Disclaimer Time

The club had gathered in the cafe, but this time it felt like the first day in a long vacation.

“Right of the bat”, said Miranda, “I want a full disclosure on my mixed feelings during the last two US presidential elections.

One: 2016 and 2020 were about a choice between MAGA or not. The people were not facing a choice between one philosophy or another. Instead they could opt in on a semi-religious awakening or remain secular.

Two: Like any awakening movement, its rationality is, well, special, from the outset. But so is its emotional strength.”

Gerald chimed in (or interrupted, depending on viewpoint).

G: “Well spoken. But doesn’t that irk you in the least? Having to deal with all those religious nuts? How many religious awakenings has that country had? "

M: “No, Gerald, I have the exact opposite reaction: These people are trying to save their lives! Crazy? It’s like they feel a kind of hope that the world will once again become something living. That is a damn problem, Gerald. The fact that half the population can tyrannise the other half like that. Liberals may suffer under a conservative rule, but guess what, conservatives suffer under a liberal rule as well. They should divide their country in two.”

Christine in the meantime had spent some time trying to learn a bit about Tina Peters and the fellow she had got caught up with, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

C: “I’ll tell you two what provokes me. Search for ‘Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium’… All I want is their line of reasoning. I’ll be the judge of whether it’s crap or not. I have a hunch, but why not let me figure that out. Well, search. You get 100% defamatory, derogatory, ill-intended headlines. But no access to original material. That only makes it harder. And the sad part is that quite often, when you dig down into the bottom, most actions in the tech space can usually be attributed to very ordinary needs.

Another thing: Since we are stating our initial disclaimers, I’d like to add one as well:

I have no idea if election fraud was committed in 2020 or not. But I firmly believe that if it was the case, nobody would be able to detect it. The methods used would never have been plainly detectable in the first place.”

M: “The world today is community driven. Expert and amateur experts mingle in one big quest to save - well, whatever.”

C: “Same with journalism: Can you draw a line between professionals and amateurs?”

M: “Don’t open that can of worms. Journalism has defiled itself. Here’s what we ought to do as well: Make a comparative study on a range of topics. Simultaneously try to develop a ‘‘historical” journalism, one that assesses contemporary events like they were archeological findings. Present these things side by side so we notice the stark difference.”

Gerald was looking at both of them.

G: “We can agree that the entire circus of the Tina Peters trial should never have been. One vote of mistrust, and everything those conspiracy freaks set out to do should have set into motion automatically. Digital forensic captures should have been taken almost automatically.”

Christine all along had been clicking around. She seemed to have located a three hour video of the last trial where Peters received her verdict.

C: “I’ll send you a link. I’ll produce a transcript. It’s a three hour trial.”

They all fell into a concentrated state.

Miranda took an interest in the psychological aspect. “When reading, we should ask ourselves: How immoral does Tina Peters’ action stand out, given that neither she - nor anybody else - can really be guilty of believing in the truth of her convictions? She remains confident that something was wrong even to this day.”

G: “The judge opines on that too. He calls her defiant. In his view, she ought to have understood during the trials that she believed in lies. Seen from judge Matthew Barrett’s viewpoint, the hand recount removes any shadow of doubt that the machines had not been tampered with, since the officials who testified confirmed that the machine count and the recount matched.”

M: “It’s a good, sound argument. He stresses the danger of undermining faith in the system. The law will have that perspective, will it not? That the verdict must enforce faith in the system.”

G: “Christine, what do you think?”

Christine had taken a deep dive into the black main stream of America and was turning almost pale. But now she just nodded and kept on reading.

M: “Christine!”

Christine, startled, went on: “I’m sorry but I find it much harder to read these court transcripts than expected. Basically a court is just an expensive way of getting the opinion of a single guy, Judge Matthew Barrett in this case. But in reality, it’s just some dude’s legal opinion that happens to change the direction of people’s lives.”

M: “Speeding in a car is one person’s decision that can accidentally change a lot of people’s lives.”

C: “Yeah but, I don’t know, she fascinates me. I really think she means it, and I really think she tried to take forensic images of that Dominion machine because she felt someone had to save America. Plus the psychology of it all.. Overwhelming.”

Gerald and Miranda looked at each other and tried to figure out what was happening to Christine, although it wasn’t hard to deduce and surely something she had done before. When they saw her smile with her face lit blue by some obscure report on her laptop, they knew she allowed her curiosity to lead her astray down a dark alley.

C: “No, it’s just that.. hah! Really that simple?”

M: “Christine! Snap out of it! Are we discussing principles or are we not?”

C: “We are.. but we can’t, I can’t. I’m sorry Miranda, I really am, but I need to find out what it is these conspiracy cooks are saying! How can it be so contagious?”

Gerald knew where they were heading. “Miranda, tell her it’s not going to happen!”

M: “Christine, this isn’t the first time you have talked us into an adventure, remember? But you know all about computers, Gerald and I can’t do anything of value.”

C: “Please please, can’t we…?”

Gerald sighed. Miranda’s heart melted a bit. She was a sucker for Christine’s young enthusiasm, but also quite wary about her tendency to focus on trivial technology and miss the bigger picture.

Miranda felt obligated to provide the moral context.

Gerald mostly just felt old, but what the hell. He enjoyed the company.

/ПРИЗРАК