{"id":287129,"date":"2024-05-08T07:40:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T07:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=287129"},"modified":"2024-05-10T05:39:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T05:39:20","slug":"this-week-in-the-new-normal-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=287129","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the New Normal #89"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off-Guardian \u2013 May 6, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Our successor to This Week in the Guardian<\/em>, This Week in the New Normal<\/a><\/em> is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.<\/p>\n

1. \u201cBiometric Payments Will Keep You Safe\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a big push on the biometric payment issue at the moment, with numerous platforms and outlets talking them up as the next big thing.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> in TechRadar from April 29th is the best example, claiming that PayPal is \u201cbattling the beast\u201d of online fraud, and that biometric payment systems using fingerprints and face scans will help keep us all safe from hucksters, charlatans and Nigerian Princes:<\/p>\n

The biometric verification system not only enhances security but also makes it user friendly. The traditional approaches to authentication, with their repeated entering of passwords, attempts to remember some kind of passwords, or secret questions, are rather cumbersome and slow. Biometrics suggest a seamless alternative. A quick touch of a glance at a camera secures access to your account\u2014this adds up to great convenience in login time with high efficiency customers prefer, without compromising security.<\/p>\n

So, go ahead and let Google\/PayPal\/whoever scan your face and retinas and fingerprints and record your voice patterns.<\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s not like there\u2019s advanced AI technology out there that could use your face and voice scans to create fake videos of you.<\/p>\n

2. De Santis\u2019 Lab-Grown Meat Ban<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Florida Governor Ron De Santis signed a ban on lab-grown meat<\/a> in his state this week, claiming it will protect the beef industry.<\/p>\n

The real reason is to steer the conversation. By associating reluctance to eat \u201ccell cultivated meat\u201d products with prominent right-wingers they turn it into a partisan issue.<\/p>\n

This way they are encouraging the young liberal set to embrace the \u201cfood transition\u201d as a way of \u201cowning and trolling right-wing chuds\u201d, while simultaneously making left-leaning types who are reticent to \u201ceat ze bugs\u201d afraid of speaking up for fear of being associated with MAGA hats.<\/p>\n

(Just wait for the \u201cI ate lab-grown meat and it was better than the real thing\u201d <\/em>reviews to appear in Vox or the HuffPo and the like.)<\/p>\n

Then, sometime down the line, a prominent right-winger will claim \u201clab-grown meat causes AIDs\u201d<\/em> or something equally asinine, and totally discredit any-and-all resistance to the fake food revolution.<\/p>\n

3. Gaza Protests and Celebrity Arrests<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Student protests against the ongoing bombing of Gaza by the IDF have been raging across US college campuses for weeks now, with increasing ferocity. They have inevitably been accused of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n

At the same time, counter-protests from dude bro types made the news as well, this time for being potentially racist<\/a> towards black people,<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all so wonderfully divisive. And has allowed the US Senate to further criminalize free speech by \u201cexpanding the definition of anti-Semitism\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested<\/a> at one such protest, this was totally an organic thing that happened, and not even slightly a contrived event to increase her pro-peace bona fides<\/em> before the election in November.<\/p>\n

BONUS: Cringe of the week<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here is actor Mark Hamill chairing the White House press briefing on \u201cStar Wars Day\u201d (May 4th), during which he calls Biden \u201cJoebi Won Kenobi\u201d.<\/p>\n

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"Star Wars" legend Mark Hamill visited the White House in honor of May the 4th weekend and shares a hilarious conversation he had with President Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com\/7rRLzWwXJ8<\/a><\/p>\n

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n