Just requested my money back from the Northcutt theatre in Exeter, Devon (name and shame) who have now decided everyone attending the pantomime in December must provide a vaxx passport or if unvaxxed show proof of a negative Covid test. I have now written to this theatre to say, (1) they are discriminating against the unvaxxed (2) they have no right to access anyone’s confidential medical records and finally (3) I will never step foot in their theatre as long as I live🥰🥰🥰
I have never in my 55 years experienced losing friends abruptly for having a pretty mild yet contrary viewpoint on something ("I am not sure these vaccines are safe.") as I have in the past year. Rageful unfriending without the benefit of a single conversation. It would not occur to me to reject someone because they disagreed with me on any given issue. But this is not only allowed, it is celebrated as an act of virtue. Breaking through is the big question.
Every day I wake up now and realise that I'm not the normal people any more. And yet I am. I feel I am. I know I am. And yet I can feel the recoil. From my husband. My family. My friends. Not that I trumpet it. I'm barely allowed to. I get violent, embarrassed responses to the most sane observations and expressions of dissent. I try to swallow it. And yet I cannot suppress it. It will out. It has to out.
Me: This is irrational.
Shush! It's necessary!!!
Me: But it doesn't work.
Shush! It's safe and effective!!!
Me: But it's not a sterilising vaccine.
Shush! It stops death and hospitalisation!!!
Me: So why can't I opt out if it's just for me then?
Shush! It's not for you! It's for others!!!
Me: But I've had it. I'm immune.
Shush! You are not. You can get it again.
Me: But you can't stop a respiratory virus.
Shush! Just do it!!! It will end as soon as we're all done.
Me: You're delaying the inevitable. You have to face exposure one way or the other.
Shush! The boosters will keep it at bay forever!!!
"this is how performative “support for victims” and “anti-whateverism” have become the bastions of bullies and bigots. it’s just the most socially acceptable manner in which to engage in the nasty behaviors they were going to engage in anyway. it’s an attractor for jerks."
When you make your cause all about "disrupt and dismantle" and use negative thinking as the strategy to bring about the utopia, don't be surprised if you gather about you a destructive, excessively negatively oriented mob.
“in many places, calling abortion murder will get you instantly attacked.
in others, failing to do so will get you similarly set upon.
these two groups have lost the ability to even speak about an issue that is, once more, or great currency and import.”
I don’t think the solution here is middle ground. It’s to answer the question: is abortion murder? If it isn’t, there’s nothing wrong with abortion in any way and no one should oppose it for any reason.
But if it is murder, it’s always wrong and even tolerating it as something worthy of debate is a crime against humanity.
The solution is objective reality rather than subjective middle-ground-finding.
We wouldn’t tolerate a middle ground on human slavery; if people wanted to enslave africans in the US we’d respond, probably with violence.
Perhaps a good way to "get back to truth" is by rushing the absurdity. How it started: "Golly, I think that we don't have a lot of data on viral mutations from the protein expression cocktails we have been instructed to inject, certainly nobody has been able to show that the variants AREN'T coming from them." How it is going: "I think that it is high time that we start rounding up the unvaxxed like Austria and Australia, because man, our patience is wearing thin with these sub-humans."
That's right. It goes beyond mere words. Just as some concepts are "un-sayable", some thoughts are now "un-thinkable". Even though they should be obvious.
One such thought is: Omicron is man-made.
I wrote an article that proves that the "Omicron" variant is likely to be man-made. None of the natural origin explanations holds water. Omicron is a descendant of virus NOT in circulation for 1.5 years.
This incisive post reminds me of Orwell’s great essay “Politics and the English Language”, which everyone ought to read:
“…it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Yours truly not only never had scintilla of fear using any words and ideas I saw and continue to see fit, but to decoct all of the above in simplest terms: be true to yourself and never comply.
Yes, but I will note you are writing under a pseudonym and probably for this very reason. I do think everyone should learn a second language, ideally in a non-Western culture just to free your mind a bit. I'm learning Turkish right now...primarily because I got hooked on Turkish historical television dramas and figured I might as well learn the language while I'm watching 500 episodes of Ertugrul.
In the process, I'm learning a lot about Turkish culture and the amount of pro-Turk/pro-Muslim pride and propaganda in their shows is a stark contrast to the divisive, self-hating media we get here in the US. Based on their unabashed cultural pride alone, I'd put them down as winning the planet in the long run since we're in self-destruct mode.
Excellent news. Retaking the language will take many many years of hard and potentially offensive work, but I'm here for it. This is the real battleground, right here.
As an aside to this, I realized today that a willingness to violate politically correct norms is one of the factors I assess to determine someone's credibility. Another helpful indicator is if someone is speaking out in a way that will likely result in harm to their personal or professional life.
Since it can be extremely difficult to determine what vested interests an internet stranger may have, these markers of a willingness to bear social disapproval (and possibly other harms) often means that someone is motivated to speak by something greater than their desire for approval or direct personal profit.
The clever thing to do now is to simply virtue signal. Throw stones, too, when the crowd stones someone. Obviously, that is not the ethical path. Defying the crowd is a potential sign of deeper moral convictions. Any sign that someone is going with the crowd makes their honesty deeply suspect.
I find this important as it is now potentially a matter of daily survival to assess conflicting claims about things like virology and epidemiology in an era when affiliation with officialdom, academia, and corporations serve as an enormous red flag of untrustworthiness.
Just requested my money back from the Northcutt theatre in Exeter, Devon (name and shame) who have now decided everyone attending the pantomime in December must provide a vaxx passport or if unvaxxed show proof of a negative Covid test. I have now written to this theatre to say, (1) they are discriminating against the unvaxxed (2) they have no right to access anyone’s confidential medical records and finally (3) I will never step foot in their theatre as long as I live🥰🥰🥰
I have never in my 55 years experienced losing friends abruptly for having a pretty mild yet contrary viewpoint on something ("I am not sure these vaccines are safe.") as I have in the past year. Rageful unfriending without the benefit of a single conversation. It would not occur to me to reject someone because they disagreed with me on any given issue. But this is not only allowed, it is celebrated as an act of virtue. Breaking through is the big question.
Every day I wake up now and realise that I'm not the normal people any more. And yet I am. I feel I am. I know I am. And yet I can feel the recoil. From my husband. My family. My friends. Not that I trumpet it. I'm barely allowed to. I get violent, embarrassed responses to the most sane observations and expressions of dissent. I try to swallow it. And yet I cannot suppress it. It will out. It has to out.
Me: This is irrational.
Shush! It's necessary!!!
Me: But it doesn't work.
Shush! It's safe and effective!!!
Me: But it's not a sterilising vaccine.
Shush! It stops death and hospitalisation!!!
Me: So why can't I opt out if it's just for me then?
Shush! It's not for you! It's for others!!!
Me: But I've had it. I'm immune.
Shush! You are not. You can get it again.
Me: But you can't stop a respiratory virus.
Shush! Just do it!!! It will end as soon as we're all done.
Me: You're delaying the inevitable. You have to face exposure one way or the other.
Shush! The boosters will keep it at bay forever!!!
Me: But they're untested.
Shush! They're approved!!!
Me: But unvaxxed doesn't mean sick.
Shush! They're dangerous, mean, hateful, selfish people.
Me: But vaxxed doesn't mean immune.
Shush! Just, um, shush!!!
Me: But I really can SEE what's going on! I know!
Shush! That's what every Conspiracy Theorist said. Ever!!!
And so they inch away from me. And I from them. An invisible miasma of fear and disbelief settles around us.
I am normal! (abnormal)
Sane! (unhinged)
True! (false)
True!True!True!
Comedians who do actual comedy would help tremendously.
"this is how performative “support for victims” and “anti-whateverism” have become the bastions of bullies and bigots. it’s just the most socially acceptable manner in which to engage in the nasty behaviors they were going to engage in anyway. it’s an attractor for jerks."
When you make your cause all about "disrupt and dismantle" and use negative thinking as the strategy to bring about the utopia, don't be surprised if you gather about you a destructive, excessively negatively oriented mob.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
“in many places, calling abortion murder will get you instantly attacked.
in others, failing to do so will get you similarly set upon.
these two groups have lost the ability to even speak about an issue that is, once more, or great currency and import.”
I don’t think the solution here is middle ground. It’s to answer the question: is abortion murder? If it isn’t, there’s nothing wrong with abortion in any way and no one should oppose it for any reason.
But if it is murder, it’s always wrong and even tolerating it as something worthy of debate is a crime against humanity.
The solution is objective reality rather than subjective middle-ground-finding.
We wouldn’t tolerate a middle ground on human slavery; if people wanted to enslave africans in the US we’d respond, probably with violence.
So wait a minute....gato CAN capitalize? Does this mean he does have opposable thumbs?
"i want X. i fear Z. i am insecure about N. i AM me"
I am so confused and insulted. ;-)
It is high time we learn how to communicate again. There is middle ground to most subjects I think. We only have to agree to disagree on some points
Perhaps a good way to "get back to truth" is by rushing the absurdity. How it started: "Golly, I think that we don't have a lot of data on viral mutations from the protein expression cocktails we have been instructed to inject, certainly nobody has been able to show that the variants AREN'T coming from them." How it is going: "I think that it is high time that we start rounding up the unvaxxed like Austria and Australia, because man, our patience is wearing thin with these sub-humans."
I am VERY excited about the third rail diner.
That's right. It goes beyond mere words. Just as some concepts are "un-sayable", some thoughts are now "un-thinkable". Even though they should be obvious.
One such thought is: Omicron is man-made.
I wrote an article that proves that the "Omicron" variant is likely to be man-made. None of the natural origin explanations holds water. Omicron is a descendant of virus NOT in circulation for 1.5 years.
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/urgent-omicron-variant-likely-to
The NPR article that I cited, gave three explanations (all wrong) except for the most obvious one (that the virus is man-made).
This incisive post reminds me of Orwell’s great essay “Politics and the English Language”, which everyone ought to read:
“…it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/
Yours truly not only never had scintilla of fear using any words and ideas I saw and continue to see fit, but to decoct all of the above in simplest terms: be true to yourself and never comply.
Yes, but I will note you are writing under a pseudonym and probably for this very reason. I do think everyone should learn a second language, ideally in a non-Western culture just to free your mind a bit. I'm learning Turkish right now...primarily because I got hooked on Turkish historical television dramas and figured I might as well learn the language while I'm watching 500 episodes of Ertugrul.
In the process, I'm learning a lot about Turkish culture and the amount of pro-Turk/pro-Muslim pride and propaganda in their shows is a stark contrast to the divisive, self-hating media we get here in the US. Based on their unabashed cultural pride alone, I'd put them down as winning the planet in the long run since we're in self-destruct mode.
Excellent news. Retaking the language will take many many years of hard and potentially offensive work, but I'm here for it. This is the real battleground, right here.
As an aside to this, I realized today that a willingness to violate politically correct norms is one of the factors I assess to determine someone's credibility. Another helpful indicator is if someone is speaking out in a way that will likely result in harm to their personal or professional life.
Since it can be extremely difficult to determine what vested interests an internet stranger may have, these markers of a willingness to bear social disapproval (and possibly other harms) often means that someone is motivated to speak by something greater than their desire for approval or direct personal profit.
The clever thing to do now is to simply virtue signal. Throw stones, too, when the crowd stones someone. Obviously, that is not the ethical path. Defying the crowd is a potential sign of deeper moral convictions. Any sign that someone is going with the crowd makes their honesty deeply suspect.
I find this important as it is now potentially a matter of daily survival to assess conflicting claims about things like virology and epidemiology in an era when affiliation with officialdom, academia, and corporations serve as an enormous red flag of untrustworthiness.