has most often leant on him.

So you can understand my confusion, when this is turned on its head in the final episode, to make Sam carry all the emotional weight, and have the most lines/screentime, and story resolution (even if his story resolution was just as crappy as Dean’s).

If we pretend that Destiel is not a thing, and ignore Cas’s confession, the story change in the finale from Dean focus to Sam focus is still rather suspicious. Again, I’m not saying I completely approve of or agree to the conspiracy theory that Walker influenced the butchering of the script, but I can believe that perhaps a note went down from the CW to someone like Bob Singer, to emphasise Sam/Jared more than they perhaps would normally, because the CW wanted to shine the spotlight on Jared to raise excitement for Walker.

I can also believe this note might have said something like “we wanna cater to fans of Sam/Jared the most - don’t do anything to piss them off.” but now I am getting into my own conspiracy theories so by all means dismiss this as me being bitter.

Conspiracy No.3: Dabb purposely made it bad, as a secret message to Destiel fans that he had been silenced, by layering meta clues into the episode that he knew fans would notice.

I doubt this one is true. Though some of the theories are quite compelling. The old vampire silent movie theory for instance starts off quite well, but loses me the moment it brings up Urban Dictionary slang.

Sometimes I have just had to accept that Supernatural is a bad show that is sometimes accidentally a masterpiece. However, some writers really did go That Deep with their stories - anything by Ben Edlund or Steve Yockey for instance, their episodes are meta masterpieces with a hundred different layers of beautiful subtextual storytelling and are a joy to analyse. Bobo Berens has certainly done some A+++ work especially now we KNOW that he was working hard all this time to bring Destiel to canon text (so any analysis of Destiel in the subtext in his episodes is very accurate). There have been many other key elements analysed over the years which have been confirmed true. Cas’s death in Season 12, Dean’s time as a demon in season 10, Season 11 ending in unity of dark and light, these were all plot points predicted by meta writers just by analysing the narrative. Sometimes the writers really have been very smart and they do add things to the show to aid us in our meta.

Richard Speight Jr for instance, confirmed that SPN has a visual library that the production team use to give clues and hints in the narrative. Pizza, for example, always means a lie has been told. Whenever Pizza is being eaten or even just mentioned on screen, there is dishonesty in that particular moment.

The beers also have a very specific message and the one thing I can’t let go about the finale, was that Dean was drinking El Sol beer. The beer his dad gave him, that was terrible.

El Sol has been used in the show to indicate something being wrong, a fake reality, or another lie, for the longest time. It is the beer of deception.

The fact that in the final episode of this entire show, Dean is in Heaven, supposedly at peace, and then he gets handed an El Sol beer to drink? Thats a HUGE red flag for any meta writer watching who can read SPNs visual library.

If they had given him the Margiekugel beer of family then it would make sense. Dean is in Heaven, with Bobby, his family, at peace. Margiekugel should have been the beer of choice. But nope. El Sol. Something is wrong.

I don’t know if it was Dabb, or Singer, or some disgruntled ADs and crew members who added these elements into the finale, but their very presence confirms some message of Wrongness.

I could go into a huge rant about Vampire Mimes not making sense and the very glaringly obvious symbolism of cutting out peoples tongues too, but that is high school level film analysis. It’s obvious. It means to silence someone. There is validity in interpreting this as Dabb saying he was silenced. I don’t know how true it is, but i can’t 100% dismiss it, because as I said, this is high school analysis levels of obvious subtextual storytelling.

So in summary, whilst I don’t think that Dabb intentionally went out of his way to sabotage his own script, and leave a breadtrail of secret messages for savvy fans to put together to confirm that he was silenced by an evil network into not getting what he wanted... I do think that there is validity in questioning these odd choices for the finale. Cutting out tongues? Vampire Mimes? El Sol beer?

The evidence is somewhat compelling is all I’m saying. I don’t believe the full conspiracy theories, but as I have said many times before, some fuckery went down.

So What Do I Believe?

That some fuckery went down and whatever company line they are pushing is bullshit.

I believe that the original script included Cas (since thats fact). I believe that the original script probably always had Dean dying on a vampire hunt (due to Jensen’s issues with it and in particular, his sarcastic comments about vampires in the past year or so which in hindsight are hilarious and prove he never really came to terms with Dean’s idiotic death). I believe Dabb’s original script was some less crappy version of what we got, which potentially included showing Jack rescuing Cas from the Empty and resolving the outstanding Empty plot points (potentially this was actually a 15x19 plot since Mark P commented that his final scenes were supposed to be with Jack and Cas), had Cas reunite with Dean in Heaven and had them have a discussion about Cas’s confession. I believe that there was probably a lot of back and forth over how to handle that with some people wanting Dean to obviously reciprocate and others believing they should keep it ambiguous. I believe that Dean and Cas would have reunited with Charlie Bradbury, and Bobby Singer, and possibly others (though if this was the case it must have been very early on since no one ever looped in Sam Ferris, Chad Linberg or any other Roadhouse people).

I believe that Sam’s ending probably didn’t change much, but I do feel that initially they were planning on him ending up with Eileen, because it is the only thing that narratively makes sense. Cutting Eileen and giving him a blurry wife is something I won’t ever understand and Jared’s bullshit explanations are quite clearly pulled out of his ass to appease bronly types. I believe the reunion on the bridge would have included Cas and Jack, with a final shot of all four of them together, at peace (as this aligns with Alex’s comments from around a year or so ago that the final shot was all four of them). (I also am not sure it was always supposed to be on a bridge since the foreshadowing in an earlier episode showed Dean, Cas and Sam all in the Roadhouse together).

I believe that script went through countless changes and redrafts, and not even production people or the types that some fandom people claim as their “sources” would even have seen those early scripts, since even Misha never saw it. I believe that these rumours of Dabb never having Cas in his finale and ignoring all Destiel elements likely come from people who only saw later versions, weren’t party to network discussions and felt bitter about the final scripts they did see (being the crappy butchered one that was ultimately filmed). Those “sources” are now spreading rumours to discredit Dabb.

I obviously believe Dabb is a weak ass pushover who either didn’t care enough to fight back, or gave up since he’s been stuck with fucking Bob Singer on his back for years, but I will NEVER believe he didn’t care about the DeanCas love story, because he has been one of the few writers who has championed for it for years. You can’t look back at Dabb’s episodes in earlier seasons and claim he didn’t care. Dabb was a writer whose creative ideas were beaten out of him by an unforgiving Network only concerned about where their future money was coming from. Do I think he gave up too easily? Yes. But I also have one other huge reason for not believing the bullshit about Dabb being this anti-Destiel villain.

Bobo. Because if Bobo truly believed Dabb was gonna fuck that up at the end, I don’t think he would have given us Cas’s love confession to begin with. If he had known it was gonna end like that, I think he would have reconsidered, because had Cas not confessed his love, I don’t think he would have been cut from the finale. Bobo - a gay man, would not have wanted such a horrible message for queer fans being put across in the show he worked so hard on. He started writing that confession scene the day they returned to the writers room. Dabb would have been there, would have seen what he was writing, probably discussed it with him, after all, other episodes were written with the confession in mind. No way was Dabb planning to fuck up the ending knowing what Bobo was giving us. Nope.

Something went very wrong over lockdown. Someone, somewhere up the chain of power caught wind of the confession scene in 15x18, realised that it demanded a resolution which would make Dean Winchester, their protagonist, queer, and pulled the plug. I believe this did not come from a place of homophobia, but of bad business sense.

The CW is constantly trying to win the approval and attention of the one demo group that they seem to fail at getting the most: young straight men. Supernatural was one of their only remaining shows that appeals to young straight men, and Dean Winchester is more often than not the fave character of those young straight men who project onto him. Making Dean Winchester, established Han Solo of Supernatural, queer and in love with his best friend in the finale would have come across as a betrayal to those young straight men. The CW probably feared they would lose that demo group for good, and with a show like Walker starting soon with Jared at the helm, they couldn’t take the risk.

Hence there was probably a whole bunch of back and forth script redrafts with the Network, with Dabb and Singer fighting to make a finale that would appeal to everyone. There was most likely no way that they could bring Cas back without addressing what had already been filmed, because any resolution of that plot would either a. make Dean queer, or b. address it awkwardly by having Dean reject Cas (this storyline would probably have been slammed by critics worse than the finale because it meant addressing it. It might have got the attention of LGBTQ activist groups and caused a bigger shitstorm than what we got). The best option was therefore C. Bury it and Cas, pretend it never happened. Never address it again and distract Dean with other things. Hope that Destiel fans will accept no answer from Dean as ambiguous enough to imagine a future reunion rather than shutting it down with a rejection, and still keep hold of the blissfully ignorant heteronormative straight boys so they can carry over to Walker when it starts.

I also believe (controversially probably) that there was concern that any resolution of Dean and Cas would have overshadowed network darling Jared Padalecki. If Dean and Cas had come together in the finale, with a very clearly textual homosexual reunion, then that would have been all anyone talked about. The reviewers, the critics, the audience, everyone. It would have been nothing but Dean and Cas (and look, if they did think this, they were right, Destiel trending over the US ELECTION.)

So what is the network to do, when they are losing the two stars who would get the most attention from this storyline? The one star they were holding on to and getting his own show, relegated to third place in the finale of the show where he was first on the call sheet? Nope. That’s pretty unacceptable. Even without Walker I can imagine people at all levels side eyeing the Destiel thing over the years. This IS a show about two brothers, and their relationship should be the core relationship, we can’t have one brother pushed aside in the finale to make way for a queer relationship that will get all the attention instead. It was never gonna get approved for this reason ALONE.

At the end of the day, if I look at it from a business perspective, it makes far more sense that the CW shut down Destiel, rather than “oh Dabb never cared and ruined it because he’s an idiot.” The writers cared, and had built on that story over years. But their mistake was leaving any Destiel resolution to the finale. If they had instead gone and got Dean and Cas together in early season 15, then they could have ended it in a way that satisfied everyone. Destiel wouldn’t have threatened pulling focus away from Sam and Dean, and the show could have gone out on a high.

When I lay out all the conspiracy theories, and line them up next to the cold hard facts, the conspiracy theories in some way or another, make more sense. To believe the company line, the narrative we have been fed, is to ignore your own eyes, ears, and memories pre March 2020.

All I’m asking people to do is take a look at the show, the narrative presented in the show, and the information presented above. I’m not telling you to believe what I’ve written here, half of which is just my own opinion. I’m asking you to ask yourselves if it makes sense to you. Because it sure as hell doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied.

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ataswegianabroad · 4 years ago

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Alone Amongst the Gum Trees Part 3 - It Was Murdoch All Along

NOTE - this article has been migrated to Medium. As of 2021, A Taswegian Abroad will be closed down, and all of my writing will be published on my Medium profile.

“For some time, Australia’s democracy has been slowly sliding into disrepair. The nation’s major policy challenges go unaddressed, our economic future is uncertain and political corruption is becoming normalised. We can’t understand the current predicament of our democracy without recognising the central role of Murdoch’s national media monopoly.

There is no longer a level playing field in Australian politics. We won’t see another progressive government in Canberra until we deal with this cancer in our democracy.”

- Kevin Rudd - THE CASE FOR COURAGE

Foreword

I started this as a brain dump on July 25th, 2016 just before I flew back to Australia for 4 weeks. I decided to wait to finish it as an “Alone Amongst the Gum Trees” piece after the 2016 US election as it would have directly impacted the outcome.

That was the plan, anyway. I forgot entirely that I had written this draft for almost 5 years. The next thing you know: it’s early 2021, I’m married, have a dog, a car, and my first child is due in August.

My last political opinion piece was from April 11, 2016: a piece on how Bernie Sanders was being treated in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

So what happened from mid-2016 to early 2021? I didn’t jump back down the political commentary rabbit hole. No more rants on Tumblr blogs. No angry posts on Facebook. The odd spicy tweet about the current election happening between my old home (Australia), my new home (Canada) and the messed up cousin next door (United States). I instead chose to divert my love of writing to sports (see https://thefiftyfooty.com/), technology, and music.

From a political standpoint I chose to mostly stop talking, and to listen. Now don’t become misconstrued: I did not ignore it. I was very active over the Provincial and Federal Canadian elections of 2015 and 2019, I followed the unprecedented US political climate very closely given our proximity to the United States (and learned a lot in the process), and I voted in the most recent 2019 Australian election (my third from Toronto since leaving in 2012).

If I take a step back - I still need to be self-critical: I was defeated and I surrendered to the tidal-wave of the far-right. I was watching the US tear itself in two over race, alternative facts, and radical ideology. I was watching the UK go down a similar path with Brexit and Boris Johnson. I was watching my beloved homeland of Australia continue to confusingly elect damaging conservative governments despite the polls, trends, movements and more indicating it was time for a change.

As I matured into my late 20′s and now early 30′s (*gulp*) I was asking myself: was this how it was going to be? Did the western world just decide “we’re done with progressive views, let stick it in reverse for a bit and see how we go”? If that was true, then why did Canada buck this trend with Trudeau in 2015 & 2019? Why was New Zealand thriving under Arden after 2017 and 2020?

I went to a dark place on this.

But then something amazing happened. Enter former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd talking about wanting a royal commission into Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp empire who control 70% of print media in Australia.

Did he say 70% of all print media in Australia?

I STRONGLY recommend taking 15 minutes to watch this video. It will do a much better job of painting the scene than I ever could. If not, you can still read on through.

youtube

After doing some looking into this: all I can say is that I didn’t have to dig very far to have my fire reignited. All I can think about now is this #MurdochRoyalCommission

My world view has changed, and what I am about to write next will explain a few things that I hope will change yours too.

This is not a left vs right piece. This is not a blame, shame, or complain piece either. I won’t curse or abuse, because this is a self reflection, a cry of encouragement, and a call to action to all who live in and want to protect the political integrity of democracy around the world.

I am here to explain my thought patterns with the goal of having at least one more person under the thumb of Murdoch’s “beast” realise just what’s going on, and to encourage that person to make more informed decisions knowing the facts.

The Path to En-frightened-ment

February 2014 was the last time I updated the long-form political arm of my blog. Back then as a young man exposed to his first bout of political and social disappointment after the 2013 Australian election - I felt the need to get it all out and I did in a little more linguistically brash Part 2 of “Alone Amongst the Gum Trees”.

I was in an interesting position then. I was a 23 year old finding his place in the world - personally, politically, spiritually, environmentally. I was mostly deciding whether or not I was done with Toronto and it if was time to stay home permanently after spending 3 months back in Australia.

I chose no. I left. I came back to Toronto and the rest is history.

Then one day a couple of years later I got us flights back to Australia for a visit. After nearly 3 years avoiding it (mostly because of my post-election distaste for Australian ignorance), it was time to bite the bullet and go home for a bit.

In 2014 I mentioned:

...let’s talk about Australia, how things changed, how it looked from outside the huge wall that the government apparently has built around the country now, and how it looks from a bloke who literally can not wait to leave again.

I had been anxious about that trip for a while. Not because I hadn’t seen everyone for so long or because it was my wife’s (then girlfriend who became my fiance on that trip) first time visiting, it was because Australia had a chance to move away from the “ignorance, inequality, narrow-minded idiocy, and over-conservatism” I mentioned in 2014.

But we didn’t. Turnbull won the 2016 election. I was so angry at the Australian people. I was so scared of that ignorant, greedy, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, narrow minded, privileged, climate denying creature that seems to be slowly devouring the planet.

From that point in time, all I could think about was some sort of big right-wing populist shift happening across the globe. Outside of the obvious ones: Trump in the USA, Johnson in the UK and Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison in Australia, there were a few more extreme cases: Putin in Russia, Marine Le Pen in France, Viktor Orban in Hungary. Then there’s Cambodia, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt etc who saw this as a huge advantage as well. It may not be the end of a progressive vision of the world but it definitely seemed like the beginning of a big switch.

One thing I learned during my political writing hiatus while serving my self-induced “exile” to Canada is that this country was one of the few blips in this trend. Why did Canada choose to elect Justin Trudeau in 2015, a left wing liberal, after 9 years of Harper’s conservative government? Was it simply because Canadians were good and fair people? Did they just fundamentally understand that you need both conservative and progressive governments to advance society? Perhaps they do, and Canadians are most definitely good and fair people regardless of election results. I am even set to become a Canadian citizen myself (and a dual-citizen overall) in 2021.

So where is this all coming from? Why are the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom on a continued path to segregation, protectionism, populism and division while Canada and New Zealand show basically zero of these tendencies?

The News Corp cancer that is Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is the deciding factor.

So What Does Kevin Rudd Have To Do With It?

Mr. Rudd has been living in the USA for the last 5 years and is firmly spearheading the charge in that Rupert Murdoch’s media behemoth “News Corp” has been unlawfully influencing Australian opinion and undermining elections in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States for close to 3 decades (more predominantly in the last 8 years).

Before you read any further I have to be transparent about my opinions of Kevin Rudd. I accredit his “Kevin 07″ campaign as the catalyst for my interest in politics, my decision to study economics at university, and my ongoing support for progressive policies in every federal and state election since 2007. His work has played a big part in shaping me into the person I am today.

Despite my positive position on Mr. Rudd, I am also disappointed he did not action this during his time as prime minister. However, I am “all in” when it comes to what he is standing for, and that is:

Eradicating monopolies in all forms (be it political, business, journalism, etc)

Improving media literacy to encourage fair and unbiased journalism

Avoiding the pitfalls of Murdoch's divisive influence on the USA happening to Australia

There’s a few key factoids to his claims of mass-media bias:

70% of print media in Australia is owned by ONE MAN: Rupert Murdoch (100% owned in Queensland)

Print media influences the national conversation on a daily basis

Rupert Murdoch owns the biggest YouTube channel in Australia (news.com.au)

The line between fact-based and opinion-based reporting continues to blur, resembling that of CNN (Democrats) and Fox (Republican) extreme partisanship in the USA

All of Murdoch’s papers have backed the Liberal/National party in all 19 out of the last 19 federal and state elections

The ABC is breaching the Australian Broadcasting Act of 1983 by not standing up to Murdoch media purely out of fear

Politicians are not standing up out of fear of character assassination

Whether or not Murdoch is backing left or right, Labor or Liberal, the question still remains:

Do you think it is healthy for a FOREIGN PRIVATE ENTITY to own a monopoly level of influence on a sovereign country’s political system for that private entity to use for their own personal gain through targeted media attacks and character assassinations?

Watch This Space...

There are utter mountains of evidence to accompany these claims, and to make sure you can digest what I am trying to say, I recommend that you sink your teeth into the following videos to validate and truly comprehend the size of the tumour we are dealing with:

Feb 20, 2020 - 1h - Friendlyjordies informal interview with Kevin Rudd

This is right before the Covid outbreak in March, which delayed Mr. Rudd’s ability to move for a formal commission into media bias

Provides excellent insight into the ABC’s lack of action, the opportunism of the Green party, and the complete absence of unbiased reporting in Australia

Feb 18, 2021 - 1h 30m - Kevin Rudd Officially Requesting Royal Commission to Australian Senate

The first 20-30 minutes provide Mr. Rudd’s summary of the situation

The remainder of the video consists of questions from both Labor and Liberal senators about Mr. Rudd’s claims

Mar 1, 2021 - 2m - Kevin Rudd speaks to Sunrise about the Murdoch monopoly

Mr. Rudd went on a national flagship morning show to discuss his concerns regarding News Corp

LISTEN to the questions being asked of him: completely disregarding his valid points and dismissing him as “sour grapes”

Channel 7 is not News Corp, so why try to discredit Mr. Rudd? Fear of being targeted by News Corp

Mar 9, 2021 - 1h - National Press Club: The Case for Courage

Mr. Rudd stands up in front of The National Press Club of Australia to promote the four big challenges facing Australia in his upcoming book “The Case for Courage”

He takes questions from journalists from both Murdoch and non-Murdoch media outlets

As I start to conclude this piece, for action to happen, an independent royal commission is required to get to the facts. Mr. Rudd already gathered over 500,000 signatures that were recently sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking for the royal commission to take place, but this is not enough.

Even former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a friend of Rupert Murdoch and political opposite to Mr. Rudd, signed the petition and said the following:

Mr Turnbull, a former Liberal prime minister, said the Murdoch media used to be a group of traditional right-leaning outlets but has now become "a vehicle of propaganda."

He told ABC television's Insiders program on Sunday that Australian democracy was suffering for allowing the "crazy, bitter partisanship" of social media to creep into the mainstream.

"We have to work out what price we're paying, as a society, for the hyper-partisanship of the media," Mr Turnbull said.

"Look at the United States and the terrible, divided state of affairs that they're in, exacerbated, as Kevin was saying, by Fox News and other right-wing media."

I recently sent a (somewhat long) letter to Mr. Rudd expressing my concern for the state of Australia’s media landscape, with it culminating in the following questions:

I am deeply moved and inspired by your bravery to take on "the beast" as you so aptly name it, and I want to boldly ask: how can I help? How can I get involved?

I am yet to hear back from Mr. Rudd himself - but I think if you’ve gotten this far, you know what I am about to say next.

I want to help, learn more, or get involved.

That’s amazing. We’re not asking for money, just action. Here’s some ways you can help is stop the rot:

SUBSCRIBE TO and FOLLOW direct updates from Kevin Rudd:

Website / Newsletters

https://newsroyalcommission.com/

https://kevinrudd.com/

Social media alongside the #MurdochRoyalCommission hashtag on all platforms:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Boycott News Corp media sites, publications, and channels

I’ve linked a list of all assets by News Corp above

This includes steering clear of ALL mediums of news owned by these publications and outlets including the respective:

Social media channels and pages

Television and radio news channels

Print and online newspapers and articles

SHARE and spread the word of this cancer affecting our democracy

Talk TO your friends and family (not AT them) and LISTEN to their views - people are not dumb: this will make sense if given time to digest

WATCH the videos posted above as a start, alongside a few more recommendations:

This interview between Friendly Jordies and former Labor Leader Bill Shorten from earlier in March 2021

I learned more about Bill Shorten in the last 20 minutes of this interview than I did in his entire run as opposition leader.

This just goes to show you how utterly mistreated he was by Murdoch media

For a laugh - every episode of Kevin Rudd: PM from Rove McManus’ late night show

I want Australia to remain a safe, secure, and lucky country to raise my family in someday. I care about this very much and plan to ramp up my content around this until we are free from the Murdoch beast and its lies.

Thank you so much for reading, as always, I am happy to discuss.

List of Murdoch (News Corp) Owned Outlets [Expanded Below]

Television

Foxtel (65%)

Australian News Channel

Fox Sports Australia

Streamotion

Fox Sports News

Fox Cricket

Fox Footy

Fox League

Kayo Sports

Binge

Sky News Australia

Sky News Weather

Sky News Extra

Sky After Dark

Australia Channel (News Streaming channel)

Sky News New Zealand

Sky News on WIN

Internet

Punters.com.au — Australian horse racing and bookmaker affiliate.

SuperCoach

Australia Best Recipes

hipages

odds.com.au

Mogo

One Big Switch

Knewz, a news aggregator

Realestate.com.au

Advertising, Branding & Tech

Global

Storyful

News UK

bridge studio

wireless Group

wireless studios

urban media

First Radio

Switchdigital

TIBUS

ZESTY

News Corp Australia

SUDDENLY - Content Agency

Medium Rare Content Agency

HT&E (Here, There & Everywhere)

News Xtend

Radio

News UK & Ireland

wireless Group

talkSPORT

talkSPORT 2

talkRADIO

Virgin Radio

FM104

Q102

96FM

c103

Live 95FM

LMFM

U105

Scottish Sun 80s

Scottish Sun Hits

Scottish Sun Greatest Hits

Times Radio

Magazines and Inserts (digital and print)

News Corp Australia

Big League

body+soul

Broncos

Business Daily

delicious

Escape

Foxtel

GQ Australia

Hit

Kidspot

Mansion Australia

Motoring

Sportsman

Super Food Ideas

taste.com.au

The Deal

The Weekend Australian Magazine

Vogue Australia

Vogue Living

Whimn

Wish

News & Magazines (digital and print)

News UK

The Sun

The Times

The Sunday Times

Press Association (part owned, News UK is one of 26 shareholders)

The TLS (Times Literary Supplement)

News Corp Australia

The Australian including weekly insert magazine The Deal and monthly insert magazine (wish)

The Weekend Australian

Australian Associated Press

news.com.au

New South Wales

The Daily Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph including insert magazine sundaymagazine

Victoria

Herald Sun

Sunday Herald Sun including insert magazine sundaymagazine

Lions Raw

Samizdat

Queensland

The Courier-Mail including weekly insert magazine QWeekend

The Sunday Mail

Brisbane News

South Australia

The Advertiser including the monthly insert The Adelaide magazine

Sunday Mail

Tasmania

The Mercury

The Sunday Tasmanian

Northern Territory

Northern Territory News

Sunday Territorian

Community suburban newspapers

Cumberland/Courier (NSW) newspapers

Blacktown Advocate

Canterbury-Bankstown Express

Central

Central Coast Express Advocate

Fairfield Advance

Hills Shire Times

Hornsby and Upper North Shore Advocate

Inner West Courier

Liverpool Leader

Macarthur Chronicle

Mt Druitt-St Marys Standard

NINETOFIVE

North Shore Times

Northern District Times

NORTHSIDE

Parramatta Advertiser

Penrith Press

Rouse Hill Times

Southern Courier

The Manly Daily

The Mosman Daily

Village Voice Balmain

Wentworth Courier

Leader (Vic) newspapers

Bayside Leader

Berwick/Pakenham Cardinia Leader

Brimbank Leader

Caulfield Glen Eira/Port Philip Leader

Cranbourne Leader

Dandenong/Springvale Dandenong Leader

Diamond Valley Leader

Frankston Standard/Hastings Leader

Free Press Leader

Heidelberg Leader

Hobsons Bay Leader

Hume Leader

Knox Leader

Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader

Manningham Leader

Maribyrnong Leader

Maroondah Leader

Melbourne Leader

Melton/Moorabool Leader

Moonee Valley Leader

Moorabbin Kingston/Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader

Mordialloc Chelsea Leader

Moreland Leader

Mornington Peninsula Leader

Northcote Leader

Preston Leader

Progress Leader

Stonnington Leader

Sunbury/Macedon Ranges Leader

Waverley/Oakleigh Monash Leader

Whitehorse Leader

Whittlesea Leader

Wyndham Leader

Quest (QLD) newspapers

Albert & Logan News (Fri)

Albert & Logan News (Wed)

Caboolture Shire Herald

Caloundra Journal

City News

City North News

City South News

Ipswich News

Logan West Leader

Maroochy Journal

North-West News

Northern Times

Northside Chronicle

Pine Rivers Press/North Lakes Times

Redcliffe and Bayside Herald

South-East Advertiser

South-West News/Springfield News

Southern Star

The Noosa Journal

weekender

Westside News

Wynnum Herald

Weekender Essential Sunshine Coast

Messenger (SA) newspapers

Adelaide Matters

City Messenger

City North Messenger

East Torrens Messenger

Eastern Courier Messenger

Guardian Messenger

Hills & Valley Messenger

Leader Messenger

News Review Messenger

Portside Messenger

Southern Times Messenger

Weekly Times Messenger

Community (WA) newspapers

(50.1%) (Formerly)

Advocate

Canning Times

Comment News

Eastern Reporter

Fremantle-Cockburn Gazette

Guardian Express

Hills-Avon Valley Gazette

Joondalup-Wanneroo Times

Mandurah Coastal / Pinjarra Murray Times

Melville Times

Midland-Kalamunda Reporter

North Coast Times

Southern Gazette

Stirling Times

Weekend-Kwinana Courier

Weekender

Western Suburbs Weekly

Sun (NT) newspapers

Darwin Sun

Litchfield Sun

Palmerston Sun

Regional and rural newspapers

New South Wales

Tweed Sun

Tweed Daily News

Victoria

Echo

Geelong Advertiser

GeelongNEWS

The Weekly Times

Queensland

Bowen Independent

Burdekin Advocate

Cairns Sun

Gold Coast Bulletin

Gold Coast Sun

Herbert River Express

Home Hill Observer

Innisfail Advocate

Northern Miner

Port Douglas & Mossman Gazette

Tablelander – Atherton

Tablelands Advertiser

The Cairns Post

The Noosa News

The Sunshine Coast Daily

Townsville Bulletin

Toowoomba Chronicle

Townsville Sun

weekender

Daily Mercury (Mackay)

Tasmania

Derwent Valley Gazette

Tasmanian Country

Northern Territory

Centralian Advocate

International

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (63%)

United States

New York Post

Wall Street Journal

realtor.com

Move (80%)

Dow Jones & Company

Consumer Media Group

The Wall Street Journal – the leading US financial newspaper

Wall Street Journal Europe closed

The Wall Street Journal Asia closed

Barron's – weekly financial markets magazine

Marketwatch – financial news and information website

Financial News

Heat Street - news and opinion website

Mansion Global - global luxury property website

Enterprise Media Group

Dow Jones Newswires – global, real-time news and information provider.

Factiva – provides business news and information together with content delivery tools and services.

Dow Jones Indexes – stock market indexes and indicators, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (10% ownership)

Dow Jones Financial Information Services – produces databases, electronic media, newsletters, conferences, directories, and other information services on specialised markets and industry sectors.

Betten Financial News – leading Dutch language financial and economic news service.

Strategic Alliances

STOXX (33%) – joint venture with Deutsche Boerse and SWG Group for the development and distribution of Dow Jones STOXX indices.

Wireless Group

Talksport

TalkRadio

Books

HarperCollins

4th Estate

Collins

Ecco Press

Harlequin Enterprises

Harper Perennial

Harper Voyager

Kappa Books

Modern Publishing

Unisystems Inc.

Zondervan Publishing

Christian publishing company taken over by HarperCollins in 1988

Inspirio – religious gift production

#murdochroyalcommission #rudd #auspol #politics

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nebris · 5 years ago

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Her Grandfather Founded the Westboro Baptist Church. Twitter Helped Her Leave It.

To understand her own extreme beliefs, Megan Phelps-Roper began listening to people who reached out to her on social media

Megan Phelps-Roper’s conversion began on Twitter. Phelps-Roper is the granddaughter of Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas. Westboro is infamous for its anti-queer protests at the sites of military funerals and other tragedies, deploying church members to hold up signs that say, “Thank God for dead soldiers,” “God blew up the troops,” “Thank God for 9/11,” and “God hates America.”

In 2008, when she was 22, Phelps-Roper started a Twitter account for the church, where she quickly gathered followers by replying to celebrities and politicians and asserting the church’s hateful message. But Twitter was also where Phelps-Roper’s understanding of faith, God, and identity began to change. In her memoir, Unfollow, Phelps-Roper tells the story of her life in the church and how the dialogue she encountered on Twitter caused her to leave her family and her entire way of life.

Like Phelps-Roper, I also grew up as a fundamentalist Christian and have struggled to come to terms with the faith that raised me and the faith I have now. I recently spoke with her about her conversion in reverse as well as Christianity in America today and the potential for grace and atonement.

Lyz Lenz: When people hear about organizations like the Westboro Baptist Church, the reaction is often: just leave. But it’s more complicated than that. For you, your church was your family; it was your whole world. What did it mean to leave?

Megan Phelps-Roper: If organizations like Westboro were universally bad, they wouldn’t exist. There had to be some draw, and at Westboro, there was a lot of draw. The church was almost entirely made up of my extended family, and everyone in the church felt like family. We did everything together: We had dinner together, played video games; we read books and watched movies together. You were raised to be willing to do anything for one another. As long as you were a member of good standing, there was this incredible sense of love and belonging. In many ways, it was really beautiful.

These were the people who brought you food when you were sick. They threw baby showers and weddings. Westboro was your whole life. After you left, who were you?

I was indoctrinated. I shied away from using that term for a while, but the fact is, it’s true. I was taught that our beliefs were the infallible words of God. The paradigm was just so strictly ingrained into my brain. The idea of deviating from it was absolutely terrifying. What leaving means is you are going to be cut off from this community that is your everything.

Also, you’re going to hell.

At Westboro, the depictions of hell are extremely vivid. The only thing that changes in hell, according to the church, is your capacity to feel pain. As the capacity to feel pain increases, so does the pain. It’s absolutely terrifying. I believed God was going to curse me for having left this group of people. I was terrified I was going to get in a car accident, or I’d get some terrible disease. I believed there was no chance I was going to make it to old age.

I think for people not raised in a fundamentalist church, it’s hard to understand how the concept of hell is used as a tool of control.

My husband had a very difficult time understanding that we really believed in hell. He really thought we were all just pretending because this was what was required of us. But it was a very real fear for me.

What do you think people in America need to understand about religious fundamentalism?

That people can choose to believe differently. I was 26 years old when I left. Technically, I had the legal choice to leave when I was 18. But because of the way I was raised, leaving made just as much sense as cutting off a limb and then jumping into shark-infested waters. That’s how we saw the world, as this evil, corrupt place. And Westboro was the only refuge from that world.

Do you think that Westboro is an aberration in the world of Christianity? Or do think it’s an extension of what white Christian America says about faith?

There are aspects of Westboro that are, of course, more extreme in the way that certain religious practices manifest. But the idea that the Bible is the infallible word of God, that it’s unquestionable — this is common. Some people cannot believe there is an alternative interpretation of the Bible aside from their own. I was really shocked after I left and started talking to Evangelical Christians who were different from those I met in Westboro.

I remember going to a Lutheran church where there was a sermon about the apocalypse. The pastor told us the apocalypse is a metaphor, that it’s something we inflict upon ourselves and each other, and that the second coming of Jesus happens inside our hearts. I was like, “You can say that?”

Absolutely! That’s what I write about, the idea of epistemological humility. You can have strong beliefs, but people need to understand our perspectives are limited and that there is still more to learn. This kind of thinking is not at all limited to Westboro. I wrote about going into a casino after leaving the church and talking to a bartender, and she described the Westboro-like beliefs that her mother had taught her. Westboro is really well known because of its unique, extreme beliefs. But all across the country and around the world, it’s really unreal how common these things are.

So how do you get someone like you to leave?

I gave a TED Talk a couple of years ago detailing the strategies that helped change my mind. If you want to reach people on the other side, don’t assume bad intent on their part — they came to these beliefs based on a lifetime of experiences. Instead, ask questions.

One of the positive things about looking at extreme beliefs is that it highlights the fundamental problem with thinking that way. Taking these beliefs to their somewhat logical extension, people can see the parallels; they can see the similarities and realize, “Wow, that is not what I believe.” That’s the experience I’ve had too.

You encourage people to have a dialogue. But dialogue can be dangerous if you are queer or a person of color.

I’m always very careful to say that it is incumbent upon every individual in every situation where you have an opportunity to reach out to do it. I still reach out to my family in Westboro. I do it in interviews and on Twitter. But I also do it privately in messages that don’t get a response. I miss them desperately, but sometimes it’s just too painful and unsafe to reach out.

What I’m advocating for is that more people reach out across these divides. But for whatever reason, if you don’t have the emotional resources or you can’t or don’t want to develop the skills to do it, I completely understand that.

What I found so compelling about your story is that you were actively making Twitter a toxic place — but it also became a positive place for you.

I often say things like, “Twitter is a cesspool because we’re making it a cesspool.” And social media companies can do something to improve it. But I also think we’re looking for a technical solution to a cultural problem.

We need to be deliberate. We can decide to follow people we disagree with, consider their ideas and why they think the way they do, and be willing to engage with them.

That was the difference between the people who changed my mind on Twitter — the people who were willing to listen, have a conversation with me versus the people who just wanted to shame me. And again, I completely understand why people wanted to shame me. I was doing really shameful things, but I couldn’t see that they were shameful because of the environment that I was in.

I heard someone define shame as the feeling that we get when we violate the norms of our community. For me, that was a huge aha moment. I had grown up learning to celebrate death and tragedy because that’s how Westboro responded to bad things that happened. When I look back, how absolutely disgusting and backward is that? When I went on Twitter and all these people were trying to shame me, I knew I wasn’t part of their community. I felt like they were evil.

This dynamic is now playing out across our polarized country. We’re not recognizing that if you try to shame people, they’re not going to be moved by your shame to feel shame. They’re going to be motivated by your shaming to keep doing what they’re doing. It really just pushes them deeper into these beliefs and into their own communities. It’s one of the hardest things in the world to be willing to empathize with a person in a moment when they seem not to deserve it the most.

I want to understand how you see forgiveness. You did do things that were really harmful to other people, and now you’re back in the public sphere, saying things and asking people to listen to you again. How can people trust you?

For a long time after I left the church, everything I did was something somebody asked me to do. I didn’t talk about my experience unless somebody said they wanted to hear it. After having spent my entire life telling other people how to live, I was wary of stepping back and telling people, “Okay, I figured it out.”

I wrote about this in the book, but I went to a Jewish festival where I learned the concept of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world. I understood that I and my family have added to the brokenness in the world, and it’s up to me to try to find a way to repair some of it.

How do you define your faith today? Do you go to a church?

I am not religious anymore. I don’t want to say I’m not a believer because I’m still such a passionate believer in so many things. It’s just not in the divine or supernatural; it’s in humanity, hope, and grace. That concept of grace, that’s the epigraph of the book, is this line from The Great Gatsby. It says, “Reserving judgment is a matter of infinite hope.” And to me, that is the concept of grace. It’s the idea of seeing other people and being on a journey and that there is hope for them tomorrow or to change over time. We know that we grow and change all the time.

Grace is a very religious concept. How does your concept of grace now differ from the one you were taught in the church?

My mom had a two-word definition of grace: unmerited favor. I was taught that is the grace of God. You deserve nothing. You deserve nothing good. You deserve death and hell. And it’s only by the grace of God that any good, any human being, has any hope. But now I see grace as a posture of generosity for ourselves and other people to understand when people do things that are wrong.

I feel like the recipient of so much grace. What we did to people in their most grievous, vulnerable moments, being outside of those funerals, praising and thanking God that this person was dead and that it was the judgment of God — I had done this to so many people, and for them to be willing to see me with grace was absolutely unreal to me. That was the thing that really gave me hope after I left.

What does that atonement look like?

I don’t like to talk about the financial aspect, but giving is one way. It’s reaching out to my family and trying to help them find better ways. Not just because I want my family back but because they still affect so many other people.

It is helping other people escape similar destructive ideologies. Every opportunity that I have been offered, I have tried to take advantage of. I want to use these experiences to be a force for healing rather than what I did for so many years, which was contributing to people’s pain.

Written by Lyz Lenz Author of God Land. Columnist for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The book Belabored is forthcoming from Bold Type Books in August of 2020.

https://gen.medium.com/her-grandfather-founded-the-westboro-baptist-church-twitter-helped-her-leave-it-2de5a4266dcc

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gabriellakirtonblog · 6 years ago

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11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher

Here’s the good news: You guys are killing it. As a group, personal trainers are more qualified than ever. You’re earning college degrees in our field and racking up the certifications.

The number of accredited educational programs and certifications is on the rise, according to the ACSM. So is the number of graduates with bachelor’s degrees in exercise science. And a recent survey from Brown University found that 97 percent of personal trainers hold either a college degree or certification. Some 64 percent have an exercise-related bachelor’s degree, and 42 percent have a master’s.

And your knowledge isn’t just deeper. It’s also broader, as trainers continue to become more holistic in their approach, emphasizing not just iron but all lifestyle factors that contribute to health and wellness.

For all this, you should be proud.

But—and you knew there would be a “but”—I’ve noticed an unfortunate byproduct of this positive trend. More and more fit pros are assuming the role of educator and neglecting the role of teacher.

An educator is like a college professor lecturing from the front of the room. A teacher covers the basics and checks in with her students to make sure they understand the lesson. An educator looks for an opening to share esoteric knowledge about human anatomy and the mTOR pathway. A teacher focuses on each client’s ability to hip hinge, squat, and row.

It’s like a piano instructor lecturing a student on music theory before showing her where to put her fingers on the keys.

We have a saying at DTS Fitness Education: Advanced skills are the basics mastered. Being an educator is an advanced skill; if you want to be a great one, you first have to master the basics of teaching.

As with anything, you begin with the fundamentals and go from there. Movement, for a trainer, is the foundation on which you build results. It impacts everything from joint health and muscle growth to stress management and sleep quality.

So start there. Teach your client to move—to push, pull, bend, and squat. Once your client has her GED in the fundamentals, you have the green light to unload your vast knowledge about exercise science and kinesiology. (Maybe not all on the same day.)

These days, everyone wants to build their brand or become insta-famous. And that’s fine. But we need to put equal emphasis on the craft of teaching. So yes, aspire to become an educator, but put the work in to be a great teacher first.

I’ll say it again: Advanced skills are the basics mastered. Consider this your teacher’s manual.

READ ALSO: What Do You Do with a Client Who Wants Too Much, Too Soon?

1. Forget everything you’ve learned

Becoming a master in your field is great. It’s also the problem. You’re so awesome you’ve forgotten how hard it can be just to hinge at the hips.

All that advanced knowledge has changed the way your brain works, impairing your ability to think about the basics at a level that makes sense to your client. Start too advanced, and your client will quickly become discouraged.

When training clients, think “grade school teacher,” not “college professor.” Always err on the side of clarity and simplicity, even if it means speaking to your client in a way a 10-year-old would understand.

READ ALSO: 10 Coaching Tips to Help Beginner Clients

2. Figure out your process, and stick to it

The biggest teaching mistake I see trainers make is this: They’re not systematic. They jump around from thought to thought with no regard for process.

But that’s not how learning works. You can’t just pour a series of disjointed facts into your client’s head and expect anything to stick. You have to be purposeful. Have a clear objective in mind and work toward it.

Every trainer should be asking, “What’s my process for taking clients from A to B?” (Until you figure out yours, you can borrow mine.)

3. Use external and nonverbal cues

External cues get you out of your head by focusing your attention on an outcome. Research shows they’re much more effective than internal cues, and may even be key to improving motor skills.

A cue doesn’t always need to be verbal, either. In fact, I recommend saying as little as you can.

If I have a client who hinges by bending at the knees instead of the hips, I’ll have her do hip hinges on her knees. That way, she’s forced to bend at the hips. She has no choice.

I also like to have clients do kettlebell swings with a plastic cone between their legs. If they bend their knees to swing the bell, they’ll hit the cone. But if they hinge properly, they won’t.

When teaching how to punch in our striking class, I’ll have the student stand with her arm against a wall. That forces her to keep her elbow in when throwing a punch, and to pull it straight back instead of too low.

Cues like this encourage your client to correct herself, without your having to say a word.

READ ALSO: Top Coaches Share Their Most Effective Coaching Cues

4. Demo moves in a prescriptive way

Most trainers know to demonstrate the moves. The mistake they make: Focusing too much on what not to do.

They’ll say: “Don’t move your head forward.” “Don’t do this with your knee.” “Don’t let your hips sag.” They demonstrate every possible mistake—before they even know if their client would’ve made that mistake in the first place.

Try to be more prescriptive: Focus just on what you want your client to do.

5. Give a pop quiz

Have your client repeat back all the cues you just gave her. Can’t do it? Those cues did not resonate with her, and that means they’re not effective. Go through them with her again, this time with fewer words.

6. Correct only what your client does wrong

After your client does the move for you, be sure to correct only the parts he got wrong. If he didn’t get it wrong, then there’s no need to correct it. He’s got it. Your work here is done.

READ ALSO: Don’t Let Your Clients Butcher These Three Exercises

7. Say less

A good teacher uses as few words as possible. When you do speak up, your client knows it’s important and he should pay attention.

Extra details will only distract from the main lesson. Your client doesn’t need to know how the glutes attach to the pelvis or how they’ve been weakened by a modern lifestyle. He just needs to know to squeeze them during a move.

8. Tell your client “good job”

All students need encouragement. Praise and recognition can be motivational. So say “Good job,” give a thumbs-up, or offer a fist bump.

Just be sure you mean it. It does your client no good to reinforce mediocre performance when you know he can do better.

READ ALSO: Supercharge Your Client’s Motivation

9. Use visual aids

Showing is better than telling. Take a photo or video of your client performing a move at the beginning of a session, and then again at the end of the session. Show him both so he can see how he’s improved. (Some apps will even let you display two photos side-by-side.)

Clients love this. They get excited to see the video, and that excitement helps engage them in the process.

Plus, it’s better than checking your form in a mirror, which may distract your client from noticing how the move feels (important for learning), and can even put your client in a bad position as he adjusts to see himself clearly.

10. Give homework

Your client needs to work on hinging? Tell her to perform 10 hip hinges every day until you see her again. When you do see her again, follow up. (“Can you show me your homework?”) Good teachers hold their students accountable.

Bonus points if the assignment helps your client learn to use the movement in everyday life. Here’s one I like for parents with young children: Have them tell their kids to stand right between their legs—in the same spot you’d place the weight to prepare for a kettlebell swing—anytime the kid wants to be picked up. Then have the kid say, “I’m a kettlebell!” The parent’s back will be in a safer position, and the kid’s prompt will remind her to lift the right way.

READ ALSO: Four Safer Alternatives to the Barbell Deadlift

11. Have fun

Think about your favorite teacher. What do you remember the most? Do you remember your immaculate notetaking? Or the riveting textbook? Or the teacher’s impressive credentials?

Of course not! You remember how much fun you had in class.

Great teachers are engaging and inspiring. They have a sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously. So yes, nail down your process. But don’t forget to leave room for a little spontaneity too.

Ready to Confidently Build Amazing Fitness Programs?

Each client’s fitness program is different, but you don’t have to start from scratch every time. Every great program follows 7 principles. Learning them helps you get a head start on all your program writing.

To help, we put together a checklist with all 7. With this list, you’ll also learn:

The hidden variable that all great programs share

Enter your email below to get the checklist:

The post 11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher appeared first on The PTDC.

11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

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fitono · 6 years ago

Text

11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher

Here’s the good news: You guys are killing it. As a group, personal trainers are more qualified than ever. You’re earning college degrees in our field and racking up the certifications.

For all this, you should be proud.

It’s like a piano instructor lecturing a student on music theory before showing her where to put her fingers on the keys.

I’ll say it again: Advanced skills are the basics mastered. Consider this your teacher’s manual.

READ ALSO: What Do You Do with a Client Who Wants Too Much, Too Soon?

1. Forget everything you’ve learned

Becoming a master in your field is great. It’s also the problem. You’re so awesome you’ve forgotten how hard it can be just to hinge at the hips.

READ ALSO: 10 Coaching Tips to Help Beginner Clients

2. Figure out your process, and stick to it

The biggest teaching mistake I see trainers make is this: They’re not systematic. They jump around from thought to thought with no regard for process.

Every trainer should be asking, “What’s my process for taking clients from A to B?” (Until you figure out yours, you can borrow mine.)

3. Use external and nonverbal cues

External cues get you out of your head by focusing your attention on an outcome. Research shows they’re much more effective than internal cues, and may even be key to improving motor skills.

A cue doesn’t always need to be verbal, either. In fact, I recommend saying as little as you can.

If I have a client who hinges by bending at the knees instead of the hips, I’ll have her do hip hinges on her knees. That way, she’s forced to bend at the hips. She has no choice.

I also like to have clients do kettlebell swings with a plastic cone between their legs. If they bend their knees to swing the bell, they’ll hit the cone. But if they hinge properly, they won’t.

Cues like this encourage your client to correct herself, without your having to say a word.

READ ALSO: Top Coaches Share Their Most Effective Coaching Cues

4. Demo moves in a prescriptive way

Most trainers know to demonstrate the moves. The mistake they make: Focusing too much on what not to do.

Try to be more prescriptive: Focus just on what you want your client to do.

5. Give a pop quiz

6. Correct only what your client does wrong

After your client does the move for you, be sure to correct only the parts he got wrong. If he didn’t get it wrong, then there’s no need to correct it. He’s got it. Your work here is done.

READ ALSO: Don’t Let Your Clients Butcher These Three Exercises

7. Say less

A good teacher uses as few words as possible. When you do speak up, your client knows it’s important and he should pay attention.

8. Tell your client “good job”

All students need encouragement. Praise and recognition can be motivational. So say “Good job,” give a thumbs-up, or offer a fist bump.

Just be sure you mean it. It does your client no good to reinforce mediocre performance when you know he can do better.

READ ALSO: Supercharge Your Client’s Motivation

9. Use visual aids

Clients love this. They get excited to see the video, and that excitement helps engage them in the process.

10. Give homework

READ ALSO: Four Safer Alternatives to the Barbell Deadlift

11. Have fun

Think about your favorite teacher. What do you remember the most? Do you remember your immaculate notetaking? Or the riveting textbook? Or the teacher’s impressive credentials?

Of course not! You remember how much fun you had in class.

Ready to Confidently Build Amazing Fitness Programs?

To help, we put together a checklist with all 7. With this list, you’ll also learn:

The hidden variable that all great programs share

Enter your email below to get the checklist:

The post 11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher appeared first on The PTDC.

11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher published first on https://medium.com/@MyDietArea

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nancyedimick · 7 years ago

Text

Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.)

A dirty haiku: The state took Chad’s dirt; Does it owe him for his hurt? For that, read the cert!

U.S. military contractors open fire on crowd in Baghdad, killing or wounding 31 civilians. In one joint trial, three contractors are convicted of a slew of non-murder crimes and sentenced to 30-year sentences; another contractor is convicted of first-degree murder. D.C. Circuit: The murder conviction is overturned; his trial should have been separate from that of the other codefendants. Also — over a dissent — the latter’s 30-year sentences are cruel and unusual and must be reconsidered.

Congregation of Newport, R.I. synagogue (many of whose members fled the Spanish Inquisition) dissipates after the Revolutionary War; a New York synagogue steps in to act as trustee of the vacant temple. Can the now-revived Newport congregation sell the temple’s centuries-old silver and gold rimonim (ritual objects valued at over $7mil)? District court (recommended reading): Indeed. First Circuit: No, the New York synagogue owns them.

The feds mistakenly hold American citizen in immigration detention without access to a lawyer for more than three years. Can he sue? ‘Fraid not, says the Second Circuit; the gov’t messed up, but he filed suit too late. Dissent: It’s not clear he’s time-barred, and how was he supposed to know? (News report: This scenario is apparently not uncommon.)

In exchange for identifying defendant as murderer, key witness expects prosecutor’s help obtaining lenience on her own unrelated criminal charges. She denies this on the stand, and the prosecutor vouches for the lie. The defendant is convicted and spends nearly 20 years in prison. Third Circuit: New trial or let him go.

Allegation: Husband of suicidal woman arrested for public intoxication begs Young County, Tex. jailers to hospitalize her; the arresting officer’s report notes she’d likely ingested alcohol and seven types of prescription pills. She does not receive medical attention and remains in jail, where she dies in the middle of the night. Fifth Circuit: Perhaps her family can sue over whether county policies caused her death, but (over a dissent) they cannot sue over the jailers’ inattention.

Lawyer falls on hard times, approaches known drug dealer and offers to launder his ill-gotten gains — imitating a scheme he’d seen in the TV drama Breaking Bad. Yikes! The drug dealer is in fact an informant. Sixth Circuit: Conviction affirmed.

Flint, Mich. officials provide residents with drinking water that is loaded with lead and disease. The problem is immediately apparent, but state and local officials take years to fix it. Can residents sue? District court: No. Sixth Circuit: In fact, the federal Safe Drinking Water Act does not preempt their constitutional claims.

Allegation: Nashville, Tenn. officer’s false report results in bogus charges (belied by dashcam video) against motorist. District court: Can’t sue over that. Sixth Circuit: Reversed. We recently created an exception to the rule that witnesses who lie to the grand jury are protected by absolute immunity for situations like this, where the alleged liar is law enforcement and the lie is in an arrest report (or something similar) rather than grand-jury testimony.

South Bend, Ind. officer happens upon recordings of police official making inappropriate remarks. She passes them up the chain of command; she’s fired. City Council members demand to listen to the recordings. To prevent that, “the city” sues the Council. Seventh Circuit: Which is not a thing that can happen. Whether the recordings must be turned over is a question for state court.

Man has non-work-related nail-gun accident, resulting in four-inch nail lodged in his head. After lengthy medical leave, he returns to work (installing water meters, among other duties) but has numerous “worrisome” difficulties a neurologist ascribes to his brain injury. He’s fired. An Americans with Disabilities Act violation? Seventh Circuit: His employer must pay him $350k.

Nebraska law enforcement: We don’t publicly release juvenile sex offenders’ personal information unless, as in the present case, the juvenile was adjudged a sex offender in a different state. This kid (who moved from Minnesota after his offense, at age 11) is fair game. Eighth Circuit: Not so.

Ten people seek to sue cops after getting arrested during the 2014 Ferguson protests. District Court: They can’t sue. Eighth Circuit: Actually, one plaintiff who alleges police beat him, pepper-sprayed him, and held his head underwater — all after he’d been handcuffed — could have a legitimate police-brutality claim.

Judge Bybee of the Ninth Circuit, “concurring in part and dissenting in part, but frustrated with the whole endeavor,” is not keen on the Supreme Court’s distinction between elements and means of a crime, which, he avers, makes arriving at consistent, defensible sentencing decisions difficult.

Idaho corrections worker under investigation for rape is placed on paid leave, during which time he allegedly rapes his girlfriend, who is a coworker. Supervisors see photos of her bruises and her allegations are added to the investigation, but she is denied paid leave. Meanwhile supervisors express support for her boyfriend to other employees (who know he’s on leave but not why). A hostile work environment? Could be, says two-thirds of a Ninth Circuit panel; this goes to a jury.

Allegation: Lander, Wyo. police persuade husband to leave scene of domestic dispute to cool off. He agrees but first heads inside his home to retrieve his shoes. An officer makes to follow, but his path is blocked by the wife, who attempts to shut the door after noting the officer lacks a warrant. The officer throws her aside, breaking her arm. She’s arrested. Tenth Circuit: Qualified immunity.

Nephew takes shotgun out of his vehicle, walks it into uncle’s house. Yikes! A passerby tips off Riverton, Utah police, who espy the two sitting on the porch looking “somewhat relaxed” and approach them with guns drawn. The pair cuss at the police, and the nephew is briefly handcuffed until the officers learn no crime has transpired. Tenth Circuit: The officers violated the Fourth Amendment; the nephew gets $1 in damages.

Lawyer: Gay marriage is an affront to the Constitution that harms my property interests. The correct course of action is to sue the five Supreme Court justices who ruled same-sex marriage is a fundamental right. Eleventh Circuit: Nope.

Arizona officials approve California ranch’s application to use cattle-brand design, though the exact same design is already in use in the state by an Arizona ranch. Officials: Which is fine; the California ranch will brand a different part of their cows. Arizona Supreme Court: It is not fine; so says the plain language of the relevant statute. Justice Bolick, concurring: “I trust that … our constitutional separation of powers remains vibrant, notwithstanding the extent to which the United States Supreme Court has eroded it in the federal context.”

Friends, if you annoy the authorities and they arrest you in retaliation, they are not going to say they arrested you in retaliation (because that would be admitting to violating the First Amendment). Rather, they’ll come up with a pretext. We all violate vague or rarely enforced statutes every day, so this presents no difficulty. What is difficult, however, is for you to get courts to look past the pretext when you sue over said retaliation. Click here to read an IJ amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to take a hard look at the issue. (The gentleman in the instant case was a prominent critic of Riviera Beach, Fla. officials’ plan to seize thousands of homes via eminent domain. He says that in addition to arresting him on a pretext, city employees followed him around, took photos of him in his home, and ticketed him for failing to muzzle his 10-pound dog on walks.)

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/08/07/short-circuit-a-roundup-of-recent-federal-court-decisions-67/

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benrleeusa · 7 years ago

Text

[Eugene Volokh] Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.)

A dirty haiku: The state took Chad’s dirt; Does it owe him for his hurt? For that, read the cert!

0 notes

wolfandpravato · 7 years ago

Text

Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.)

A dirty haiku: The state took Chad’s dirt; Does it owe him for his hurt? For that, read the cert!

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/08/07/short-circuit-a-roundup-of-recent-federal-court-decisions-67/

#Law #Lawyer

0 notes

politicalfilth-blog · 8 years ago

Text

What You Need To Know About ‘Mind Control’ Before Calling It Fake

We Are Change

Here’s why you shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss mind control as nothing you need to think about…

Image via The Men Who Stare at Goats

Via. (Danny Quest)

This article is going to be hard for some people to accept. Depending on what level of awareness you currently have and how far you have ventured into the rabbit-hole, some of the information presented thus forward may be overwhelming and/or frightening. Some of the claims made may make you skeptical of the truth, depending on your perception of reality.

Before we jump into the realization that covert elements of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and its black budget apparatus have been using military mind control technology to implement false-flag terror attacks on the American people as part of a larger geopolitical agenda, let’s first ask ourselves if these type of technologies could even exist?

In my research, I found that early work on mind control goes back almost 100 years with the discovery of electroencephalography (known as EEG) by German psychiatrist Hans Berger, who made the first EEG recordings in 1924, and was the first to report on the rise and fall of alpha and beta waves in the human brain.

By 1969, a researcher named Eberhard Fetz had connected a single neuron in a monkey’s brain to a dial the animal could see. The monkey learned to make the neuron fire faster to move the dial in order to get a reward, and while Fetz didn’t realize it at the time, he had created the first brain-machine interface.

30 years ago, physiologists began recording from neurons in animals, and discovered that while the entire motor cortex lights up with electrical signals when an animal moves, a single neuron tends to fire fastest in connection with certain movements. If you record signals from a certain number of neurons, you can get a rough idea of the motion that a person is making or intends to make.

Researchers then developed algorithms to reconstruct movements form motor cortex neurons, and by the 1980s Apostolos Georgopoulos found a relationship between the electrical response of single neurons and the direction in which they moved their arms. Since the mid-1990s, researchers have been able to capture complex motor cortex signals recorded from groups of neurons, and have used them to control electronic devices, building brain-computer interfaces that enable what would be called “mind controlled technology” today.

There are dozens of American patients on MCT, Lowery, Oliver M. Appl. No. 458339 filed Dec. 28, 1989. U.S. Patent #5,159,703, Oct. 27, 1992 Silent Subliminal Presentation System, this will be a notable example as this article continues. A good deal of support for the existence in MCT can be traced back to an often cited 1994 government report that made mention of futuristic systems that could “electronically scramble or erase” people’s minds through TV broadcasts. It was co-written by Dr. Steven Metz—then an associate research professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute; where he is now the director (He later claimed that report was a joke).

If you are interested in overcoming disbelief, if you don’t understand the white papers, or don’t trust the information here, I would highly advise everyone to look no further than Dr. Judy Wall’s article “Aerial Mind-Control The Threat to Civil Liberties.” It was published in the newsletter of the MENSA Bioelectromagnetics Special Interest Group. Take a look at the CIA’s declassified Project MK ULTRA program, or read over the 2014 Huff post article entitled “Mind Control Is Becoming Reality“.

“We need a program of psycho-surgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated…The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective…Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain.” Dr. Jose Delgado (MKULTRA experimenter who demonstrated a radio- controlled bull on CNN in 1985) Director of Neuropsychiatry, Yale University Medical School Congressional Record No. 26, Vol. 118, February 24, 1974

Monkeys in restraints w/ wires coming out of top of skull.

left image “normal”, right image with electric current being fed into the monkey’s brain – note pupil sizes and clenched teeth!

These images demonstrate Dr. Delgado’s ruthless disregard for animal’s lives, pain, and suffering!

“these weapons are more dangerous then atomic destruction,” Dr.Delgado reportedly said. “We may transform, we may shape, direct and robotize man. I think the great danger of the future is that we will have robotized human beings who are not aware that they have been robotized.”

“Recently researchers from the University of Washington showed that they could send one person’s thoughts through a computer to control the hand motion of a person sitting half a mile away. The team first demonstrated this brain-to-brain connection was possible back in August 2013. But now the researchers have put the technology through more rigorous testing and are close to making it usable in real-world scenarios.” ~ Live Science November 11, 2014

At this point, there should be absolutely no denying that there are countless methods of mind-control and multiple projects and sub-projects historically and currently in operation. Reports from numerous different sources indicate that mind control technology does exist.

One of the most powerful ways to shape the collective consciousness of the people at a basic fundamental level is to control the population’s main sources of information. It is very clear that many mass media outlets in the U.S. are both willingly and unwittingly aiding and abetting the manipulation of our minds by the government, and are assisting in carrying out its social-engineering agendas.

Moreover, very carefully designed programs and tactics have been used against nearly every segment of our society; disseminated throughout the nation and the world by mass media and entertainment industries, corporations; embedded in advertising and all other forms of so-called entertainment such as movies, TV shows, video games, and music.

These systems were perfected, applied to the brainwashing and conditioning of members of the U.S. military, and turned over to the intelligence sectors for other applications. The intelligence sector, in turn, DELIBERATELY and successfully worked to have this same kind of HIGHLY destructive and effective conditioning applied to SOCIETY AS A WHOLE, via the mass conditioning of our consciousness through the entertainment and information industries.

Our society as a whole has been forced to confront and WITNESS young people perpetrating inconceivably horrific mass murders of peers and others on a REGULAR BASIS, as in the case in the present-day United States. This creates what is called in geo-social control rhetoric as a “strategy of tension.”

As a result, the population has developed an analogous psychological temperament akin to collective Stockholm’s syndrome. First published in 1994, author Dee Graham uses the Stockholm syndrome label to describe group or collective responses to trauma. To some extent it develops a dissonant split personality/multiple personality disorder in people making them susceptible to sheepish behavior, apathy, fear and other trance-induced emotions.

In essence, the CIA is using advanced mind-control techniques on the American people to make them easier to control. Some of the countries involved in such programs include the U.S., UK, Spain, Germany and France.

Most government-backed electronic mind control programs are classified at the highest level, but recently, the National Security Agency reportedly developed an efficient method of controlling the human brain. This technology is called Remote Neural Monitoring (RNM) and is expected to revolutionize crime detection and investigation.

RNM has been developed after about 50 years of neuro-electromagnetic involuntary human experimentation, and according to many scientists, it’s expected that with a microchip implanted in the human brain, it could potentially make them inherently controllable. (Remember the man that was controlling a bull live on CNN in the 1980s)

Jared Loughne of the 2011 shooting spree that reportedly killed six people and wounded 13, including congressman Gabrielle Giffords, filed a lawsuit claiming he was “framed” and was “handpicked illegally to be a sleeper assassin.” He even said that the government “put a chip in my head to control my mind.”

In 2012, 24-year-old James Holmes entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and reportedly opened fire at a showing of Batman “The Dark Knight Rises,” leaving 12 people dead and 58 injured. Holmes had several family ties to U.S. government-funded research centers. He was also was one of six recipients of a National Institutes of Health Neuroscience Training Grant at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, and was intimately involved in mind control experiments.

More than a month before the Washington Navy Yard shooting on Aug. 7, 2013, Aaron Alexis reported to police that he was being stalked by unidentified individuals who followed him to three different motels. He said these individuals were using some sort of “microwave machine” to send voices into his body and they were keeping him awake at night. It is interesting and potentially relevant that Alexis refused to tell police what the voices were instructing him to do. [A copy of the redacted police report can be found here].

The Baton Rouge Gunman Gavin Long, a former marine with a rich digital footprint, said in online posts and videos that he was being targeted by “a vast government conspiracy that watches and harasses everyday Americans.” He complained that he couldn’t sleep because he was “hearing voices.”

In March 2016, a man that police say shot and killed six people in Kalamazoo, Mich., told officers that he was being controlled by the Uber app on his phone at the time of the rampage. When a police officer asked the Uber driver Jason Brian Dalton about the shooting, he told them that when he opened the company’s app, a symbol appeared that “would literally take over your whole body,” an officer wrote in his police report.

The latest mass shooting suspect, Esteban Santiago, who allegedly killed five people at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, on Jan. 6, reportedly walked into the Anchorage FBI Field Office in November 2016 to report that his mind was being controlled by a U.S. intelligence agency, according to a senior federal law enforcement official. He said that he “didn’t want to hurt anyone” and that he felt he was “being forced to work for ISIS.” Santiago told the FBI that he thought he was being mind-controlled, possibly by the CIA, and admitted to hearing voices. Santiago said those voices told him to “watch extremist materials on the Internet.”

Is the picture becoming clear ?

Just a few years ago, I too would have scoffed at the mere mention that these mass shooting events were anything but tragedies at the hands of sick and mentally-ill psychopaths. Granted, there are some sick and twisted people out there who need help, and who do kill others. If we were to confine our investigation to one shooting at a time, it’s unlikely that we would ever find a correlation. But looking at these events collectively, a pattern seems to emerge beyond the confines of the individual events themselves.

If we look back into history, even as far back as the shooting death of Robert F. Kennedy, might we be seeing something more to the story of these random shooting events? Is it possible that there are agendas at play, and programs at work behind the scenes to which we are not privy?

Is it possible for rogue, criminal elements inside of the U.S. government to target the minds of certain individuals through electronic means to engage in certain behavior, including killing others? Before dismissing this possibility as some conspiracy theory unworthy of further consideration, take the time to research.

This CIA activity was further verified in the August 2010 publication of Time Magazine, not exactly considered to be a fringe publication. A list of “Top Ten Weird Government Secrets” was published with “mind control” being number two on the list.

Within that article, it is stated that “some historians argue that the goal of the program was to create a mind control system by which the CIA could program people to conduct assassinations.” Is it possible that we’ve been watching this play out in different venues, for different reasons? For today’s purposes, for gun control or perhaps to condition the population to accept tighter “security” measures?

Before you laugh and dismiss the above paragraphs, realize what they are saying. This is the exact same thing we see in all of these cases.

As extraordinarily disturbing events that have such monumental impacts on society, these shootings serve only the malignant, demonic agendas of the Fed/Gov/NWO social controllers, who formulate these terrible mass killings as part of black budget classified social engineering programs. These incidents themselves act as a means to further condition, manipulate and control the United States population, and indeed, the world at large.

CIA Using MK ULTRA mind control on Children with Video

White House Insider turned Whistleblower on Mind Control

Mind control: the Pentagon mission to program the brain

This article ( The C.I.A, Mass Shooter’s & Mind Control What You Need To Know ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to DannyQuest and WeAreChange.org. If you find any grammatical mistakes or factual errors in this article please email them to [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

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from We Are Change http://wearechange.org/mind-control-what-you-need-to-know/

#We are Change #We Are Change

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gabriellakirtonblog · 6 years ago

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11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher

Here’s the good news: You guys are killing it. As a group, personal trainers are more qualified than ever. You’re earning college degrees in our field and racking up the certifications.

For all this, you should be proud.

It’s like a piano instructor lecturing a student on music theory before showing her where to put her fingers on the keys.

I’ll say it again: Advanced skills are the basics mastered. Consider this your teacher’s manual.

READ ALSO: What Do You Do with a Client Who Wants Too Much, Too Soon?

1. Forget everything you’ve learned

Becoming a master in your field is great. It’s also the problem. You’re so awesome you’ve forgotten how hard it can be just to hinge at the hips.

READ ALSO: 10 Coaching Tips to Help Beginner Clients

2. Figure out your process, and stick to it

The biggest teaching mistake I see trainers make is this: They’re not systematic. They jump around from thought to thought with no regard for process.

Every trainer should be asking, “What’s my process for taking clients from A to B?” (Until you figure out yours, you can borrow mine.)

3. Use external and nonverbal cues

External cues get you out of your head by focusing your attention on an outcome. Research shows they’re much more effective than internal cues, and may even be key to improving motor skills.

A cue doesn’t always need to be verbal, either. In fact, I recommend saying as little as you can.

If I have a client who hinges by bending at the knees instead of the hips, I’ll have her do hip hinges on her knees. That way, she’s forced to bend at the hips. She has no choice.

I also like to have clients do kettlebell swings with a plastic cone between their legs. If they bend their knees to swing the bell, they’ll hit the cone. But if they hinge properly, they won’t.

Cues like this encourage your client to correct herself, without your having to say a word.

READ ALSO: Top Coaches Share Their Most Effective Coaching Cues

4. Demo moves in a prescriptive way

Most trainers know to demonstrate the moves. The mistake they make: Focusing too much on what not to do.

Try to be more prescriptive: Focus just on what you want your client to do.

5. Give a pop quiz

6. Correct only what your client does wrong

After your client does the move for you, be sure to correct only the parts he got wrong. If he didn’t get it wrong, then there’s no need to correct it. He’s got it. Your work here is done.

READ ALSO: Don’t Let Your Clients Butcher These Three Exercises

7. Say less

A good teacher uses as few words as possible. When you do speak up, your client knows it’s important and he should pay attention.

8. Tell your client “good job”

All students need encouragement. Praise and recognition can be motivational. So say “Good job,” give a thumbs-up, or offer a fist bump.

Just be sure you mean it. It does your client no good to reinforce mediocre performance when you know he can do better.

READ ALSO: Supercharge Your Client’s Motivation

9. Use visual aids

Clients love this. They get excited to see the video, and that excitement helps engage them in the process.

10. Give homework

READ ALSO: Four Safer Alternatives to the Barbell Deadlift

11. Have fun

Think about your favorite teacher. What do you remember the most? Do you remember your immaculate notetaking? Or the riveting textbook? Or the teacher’s impressive credentials?

Of course not! You remember how much fun you had in class.

Ready to Confidently Build Amazing Fitness Programs?

To help, we put together a checklist with all 7. With this list, you’ll also learn:

The hidden variable that all great programs share

Enter your email below to get the checklist:

The post 11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher appeared first on The PTDC.

11 Simple Ways to Become a Better Teacher published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

0 notes