My problem with that is that I know people who have complied with this crap, and they aren't stupid. Sure there are stupid people among those that complied, but I think cognitive dissonance and mass formation are good examples of what has happened as well.
Someone pointed out that Bonhoffer, a German prisoner, spoke at how the German people were "made stupid" due to social pressure.
I think stupidity can't be made, but critical thinking can be disrupted. I would never do what Ted Nugent did before my close family members who wore masks and got the vaccine. But maybe that is my failing as I don't think ad hominem attacks will work against them anymore than I think reason works. I have explained to close family members about the vaccine and how it doesn't make sense why it should be mandatory. I broke it down, but their answer to me was silence.
An example of mass formation happened to me after dinner one Christmas day. We had game night, and a woman's ex husband was playing with us all a game of 20 questions where one person had a card on their forehead and the person had to ask the group for answers.
The first question I asked was "Is it an animal?" I was told no. I was told this by the now ex husband.
Was it a vegetable? I again was told no.
"Was it a mineral?" I was told no.
After that I asked all manner of questions. After which I was allowed to take down. The card showed an ant. And I said, "This is an animal."
"No it isn't." I was told. And no one else at the table contradicted him. He was sure it wasn't an animal. In exasperation, I gave up. Because if they couldn't see what was plain as day, then I didn't know what to tell them.
When I later said to a close family member that an ant was an animal, she dismissed me out of hand. Maybe she was ashamed of giving into peer pressure, or appearing "wrong" in a confident answer by the ex husband.
It's not that I am confident I knew what an ant was, I did look it up on my phone and felt ashamed for doing so. I had been gaslit and was rationalizing not why I was wrong, but why he might have given the wrong answer himself. Perhaps he mixed up "animal" with "mammal"
I imagine if I showed them that an ant is considered an animal, they would say disparaging things like "you looked that up on the internet?" as if was silly to consult the internet about anything. I should have told them the Kardashians told me.
I have experienced the same in many different circumstances too numerous to count in the faculty lounge of my universities. Especially the different ways to express percentages. You would be surprised how many with master’s degrees or doctorates believe insects are not animals. I too have looked things up, patents mainly, and have been told, “You looked that up on the internet? WOW!”.
I do want to ask them how they look things up. My guess is they use the same internet I do, but they believe they can properly vet information, whereas because I am an unwashed mortal without any initials before or after my name, I can't possibly know what is good and useless information.
You prove my point out correctly, these people have master's degrees and doctorates. I have a close family member with a PhD in education and one of the things she discussed with me back in the summer of 2020 was how she thought Covid was going to be like the Spanish Flu. I know I must have sounded crazy to her...she probably listens to NPR and the news early and often. But I said simply that the Spanish Flu killed 50 million people including children and young adults, this wasn't even close to the Spanish Flu.
They don’t look things up. They get their news form “trusted” sources that all tell the same story. I am the first in my family to graduate from college. I did so in 2000 after serving 6 years in the navy to pay for college. Even back then, college was a weird place, filled with strange people and even stranger ideas and beliefs. After graduation, I came to Japan to teach English and eventually got recruited into universities, mainly med schools. Most of my esteemed colleagues have master’s degrees and my most of my bosses doctorates. They are all little more the bio tape players, they spout what was on the evening news and will not suffer to hear any opposition to their views, “nuff said” as far too many have said to me after stating their beliefs as fact.
With a love of history from a young age, I learned that much of what is taught in school is just plain wrong. I also learned that there is no such thing as “unbiased”. Human nature simply does not allow anyone, myself included, to be unbiased. However, those few of us that understand this and make efforts will be, hopefully, far less biased than those who are not aware of this fact. This has led me to adopt a filter for news. Everything I read I ask, “Hmmm, I wonder how much of this is true?” If it is of importance or of interest to me, I start digging into it. I accept very little on face value. Most of the time, new information flies in the face I what I have been taught at some point in my education. If one with a PhD or in my case, even a MD, tries telling me that masks work, I ask them for their certification in respirators. I have this certification, I know that either they do not and thus do not know that they are talking garbage, or they have and are lying. MD or not, liars and fools need not be deferred to, and I do not. I do lose jobs though.
My coworkers have masters or PhDs in education. That does not mean they are highly educated. All it means is that have learned the then current methodologies to getting leftist ideas into as many kids’ minds as possible. Despite never having to wear a mask against airborne virus in their life, it is they who immediately did so when told with out thinking as if they were sheep. It seems that at least in the US, the higher one’s edjumacation (not misspelled) is, the more ready they are to accept the BS shoveled out by authority and the less able they are to think for themselves. Most I have met in my career are completely unable to get information from different sources and synthesize it on their own. If they have not been specifically told something by authority they accept, they do not know it. These people would not likely be caught dead on this substack.
I love the Popeye reference, by the way, with"Edumacation."
I don't have any credentials to back up my knowledge that masks are ineffective. All I have is observation and common sense.The common sense part is simply asking the question "Why haven't we worn masks for other airborne viruses?"
I did get a few people who would send me aggregate studies on the efficacy of masks. Most of these studies were observational or done in a laboratory settling. They did not use the gold standard study like the Danish study which was inconclusive as to how awesome masks were.
I agree with you. I think a lot of advanced education studies like getting a master's and doctorate are all teaching the person how to not only to process indoctrination, but pass it on. This also leaks into government (no surprise) because there is a high correlation between the educational and governmental system. Thus I had close members of my family both conservative and democrat who both visited me wearing masks. And my conservative family member encouraged me that if the choice were between not getting a job and accepting the vaccine, I should accept the vaccine. I can't tell you how devastating it was to hear them say that.
I laughed in the face of fact checkers and bias sites like snopes, as if they are an unbiased source capable of making those determinations. There is no such thing as unbiased, which is why I question a lot of what I see in the world. I am adamant on both sides against ad hominem attacks. I don't want to accuse one side as being "sheep" any more than I like to be called a "terrorist" for disagreeing with the mainstream narrative. And what is constructive end game? My close family members are smart people who have been subjected to many hours of indoctrination.
One of the first roadblocks I ran into when commenting on others posts about "wearing the damn mask" or "take the vaccine" was to give them information only to be asked "Where is your source?" I learned that what I had to do at that point is track down the original study or paper, if not the CDC's own data to back up my claims as any site that had any dissent to the mainstream narrative was considered "misinformation."
The edjumacated have great disdain for education. Paraphrasing Einstein, education does not teach what to think, but how to think. The edjumacated teaching our kids today are certainly not teaching them how to think. The edjumacated disdain all education except their own, such as it is. I tell them I have been certified in respirator use and they say, “Well I have a Master’s degree/PHD.” Yes, but not in a field that would give them knowledge of masks, filtration, industrial hygiene and the like.
The way they use studies as if a trump card in a card game is a big tell that they do not know or recall the utility and limitations of studies. Studies are meaningless unless replicated, and dismally few are today. Most importantly, the results must then be found outside the laboratory. Not only, as you pointed out, is it a question of why masks have not been worn against airborne viruses in the hundred years since the Spanish flu; Tokyo, Japan, where I live, has had a statistically 100% compliance with mask usage indoors and outdoors for over 2 and 1/2 years. Yet, the 7th wave of this disease just passed us during which we had the highest case load on the entire planet. As the weather here has turned chilly as it does in November, the case counts are once again on the rise, the start of the 8th wave? Yet “masks work”. This is willful blindness.
My training, certification and experience with filtration and respirators not being accepted, I too dug up sources from agencies they use as sources. The CDC, WHO and European Union equivalents have all published papers on the ineffectiveness of masks against airborne virus, mainly the flu. I added these to a paper that listed over 40 prepanic studies on masks. No effect. One nurse told me that they were expired. Anything older than 5 years is automatically discounted as out of date. Better hope they have published a study on gravity with in the past 5 years, I told her, or else we will all soon be floating about in outer space. Then I pointed out that some of those studies were current by her standards. No reply from this nurse.
They keep moving the goal post. First, they demand you use only their accepted sources. When you do, they then discount them because they are out of out of date. When you provide ones within this small window of human knowledge and experience, they get really creative. Had at least one person discount a study on some aspect of this because when they googled the doctor they found she was a Christian. In that person’s excuse for a mind, this disqualified her despite her education, experience and achievements.
I once hated hearing people, anyone or group, being labeled as sheeple. Too harsh and not conducive to dialogue. After the past 2 years, I find I was incorrect. There is no engaging these people unless you are willing to march in lockstep in everything they think and do. Just look at quickly and viciously they attack their own who stay even briefly from the flock’s group think.
My problem with that is that I know people who have complied with this crap, and they aren't stupid. Sure there are stupid people among those that complied, but I think cognitive dissonance and mass formation are good examples of what has happened as well.
Someone pointed out that Bonhoffer, a German prisoner, spoke at how the German people were "made stupid" due to social pressure.
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/bonhoeffers-theory-of-stupidity-explains-the-world-perfectly-957cbb3fbac1
I think stupidity can't be made, but critical thinking can be disrupted. I would never do what Ted Nugent did before my close family members who wore masks and got the vaccine. But maybe that is my failing as I don't think ad hominem attacks will work against them anymore than I think reason works. I have explained to close family members about the vaccine and how it doesn't make sense why it should be mandatory. I broke it down, but their answer to me was silence.
An example of mass formation happened to me after dinner one Christmas day. We had game night, and a woman's ex husband was playing with us all a game of 20 questions where one person had a card on their forehead and the person had to ask the group for answers.
The first question I asked was "Is it an animal?" I was told no. I was told this by the now ex husband.
Was it a vegetable? I again was told no.
"Was it a mineral?" I was told no.
After that I asked all manner of questions. After which I was allowed to take down. The card showed an ant. And I said, "This is an animal."
"No it isn't." I was told. And no one else at the table contradicted him. He was sure it wasn't an animal. In exasperation, I gave up. Because if they couldn't see what was plain as day, then I didn't know what to tell them.
When I later said to a close family member that an ant was an animal, she dismissed me out of hand. Maybe she was ashamed of giving into peer pressure, or appearing "wrong" in a confident answer by the ex husband.
It's not that I am confident I knew what an ant was, I did look it up on my phone and felt ashamed for doing so. I had been gaslit and was rationalizing not why I was wrong, but why he might have given the wrong answer himself. Perhaps he mixed up "animal" with "mammal"
I imagine if I showed them that an ant is considered an animal, they would say disparaging things like "you looked that up on the internet?" as if was silly to consult the internet about anything. I should have told them the Kardashians told me.
I have experienced the same in many different circumstances too numerous to count in the faculty lounge of my universities. Especially the different ways to express percentages. You would be surprised how many with master’s degrees or doctorates believe insects are not animals. I too have looked things up, patents mainly, and have been told, “You looked that up on the internet? WOW!”.
I do want to ask them how they look things up. My guess is they use the same internet I do, but they believe they can properly vet information, whereas because I am an unwashed mortal without any initials before or after my name, I can't possibly know what is good and useless information.
You prove my point out correctly, these people have master's degrees and doctorates. I have a close family member with a PhD in education and one of the things she discussed with me back in the summer of 2020 was how she thought Covid was going to be like the Spanish Flu. I know I must have sounded crazy to her...she probably listens to NPR and the news early and often. But I said simply that the Spanish Flu killed 50 million people including children and young adults, this wasn't even close to the Spanish Flu.
They don’t look things up. They get their news form “trusted” sources that all tell the same story. I am the first in my family to graduate from college. I did so in 2000 after serving 6 years in the navy to pay for college. Even back then, college was a weird place, filled with strange people and even stranger ideas and beliefs. After graduation, I came to Japan to teach English and eventually got recruited into universities, mainly med schools. Most of my esteemed colleagues have master’s degrees and my most of my bosses doctorates. They are all little more the bio tape players, they spout what was on the evening news and will not suffer to hear any opposition to their views, “nuff said” as far too many have said to me after stating their beliefs as fact.
With a love of history from a young age, I learned that much of what is taught in school is just plain wrong. I also learned that there is no such thing as “unbiased”. Human nature simply does not allow anyone, myself included, to be unbiased. However, those few of us that understand this and make efforts will be, hopefully, far less biased than those who are not aware of this fact. This has led me to adopt a filter for news. Everything I read I ask, “Hmmm, I wonder how much of this is true?” If it is of importance or of interest to me, I start digging into it. I accept very little on face value. Most of the time, new information flies in the face I what I have been taught at some point in my education. If one with a PhD or in my case, even a MD, tries telling me that masks work, I ask them for their certification in respirators. I have this certification, I know that either they do not and thus do not know that they are talking garbage, or they have and are lying. MD or not, liars and fools need not be deferred to, and I do not. I do lose jobs though.
My coworkers have masters or PhDs in education. That does not mean they are highly educated. All it means is that have learned the then current methodologies to getting leftist ideas into as many kids’ minds as possible. Despite never having to wear a mask against airborne virus in their life, it is they who immediately did so when told with out thinking as if they were sheep. It seems that at least in the US, the higher one’s edjumacation (not misspelled) is, the more ready they are to accept the BS shoveled out by authority and the less able they are to think for themselves. Most I have met in my career are completely unable to get information from different sources and synthesize it on their own. If they have not been specifically told something by authority they accept, they do not know it. These people would not likely be caught dead on this substack.
I love the Popeye reference, by the way, with"Edumacation."
I don't have any credentials to back up my knowledge that masks are ineffective. All I have is observation and common sense.The common sense part is simply asking the question "Why haven't we worn masks for other airborne viruses?"
I did get a few people who would send me aggregate studies on the efficacy of masks. Most of these studies were observational or done in a laboratory settling. They did not use the gold standard study like the Danish study which was inconclusive as to how awesome masks were.
I agree with you. I think a lot of advanced education studies like getting a master's and doctorate are all teaching the person how to not only to process indoctrination, but pass it on. This also leaks into government (no surprise) because there is a high correlation between the educational and governmental system. Thus I had close members of my family both conservative and democrat who both visited me wearing masks. And my conservative family member encouraged me that if the choice were between not getting a job and accepting the vaccine, I should accept the vaccine. I can't tell you how devastating it was to hear them say that.
I laughed in the face of fact checkers and bias sites like snopes, as if they are an unbiased source capable of making those determinations. There is no such thing as unbiased, which is why I question a lot of what I see in the world. I am adamant on both sides against ad hominem attacks. I don't want to accuse one side as being "sheep" any more than I like to be called a "terrorist" for disagreeing with the mainstream narrative. And what is constructive end game? My close family members are smart people who have been subjected to many hours of indoctrination.
One of the first roadblocks I ran into when commenting on others posts about "wearing the damn mask" or "take the vaccine" was to give them information only to be asked "Where is your source?" I learned that what I had to do at that point is track down the original study or paper, if not the CDC's own data to back up my claims as any site that had any dissent to the mainstream narrative was considered "misinformation."
The edjumacated have great disdain for education. Paraphrasing Einstein, education does not teach what to think, but how to think. The edjumacated teaching our kids today are certainly not teaching them how to think. The edjumacated disdain all education except their own, such as it is. I tell them I have been certified in respirator use and they say, “Well I have a Master’s degree/PHD.” Yes, but not in a field that would give them knowledge of masks, filtration, industrial hygiene and the like.
The way they use studies as if a trump card in a card game is a big tell that they do not know or recall the utility and limitations of studies. Studies are meaningless unless replicated, and dismally few are today. Most importantly, the results must then be found outside the laboratory. Not only, as you pointed out, is it a question of why masks have not been worn against airborne viruses in the hundred years since the Spanish flu; Tokyo, Japan, where I live, has had a statistically 100% compliance with mask usage indoors and outdoors for over 2 and 1/2 years. Yet, the 7th wave of this disease just passed us during which we had the highest case load on the entire planet. As the weather here has turned chilly as it does in November, the case counts are once again on the rise, the start of the 8th wave? Yet “masks work”. This is willful blindness.
My training, certification and experience with filtration and respirators not being accepted, I too dug up sources from agencies they use as sources. The CDC, WHO and European Union equivalents have all published papers on the ineffectiveness of masks against airborne virus, mainly the flu. I added these to a paper that listed over 40 prepanic studies on masks. No effect. One nurse told me that they were expired. Anything older than 5 years is automatically discounted as out of date. Better hope they have published a study on gravity with in the past 5 years, I told her, or else we will all soon be floating about in outer space. Then I pointed out that some of those studies were current by her standards. No reply from this nurse.
They keep moving the goal post. First, they demand you use only their accepted sources. When you do, they then discount them because they are out of out of date. When you provide ones within this small window of human knowledge and experience, they get really creative. Had at least one person discount a study on some aspect of this because when they googled the doctor they found she was a Christian. In that person’s excuse for a mind, this disqualified her despite her education, experience and achievements.
I once hated hearing people, anyone or group, being labeled as sheeple. Too harsh and not conducive to dialogue. After the past 2 years, I find I was incorrect. There is no engaging these people unless you are willing to march in lockstep in everything they think and do. Just look at quickly and viciously they attack their own who stay even briefly from the flock’s group think.