WIS: Three Times A Pattern
The Paid Newsletter, with a Full Segment Available for Everyone!
Hello everyone! Welcome to this edition of Written In Stone [WIS] - the newsletter normally written entirely for paid Members. However, over the past few weeks I have been making the opening segment available to everyone, in its entirety, and since the feedback I have received has been positive? We’re going to keep doing it, at least for the time being. Again, the entire segment will be available, no pay-wall mid-article.
It always annoys me when that happens.
Sent and posted every week, WIS is a free-flow of candid thoughts and raw ideas, with very little filter, and it has become my primary Substack publication. So…
If you’re not already a paid member, join us! It is only $30 a year (or $5 a month on the monthly) to support my work, and you get this nifty newsletter every week!
Yep - that is 52 issues a year! Neat, eh? So join me today!
In the meantime, enjoy this free segment…
Prime Cut: Three Times A Pattern
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern.
On Friday the writer / humorist / creator of awesome-collections-of-words,
(seriously, she’s become one of my favorite ‘Stackers), dropped a intriguing piece where she - only jokingly? - discusses whether or not we actually are living in a simulation. In it, she ruminates over the 1998 Brian DePalma film ‘Snakes Eyes’ (yeah, I had not heard of it, either), and its disconcerting parallels with the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk.It’s as creepy as creepy can get.
While I have joked many times that we are indeed living in a dystopian, Truman Show-esque production, or perhaps even a perverted Matrix timeline (minus the crappy third act*), I never really seriously entertained the ‘simulation theory.’ For me, it was only fodder for hot takes and cool breaks, or even the occasional lulz.
Now? I have to seriously wonder. I mean, how many examples do we need before we have to start at least asking the questions with an inquisitive-yet-somber tone?
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern. Again.
Still, I have noticed a curious feature with many of those who advocate for the ‘nothing is real’ theory; somehow, magically, THEY are always real! While every one - and every thing - around them is ‘fake and gay’, where those with whom they disagree are dehumanized to ‘non-player characters’ (aka NPCs), they are always very real, and therefore part of the righteous Nero brigade of truth-seekers.
Of course, this is understandable; everyone wants to be the main character in their own play. However, I have noticed it can lead to a degree of hubris in those who subscribe to the theory, which is something I am unwilling to entertain in myself.
Simply put, I’m not that big of a deal.
This is why I enjoyed Jenna’s piece so much; she strikes the perfect balance of genuine curiosity with amused incredulousness. Even if this is NOT a simulation, however, no one can deny that there have been a multitude of films and television vehicles which have eerily foretold events beforehand. While it is easy to lean into the simulation theories, I tend to consider a different option.
Conditioning of the masses.
I mean really, just how many ‘entertainment’ vehicles produced over the last three decades could fit into this category? Jenna provides several examples, and there are many more which could be included. While the characters change, the pattern remains the same: The unthinkable is presented as plausible, to program - or to condition - the viewing public into accepting not only its plausibility, but also their otherwise-radical ‘solutions’.
Three times is a pattern. Which brings me to the most blatant example we have: The 2011 film, Contagion.
If you have not seen it… well, I could give you a complete summary of the film, but I do not have to - you lived it. It was basically a condensed primer for the COVID psyop of 2019-2022; the good guys were the brave ‘scientists’ at the CDC, the bad guys were encapsulated in one character, a ‘truth blogger’ who called out those in authority while promoting an alternative treatment (foreshadowing ivermectin?), and the miracle cure for it all was… a vaccine.
Sound at all familiar?
Think about it. Clean, crisp 15 minute cities? Surveillance state? Foods created with ‘science’? Digital IDs? Even the films which claim to be ‘warnings’ actually serve to ‘soften’ the people, through indoctrination methods subtle to perverse.
It is examples like these which make me question the reality of our ‘reality’. While it is still too much of a stretch for me to fully embrace the simulation theory, it is not at all difficult to image them using Hollywood propaganda to manipulate the public into accepting that which would have once been considered intolerable. And the only reason they would need to do that? Because they are planning to do those things to us.
With that noted, and considering the embrace of AI as a ‘companion’ rather than a tool? Has anyone seen I, Robot lately? Or Her? Or M3GAN?
Because damned…
Thank you for reading this free segment of Written In Stone; I hope you enjoyed it.
For Context…
My review of the film, M3GAN…
When Trump Got ‘Visionary’…
Asterisks
*The line “… minus the crappy third act,” is not mine; I stole it from ‘Damage’, a Season 5 episode of the television series ‘Angel’.
Disclaimer: ‘The Stone Age’ is an opinion and entertainment website. The information or other content provided on “The Stone Age,” or in any linked materials, is provided for informational or entertainment purposes only. It is not intended - nor should it be construed as - medical, financial, nutritional, or legal advice. It is not a substitute for professional advice or direction in any of these, or in any other, field.
Note: Unless otherwise credited, all images were generated by Stone Bryson, via NightCafe Studio, Grok 3 [X], or Substack’s AI Image Tool, with digital alterations when desired or needed. Any memes created by the author will have a “The Stone Age” watermark attached; all other memes were snatched from various Internet sources.
And now, the rest of Written In Stone…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Written In Stone to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.