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Mikhi’s guest spot on the Tylon Talon show had been “hyped up” by the Raposa News, which meant that close to 100% of it’s regular viewers tuned into the Web news channel. The producers of the show were confident that they could keep control of the content and “build the brand” by “destroying” Mikhi. What they didn’t know was that the Old Ones had installed a shunt into their main video feed cable that sent their raw footage (ie: without the five second delay editing) to be recorded for their use. (It really doesn’t pay to treat your cleaning staff like crap---they have pass keys and are around when no one is looking.)
This meant that when Talon played his dirty debating tricks on Mikhi and he responded the way Wayne had coached him, the resulting “fireworks” might not have been on the original show footage---but it was on the stuff that the Elders put up on the Web. Moreover, because of their “white hat” hackers, they were able to create a very close copy of the original Raposa News feed that had the real footage, not the altered stuff. And they used their AI bots to push this footage to the point where the overwhelming majority of people who followed Raposa News on social media saw the Elder’s version instead of the real thing.
This created a “fire storm” among viewers because of the extreme cognitive dissonance. On one hand, they had been “programmed” to believe everything that they saw on the Raposa News, but on the other hand, this was about making Tylon Talon look foolish. This opened up a vulnerability in the minds of many of these fans, which the Old One’s psychologists took advantage of in one of those “cheap” projects that had been referred to at the Holy House. Some “crazy uncle Liberty” types actually lost their slave-like devotion to their goofy news sources. Some advertisers quit supporting the Raposa News channel. And more information was gained for future Old Ones projects. All around, a good time was had by all.
Except, of course, Tylon Talon. He heard through the “grape vine” that several wealthy “think tanks” that had been considering lucrative contracts for him now considered him too much of a liability for consideration. And the Raposa News owners decided to avoid renewing his contract. Instead, they told him that they’d keep him on a week-by-week basis and see how he did over the long haul.
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Eventually Wayne decided that the media circuit was at the point of diminishing returns. The invites to talk show were drying up and attention had moved away from the “Climate Trials” to the next “cause célèbre”. This just meant that interest went “underground” however. Now it was time to talk to academics and activists.
“These people are different and require a much different way of dealing with them.” Wayne had his Frye boots up on the table that served as his desk. (Mikhi was surprised that you could still buy them---he hadn’t seen a pair since the 1970s.) He had a bong in his hand and was even more casual than usual.
“Activists don’t generally set out to torpedo you, but you have to handle them very carefully. Some of them are very intense and tend to focus on minutia to the point of self-destruction. You can say the wrong word and they will instantly bracket you as ‘the enemy’ and then devote their considerable energy into tearing you down. That’s why people sometimes say that they form ‘circular firing squads’.”
“What we’ll do is create a program that will work you through some of the most common pitfalls. Things like learning the ritual that involves acknowledging the First Nations that lived on the land where the meeting is being held, dealing with people who have idiosyncratic gender identifiers---that sort of thing. These aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things and are usually based on real issues, but as a boomer you may find them strange and hard to remember. If you can avoid making a faux pas, you should be able to get along fine with these people.”
“Also, you are going to be interviewed by academics. As a general rule they can be trusted to not have any ulterior motives or extreme ideas about ‘political correctness’---but they can be very eccentric and obtuse. You have to be patient with them and accept that they know everything and their individual project is more important than whether or not the sun rises tomorrow. Once you get over that, you will do fine.”
This phase of the work went pretty much as predicted for the next two years. After that, the next fad came along and Mikhail found himself less and less in demand. Eventually the day came when Wayne announced that the project was finished.
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Our dear and glorious leader seems to have finally bowed to his science advisors---late is at least a little better than never---and put the province back into a lock-down. This sucks a little for everyone, but it and the disease sucks a lot more for a few---so remember to be both nice and responsible to people in different situations than yours. Try to keep a stiff upper lip, remind yourself that all pandemics eventually end, and, when the time comes roll up your sleeve and get vaccinated.
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