This story is about a particular genre of lying, namely the genre of covertly changing definitions in order to convince us to accept horrible things and be "happy" about it. The creation of upside-down language, in military terms, is "hacking" of our instincts designed to trick us into acting against our best interests.
This practice us abundantly illustrated by the COVID "biosecurity" propaganda — as well as by the tradition of grooming loyal supporters through the World Economic Forum's "Global Shapers."
Upside-down language is treacherous because in the natural world, the method of "disguising as a friend in order to catch prey" is strictly a hunting technique — but today, the power holders apply it across the board, to the entire population. Which then, if we think about it honestly, makes it clear what kind of relationship we've been having with the Machine.
It is not a relationship of benevolence but a relationship between a hunter and prey! (And perhaps, from the standpoint of existential clarity, the Great Reset showed up in such an ugly way to help us realize that we've been in an abusive relationship with the Machine for a while?)
Upside-Down Language: Funny Examples to Highlight the Absurdity of It
I think we all know this beast very well but to make the absurdity stand out even more, here are two funny metaphors.
Straightforward lying: pointing at a brick and saying, "It's a bird." Or pointing at a defective brick and saying that it's an excellent, high quality brick that surely works great in construction! (See traditional advertising.)
Upside-down language: secretly changing the definition of "bird" to include bricks, then announcing that there is a new revolutionary technology of building homes from birds — and when somebody says, "But those are clearly bricks," raising one's voice and saying, "No, those are BIRDS. Look it up." The king is not naked, and newspeak is the oldspeak. Don't you know?!
The Feeling of Disappointment Follows Inevitably
Another exaggerated metaphor: Imagine that someone tells you, "I promise to marry you next year!" And then then they go ahead and change the definition of "marriage" to "sending a birthday text." And because they do send you a birthday text, they then say that they have surely kept their promise!
But you somehow, strangely, feel cheated — and so, to curb your complaints, that someone then tells you that there is great honor and dignity in the new (and only) definition of marriage because it allows you to say "free" and not "depend" on the other person, while being honorably "married"! And those other people telling you that you are not really married are clearly idiots who don't love you.
And perhaps, because your mind wants you to feel dignified, it tricks you into going in denial and pretending you are really married. And this is how you find yourself in the world of upside-down language, as a gaslit victim in denial!
And something still doesn't feel quite right — but you no longer remember what it is and why you feel this way! You forgot the original meaning because remembering it makes you feel like a loser. (For some reason, our evolving relationship with a certain medical product comes to mind).
This certainly is an outrageous and funny example but this is exactly how abusive relationships work. The victim's mind has to constantly accept "updated" definitions of love, care, and truth in order to save one's face. And this is how abusers can get away with a lot — up until the point in in time when the pain of the victim becomes so unbearable that forces change.
Examples of "Updated" Definitions From the COVID Era
Since 2020, many important definitions related to health and medical measures have been changed, such as case (here, here, here, here, and here), fatality from a particular disease, vaccine, herd immunity, unvaccinated, antivaxxers, available ICU beds, breakthrough cases (which is itself is a change from "vaccine failure") — and many more.
But as importantly, our aspiring "masters" have been constantly "updating" definitions that refer to our fundamental instincts and conditions, such as "health," "compassion," "freedom," and so on. I find it particularly treacherous because it allows any non-benevolent actor to turn our innate qualities into weapons against ourselves!
For example, early on, has been a fascinating series of United Nations "pandemic" images that tell a story of cruel propaganda. Here's how, according to that series, you love your grandma:
And here is on the importance of stopping "misinformation":
According to newspeak, "compassion" means not touching your children or your parents. Not socializing. Not visiting your loved one in the hospital. Their version of compassion sounds horribly self-eliminating and sociopathic!
And responsible behavior? According to newspeak, "responsible behavior" means inhaling your exhaust and enthusiastically accepting an experimental medical product with unknown long-term effects. No questions asked. All based on another hijacked definition, the so called "community values," as per by our aspiring "masters" who wouldn't know "community" if it stared them in the face — and who are certainly not morally qualified to lead anyone anywhere.
Historical Examples of Newspeak
It reminds me of how back in my old homeland of Russia, before the Soviet Union fell apart, the official marketing brochure said that we were "the freest country in the world."
There was even a very popular radio song about it, called "My country is so spacious" (it really sounds much less awkward in Russian). The song contained a line that went, "I don't know any other country where a man can breathe so freely." Well no wonder, no one knew any other country because barely anyone could travel abroad!
My point here is not picking on isms, as the Soviet Union never had an exclusive patent on newspeak, it just happens to be the newspeak that I grew up on. America has long practiced its own version of newspeak where a resource grab has never been a resource grab but a noble act to establish "progress" or "democracy," with the initial "democracy march" requiring a genocide of "hostile Indians" who outrageously dared defend their land.)
A few years ago, I wrote a story called "Nature, Flags, and Birch Trees: Political Power of Emotions," in which I went into the subject of "newspeak flavors" in detail.
Sadly, history is full of newspeak! Upside-down language has been an important weaponry item for "disrupters" and robbers for thousands of years! But it feels to me as a Soviet expat that today's version of upside-down language is really close to the one from my old homeland, and I don't like it. It didn't lead to anything good in my old homeland, and it is likely to be a disaster again if repeated.
Upside-Down Language and the Global Shapers
With all this in mind, let's look at a the military grade World Economic Forum project called "Global Shapers." Here is how it defines itself:
"Born out of the World Economic Forum, the Global Shapers Community is a network of inspiring young people under the age of 30 working together to address local, regional, and global challenges. With more than 14,000 members, the Global Shapers Community spans 456 city-based hubs in 150 countries."
"In 2011, Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, founded the Global Shapers Community to empower young people to play an active role in shaping local, regional and global agendas."
"The Global Shapers Community is a non-profit organization registered in Geneva, Switzerland and housed at the World Economic Forum. The Forum's contribution to the Shapers organization includes significant financial and in-kind contributions for operational support including staff time, technology tools and opportunities to interact and collaborate with its membership network."
Among its partners are Salesforce, Accenture, The Climate Reality Project, and other noble entities. And here is Mr. Schwab himself, doing a sweet talk on how he decided to "give young people a voice":
An "Upgrade" in WEF Language
By the way, it looks the World Economic Forum is learning to speak more subtly and thus, even more treacherously. There is no more "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy." "Owning nothing" is now the quiet part. In fact, if I were to look at their marketing through the eyes of a post-Soviet kid who wants to be "Western cool," I would see all this as an exciting career opportunity!
(It really is a global military operation, so it has to be innocent-sounding, convincing and elegant — and by the way, the corporate recruitment of the early post-Soviet times wasn't too much different and probably benefitted the same "stakeholders," in a time-appropriate manner. Just a side thought, based on my memory of the post-Soviet corporate recruitment, that came with "newspeak" of its own.)
The language on the Global Shapers website is really lofty, and really "positive" sounding (except an occasional slip about "rethinking what it means to be human." Come progress! Come the roads, the internet, and gender equality! Come the bright young cultists leaders shaping the world's future's vision! Hooray! Hooray!
Of course, "framing" is an art, and one can frame anything — including murder — in a positive thing. Burning a woman at stake could be framed as "saving her soul." Destroying indigenous people can be framed as "bringing them culture," etc. etc.
All of it has been done to real, breathing people who merely minded their business — and it's really heartbreaking. I am writing about newspeak today with such passion because newspeak has an ugly history throughout the centuries, and it's time to spit it out.
A Military Operation
This entire thing with Global Shapers is of course like recruiting an army. Aspiring masters cannot do anything by themselves, so they always seek to recruit, indoctrinate, and bribe the most malleable to support their "vision."
The Bolsheviks, for example, put a lot of energy into "raising" a new generation of "communist" leaders and into glorifying those who supported their version of "new normal" most enthusiastically. They invested in creating a psychological gap between the children and the parents.
The Bolshevik elites didn't care about their supporters — who mostly lived in abject poverty, unless they were in the upper echelon — but they surely paid them lip service, and gave them "dignity" by allowing them to take the dignity away from some of their fellows …
Similarly, European elites who were seeking to benefit from the riches of the Western hemisphere, not yet colonized at the time, could not do it without "manpower," and so they lured a bunch of impoverished Europeans to travel across the ocean in search of a better life.
And since a better life was sorely needed by a lot of common Europeans at the time, the masters of those days cynically used that fact to recruit the impoverished Europeans as their "manpower" to fight the "hostile Indians."
The early American "branding" was very different from the Bolshevik "branding" but the essence of the conquest was not dissimilar: "You are the good, righteous people. Those guys over there are the evil people. They own stuff that righteously belongs to you. Go take it from them, and we'll let you keep some of it." History is ugly.
And since today's events seem to run on the same emotional fuel of conquest, it seems like that army of young Global Shapers is being recruited mostly as "manpower" to drive away the people with "old normal" habits. As I said, it's a military operation.
Newspeak, or the "upside-down" language, is the weapon of indoctrination. The adults may remember the original meanings of words, they may feel resentful. But the kids simply imbibe the meanings they are given. Which is why the World Economic Forum is investing in grooming youth. Disgusting!
What Now?
We seem to be in a historically important moment. I believe that the predators' existential function is to make sure that we are fully alive and awake. Predators use weaponized language to make us act against our own interests. They create an atmosphere in which self-betrayal sounds tempting — but it's a trick!
Realistically, it is rare for human beings choose the right thing on the first attempt in the absence of great pressure — so it's unknown what the near future of the world will look like — but no matter whether our road to victory is fast or dragged out, in the end, the victory is ours. On my end, I pray with passion that our road is the kindest one.
About the Author
To find more of Tessa Lena's work, be sure to check out her bio, Tessa Fights Robots.