Community or Dystopian Cult? You decide

There is nothing wrong with any organisation, group or individual that wants to get involved with its local Council and question decision-making and impacts on the community.

It is something I have advocated for years. Too many people complain about what their council is or isn’t doing but are in reality not prepared to get actively involved.

My team and I have spent years and thousands of hours researching, writing, advocating, and begging people to listen when major changes to legislation have been rushed through by successive governments, always removing your rights and making Councils evermore powerful.

There will come a time when the majority of people finally wake up – but when? When is enough going to be enough? When we are taxed or charged out of our collective eyeballs? When we are under the most extreme of property surveillance measures? I think it will always come down to hitting your hip pocket to force a backlash, but there are many who are literally obsessed with the latter.

My Place and groups like it are popping up all over the place. They aim to plant local groups in each municipality. In some areas they are struggling for members and growth, in others, they are booming. When I first encountered them, I sought to be helpful, polite and respectful, as I believed they were people who wanted a better system and wanted to bring change to the local government sector.

The reality is, after dealing with them and seeing their interactions with local councils for weeks, I now, regrettably believe that they could be a real threat to our system of democracy.

Myplace aim to create an alternative to 5G, mandatory vaccinations, and a litany of other controversial issues. I have absolutely no issue with differing views, I desperately want people to always use critical thinking to assess the validity of information or ideas.

The real problem with the doctrine being preached by those in the leadership of these groups is the dangerous spread of misinformation and mistruths. I don’t say that lightly as I take all information and look for the truth in it. Sometimes I find that much is true, and sometimes I find little is true. I also look for intent, what was the intent of the messenger? To inform and drive engagement, or to scare the pants off people and rattle their cage based on untruths?

If you are a peddler of the latter, I have no time for you, and no sympathy.

We are bombarded with thousands of messages from all sources daily and often we simply are confronted with information overload. It is why so many people are no longer invested in local councils. A system of information overload, where ordinary residents have little chance of being heard, and no chance of real input into a bloated administration that is obsessed with knowing better than anyone else. Sorry for the cynicism!

Myplace seeks to usher in a collective pushback and rewrite the rules of engagement. Noble ideals.

I regularly say to people, in order to change a system, you have to know it intimately and work within its confines to make real change. This is not the methodology of Myplace and groups like it.

Instead, they believe and in many posts, I have seen, advise locals, to:

· Grow their own food or purchase from a new cooperative model.

· Share resources and not use big corporates.

· Challenge the Health and Safety of 5G with local Councils.

· Upend Council meetings by asking questions about Smart Cities, the UN Global Agenda and 20-minute cities.

· Rally people to meetings in the hundreds to show their “power”

· Declare themselves the “peoples mayor and alternate leaders.”

· Claim that all governments and laws are illegal and unconstitutional.

These are just a few examples. I actually can understand with the events of the last few years why thousands of people, probably millions, are disenchanted and feeling like governments and big corporations are the ruling class and don’t seem to care about the little people like us.

That said, I will never support a group of leaders who ignore laws, claim they are above them, and claim they have the right to change the system any way they personally see fit.

What makes those in these groups dangerous is that critical thinking is banned. Anyone who dares challenge the highly emotive and often fact-less information being peddled (asking for sources, evidence and truth) is booted, banned or in my case, labelled as “controlled opposition”, that I am somehow a deep state-paid government operative that is seeking to challenge them on behalf of the government.

These people must not know me. Any of you who have read my articles knows how much I seek to challenge all governments, all elected members, and all elected councillors. I am far from the deep state-paid actor.

I am aware that many councils are becoming concerned about these people and I am too. Not because I ever want to limit the right to protest, change the system or get involved, but rather the opposite.

These misinformed, illogical, cultish ideologues simply can’t see past their own selfishness and understand that democracy allows everyone to have their say. In any council of say 100,000 people a few hundred or even a few thousand are not the majority of the electorate.

I have spoken to the founder of the movement and begged them to have some more moderate and factually based information, to grow credibility and avoid being labelled “cookers”.

Sadly, I have come to realise that they seem to like the label, they ignore logic, they ignore people with qualifications in fields that could help them, because they know the “truth”.

I recently read that ASIO had labelled some of these “groups” as a local terror threat.

I thought it was excessive and harsh. After spending weeks engaging, I now understand why.

When you create your own truth, insulate your people from the real truth and alternate views, demand control of a system you don’t understand, spread dangerous misinformation and label anyone who has a differing view “a government operative”, you head down a very dangerous path, that could ultimately end with lives lost and anarchy. We have seen this in QLD in the last 12 months.

Normal people, are mentally challenged by long lockdowns and looking for some sense of escape or reset. These people are easy prey.

Of course, we MUST continue to fight for the system to change, we need it to, but it will only change when millions of ordinary Victorians make it the priority and demand change.

I love a good dystopian movie or the odd conspiracy theory, but for the first time in my life, I am confronted with this truth. All levels of government must shut these people down and fast. They must not be allowed to destroy the good people who challenge governments and systems based on facts. There is no place for leaders of these organisations who seem to be uninterested in hearing the truth, but rather, seek to impose their versions of reality on those who have been left traumatized and disaffected by the global events of the past few years.

For me, the responsibility of these so-called leaders is the issue. These people could very well be the cause of some very ugly and damaging events in people's lives if they are not challenged immediately.

My Place Australia – Putting Unity in Community

Mission Statement — My Place Frankston

VIC – My Place Australia