AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL ORGANISERS, ATTENDEES, OBJECTORS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE AWAKENING CONFERENCE
19th November 2021
Recently a petition requesting that the Town Council should not allow the Awakening Conference to take place in the Civic Hall which they administer arrived in my email. After researching a number of the speakers I felt sufficiently concerned to add my name to the petition.
I was not alone. As well as the petition, I know that the council phonelines were being overwhelmed by complaints and that some people had spoken with the police. However, in this letter I speak only for myself.
It was not a comfortable decision to sign and I felt conflicted about my belief in free speech. The consequence of the objections and subsequent cancellation of the venue booking has upset a lot of people who felt, understandably, that their right to free speech was being censored. To be clear, the petition asked that the Civic Hall should not be used, not that there should be any blanket ban on the conference happening anywhere else.
However, it has increased polarisation in an already polarising field. Some people have been spat at and pushed in the street for their objection and some have been vilified on social media. Or another way of looking at this is that some of the shadow has been brought to light.
Now, having spoken with two of the organisers and hearing their concerns, I decided to write this letter. I do not wish to amplify division and regret that this has been the consequence. But I do not withdraw my deep concerns and I would like to outline some of them here.
I know some of the organisers and many of those who will attend and I know that they are people of good heart. Many are my friends. And that is why I am writing this letter.
Speakers
A few of the speakers on the list were deeply troubling for me. Here’s who and why.
Patrick Henningsen
Browsing his 21stCenturyWire website I listened to him interview a holocaust revisionist, someone who was happy to assert that no one was gassed in the Nazi concentration camps. This view went unchallenged and, in fact, encouraged. Let’s be clear: the holocaust which saw the extermination of 6 million Jews and huge numbers of Roma, LGBQ, disabled and others offensive to the regime is one of the most thoroughly researched atrocities in mankind’s history.
It’s not the only place you will find provocative material about Jewish people. There is plenty in the unregulated forums on UK Column if you choose to go there, another site which Patrick Henningsen writes for. I include a link to the interview here so you can make up your own mind.
If you are interested in researching the holocaust yourself you can find extensive original source material here and here
And if you are interested more generally in anti-semitism, here is a useful report from Hope not Hate who are passionate about combatting hatred of all kinds in our world
The government has handled the pandemic badly in my view and has rightfully lost a degree of trust.
More personally, whilst researching this, I was visited by the memory of my one time Hebrew teacher, Shoshana, a kind and humble woman whose wrist still bore the tattoo from her time in Auschwitz. We’ve been there before and we know what happens when we do not challenge the demonizing of a people wherever and in whatever form it raises its head.
Agenda 21 and Agenda 30. These theories are promoted by Sandi Adams primarily, by Henningsen and Gareth Icke and perhaps by others who I have not had time to research. They are also entrenched viewpoints within the conference organisers.
If you are already minded that way there’s probably not much I can say that will change your mind. However, if you are interested in finding out about the original Agenda 21 from which the theory takes its name, I invite you to read the original document and decide for yourself whether it is an agenda which should disturb us. It was published at the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, a non-binding agreement which those of us active in environmental work at the time celebrated. It’s a bit of a dry read. Here it is
If you would rather read one person’s report who searched this document for evidence of the Agenda 21’s conspiracy theory’s claims you can do so here
Why am I bothered that people representing these worldviews are being given a platform at the conference? Because these theories are created and driven by ultraconservative groups and by the fossil fuel industry, picked up and amplified by some members of the Republican Party in the USA and further amplified by a whole host of people such as Sandi Adams. They serve a deep right wing agenda.
You don’t have to take my word for it. I’ve bothered to do the work and invite you to do the same. If you would like to research this yourself please check out the American Policy Center, John Birch Society, the Conservative Political Action Committee and Americans for Prosperity all of whom were early players in initiating this theory. They created the Agenda 21 theory specifically to drive opposition to renewable energy, immigration, climate change science, environmental regulation, affordable healthcare and whatever else offended their deep conservatism or threatened their privilege.
The question I ask is whose agenda does this theory serve. Who could possibly feel threatened by greater environmental regulation and protection and by any move to bring care of the planet into our collective decision making processes? It’s a rhetorical question.
Gareth Icke
Gareth Icke promotes the Agenda21/30 theory and gives a leg up to any theory about climate change which contradicts the established scientific consensus. Here’s my view on climate change denial:
What is happening to our beautiful planet breaks my heart on a daily basis. Sometimes the grief is so strong I am overwhelmed. For most of my adult life I have, in one way or another, been active in environmental movements as well as the hands on work of growing food. I am grateful to live in one of the most beautiful places in England, a gratitude tinged by the intense pain of knowing that across the earth species are going extinct at a phenomenal rate, that climatic changes are already devastating vast ecosystems, that there is an immense and growing tide of refugees who can no longer live in their own homelands.
At least three of the speakers at the conference promote a climate change denialist position on their outlets. It’s a position that should have become untenable years ago but it is still alive and kicking. Those not in full denial are shifting their arguments towards the unaffordability of action and peddling myths about how addressing the pressing issue of climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse is cover for damaging ordinary people’s lives and establishing totalitarian world control by a cabal of malevolent powers. Into the mix is thrown a good dose of people bashing, an attempt to demonise and discredit those who are on the frontline in calling for action. Any calls for a “new green deal” are framed as communist plots.
Reading this kind of ill-informed material is deeply distressing. But worse, it does harm. Because if you want to sabotage genuine attempts to deal with our existential crisis you have to come from an evidenced scientific understanding. We have that evidence, by the bucketful. The misinformation and distraction created by those who promote climate change denial or try to minimise its seriousness only serves those who want to resist taking action and condemns every living creature on the planet to a bleaker future.
Where does this information come from? This is where “follow the money” yields results. Climate denial and obscuration has been funded by the fossil fuel industry for years. You won’t see Exxon or Shell’s logo on a climate sceptical Youtube video but the fossil fuel industry and ultra conservative organisations have funded this misinformation for years. So have other groups such as the meat industry. Those who promote these views are doing their bidding. If you interested in this you can check out this link
So when I see these speakers on the invited list to the conference I have a WTF moment. How can I trust or respect someone who is directly attempting to misdirect and undermine efforts to address climate change? How can I respect someone who promotes holocaust denial? I can’t. And I fear for those who are exposed to their dangerous views, fear that we are unwittingly preparing the ground for fascism to grow.
Fascism
How does fascism take hold? Here, in my view, are some essential strategies: convince people that any media critical of your cause are untrustworthy and peddling fake news, find a bete noir who you can blame for your country’s problems, attempt to rewrite history and undermine experts and science at every opportunity. We don’t have to look far to see examples. Donald Trump was a master of this. Or we could look at Stalin or Hitler.
However, this same strategy is not limited to governments. Conspiracy theories gain traction in precisely the same way. And the more they gain traction the more people get hurt: attacks on journalists, doctors, nurses and scientists are increasing and recently some of this is directly perpetuated by people because of their beliefs about vaccination or their involvement in certain conspiracy theories. Whatever our views on vaccination, the NHS is not the enemy and attacking it only plays into the hands of those who want to dismantle and privatise it.
We have to be vigilant and questioning, something which I suspect we can all agree on. So when I see people on the stage who, in my view, are associated with or promoting the kind of mindset which fascism needs in order to thrive, I am alarmed. And I want you to be too.
At the fringes of our community lurks QAnon. At marches for Freedom it is not uncommon to see “Q” flags or merchandise and I expect we will see some at the Freedom march. And it has its adherents in Totnes too. If anyone thinks this is not sinister and cause for concern, please check out QAnon’s origins and central tenets. QAnon’s core story is a direct replica of a Nazi cult. And remember it was QAnon’s rallying cry to storm the Capitol and begin the (Great) Awakening that resulted in people dying. Here is an article about QAnon’s origins
or a thoughtful article from the Guardian
Experience has shown us that groups with darker intent will often try to piggy back or infiltrate groups where they think their own ideas might find traction. Witness flags of St George or QAnon symbols on show at Freedom marches for example and the way the far right are magnetised to the fringes of these movements. So I want to name that this can happen on the lovely streets of Totnes as it can anywhere else. Have march organisers briefed their helpers for this possibility? And is anyone prepared to call it out when they see it?
Vaccination
Yes, I haven’t got to the vaccine question yet. The government has handled the pandemic badly in my view and has rightfully lost a degree of trust. I watch, like most people, how it is accrui
ng more powers and am wary of this. I see mandatory vaccination or anyone losing their job because they choose not to be vaccinated as an unethical and dangerous idea as do our health worker unions. I also find profiteering by pharmaceutical companies deeply repulsive and I feel it is morally wrong for the rich nations to fail to share the vaccination programme equally with the whole world.
And I understand “vaccine hesitancy”. Of course we should be concerned about what we put into our bodies. I have worked for over thirty years as a holistic health professional, have written books on nutrition and have taught worldwide. Taking care of our health and our planet has been at the heart of my work for most of my working life. In the case of the Covid vaccine I am vaccinated. This has surprised some of my friends but it’s a balance of risks question for me. I weighed it up and that’s the way I went. I also respect anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated.
Balancing the risks of vaccination against its benefits is difficult. No vaccine is without risks and VAERS reporting for the flu vaccine yields similar results. I think it’s a nuanced and challenging issue, one in which we have to balance our own risk with risk to the collective and navigate the difficult terrain of assessing the information we have available. The risks from vaccination may be very small but every adverse reaction or death is a human life, as is every injury or death from covid. I welcome more debate and more investigation and this is something the conference may contribute towards. And, to be clear, this is not the ground of my concerns regarding the conference.
So for me I do not judge anyone who declines vaccination but there is a nagging “but” lurking. That “but” is to do with ensuring that we have access to good quality information and make up our minds from that well informed basis. There is no one speaking at the conference who can balance the field and speak knowledgably in favour of vaccination and so far as I know no factchecking process is being put in place by the organisers. So what I would ask of speakers at the conference – and this may already be the case – is that references are provided for important assertions so that people can go home and follow these up for themselves.
In Conclusion
The division within my own community is painful. So how can we listen to one another? Because without conversation we are in deep trouble.
Just to state the obvious: conspiracies happen, the world is in many ways in a dangerous state, governments do not always act well, fascism is on the rise, many people make profit in ways that feel ethically wrong, the pharmaceutical industry hasn’t covered itself in glory over the years, corruption and hidden agendas exist, our trust in authority and experts has been undermined and so on. The challenge is to make sense of it from a grounded place.
I don’t have the answers, of course. But I do know that we are deeply obligated to research and evidence whatever position we take and must do our best to be discerning when it comes to processing information. It’s hard work but the damage done by perpetuating misrepresentations of fact is huge, muddying the waters for everyone. At worst this puts people at risk and leads to violence and hatred and a divided people.
So my concern, in a nutshell, is that legitimate questioning of the vaccination programme is being gatecrashed by people with other agendas and the debate gets contaminated. I am raising my head above the parapet to say to the community I care deeply about “be careful”. I live here and am invested in the health and happiness of this community. I want us to stand together unified by our love, tolerant of difference and more interested in our common ground than what divides us. Above all I wish for all of us discernment in making sense of these challenging times.
There is a lot to consider in this article so will need time to digest it all. Plenty to agree and disagree with but on the whole, I think people should be able to share their views without getting hammered online or abused in any way while walking down the street.
A request to antivaxers:
Can we please All unite around CARING FOR ONE ANOTHER above all else?
CARING FOR and NOT HARMING OTHERS is surely the supreme moral value?
When push comes to shove in life, as it inevitably does, and a balance has to be made, surely Not Harming Others comes above MY RIGHT TO IGNORE SAFETY RESTRICTIONS.
My sense is that respect for others’ safety can get lost altogether when anger and bitterness are swept up with a sense of encroached individual freedom.
Specifically, there are those for whom mask-wearing and social-distancing literally mean life or death: I know elderly, already unwell and immunosuppressed people who are at high risk of losing their lives if they contract Covid.
If others decide to ignore their largely terrified position, and ‘in pursuit of their personal freedom’ don’t wear a mask in close contact with others while out shopping, say, that tramples on what surely needs to be respected above all else.
If we descend to a situation where some people actively ignore others’ right to life, then surely something has gone extremely badly awry and has taken an incredibly dark turn and needs a fresh re-analysis.
Antivaxers: you may have a bigger picture that you believe justifies your behaviour, but Really? Does it overide the “No Harm” principle? Please consider this again.
Be honest: have you really suddenly become such a scientific know-all that you can be so certain that your breathing on others won’t spread a virus that may be fatal, that you’re comfortable to brush aside others’ concerns and fears?
Whatever your views, Not Harming others, Not Risking harming others, and Not spreading terror among others – these should surely take priority over your preference not to wear a mask.
Thank you
Bless you, you sound frightened. Yes, we must care for each other. But no one with heartfelt hesitations about experimental, un-approved, mass-deployed gene modification with a multi-billion dollar incentive is uncaring…they are deeply caring, about protecting themselves, their families and those around them -even those insulting or misunderstanding them.
It’s unscientific to claim that masks work…the covid virus is so tiny it flies straight through most barriers. It’s unscientific to believe that the shots work when the population is more sick than it was before, and you’re more likely to catch covid if you’ve had 2 or more shots. It’s irrational to believe that you can insulate yourself against every threat, danger, pathogen or toxin.
Focusing on one’s own strong natural immunity is the most loving thing you can do for everyone else. Healthy me = no bugs to pass on to you (if that is indeed how it works). Healthy me and healthy you means we can hug, interact, laugh, dance and be human, which in turn strengthens the immune system. SINGING strengthens the immune system. Being outside lots in the sun instead of ‘isolating’ under house arrest speeds up healing. In short, all the things they told us not to do are best for us. Your own health is your responsibility, not mine. You are safe, whole, resilient and naturally created to heal.
Here is my response to this letter: Reply to ‘AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL ORGANISERS, ATTENDEES, OBJECTORS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE AWAKENING CONFERENCE’
re “How does fascism take hold?” by believing this carefully constructed article.
Once again, the individuals against these freedom marches try to change the subject by referring to interviews of people talking about WW2.
In a truly free society there is NO subject that cannot be researched or talked about. Everything must be allowed to be subjected to critical thinking… including the safety of these new mRNA vaccines, and the proposal to prevent travel for those who have chosen not to be vaccinated.
Some people are understandably angry about the Awakening conference being declined use of the Civic Hall. I’ll just speak personally to this. It’s the first time I have ever supported any kind of “no platform” position. That I did so this time reflects the level of my alarm. Some days, reflecting on this, I have regretted doing so and on another day I might not have signed. But I did and I accept my responsibility and I apologise to those who feel censored and disrespected in this.
Although I have questioned my own wisdom in signing it, I stand fully behind the anger and alarm which took me there. I think I have expressed that alarm pretty clearly and in detail in my open letter. My regret is that this seems to have taken away some of the focus for its essential message.
For the record, I too draw the line at mandatory vaccination. Despite the complexity of this issue the bottom line for me is that my body is sacred and it is for me to decide what enters it. I also reject any narrative which turns the vaccinated against the unvaccinated or vice versa or any narrative which simplifies such a multi-faceted issue to black and white. There are genuinely difficult questions for all of us about how best, as a society and individually, we respond to a pandemic. Provided we share a common goal of containing the virus and keeping each other safe, then we are aligned in our different choices not against one another.
But listen, when I look at the “brandnewtube” news channel currently promoted by the New World Alliance, which organised both the Awakening conference and the Freedom marches, I see videos predicting that the vaccinated will all be dead by Christmas (at least that sorts out the Christmas presents angst), or that the vaccine is a UN bioweapon to depopulate the world by 90%, or a video advocating that all nurses and doctors who administer the vaccine will be tried Nuremberg style or a video headline saying “hang all government traitors”. This astounds me and it should alarm everyone wherever they stand on the vaccination issue.
I don’t hear anyone condemning this. The danger, in my view, is that legitimate and thoughtful discussion of the vaccination issue has been deeply contaminated. This is why I spoke out and why I continue to do so. Whether social media is a good place for this, I am not sure.
No one ‘*feels* censored’. That’s not a thing. People *were* censored.
I’m glad to hear that you’re questioning your wisdom in this matter. Anger and alarm undermine wisdom. Questioning nurtures it.
You say that you ‘too’ draw the line at mandatory vaccination. But that’s not where I draw the line. I drew the line at ridiculous propaganda clips from China. At the global imposition of cruel, unusual and scientifically dubious ‘health measures’ justified by a single fraudulent computer model created by a proven charlatan (with previous) at an institution with huge ties to the pharmaceutical industry. I drew a line at the ‘Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ advising our government that “A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened [therefore] the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging”. All these lines were crossed *long* ago. Just saying.
I don’t know what channel you’re referring to, but the climate change industry has been doing its best to terrify people (and especially children) for decades with predictions of doom that never materialise, and now they’re doubling down. I would define that as terrorism. How come they get a pass?
And, just to be clear – I make a *very* clear distinction between environmental degradation and AGW theory – unlike most modern ‘environmentalists’.
You say ‘the’ danger is that discussion of the vaccination issue has been deeply ‘contaminated’. The very word ‘contamination’ reeks of totalitarianism. I wonder – what’s your proposed solution for those who have already been ‘contaminated’? Re-education camps?
You are demonstrating your ignorance of those you would silence by suggesting that vaccination is their sole concern. That is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The real issue is technocracy – which can be simply defined as the state justifying its policies as being based on “hard scientific data”. Once academia, media, politics and bad money are aligned as completely as they surely are now, the ‘cult’ of technocracy, scientism, or rule by *approved* expertise, can very effectively coax and bully a docile, apathetic, miseducated and frightened populace into policing their own ideological prison – just as you are doing right now. The ‘vaccination’ drive is just one more step down this perilous path.
If you ever need a break from questioning your wisdom, can I suggest you have a think about what freedom actually means? I’m pretty confident that if you really think about it, you’ll quickly come to realise that it includes the freedom to think anything… even if Daverick doesn’t like it.
Either that or you really are a totalitarian.
What an appalling rant! The silencing of political discourse dressed up as ‘civic concern’… Praise the Lord that we have people in our town who aren’t afraid of the woke mob. People that will stand up for liberty, freedom and justice. People that will fight the lentil left and its sinister globalist agenda. #Q_GatherTogetherToGreetTheStorm
Quote “I also find profiteering by pharmaceutical companies deeply repulsive and I feel it is morally wrong for the rich nations to fail to share the vaccination programme equally with the whole world.”
I would be interested on Davericks opinion on forced vaccination of Australian Aboriginals against their Will, is that kindly sharing with the world “https://www.mgtow.tv/watch/australia-s-o-s-forced-vaccines-and-martial-law_ouryWavImFHonZ1.html” Australia S.O.S! Forced Vaccines and Martial Law (mgtow.tv) This may be deleted as was the conference in Totnes, you may have to search if this link doesnt work.
[Totnes Pulse Note: The Forced vaccination claim in this comment is provably false]
Gosh, so you go to a questionable ‘fact’ checker (Fact Checkers | Newsbusters) who makes a claim about something, but not the video that i posted. The aboriginals are speaking themselves, calling for help, are you calling them liars?
Totnes Pulse. Did you watch the linked video? Your response is unbelievable and provably irrelevant. Please remove it immediately. It’s disgraceful.
You appear conveniently to have ignored the line above the one you quote, where he explicitly stated that he finds enforced vaccination ‘unethical and dangerous’
What a thoroughly disingenuous and misleading piece. The weak-minded Town Council conjured up some idea of what might be said using both inflammatory and defamatory comments – in stark contrast to events on the day, both the profile of the march itself and the important factual content provided by the speakers – which can be viewed on brandnewtube under The Awakening Channel – “https://brandnewtube.com/@TheAwakeningChannel”. This Woke lunacy needs to stop and people need to wake up. As for playing the “anti-Semitism” “Trump” card really is pathetic and once again, has no basis whatsoever in fact – check the content before making such appalling libels…
Totnes Pulse claimed to fact check my link but linked to a different article that was not the video that i have posted. The video, that i posted a link to, are aboriginals themselves, in their own words, on video, calling for our help. CALLING FOR OUR HELP. Are Totnes Pulse calling the aboriginals liars to stay ‘safe’ in their own perspective? You are so right about needing to wake up!
So…what you are all saying is that it is ok to have ‘concerns’ and ‘legitimate debate’, as long as you don’t voice them too loudly, substantiate them, construe them as a fixed opinion or air them in a local venue in legal, polite fashion? As long one eventually pushes one’s ‘hesitancy’ aside and comes over to your side of the fence, then you will ‘tolerate it’? How patronising. Once again the pretty painted progressive mask of woke tolerance and mainstream paradigm slips to reveal fascistic attitudes and deep, deep intolerance. (I know the thing that stung most there was the adjective ‘mainstream’. You hope to find yourself edgy, alternative and a bit better than most upcountry, but in fact concur with virtually every narrative, claim and faith paradigm of the system you can mention. Sorry to break it to you). Sadly you’re completely deluded. The easy soft targets you selected (such as [Statement removed by Totnes Pulse due to Holocaust denial]) were predictable. But you conveniently leave out speakers booked for our event such as Professor Dolores Cahill and ex British army officer and top lawyer Anna De Buisseret (let’s not risk offering the thinking reader any legitimate avenues of research and investigation now, shall we?). When you claim that ‘similar’ vaccine injuries and death rates to the covid reporting on the American Vaers system can be found in flu’ stats, you just descend into disgusting, divisive, intolerant, irrational, unhinged lying that only a vulnerable person in danger of being radicalised by government propaganda and psychological manipulation could achieve. Once you have stopped ‘breaking your heart’ over the floods and extinctions many miles away, perhaps you could save a tear or two for the authoritarian governance taking place on your doorstep, for the businesses lost, tenants evicted, people now dead to suicide, domestic violence, and virtual exclusion from the health service for 2 years, insurmountable national debt, flouting of the Nuremberg code, skyrocketting miscarriage and cot deaths, people maimed for life from the shots and a population gripped by irrational fear of each other, of the future, of natural health, of a disease with a 99% survival rate and of death. Totnes is reputed to have a better understanding of natural health than that…talking (such as conferences), social contact, free breathing, smiles, touch, singing. dancing, hope, sunlight, vitamin D and courage all strengthen the immune system. Libelling people, stirring up trouble, manipulation and moaning do not.
No Totnes Pulse, I did not ‘deny the Holocaust’. Please pay attention to detail and actual proof reading if you are a reputable rag. I said there exists a debate about the NUMBERS involved. I have no opinion whatsoever, due to having not had the chance to do any research; I was simply stating that the debate exists. Nothing controversial or inappropriate about stating a fact of our times. It’s called reporting, something they use in journalism 😉
Great comments, Ruth. Totnes Pulse, please remove your ridiculous censorship/ smear of this comment immediately. If only your ridiculousness wasn’t so dangerous and we could laugh at it.
We had a similar situation in Frome in which concerns about 5G were used to publicise wild conspiracy theories and old anti-semitic tropes. It is the one meeting I’ve been to that I should have walked out of on principle; as should anyone else who was there and had principles.
Thank you Daverick for all your work and thoughtfulness in composing this.
Thankyou for this clear and informative letter. It has helped me understand the issue with the speakers.
Well done Daverick Leggett. Such a thoughtful and gentle article, well researched . I like the way he has included his links to information, and encouraged people to make up their own minds.
Thanks Daverick, for a sensitive and commendably restrained article. The Totnes Jewish community received prior warning of this event, and is liaising with the Devon and Cornwall police hate crimes division and the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents in the UK and advises Jewish communities on self-protection. Yes, that’s right, it’s 2021 and Jews in Totnes are fearful. Plus ça change….
Tony – any such fears (at least related to this event) are entirely unfounded. You may like to question the motives of the government however and whether they might pose an existential risk to ALL of us, regardless of race, creed, colour or any of the 74 genders you might identify with