Those in the middle need to hear our voices - constantly. I try to target mainly Doctors in my area. it's really rather remarkable that our doctors read so little- quite shocking really. They literally get their CDC bulletin and bing- that's it! I started several months ago with numbers from Israel and the dropping efficacy. It's sometimes difficult but I put the spin about how I'm deeply concerned for the truly vulnerable and how they think they are invincible, etc. Then I talk a lot about Sweden. A lot of them pretend they have no idea what is going on over there- I tell them right away- hey, my best friend lives there (actually true), let me tell you all about it! The harder things to discuss involve vaccine injuries- there is oftentimes complete cognitive dissonance. So instead I couch it with numbers, if a young male has a 1 in 6,000 chance of getting hospitalized with myocarditis but only a 1 in 25,000 chance of being hospitalized for the virus itself, why should they get the shot? I live in New England and I'm just exhausted at how weak the people here are. Most have zero critical thinking skills.
I learned how few doctors even read medical journals based on being my mother's caregiver and advocate for the past 2 decades. My mother insists at this point that I should go to nursing school or medical school. I asked hey when did she start hating me. But seriously, a friend of mine just struggled her way through nursing school a few years ago. The struggle wasn't with the academic side but with the administration and politics. What she told me of her experiences explains a lot about some nurses we encounter.
You are absolutely right. I am a physician and many times feel ashamed of what my colleagues have become. I say that most current doctors are "guideline followers".
Thank you for reaffirming my conclusions. It's especially bad when doctors can more easily access these journals than I can and yet they refuse to. I bet they never liked to do homework.
In fairness, medical journals seem to be filled with dubious articles and dodgy statistics. It's not entirely irrational to ignore them.
In my industry most practitioners also don't read academic journals. I did for a while as part of my job - at first it felt good to be reading so much cutting edge research. After a while I noticed that every time I read something that seemed useful or important, there turned out to be some catch that made it unusable. After enough years of this I realized I was only keeping up with the literature so I could answer questions from other people who expected me to, or had heard about some "breakthrough" that they hadn't read the paper directly for and couldn't understand why we were ignoring it.
So, if the gap between a published paper and real-world practice is so very large normally, and so many papers are unreliable, it's not totally wrong to just write off the whole thing. If something is effective it'll get turned into a product at some point and you'll get more tangible proof of it working, like stories from colleagues you know and trust that they tried it and it worked.
The dodginess of medical journal articles very often is found in the contradiction between the abstract and conclusion announcements versus the fine-print data in the Results section.
My sister is a doctor, and I'm sometimes shocked at how little she knows about some medical topics. I'm kind, and I love her, so I don't say, uh, you didn't know XYZ?, but her lack of knowledge tells me the general state of so many other doctors out there.
She's been trying to talk me into the vax since it came out. She herself had COVID last year, then also got vaxxed, and is now afraid to see me for fear she'll catch it and test positive, but she's not afraid of her vaxxed co-workers or relatives, even though she knows they can be carriers, too. I've tried to talk to her about ADE and other vax concerns, but I'm whistling into the wind...
Board recertification busywork includes conducting surveys where your patients comment on the state of your parking lot or office decor. Yes this counts as medical education. Guess who sells you the survey--the cronies in power at the American Board of Medical Specialties. There have been massive lawsuits and fights over this. Covid has just demoralized doctors and destroyed thinking and research, many doctor friends went nearly bankrupt or got fired/relocated. Good luck keeping a doctor or even finding one today.
I figured this out when diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Endocronologist’s just looked at it as “give her synthroid, that’ll fix her!” When really it is an autoimmune disease and very multifaceted. They also go by lab numbers, as opposed to patient symptoms -which defies the logic of we are all different and have different tolerances/levels of hormones, etc. that are “normal” for us.
Jocelyn, I have Hashimoto’s, too, and I knew *way* more about it than my doctor. Have you read Izabella Wentz’s #1 bestseller “Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause” (https://smile.amazon.com/Hashimotos-Thyroiditis-Lifestyle-Interventions-Treating/dp/0615825796/)? Izabella does an excellent job of explaining the science in the first half and interventions in the second half. Totally transformative.
Margaret, I am aware of Izabella Wentz’s book, though have not purchased yet. I do receive her emails and she has some interesting posts. Before Izabella was Mary Shoman, way back in the day. I learned a lot from her too. I should definitely check out Isabella’s book to compare if nothing else. Thanks for the recommendation!
Jocelyn, glad you’re on Izabella’s mailing list, and yes, she offers a wealth of resources on this topic. Thanks for the pointer to Mary Shoman! I’ll have to check her out.
Though most journals focus only on ‘peer reviewed studies’ which means these days consensus which means if there’s enough crappy studies to somewhat prove A, then it’s consensus! Hooray! Examples would be mammogram or selective induction of birth research…. Follow the $$, not patient’s best interest, but frame it as if you were saving lives.
The South is wary of vaccines, mostly because the Black people have been abused so often I am afraid. But I got multiple friends who did not get the shots, mostly for other reasons, but they are safe, that is what matters. Indeed, the knowledge or lack thereof under doctors is frightening. They all follow the line of BigPharma. Just scary.
Thank you, Charlotte. I am endeavoring to do this more as well. What El Gato and you (and hopefully many others) advocate for is also supported by history. Just bringing the truth to light/making them question the lies will hopefully tip the scales in our favor (especially as more data comes in). Please see the below podcast that talks more about how to overcome the lies put forth by tyranny.
Indeed! We’ve been following them for years but have found their sobering, philosophical take on the road to tyranny chillingly incisive. I especially appreciate the absence of references to specific current events and their scholarly approach as it makes it more difficult for Covidians to dismiss it as partisan propaganda. The combination of philosophy, history, art, literature, and culture makes each video both fascinating and a visual feast.
I, too, am always amazed by how few doctors seem to be aware of the latest data, peer-reviewed science, and findings on topics like diet and nutrition. My doctors usually end up taking notes from me and getting book/link recommendations during my visits ;-)
American doctors learn nothing at all about nutrition, I know this from a doctor. In Europe they have something like 24 hours about nourishment and health. All BigPharma, which supports schools, probably to teach only symptoms and what to prescribe? At least the doc where I go knows a bit about homeopathy.
Yeah, but nutrition is a famously terrible field full - it's full of 'experts' that invert their advice completely from time to time, lots of studies that don't replicate or turn out to be fraudulent, etc. If I were a doctor I'd ignore nutrition as well. It's just not a reliable producer of research.
Mike, there is an enormous difference between the field of nutrition (admittedly largely corrupted by the practice of research funded to generate press releases that promote a particular food/product, as exposed by Marion Nestle and others) and nutrition itself. To deny that diet and nutrition play a pivotal role in our health (both in terms of causation and healing) would be utterly irrational and destructive—and, unfortunately, that is typically the attitude found in conventional medicine. Instead of searching for the underlying causes of a condition such as diet, nutrition, and lifestyle factors, they turn to pharmaceutical solutions engineered to address the very health conditions created by the self-serving, corporate-defined food pyramid and Standard American Diet.
Good for you! I'm sure it feels like you're beating your head against the wall until it feels good. My PCP won't read any preprints, and she follows what the Boards tell her. She is incredibly under-informed. I am wasting my breath with her, but it doesn't stop me from talking and sending her the links to articles that support what I tell her.
As a doctor I completely agree with this! I myself only woke up to what was happening in April 2021. I have never seen so many people (re)gain a healthy sense of skepticism of authority and institutions. Unfortunately the last hangers on are indeed physicians. I attribute this to long work hours and groupthink (fear of what colleagues will say). This pattern of formally educated individuals being the LAST to recognize rising totalitarianism is not new.
Check out this 2012 paper: Why Did So Many German Doctors Join The Nazi Party Early?
Congratulations on waking up, Dr. Nicole! That takes tremendous humility, courage, and strength of will—especially for a doctor. Perhaps this article will help your colleagues recover from their menticide:
I have a friend who’s a doctor and he said most doctors don’t have time to read everything we see. He said if you want your doctor to know something, send it to her so she can read it.
Medicine has been decimated by Obamacare and electronic medical records. As a physician, I'm in a state that did not mandate this so I still use paper charts. My colleagues are completely burned out and hate their jobs, they spend hours every night and weekends with bings and alerts in email from their EHRs and they get paid zero for this extra work, in fact EHRs cost 6 figures. Hence the current practice of one doctor supervising 9 nurse practitioners or PAs and you get punted there when you need an appointment.
Oh my gosh I'm seeing all your comments today Sue and I am officially a big fan! You kept the paper charts?! You Ludditte! You brilliant, brilliant, brave Luddite! ;-)
I live in the People's Republic of California and have one teenager left in the house.
Just before Comrade Newsom his latest diktat mandating jabs for schoolchildren, I had a conversation with our pediatrician, who has cared for our children for over two decades.
She of course highly recommends the jab. I asked her some pointed questions:
- The risk to our child is near zero. What is the risk reduction benefit from the jab?
"I don't have that number".
- What are the long-term effects of these mRNA jabs.
"Nobody knows."
And then the kicker:
"You just have to take a leap of faith."
This put me at a loss for words, which for me is a rather uncommon event.
So, a Stanford Health Care pediatrician with decades of experience is using religious terminology to justify recommending the experimental jab to a child with almost zero risk.
We have truly passed into the realm of the surreal.
SHE has unclean hands. She is getting paid per jab. Conflict of interest. If I cannot give legal advise for that in which I have a financial interest, how can the doctors?
Most of the doctors don’t get directly much money. Yes for giving the shot but for the most part they’re brainwashed. It is so ingrained in them that it’s safe they refuse to diagnose obvious reactions. I’ve had it happen with mine. It is just random! 🤦♀️
Well if they are associated with a practice group, the group (aka business) gets the payout, so, yes. It enhances their bottom line. Reduces overhead. It is INCOME any way it is parsed. I love how virtuous the guilty pretend to be. Not you, Tigerkatze.
Yes. I talked to ex husband, a doc who I put through med school in 1978-80, twenty one years ago. Divorced in 1983. He told me in 2000 when I saw him for our youngest daughter’s graduation that docs could not have solo practices any more. High malpractice insurance, other liability costs. He admitted they had lost control of their profession. I have my own law firm with me, my husband of 31 years, and our legal assistant.
I’m surprised she even answered that. Mine would say you’re misinformed. They are safe and effective and generally the holy grail. Now stop those silly questions already. I avoid the ped and I we only see them for acute care and not ‘well checks’.
that is beyond tragic. however, as a former Stanford trainee, I can tell you that their illiberal, thought conforming groupthink borders on psychosis. Look at how they denounced ( via their Maoist declarations) Drs. Scott Atlas and Jay Bhattacharya who have been my personal voices of sanity amidst the madness. This happened a year ago but I can tell you the wounds are still fresh in the medical community https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/30/academic-freedom-questions-arise-campus-covid-19-strategy-conflicts/
I just escaped employment at College of San Mateo, which was once supposed to be a feeder school to Stanford. The psychosis there is epic. Of course, they received millions of dollars of covid $$ so - they are going to become a 'vax center' isn't that nice? A college practicing medicine, what will they think of next?
I agree with your basic premise here, and I'll illustrate with a little story. Here in WA we had mask rules basically the entire 'crisis' (starting July 2020) until the CDC came out and said vaxxed people don't have to wear a mask. Predictably, most of the masks disappeared from stores and shops.
Here's the important part - during that brief little window (Inslee re-instituted masks in August) the maskers would come into a store and get funny looks from the unmasked. This put them on the opposite side of their comfort zone. Some of them would remove the mask, others would just keep their heads down and do their shopping quickly. They REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't like being on the 'wrong' side, and I'm convinced that's why we have mask rules again. This way the sheep feel like they are on the 'correct' side again, since 'the rules' say that masks are required. Now the sheep are once again with the 'go along' gang, and said sheep feel protected by the expanded size of the flock.
Agreed from another fellow Washingtonian. BTW, my patriotic act of civil disobedience is not wearing a mask in stores. I still end up having to (sort of) wear the mask (under my nose) at some places (dentist, etc), but Costco I don't anymore nor at my local grocery store. My poor kids though have to wear the nasty rag every day, even at their private Christian school. I sure wish their school would push back against this tyranny. I've tried to exhort them to do the right thing, but they are too afraid of getting shut down. :-(
It's not easy to go without the mask - it's probably the most courageous thing I've had to do on a regular basis in my whole life. It would be much easier to just go along to get along.
WA lawyer. I feel all this exactly. I wear a one layer Fake Mask when I am forced to wear one. When questioned, I remind the Covidiot that the mandate only says “mask,” not a special kind. NEVER wear the blue ones- graphene oxide in them. Fight back every way you can. We have a sign on our law office door that says we do not discriminate against anyone. When people come in, most ask if they have to wear a mask. I tell them that is their personal decision. When they assure me they are jabbed, I tell them, that is their personal medical business. We don’t have a need to know that. Educate by example as much as you can. Smile at them. Be gracious. As Jesus said of his adversaries, “They know not what they are doing.”
I think I love you!!! These are the kinds of businesses I am dying to patronize. There is a restaurant near us that has a sign on the door that says, "Masks optional". I love them, too.
BRAVO!!! Make the mask Mandies show you the policy specifying what type of mask, what weave, thickness/ply or model you must wear to be in compliance with their absurd policy. I did this several times at Costco and I got cow-face back at me. I have cut out the white second layer and left the thin blue layer of surgical masks and went to clinics and even got a mammogram with one. You can see my lips moving through it. Nobody said a word, they're conditioned to just see the mask now and think you're in compliance.
Update Sue Hilda! I have cut the white part out of a bunch of the blue masks and I'm going to send my 10th and 7th graders with them on Monday, explaining what we've done and showing them how to do it. I want them to have some tiny sense of agency - that they are doing something that gives them a bit of control in the midst of the madness. The children, the children. All the children without parents that are telling them to resist living in fear. What will this generation be like? So so scarred. And at least my kids are to the (somewhat) critical thinking age. What about the littles???? Ahhhhhhh! It's enough to make my blood pressure start rising when I think about it.
So far we are doing better in the Netherlands where children under 10 have never had to mask. But the older children have suffered intensely. And we have vax passes for 13+ for frigging everything now. My hubby cannot stand it when I wring my hands about what this is going to wreak for the future of this country. He knows it and I know it, but all we can really do is raise our own intelligently subversive little rascals. I have really started upping my game and my plan this week is to order a set of Orwell's books for future reference as I don't currently own any copies. I have the luxury to homeschool if necessary and by God I'll do a better job of it.
There are "fake" masks on Etsy. They are glittery/sparkly which mostly hides the fact that the masks have huge holes in them. A few folks have realized they are fake, but most don't even seem to notice. Often, if I'm checking out at a store the attendant will look up and say "I like your mask!" I just say - yup! it's my dancing with the stars mask! And mostly, seems folks just smile and don't give it another thought. My daughter wears one of those pretty fake masks to school - thank god they've yet to spot it.
The Double Fake Mask (fakemaskworldwide2.com). Looks pretty solid on the outside but breathable. Do not tell them it is a “fake mask.” Kids blurt. I have four, grown up, but I remember.
Thank you! Interestingly, the link was blocked on my browser (and I even use Duck duck go) - but I was able to type in the address. Thanks! My boys' lungs will thank you too.
The problem is complying. Fake masking does nothing to fight back. It's the same as acquiescing. Until parents refuse to mask their kids - which is abuse - and demand this insanity stop, it won't. They will add on new abuses just watch. You are complying - so the punishments will just get worse.
You are fortunate to be in Idaho. I am in WA and it is totally different here. If I fought every battle with the same intensity, I would not have the energy for the important battles. Sometimes, flying under the radar for a quick errand is less aggravation. I deal with conflict daily, as an attorney. Then running my business besides, more conflicts. Just noticed yesterday at home doing online banking that a vendor I cancelled 15 months ago sucked money out of my bank account without my authorization. I had to sit on hold for a half hour with Chase Fraud Unit to dispute the charge. Now, tomorrow, I will have to send another certified, return receipt letter to the President of the Company and the VP of Global Sales (as I did last year when they would not cancel) to stop this insanity. So, a fake mask to run into Safeway for a bag of lettuce? Yes. I am tired and I can only fight so many battles per day. I learned a long time ago in the practice of law, that fighting for the principle of the thing does not always work out the way one wishes. Pick your battles wisely and save your energy for the important ones.
If you think all that's tough - you haven't seen anything yet. I'm not fortunate to be in Idaho; I did everything I could to escape CA. I guess the gravity of the situation is lost on most. Oh well.
Well, I used every bit of strength I had to get TF out of CA. And my rent is cheaper. I don't know why people don't pull up stakes and leave the wokie blue coastal states. It won't end well for you.
Vida, I agree with you in principle. In action, my boys are 12 and 15 and they WANT to go to school. They also DON'T want to draw attention to themselves. I've been advocating as much as I can with the school and the policy-makers, but I can't expect my kids to take a moral stand for something that is my fight and they don't see the long-term implications the way adults do. I have encouraged them that I will back them 100% if they get in trouble for not masking in the classroom; my 12 old plays games where he sees how many periods he can go before a teacher says something, and he likes the fake mask idea. These are some small things.
I'm trying Vida. I'd homeschool them in a second if they'd prefer that. But at the moment, they prefer being with friends and complying than standing up for truth and being persecuted. I wish it were different, but I'm not going to shame them for that at their tender ages.
I will say that they don't wear their masks when we go in stores. I think having me or their dad right there with them helps them find their courage. So they get a taste of civil disobedience.
My daughter tried this in college at the University of Arizona and they kicked her out of classes ... she's planning to transfer if they continue this.
Mine just graduated this past May. We are so thankful they got out right before this dystopian nightmare began. Maybe your DD should just postpone college until (hopefully) the non-delusional regain power of the world.
My son was at Texas Tech and was miserable sitting in his apartment all day doing online classes, ended up coming home for his second semester sophomore year and doing classes online. He's back this year and there are no masks, no mandatory anything, parties, packed football games, and he's doing great. There's no hysterics. At U of A they actually told me that they are going to keep masks until "there is no transmissibility" -- WTF does that mean? My daughter has a doctors note, she can't wear a mask (severe asthma, she has reduced lung capacity and masks make her dizzy.) ... Grand Canyon University, a private college, is full open, no masks, and she's thinking of transferring. She's working to see if she can get the same amount in scholarships that she has now at U of A.
I think about my eventual Life Review when I leave this plane of existence. I prefer being true to myself than going along with the herd. And your are absolutely right about those we thought we could trust. Inslee’s little surrogate eyes are everywhere.
That is probably the worst part about this entire last couple years. Our actual system of creating laws has simply been bypassed using vague health orders.
And people just follow them. That's why we're screwed. Not because the psychos are putting these vague health orders in place, but because we acquiesce. People think this is going away if they 'just behave' but if you notice, it gets worse and worse.
FL doctor here. Stay strong and brave. I'm glad to hear of left coast doctors that will not submit to the performative religion of the mask and when others see you they will think, OK, maybe I can go without a mask too. This was me last year when my county had a mask mandate yet many stores were not enforcing except for big box/national chains, and now they have dropped it. I am without a mask in my office since the governor rescinded the health emergency on 4/24/21. I am vaccinated. Nothing has happened. Not one case nor COVID in my office in 6 months, even thru the delta surge. This mask madness MUST stop and we are the ones to stop it, the politicians and bureaucrats will not cede an inch and love the control.
Wow. The idea that my kids could even go to the dentist normally seems years away here. They make me CALL from the parking lot, double check if we have COVID-like symptoms, and then they check the boys' temps, etc. Everything is plasticed over and it looks like something out of the last scenes of that movie ET. It's despicable.
I hear you about the courage it takes. It would seem such a dinky thing to have to exercise courage on, and yet, truly, I'm not there yet. The farthest I go while out shopping here in WA is to wear the thing below my nose. I look up to the 1% of people I see without a mask on at all.
For that brief respite in summer when we were told vaccinated folks didn't need the rag, I happily joined the 10% or so who were barefaced at the grocery store, and I kept it to myself that I hadn't been jabbed. (If memory serves, the percentage hardly topped 10% here before masking was demanded of us again.)
I guess what I've learned about myself is that I'm happy to break the rules when I don't like them, but I can't bear to be seen to be too brazen about it. So, yay me: it would seem I have neither the virtue of obedience nor that of courage in any great measure. C'est la vie.
You might surprise yourself yet. Sometimes I pray in the car for a moment before going in. I rehearse what I will say to someone if there is a comment or question.
This is the battle of our time. I don't want to sit on the sidelines and regret that I didn't fight when I had the opportunity and the ethical reasons.
I don’t wear one in the grocery. Usually I am one of 2 or 4 or 5 on a good day. I live in a blue city in a purple state. When I first walk in it’s hard. My neighbors wouldn’t take well to seeing me acting so immorally. I am so over this BS and people’s stupidity that I mostly don’t care. It’s been a learning curve for sure. I’m more of a live and left live person. When I last went shopping, I realized that I should probably have something ready to say if I were ever confronted.
I wore a red lace mask for most of the pandemic! Once or twice, I got called out for it, but for the most part, people didn't want to engage. Now, I mostly go bare-faced and just smile at people if they give me a weird look. I think most people realize how contentious all this has become, and they really don't want to get into a fight with a little old Italian lady!
The eastern part of the state is freer, but I live in the epicenter of marxism!
The worst worst worst is the kids. I can make a decision for myself and be refused service (it happens) but the kids won't get to go to school if they don't comply.
I didn't know this, naively I thought it was up to businesses. In FL it depends on the county , and there are like 5 leftist counties where the groupthink is horrendous. I'm in solid R Collier County where I haven't worn a mask in a public setting save healthcare for 6 months (and even then as thin as possible with the 2nd ply cut out). It's child abuse for the kids, full stop. Kids aren't developing language, socialization, reading, speech and their immune systems are being wrecked by masks. I would home school if I lived there, or move.
I have refused to wear one and last winter I was the only one who did so, over here in southeast Boise. It's not CA (I ran screaming from there in 8/2020), but they still have a Karen attitude in many places. I make it my goal to NEVER wear one. So far, so good.
Good God this is a giant psychosis!!! The mask does nothing to contain or prevent covid. Everyone I know who had COVID was "really careful and masked all the time" and still got it. I wonder if it hampers immunity to rebreathe your own vapor laden exhalations--it must. Keep fighting! Wear as thin a weave as possible and go without even the second you walk out of the automatic doors pull it off!
yes and posing on covers of mags like he is a rock and roll god. smug prick...(excuse dirty word). hopefully one day we all will have the last laugh as he is kicked to the curb.
I am an NP in MI that sees primarily elderly patients with vascular disease. Most are at high risk from multiple comorbidities (DM, obesity, HTN, etc), as well as advanced age (70+). Most are eagerly pursuing boosters, and the population that I see has been heavily vaccinated early on last winter-several, with breakthrough infections and hospitalizations. It seems to me, as generations are now widely-spread out geographically, the decreased physical closeness of an extended family, and perhaps decreased spirituality or religious presence in many people's lives, many of my patients are truly fearful of dying. They are staying home, masking up, and avoiding people and thus potential exposures. Many are very anxious about dying, and I suspect they are all watching way too much TV. They are spending their final years choosing not to live, in an attempt to avoid death.
100% I agree with this assessment. America (the world?) is covered in a crippling spirit of fear. Once you realize that you can be at peace with dying (even of COVID!) then the other pieces fall into place and it's easy to say no thanks to mask and vax.
When friends try to bludgeon me with “But you could die!” because I refuse to get vaccinated, my response is—besides sharing the extraordinary low odds of that happening—that if it’s my time, it’s my time. I’d rather die an honest death than one caused by me being too scared to stay true to who I am. I am sure they think I am brainwashed. You can see it in their eyes that they just can’t comprehend that I am not captured by fear.
I absolutely agree with this assessment. Growing up religious I was never afraid of death as even my non-religious husband always has been. I have since left my religion and I am now agnostic. However, my spiritual foundation remains helpful. I see many who do not have this struggling. And Professor Desmet addresses that in one of the first interviews I saw him give (in Dutch only sadly). He discusses the enormous disconnect from "God," nature and community caused by the industrial revolution that continues to impact us negatively today. I seem to remember another Belgian philosopher writing along those lines early in the pandemic, noting that our ancestors who lived through the 1918 pandemic would look at our response askance because suddenly no one is allowed to die. It's truly bizarre. What's even weirder is that now we are killing people with vaccines and no one seems to care.
My 81 year old father has just declined our Thanksgiving invitation because we are unvaccinated. I don’t know if it is he, his wife (not my mother), or both who are so fearful. But they watch CNN at times, so the fear porn has gotten to them. ☹️
In the 90s and 00s the trope was that the elderly are more at peace with death - https://youtu.be/lbhnVhVq3MY - who knows what changed. Maybe it was nothing more than a myth.
Perhaps those elderly have passed on, and it was their children that are now the ones with this fear. Also, the media have pummeled the elderly SOOOO much, and I notice that they seem to get stuff in their heads on a broken record and can't see clearly past the lies anymore (just speaking for my own parents and my in-laws).
I feel like the STALWARTS that would have been engaged in this fight are NOT engaged. Are they too old to be moved to action? Are they too removed from the threats (job loss, kids with masks, etc)?
I don't know. I could theorize that once you accept any measure of medicalized life-prolongation you forgo any potential access to serenity with death. I honestly find it impossible to comprehend being less than happy to go when it's time to go.
Very insightful! I would just add that human beings need a sense of meaning in their lives. In the past, most people got that through traditional religion and family. As traditional religions have waned in the West, and family structures have broken down, many have become increasingly anxious and desperate and susceptible to charlatans promising some new cult will fill their empty lives with meaning. It could be Scientology, or the Global Warming Cult, or the Covid Death Cult… The people who turn to these weird faiths do so in a sad and futile attempt to rescue themselves from nihilism and despair.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s been interesting to see the look of disbelief and terror on friends’ faces when I tell them I am not vaccinated and don’t plan on getting it. Their first question is always, “But you could die!” I explain the statistics—the infinitesimal chance of that—and they just can’t comprehend it. It’s like their brain is breaking. Before Covid their main purpose in life was to be terrified of Trump and Republicans, AKA, fascists. As a person who used to suffer from chronic anxiety, I sense their anxiety levels have skyrocketed since Nov 2016.
It amazes me how quickly the conversations gets to some form of "You could die!" It's also like nothing else that can kill you matters (heart disease, car accidents, depression from constant negative messaging and being locked down...). I've been scratching my head over the laser focus on COVID so many have, but Gato's post here has been illuminating.
Yes, yes, yes! As a person who crunches numbers all day long, I can rattle off all kinds of stats to people (like COVID is less deadly than flu for anyone under 70), and they just can't comprehend. Or I'll say, even the overinflated COVID death rates are still lower than the '58 and '68 flu epidemics (per capita), and no one stopped living then, but telling people facts like that won't change their mind at all, if they're among the 30% cited above. Their brains are entrapped in steel walls!
Good points about family and religion. But not universally explaining the phenomenon of branch covidians. I know family people and religious people falling for it too. The fear of death seems to be the common denominator. If the people can't find and can't see any other way out (e.g., used to delegate the research to "authorities", not educated enough to do their own research, blindly trusting the media, etc.), what are they to do? When they are so-so scared? And when they are told to sit tight at home, no treatment or prophylaxis, and wait for the grim reaper to come and collect them? Or take the vaxx and never look back?
Perhaps it is a desire for safety? All the fear mongering/fear porn all day for the last almost 2 years has worn them down? Others seem to latch on to the idea that injecting oneself with experimental gene therapy technology is requisite to being a good human/citizen. Also I think many have not really researched/tried to understand how different these vaccines are than the ones we grow up with.
I gather from my experiences in the hospital (having children), that many people generally do not ask questions about what medicines they are being given, what side effects they have, etc. I am very resistant to take medicine unless it is critically needed, so I ask many questions about the risks/benefits, side effects. The doctors/nurses always comment something to the effect of how it is refreshing to have someone asking them, as many patients don't seem to care.
That coupled with the lack of transparency/deceptive advertising & marketing the drug companies/public health orgs are engaging in, and I think most people really don't realize what they were getting themselves into. I think more and more are getting pissed because they've either been injured, or somehow are catching on that all of this is not adding up.
As a side note, I often think that if any other type of business/industry tried to make claims similar to those being made about the vaccines (for their own products), they would be receiving FTC complaints right and left.
As someone who grew up in a christian cult, I can tell you that Desmet is right on target. Mass hypnosis does not require a "Grand hypnotist" or any sort of central control/plan. Mass delusions are normal in human history, and occur with alarming regularity. Remember the "sonic weapon" that we accused people of using against our embassy people? Mass delusion. Look through history and you'll find countless examples of large numbers of people (I hesitate to call them low IQ or low intelligence, for many of them were not), falling for a storyline/narrative that entirely distorts reality into a contrived bit of nonsense.
I got involved in one in college after I got out spent quite a bit of time wondering "How the hell did that happen to me?" and did tons of reading. The entire COVID narrative and its effect on people feels so eerily similar. And yes, intelligent people are not immune and may be even harder to reach once they're "in" because in their minds, they're way too smart to be fooled.
Do you think we are being fooled on our side of things in all of this? And if so, where do you suspect our weaknesses are?
From my view, I think that perhaps vaccines are more efficacious than I'm willing to admit. Perhaps side effects are not as potentially bad as I feel like they are.
But things I don't waffle on - that COVID isn't deadly enough to warrant things like vax passports or getting fired or forcing masks on healthy kids. These things am I deluded on? Because I don't feel willing to move on these points.
I think about that. It's so important to review evidence, even if it doesn't match up with what you believe.
A large number of my social circle has gotten vaxxed, and I can't say for *sure* anything bad has happened to them because of it, but there are some things that give me pause, like shingles in a 40-year old friend. An even younger friend got psoriatic arthritis and the doc even said it could have been caused by the shot. I have a neighbor who started having eye issues this year, and she thinks it might be related. But yeah, most of the people I know who have gotten it seem just fine (although some did catch COVID).
People who have had problems or know someone who did are going to be in higher percentages on websites that are critical of the vax than in the general population and after reading a lot of comments on those sites, I might have a skewed sense of how dangerous the shot is. But no one knows the long term effects yet. If these things do weaken the immune system, that should be abundantly clear after this winter. I hear a few anecdotal things about increased cancer, but I don't think anything concrete has come out.
So, what's the chance of serious side effect? 1/100? 1/1000? 1/10000? As a healthy 40-something who already survived COVID with ease, I'd rather take my chances with the disease. An older person with serious health issues might think differently. It does seem to at least have a short term protective effect and lessens (but not eliminates) the chance of hospitalization and death (from COVID, anyway).
And I 100% agree with your last paragraph, especially if they force boosters as well.
What's coming out in the published literature now is putting me solidly on the side of, "These shots have no positive risk-benefit ratios for any age group of healthy people. They may be useful for people with significant pre-existing conditions and limited expected lifetime, but that's case-by-case."
I say that because:
1) Scientists have released studies on mice with different injection methods of these mRNA viruses, and mice with mRNA in their bloodstream had such massive heart damage it was terrifying.
2) British physicians have documented that 60% of their patients show blood-test evidence of blood-clots only a week or so after getting jabbed.
3) If 60% of the people receiving jabs have that kind of blood reaction after getting the jab, then blood clots must be common, not rare.
4) if blood clots are common, not rare then it is common for these vaccines to make their way into the blood.
5) If these vaccines commonly make their way into the bloodstream before delivering payload, then the entire basis on which their research was based (the injection stays at the site, so it's safe), MUST BE THROWN OUT THE WINDOW, AND ALL SAFETY RESEARCH MUST START AT THE BEGINNING.
But, but, it's "safe and effective!" Doctors and health organizations say so!
I hadn't heard that 60%, but there are definitely enough cases of clots that I don't want that stuff in my body. There's discussion about this happening because injectors aren't aspirating, but still, no one should be forced to get it and those who want the shots should be aware of the risks.
That's what I saw at first, that aspirating makes a difference. However, if 60% of people are showing blood-test evidence of an existing blood clot after getting the jab, then either 60% of the nurses administering this vaccine are hitting blood veins (unlikely), or the more likely scenario is that the mRNA vaccine is making its way through the endocrine system intact and getting into the blood.
If one is not allowed to give blood after getting the jabs, that should tell you everything you need to know. We will become the “pure bloods” as time goes on.
I would say 1/1 - 1/10 territory, but I'm skeptical of the cold chain on the first roll-out.
I had a job in logistic that involved some frozen shipments; there were gaps. And this was back in the 00s when it actually seemed like US corporations were semi-competent and cared about quality control for a minute. So, did a majority of recipients back in the winter and spring actually get transfected in all regions, or was it more like Russian roulette?
Who knows. There was way fewer stories of shipments being ruined than there should have been. Presumably this was less the case with younger recipients who were injected later, and won't be the case at all for the rollout to 5-11 year-olds...
Interesting. Are you saying that the decline in the efficacy of the vaccine could be because people’s doses were not kept cold enough to be viable? I suppose even if that is true it can’t account for the VAERS reports and the booster train.
The best evidence for the limited "infection efficacy" window is from the Phase I/II trials + Israel and UK data. All of these experiments probably had more consistent cold chain than the US. So if you superimpose that over the US, you can assume the "actually" dosed adults stopped being protected circa July and the "blank" dosed adults never had any immune response all along. It's not like anyone was following up with millions of 50 year-old recipients in California or anything. Who knows if the injections being given there in the spring were any good.
I am going with 1 in 1 within 3-5 years based on what I read about animal test results in the prior attempts to develop mRNA- type jabs over the past 20 years. I am often chided for my paranoid, pessimistic, “the syringe is STILL half-full” approach, however…
I look at it this way: even if 90% of the bad vaccine side effects that I've read about have been fabricated, that's still a whole lot of f*cked-up-ness, and please excuse my language.
The biggest red flag, to me, is that the vaccine is not necessary. We know vitamin D works. We know ivermectin works. FLCCC, Dr. Peter McCullough, Mercola, and many others have discussed successful prevention and treatment. So why won't Fauci, Wallensky, et al even mentiin these things, except for derogatorily?? We're not deluded.
When the scary news started coming out of Italy in early 2020, I got worried, and I admit, I thought 15 days to flatten to curve to keep the hospitals from getting overrun made sense. But when I started seeing how any piece of potential good news was suppressed and potential treatments were mocked and it was all panic all the time, I started to question. Then with all of the extra money hospitals got for treating COVID patients and knowing of someone who died of a stroke getting counted as a COVID death early on made me doubt the numbers. And fifteen days later *cough, cough* he we are.
Right! The LIES LIES LIES are actually helping me determine which side of this fight I'm going to be on. And there is no middle ground! These people that try to stay neutral are siding with the totalitarian measures.
You can say that, until people follow illegal government orders and use force to prevent you from travelling, eating out, enjoying freedom. Then you are in fact forced to pick a side.
What state are you in? If you are in a locked-down state like I am, then I am very impressed that you are able to go about your business without COVID politics intruding on your daily activities!
I think it's our moral duty to pick the side that is fighting to preserve the freedoms and rights of Americans.
I've learned over the past year that this is simply how public health works. It's not a COVID thing. A policy is chosen and a communication plan is made to support that policy. Nuance and uncertainty must be avoided because it would only 'confuse the public' and lead to lower acceptance which would prevent the policy goals from being achieved.
As a result, public health authorities are resistant to changing the policy even when the situation changes because that would appear inconsistent and would 'confuse the public'.
All of this doesn't work when the situation is too dynamic and drags on for too long. Maybe it's also fundamentally incompatible with the social media age.
From what I understand, if they admitted alternatives were available they never would have gotten emergency use authorization. It also seems like people are not so willing to get the shot so they have to try to squash all competition. It's sick.
I see it this way: we know more about COVID than about the vaccines. We may find out that we were wrong about COVID death- and hospitalisation rates and that they're higher than we thought. However, because of the amount of data we have, that's very unlikely and it would be even more unlikely that we missed the mark by a significant amount.
The vaccines, however, are much less well-known. The likelihood that they will turn out worse than we thought is much bigger than with COVID, and the likelihood that we missed the mark by a significant amount is also much bigger.
Essentially, you're comparing a known risk (COVID) with an unknown risk (vaccine). If that known risk is large for someone of your age and health status, it may be worth taking the unknown (but probably smaller) risk of a vaccine.
But if you're young and healthy, the known risk becomes very small and it turns into a very different issue. I think a lot of people recognise this which is why arguments that get aimed at or repeated by younger people are rarely about the medical effects of the vaccine itself.
Billy No-Mates, what an articulate logical way of thinking about this. You really boiled it down. Reading it that way, I would never get a COVID vaccine for the very same reason I'd never get a flu shot - why bother about something I'm not personally concerned about, especially when in life I have a reasonable risk tolerance.
And yet I recently read a friend's thread where most of our peers are saying they would prefer the unknown long term risk (perceived as low) of vaccines to the perceived high risk of long covid when choosing to vaccinate their children. My jar truly dropped that these well educated people seem to have no understanding of risk assessment.
I too wonder where I am deluding myself. I don’t want to do what I think “the other side” is doing: Being unwilling, or unable, to objectively look at the facts and letting rational thinking rather than emotional reaction guide you.
About every two weeks, my husband and I sit down and try to objectively say, "Ok, are we wrong about all this? Are we the ones who are wrong?" So far, we have come to the no doubt extremely-biased conclusion that no, we are not wrong. But we at least try to open our minds.
I'm glad you gave voice to this. I've had similar thoughts. Like, I hear the perspective some have articulated to the effect that we might just hold our nose and get the vax, because the data (so some say) show it to mitigate severe disease, even though we loathe the coercive aspects around the pushing of it.
I hear that perspective, and enjoy how broad-minded and realistic it feels, but I can't embrace it. Only thing is, I can't give an absolutely airtight reason why not, and I know I should be on my guard against exaggerating or misconstruing the reasons I do have. I mean, our side doesn't need its own, "Haha, you're eating horse dewormer" moment.
The real unsettling bit is when I catch myself hoping the vax really is that dangerous, so I can enjoy the sweet vindication. For a moment it's like I forget that almost everyone I know and care about has received the jab, and I wouldn't want them to suffer on account of it. (Hope they got the saline!)
Here's your airtight reason for not embracing the vaccine: because there is not a single person on the face of the planet who can tell you what the long-term effects are. Never give in.
This is exactly what I told my eldest daughter to say. Nothing more, nothing less. She will turn 12 in December and I am dreading the conversations she will have to have in school and with friends. I wanted her to be prepared to diffuse all of it. Be respectful because you want respect. But STAND YOUR GROUND.
Yeah. I don't intend to give in, though mostly because the coercion and manipulation doesn't sit well with me. "No means no" is airtight here, so far as I am concerned.
It's just that when it comes to arguments pro or con for the vaccine, I feel less sure. That hearkens back upthread where someone was asking, Could it possibly be that the vax itself is more helpful and less dangerous than we've wanted to admit?
I think that unlikely, but I also know that even if the evidence strongly inclined that way, I'd still fight the conclusion *hard* within myself, notwithstanding the horrorshow that the opposite conclusion leads us to: a craptastic and potentially lethal vax being foisted on a world eagerly awaiting their boosters.
I don't know whether to hope I'm wrong or to hope I'm right in my position. But I've been told facts don't care about my feelings anyway, so...
In any case; I see that "airtight" was the wrong standard to drop into this combox. It's too much to ask for right now from the science. Not even my homemade cloth mask is held to that standard, but still it was enough to keep me and my friends from getting the flu last season, even though I wore it poorly and inconsistently.
I too have found myself wishing the effects of the vaccines are all that bad—something that can’t help but to wake people up (which it probably still wouldn’t) and to feel vindicated. I hate admitting that. I too have many loved ones who are vaccinated and don’t wish them ill.
There isn’t any air-tight reasoning for any side. It’s just the other side is more dug in and loud—and sometimes mean. While so much is unknown and evolving about the virus and vaccines, I use other ways to help myself decide what to do: the past history of other pandemics, past track records of other vaccines and pharmaceuticals, the actual dangerousness of covid for my age group and health level (exceedingly low), the evolving data of the effectiveness of the vaccines, etc. I couldn’t argue myself out of an alley fight over my “immorality” for choosing to not get vaccinated (I’m a terrible debater), but it doesn’t mean my personal choice is wrong.
I am impatiently waiting for the Covid Papers expose in 10 or 20 years.
I believe we are on the right side of history, but worry there won't be any honest people around to tell it.
And I am torn right along with you. I don't want bad things to happen to the regular people who took the shot because they thought it was good for them. As far as people who are deceiving, manipulating, mandating, and/or getting rich off it, I have a lot less compassion.
Ooooh! It took me a decade longer than you to leave.... but covid was the catalyst and vice versa. Everything is now open to questioning. I cannot understand the mormons who question the vax but not the church and I equally cannot understand and am significantly frustrated with the postmos who have left the church only to have evolved into fucking vax evangelists. Excuse my language, that's how mad it makes me. I have felt socially homeless this past year.
The programming is strong. Sounds like the people you know just transferred their fanaticism to the jab. I understand the feeling of abandonment. I said when I was leaving, “where do you go when you’ve been told the other churches are not true?” It is very lonely losing that community. But to stay and know it’s a lie? Big No.
In an interview, Dr. Peter McCullough mentioned so many of his fellow doctors seemed to be walking in a trance. When I first heard Desmet in an interview, I thought of McCullough's comment. Desmet's explanation would explain that trance.
I find mentioning that the CDC says 100 million Americans have natural immunity, and that many studies from the support that natural immunity is best, it is accepted in some countries, and that Fauci said he “doesn’t know why” (yeah, right) it’s not counted here, gets through to some of the 40%. Then they think maybe many people are not infectious, and maybe we do need to examine the policies more … they feel they have learned a little science, and it’s easy to grasp.
The 40%, I find, simply have no curiosity and don’t want to hear about any of this but they give me maybe one minute before losing interest. They don’t seem to mind that one point about natural immunity, and I say how they could test health care workers and first responders instead of firing them. Then they think about the loss of those services and how that impacts them. Gotta make it about benefits to them.
I totally find this issue with "the 40%". At a bible study, a person brought up that her daughter lost her job due to vax mandate (she's a dental hygienist). Another woman said we needed to get back on track on not "get off in the weeds". HELLO? How can someone be that disconnected from reality. Ostriches with their heads in the sand, putting their religion in a nice tidy box.
As someone who will likely lose my job in two weeks due to the vax mandate (I've put in for a religious exemption, but employer has made it clear that there will be VERY few granted), I am taken aback by the number of friends and family members who are incredulous when I tell them I'll be getting fired. Usually they say something like, "Oh, they're not REALLY going to do that, are they?" Uh, yeah, they really are. My point being that, people who are not suffering any consequences, who are still considered good members of society and not "unclean" like us, are completely clueless as to what is happening and what life is like for those who have chosen not to take the poison. And, understandably, they don't really care, because it doesn't affect them.
That's so heartbreaking. My RE has been temporarily granted (to be reassessed quarterly by my employer), so I hope yours will be get accepted.
If the tide doesn't turn, eventually all these people that haven't been paying attention to the discrimination going on are going to see a very different world around them, one with less safety on the streets, slower service in the hospitals, and their most principled friends having moved away.
Seems to me that a quarterly assessment of your religious exemption is just another way to coerce you to get the vaccine. It's not like you're going to become an apostate out of the blue.
Oh absolutely. They are leaving the out for when they feel they can justify not being able to accommodate me anymore. We're definitely looking to move. BTW, Idaho is freaking expensive. Sigh. Dang it.
yeah reassess what? weird. that's why some lawyers have been against REs. The appeal really should be fundamental bodily autonomy. But hard to win sadly.
First they came for..... and then no one was left. Do we need to print up posters? How do people forget this shit? I frigging live in the country of Anne Frank. We don't have many employer mandates yet, but we do have vax passes for 13+ and lots of towns are converting these to wristbands to save time and make discrimination visible. It's so embarrassing.
I'm so sorry you are going through this. I hope you don't lose your job. It's amazing how clueless people are. I didn't lose my job through lockdowns, but even so, it was obvious to me how many people would suffer from them, and it made me very angry to see that.
My boss even confessed to being slow to wrap his mind around the fact that I might really be fired over this. Dude, my work boss! Who is running this show anyway??
However, he also recalled he hadn't believed the lockdowns would actually happen, and, to his credit, acknowledged, "I've had a terrible track record predicting these things."
(For myself, if I'm honest, I am like 85% convinced that unvaccinated people can't go out to eat in NYC or Paris. I don't claim that makes me a hero, but it's a pretty solid score in the battle against cognitive dissonance.)
Do you mean there are ways to avoid the health passes? I'm not sure I follow. Do you partially not believe the people who live in these places how bad it really is? It's really effing bad. We don't have the employer mandates in the Netherlands, but I can't fucking take my children to an indoor playground or the GD movies. My girlfriend in Hawaii who homeschools can't even go into the public library. It's like the twilight zone. It is a hill to die on. I am dumbfounded by people like your boss who can't see how bad this is.
I think my boss will come around. He is more open-minded than many, and he has been seriously trying to come to terms with the mess we are in. I didn't really mean to pick on him in this combox. He has actually been very supportive of me as I have tried to swing an exemption to the vax mandate at work, and he's been willing to hear me out as I have tried to share my perspective on what's going on.
My comment was just an attempt at wry humor, as though that would, briefly, let me give voice to something I struggle to express otherwise. Sometimes humor is more nimble than other modes of expression.
I thought it was telling that my own boss was late to wrap his mind around the reality of the mandate imposed on us at work. This thing was barreling towards us like a runaway freight train, but no one I talked to, although they were in positions of authority, seemed to really want it to happen, or to have any power to stop it. That seemed frankly absurd and a little unsettling, on top of the unwelcome imposition of the mandate itself.
Moreover, I think many of us are still struggling to really sustain an awareness of the enormity of what is being done to humanity right now. We're trying to make sense of data suggesting just how ill-advised the mass vaccination campaign probably was (as per this cat's substack, inter alia), and how unnecessary and harmful mandates and health passes, etc are.
Speaking for myself, I fully comprehend that it's happening: I've seen it first hand at my work, and I have no reason to doubt it's being pushed, in various forms, elsewhere. The cognitive dissonance enters in because it violates an implicit assumption, growing out of a lifetime of living a basically cush, untroubled existence, that something this terrible couldn't really happen--especially not to nice, middle class, first-world people like me and my friends.
We know that it's happening, but we also "know" that it can't happen, so where does that leave us? Maybe 85% certain, on a strong day, that it really is happening, and really is as bad as all that.\
The formula for computing that result is something like:
100% * WTF?! ~= 85%
I would like to be stronger (cf. "I don't claim this makes me a hero"), but I've got to be honest with myself about the struggle to accept the reality of the situation if I am to overcome it, and perhaps help others to overcome it too. I have little doubt left that it's a battle worth fighting, if only I could figure out effective ways of doing so.
Thank you for this clarification! It makes more sense now. I think I am somewhat conditioned to victimhood being one of very few who have made certain health decisions. Even good friends do not seem to truly comprehend why. It's unsettling and disorienting that their critical thinking abilities have disappeared. They view me as an extremist shouting that the sky is falling and they would rather just talk about how blue the rain is. So I totally understand what you are saying about cognitive dissonance. I see it everyday. It's just funny to turn it on ourselves; but you are absolutely right, there are times when even I can't process it all. I had the hardest time with inexcusable police violence towards protesters in my country. I just couldn't even watch the videos. It kept me from protesting though. That eventually calmed down for whatever reason and now I try to go once a month at least, but it doesn't seem to help much. In a way the violence may have been more effective--it undeniably shows how monstrous this all is. Maybe that is what we all need. So our nice, middle class, first-world friends and your boss get a clue. But even then, it probably won't click until it affects them directly as it is affecting us. It's really scary that the "people in charge" don't see what is happening, they can't stop it or worse they do and they don't care. I will always remember reading the Grapes of Wrath and being shocked at how the bank employees would not/could not take responsibility for what they did and the suffering they caused. Just cogs in a machine, not real people. Real people would never do that to each other. It made me feel very adrift. And 100 years later nothing has changed. We are trapped by social "progress." Utterly trapped. And I don't know how to fight effectively either. That's why I come here, to get ideas. We will strengthen each other. Good luck with your exemption!
Yes! Embarrassingly I did not really see through the theater until this time last year when we went back into lockdown and the vaccines were about to rollout and natural immunity was completely ignored. It was my wakeup call having had covid in March 2020. We tested antibodies in December and they were still going strong. I finally had proof they were lying and I told anybody and everybody. It cost me many friendships, but it's really a great argument. Another friend was sick the same time as me and just got her antibodies tested. Still going strong. Go team natural immunity!
I pray you are right. I do see it unraveling but not fast enough. Living in batshit crazy Bay Area makes it harder to see the middle growing skeptical as we have no middle here… but California has a middle. They just don’t live here (and I hate it too!).
Either that, CA, OR, and WA will succeed and create their own facist utopia. People like us will be long gone. WA soon to be in my rear view vision. Not soon enough for my comfort, however.
People keep saying that the western states will secede, but unless the NewPacStates, (or whatever they call themselves) they'll have to create a monetary system and give the retired their social security--the money thing will take years, and there is no way the Feds let Calif go. And everything north of Sacramento, they aren't going anywhere with the rest of the state. I don't see it happening.
Yes! State of Jefferson is alive and well in So. OR! I think what will happen is enough of us will move and leave these states to whatever destruction their governors envision for them. Plus, we have a duty to mitigate the blue wave in red states. Hope is lost for WA, CA, or OR right now. Not enough to outvote the trash in Sacramento, Willamette Valley, or King County.
I live up in the foothills beyond Sacramento, and things have been fairly "normal" and sane up here, so it's hard to wrap my head around the hysteria taking place in CA's bigger cities. Our restaurants fought back up here, and a great many of them defiantly stayed open even in early 2020. Two neighboring counties fought back against the county government at one point and they backed off. I've been going regularly to my particular gym since the pandemic began, while other gyms shut down for lengthy periods. In my gym no one wore masks, and no one got covid, by the way. We do have "mandates" up here, but the police wink and don't enforce them. Some stores have clients who mask up rather a lot, while in other stores you don't see a mask anywhere except on store employees, who have to wear masks for appearances sake. I go into all stores maskless and thus far, no one has said anything or even really taken notice of my unmasked status. They seem to take the attitude that masking is their choice, being maskless is mine, all is ok. So far so good. The BAD thing is that a lot of the fearful Bay Area people are buying homes up here and bringing their stupid hysteria with them.
There are significant groups of people who are themselves miserable and rather than work on themselves, they would rather make everyone else miserable, believing this is "equity" or "equality". You could also apply this to climate activists and most leftist causes in general.
The problem here is that the hypnotized 30% pretty much run everything. They run the media, the censoring tech companies, the schools, most of the GloboCorp 500, the churches, the entertainment industry, nearly all the Federal bureaucracy (more powerful than the elected officials), all the Blue State governments and Blue Cities. Where are the power centers for the awake 30%? Substack? They're banned from everything else.
While I totally agree with your analysis of the problem, I don't think it's going to be that easy to get to the 40% because the information stream is damned up at a million points, while the disinformation stream flows 24x7 like Niagara. But there are cracks. Even things like "Let's Go Brandon" slipping out into mainstream consciousness is helpful.
But historically, revolutions always come from a place of power. There are no "revolutions of the people." That's a myth. I think this is going to take longer than you think, but perhaps we'll get there eventually. But the Karens have to really feel some pain, and so far they haven't.
Are they really in the *30%* or are they cynically doing this for their own benefit? I tend to think, the lower levels of the 30% are clueless, brainwashed tools, but ones on top know exactly what they are doing. They are making trillions on this.
As the late, great James Burnham wrote in a different context: “The difference between a Liberal and a Communist is the communist knows what he’s doing.” That hasn’t changed.
I have heard that about revolutions only coming from the powerful classes, but I don’t think it is that pat. I read about a reforestation movement that arose among women in a place in Africa who got tired of walking longer and longer distances to scrounge a few sticks of firewood. They were opposed by the powers that be for some reason, and the leader was jailed. They took to wearing t-shirts that said something like “as for me, I have made my choice” and by doing that signaled to each other which side they were on and eventually they won the issue. Maybe not a revolution but maybe a useful illustration that speaks to the problem of how to move from 30% to 70%.
Need to find some simple gesture or symbol to let people know who we are. Maybe sans mask. Maybe a Q tackpin, maybe a WWG1WGA sticker on your car (me). The way Mormons identify each other by noting the outline of the religious underwear under their clothing. Or the Tzit-tzit hanging out for Orthodox
This is a lovely story! I have become a sticker activist and have a poster in my window to signal my stance (in the Netherlands it's a simple red heart) but it doesn't really increase interaction with others. Something wearable seems like a great idea! Especially since now our vax passes are morphing into a wristband so we can make discrimination visible. In a country that had to enforce the Jodenster. Sigh.
Not so simple. I personally know a few normal successful middle class people that fell for it "head over heels". They are playing with people's fear of death on the subconscious level. After they were made really scared for their or their loved ones' lives, they are offered a wonderful remedy that will make them whole and secure again. This is the critical fate-defining moment! If and after they buy that, they feel enormous relief and a regained sense of security. Now a schmuck like me comes along and says that not only are they safe again, but, in fact, doomed now, not then, and because of their own making. How do you think they will feel toward me? They start hating me with passion. And now they are told that, in fact, they are not safe yet also because of me and the ilk - the pandemic of the unvaccinated, breeding variants - rabid dogs. Day in, day out. So they go berserk. Not because they are bad people, just because this is the way we are built, and someone knows how to pull the strings. And someone is pulling them real hard, real well...
Like I said in the other thread. Facts don't matter even to the middle group but the idea that they are about to have to take MORE injections really rings their bells. Loudly.
"How many shots are you going to take?"
Then tell them the following:
"Canada has bought 135 million MORE shots for 38 million people. That's 3 MORE each plus extra for spoilage and waste"
Then follow up with:
"Israel just took away privileges from 1.5 million people for refusing the 3rd injection. They've announced the 4th is coming. Lithuania is the same but announcing the 4th & 5th shots"
And finally leave them with this thought:
"You can say "NO" at zero injections or you can say "NO" at 3, 4, 5 and the result is the same. When you REFUSE you lose all your PRIVILEGES because you have NO RIGHTS. You gave them away when you agreed to the vaccine passport"
The deer in the headlights is obvious. Some deny but you can see the gears kicking into action in the vast majority.
How many shots are you going to take? Say "NO" now or just leave your sleeve rolled up and be a pin cushion for experimental gene therapy injections.
Those in the middle need to hear our voices - constantly. I try to target mainly Doctors in my area. it's really rather remarkable that our doctors read so little- quite shocking really. They literally get their CDC bulletin and bing- that's it! I started several months ago with numbers from Israel and the dropping efficacy. It's sometimes difficult but I put the spin about how I'm deeply concerned for the truly vulnerable and how they think they are invincible, etc. Then I talk a lot about Sweden. A lot of them pretend they have no idea what is going on over there- I tell them right away- hey, my best friend lives there (actually true), let me tell you all about it! The harder things to discuss involve vaccine injuries- there is oftentimes complete cognitive dissonance. So instead I couch it with numbers, if a young male has a 1 in 6,000 chance of getting hospitalized with myocarditis but only a 1 in 25,000 chance of being hospitalized for the virus itself, why should they get the shot? I live in New England and I'm just exhausted at how weak the people here are. Most have zero critical thinking skills.
I learned how few doctors even read medical journals based on being my mother's caregiver and advocate for the past 2 decades. My mother insists at this point that I should go to nursing school or medical school. I asked hey when did she start hating me. But seriously, a friend of mine just struggled her way through nursing school a few years ago. The struggle wasn't with the academic side but with the administration and politics. What she told me of her experiences explains a lot about some nurses we encounter.
You are absolutely right. I am a physician and many times feel ashamed of what my colleagues have become. I say that most current doctors are "guideline followers".
Well thank you for holding up the standards of your profession.
Journal reading physician here. You are dead on right
Thank you for reaffirming my conclusions. It's especially bad when doctors can more easily access these journals than I can and yet they refuse to. I bet they never liked to do homework.
In fairness, medical journals seem to be filled with dubious articles and dodgy statistics. It's not entirely irrational to ignore them.
In my industry most practitioners also don't read academic journals. I did for a while as part of my job - at first it felt good to be reading so much cutting edge research. After a while I noticed that every time I read something that seemed useful or important, there turned out to be some catch that made it unusable. After enough years of this I realized I was only keeping up with the literature so I could answer questions from other people who expected me to, or had heard about some "breakthrough" that they hadn't read the paper directly for and couldn't understand why we were ignoring it.
So, if the gap between a published paper and real-world practice is so very large normally, and so many papers are unreliable, it's not totally wrong to just write off the whole thing. If something is effective it'll get turned into a product at some point and you'll get more tangible proof of it working, like stories from colleagues you know and trust that they tried it and it worked.
The dodginess of medical journal articles very often is found in the contradiction between the abstract and conclusion announcements versus the fine-print data in the Results section.
My sister is a doctor, and I'm sometimes shocked at how little she knows about some medical topics. I'm kind, and I love her, so I don't say, uh, you didn't know XYZ?, but her lack of knowledge tells me the general state of so many other doctors out there.
She's been trying to talk me into the vax since it came out. She herself had COVID last year, then also got vaxxed, and is now afraid to see me for fear she'll catch it and test positive, but she's not afraid of her vaxxed co-workers or relatives, even though she knows they can be carriers, too. I've tried to talk to her about ADE and other vax concerns, but I'm whistling into the wind...
Board recertification busywork includes conducting surveys where your patients comment on the state of your parking lot or office decor. Yes this counts as medical education. Guess who sells you the survey--the cronies in power at the American Board of Medical Specialties. There have been massive lawsuits and fights over this. Covid has just demoralized doctors and destroyed thinking and research, many doctor friends went nearly bankrupt or got fired/relocated. Good luck keeping a doctor or even finding one today.
I want YOU to be my doctor, Sue!
thank you dear, you'll find brave doctors, it just takes some digging!
Yikes, I'm sorry.
I figured this out when diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Endocronologist’s just looked at it as “give her synthroid, that’ll fix her!” When really it is an autoimmune disease and very multifaceted. They also go by lab numbers, as opposed to patient symptoms -which defies the logic of we are all different and have different tolerances/levels of hormones, etc. that are “normal” for us.
Jocelyn, I have Hashimoto’s, too, and I knew *way* more about it than my doctor. Have you read Izabella Wentz’s #1 bestseller “Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause” (https://smile.amazon.com/Hashimotos-Thyroiditis-Lifestyle-Interventions-Treating/dp/0615825796/)? Izabella does an excellent job of explaining the science in the first half and interventions in the second half. Totally transformative.
Margaret, I am aware of Izabella Wentz’s book, though have not purchased yet. I do receive her emails and she has some interesting posts. Before Izabella was Mary Shoman, way back in the day. I learned a lot from her too. I should definitely check out Isabella’s book to compare if nothing else. Thanks for the recommendation!
Jocelyn, glad you’re on Izabella’s mailing list, and yes, she offers a wealth of resources on this topic. Thanks for the pointer to Mary Shoman! I’ll have to check her out.
Though most journals focus only on ‘peer reviewed studies’ which means these days consensus which means if there’s enough crappy studies to somewhat prove A, then it’s consensus! Hooray! Examples would be mammogram or selective induction of birth research…. Follow the $$, not patient’s best interest, but frame it as if you were saving lives.
The South is wary of vaccines, mostly because the Black people have been abused so often I am afraid. But I got multiple friends who did not get the shots, mostly for other reasons, but they are safe, that is what matters. Indeed, the knowledge or lack thereof under doctors is frightening. They all follow the line of BigPharma. Just scary.
Thank you, Charlotte. I am endeavoring to do this more as well. What El Gato and you (and hopefully many others) advocate for is also supported by history. Just bringing the truth to light/making them question the lies will hopefully tip the scales in our favor (especially as more data comes in). Please see the below podcast that talks more about how to overcome the lies put forth by tyranny.
https://academyofideas.com/2021/09/the-big-lie-how-to-enslave-the-world/
Love Academy of Ideas!
It's been a fantastic and consistent "sanity check" during the past 19 months although I'd followed the channel before The Hysteria.
Indeed! We’ve been following them for years but have found their sobering, philosophical take on the road to tyranny chillingly incisive. I especially appreciate the absence of references to specific current events and their scholarly approach as it makes it more difficult for Covidians to dismiss it as partisan propaganda. The combination of philosophy, history, art, literature, and culture makes each video both fascinating and a visual feast.
Yes! My degree is in art history and watching the videos hit 90% of my happy spots. Absolutely brilliant.
Fabulous website!
I, too, am always amazed by how few doctors seem to be aware of the latest data, peer-reviewed science, and findings on topics like diet and nutrition. My doctors usually end up taking notes from me and getting book/link recommendations during my visits ;-)
American doctors learn nothing at all about nutrition, I know this from a doctor. In Europe they have something like 24 hours about nourishment and health. All BigPharma, which supports schools, probably to teach only symptoms and what to prescribe? At least the doc where I go knows a bit about homeopathy.
Yeah, but nutrition is a famously terrible field full - it's full of 'experts' that invert their advice completely from time to time, lots of studies that don't replicate or turn out to be fraudulent, etc. If I were a doctor I'd ignore nutrition as well. It's just not a reliable producer of research.
Mike, there is an enormous difference between the field of nutrition (admittedly largely corrupted by the practice of research funded to generate press releases that promote a particular food/product, as exposed by Marion Nestle and others) and nutrition itself. To deny that diet and nutrition play a pivotal role in our health (both in terms of causation and healing) would be utterly irrational and destructive—and, unfortunately, that is typically the attitude found in conventional medicine. Instead of searching for the underlying causes of a condition such as diet, nutrition, and lifestyle factors, they turn to pharmaceutical solutions engineered to address the very health conditions created by the self-serving, corporate-defined food pyramid and Standard American Diet.
Good for you! I'm sure it feels like you're beating your head against the wall until it feels good. My PCP won't read any preprints, and she follows what the Boards tell her. She is incredibly under-informed. I am wasting my breath with her, but it doesn't stop me from talking and sending her the links to articles that support what I tell her.
Charlotte - you are fighting the good fight! Hugs from Washington. Keep it up! You're doing awesome to share these things and not give up.
As a doctor I completely agree with this! I myself only woke up to what was happening in April 2021. I have never seen so many people (re)gain a healthy sense of skepticism of authority and institutions. Unfortunately the last hangers on are indeed physicians. I attribute this to long work hours and groupthink (fear of what colleagues will say). This pattern of formally educated individuals being the LAST to recognize rising totalitarianism is not new.
Check out this 2012 paper: Why Did So Many German Doctors Join The Nazi Party Early?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23040706/
Congratulations on waking up, Dr. Nicole! That takes tremendous humility, courage, and strength of will—especially for a doctor. Perhaps this article will help your colleagues recover from their menticide:
• “Letter to the Menticided: A 12-Step Recovery Program” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-menticided-a-12-step)
That paper looks fascinating. I have explored this topic extensively in past articles, including:
• “Letter to a Colluder: Stop Enabling Tyranny” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-colluder-stop-enabling)
• “Are You a Good German or a Badass German?” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-german-or-a-badass)
• “Letter to a Holocaust Denier” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-holocaust-denier)
• “Letter to the Washington State Board of Health” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-washington-state-board)
Look forward to reading! Thanks for sharing
I have a friend who’s a doctor and he said most doctors don’t have time to read everything we see. He said if you want your doctor to know something, send it to her so she can read it.
Medicine has been decimated by Obamacare and electronic medical records. As a physician, I'm in a state that did not mandate this so I still use paper charts. My colleagues are completely burned out and hate their jobs, they spend hours every night and weekends with bings and alerts in email from their EHRs and they get paid zero for this extra work, in fact EHRs cost 6 figures. Hence the current practice of one doctor supervising 9 nurse practitioners or PAs and you get punted there when you need an appointment.
Oh my gosh I'm seeing all your comments today Sue and I am officially a big fan! You kept the paper charts?! You Ludditte! You brilliant, brilliant, brave Luddite! ;-)
I love that you know "Luddite" I wear the proud label!!!
you two are my people! I will always remember the teacher who taught me that term....
Thanks for what you’re doing.
I live in the People's Republic of California and have one teenager left in the house.
Just before Comrade Newsom his latest diktat mandating jabs for schoolchildren, I had a conversation with our pediatrician, who has cared for our children for over two decades.
She of course highly recommends the jab. I asked her some pointed questions:
- The risk to our child is near zero. What is the risk reduction benefit from the jab?
"I don't have that number".
- What are the long-term effects of these mRNA jabs.
"Nobody knows."
And then the kicker:
"You just have to take a leap of faith."
This put me at a loss for words, which for me is a rather uncommon event.
So, a Stanford Health Care pediatrician with decades of experience is using religious terminology to justify recommending the experimental jab to a child with almost zero risk.
We have truly passed into the realm of the surreal.
SHE has unclean hands. She is getting paid per jab. Conflict of interest. If I cannot give legal advise for that in which I have a financial interest, how can the doctors?
Most of the doctors don’t get directly much money. Yes for giving the shot but for the most part they’re brainwashed. It is so ingrained in them that it’s safe they refuse to diagnose obvious reactions. I’ve had it happen with mine. It is just random! 🤦♀️
Well if they are associated with a practice group, the group (aka business) gets the payout, so, yes. It enhances their bottom line. Reduces overhead. It is INCOME any way it is parsed. I love how virtuous the guilty pretend to be. Not you, Tigerkatze.
I know. It’s mine boggling. The whole electronic patient chart cost pushed private docs into groups that are simply assembly line ‘well care’.
Yes. I talked to ex husband, a doc who I put through med school in 1978-80, twenty one years ago. Divorced in 1983. He told me in 2000 when I saw him for our youngest daughter’s graduation that docs could not have solo practices any more. High malpractice insurance, other liability costs. He admitted they had lost control of their profession. I have my own law firm with me, my husband of 31 years, and our legal assistant.
I’m surprised she even answered that. Mine would say you’re misinformed. They are safe and effective and generally the holy grail. Now stop those silly questions already. I avoid the ped and I we only see them for acute care and not ‘well checks’.
that is beyond tragic. however, as a former Stanford trainee, I can tell you that their illiberal, thought conforming groupthink borders on psychosis. Look at how they denounced ( via their Maoist declarations) Drs. Scott Atlas and Jay Bhattacharya who have been my personal voices of sanity amidst the madness. This happened a year ago but I can tell you the wounds are still fresh in the medical community https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/30/academic-freedom-questions-arise-campus-covid-19-strategy-conflicts/
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/11/19/faculty-senate-condemns-scott-atlas/
I just escaped employment at College of San Mateo, which was once supposed to be a feeder school to Stanford. The psychosis there is epic. Of course, they received millions of dollars of covid $$ so - they are going to become a 'vax center' isn't that nice? A college practicing medicine, what will they think of next?
I totally feel you.
It has all the elements of a cult. This helps me deal when my compassion is low. BTW I love the handle. To be used as a verb?
Noun. Ablative singular of the Latin "libertas".
I knew I should have taken Latin! Like it even more now. My daughter has selected Latin as an elective, so maybe I'll learn something yet.
I agree with your basic premise here, and I'll illustrate with a little story. Here in WA we had mask rules basically the entire 'crisis' (starting July 2020) until the CDC came out and said vaxxed people don't have to wear a mask. Predictably, most of the masks disappeared from stores and shops.
Here's the important part - during that brief little window (Inslee re-instituted masks in August) the maskers would come into a store and get funny looks from the unmasked. This put them on the opposite side of their comfort zone. Some of them would remove the mask, others would just keep their heads down and do their shopping quickly. They REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't like being on the 'wrong' side, and I'm convinced that's why we have mask rules again. This way the sheep feel like they are on the 'correct' side again, since 'the rules' say that masks are required. Now the sheep are once again with the 'go along' gang, and said sheep feel protected by the expanded size of the flock.
Washington physician here. It’s lonely being awake
Indeed it is. What made you realize what's going on?
Agreed from another fellow Washingtonian. BTW, my patriotic act of civil disobedience is not wearing a mask in stores. I still end up having to (sort of) wear the mask (under my nose) at some places (dentist, etc), but Costco I don't anymore nor at my local grocery store. My poor kids though have to wear the nasty rag every day, even at their private Christian school. I sure wish their school would push back against this tyranny. I've tried to exhort them to do the right thing, but they are too afraid of getting shut down. :-(
It's not easy to go without the mask - it's probably the most courageous thing I've had to do on a regular basis in my whole life. It would be much easier to just go along to get along.
WA lawyer. I feel all this exactly. I wear a one layer Fake Mask when I am forced to wear one. When questioned, I remind the Covidiot that the mandate only says “mask,” not a special kind. NEVER wear the blue ones- graphene oxide in them. Fight back every way you can. We have a sign on our law office door that says we do not discriminate against anyone. When people come in, most ask if they have to wear a mask. I tell them that is their personal decision. When they assure me they are jabbed, I tell them, that is their personal medical business. We don’t have a need to know that. Educate by example as much as you can. Smile at them. Be gracious. As Jesus said of his adversaries, “They know not what they are doing.”
I think I love you!!! These are the kinds of businesses I am dying to patronize. There is a restaurant near us that has a sign on the door that says, "Masks optional". I love them, too.
Come to WA and I will help you with your will :-)
BRAVO!!! Make the mask Mandies show you the policy specifying what type of mask, what weave, thickness/ply or model you must wear to be in compliance with their absurd policy. I did this several times at Costco and I got cow-face back at me. I have cut out the white second layer and left the thin blue layer of surgical masks and went to clinics and even got a mammogram with one. You can see my lips moving through it. Nobody said a word, they're conditioned to just see the mask now and think you're in compliance.
Update Sue Hilda! I have cut the white part out of a bunch of the blue masks and I'm going to send my 10th and 7th graders with them on Monday, explaining what we've done and showing them how to do it. I want them to have some tiny sense of agency - that they are doing something that gives them a bit of control in the midst of the madness. The children, the children. All the children without parents that are telling them to resist living in fear. What will this generation be like? So so scarred. And at least my kids are to the (somewhat) critical thinking age. What about the littles???? Ahhhhhhh! It's enough to make my blood pressure start rising when I think about it.
So far we are doing better in the Netherlands where children under 10 have never had to mask. But the older children have suffered intensely. And we have vax passes for 13+ for frigging everything now. My hubby cannot stand it when I wring my hands about what this is going to wreak for the future of this country. He knows it and I know it, but all we can really do is raise our own intelligently subversive little rascals. I have really started upping my game and my plan this week is to order a set of Orwell's books for future reference as I don't currently own any copies. I have the luxury to homeschool if necessary and by God I'll do a better job of it.
"intelligently subversive little rascals"
Fantastic.
Stay strong Stephenie.
These are hard times that try our souls!
I think you are smart to focus on your family of rascals to prevent despair. Focus on your locus of control.
And yes - getting 1984 and animal farm are good to have on hand!
Hey that is a good idea about cutting them! I'm going to try that
You are a hero!
And dang it my kids wear the blue ones every day at school.
So I should switch them to cloth? Or other recommendations?
There are "fake" masks on Etsy. They are glittery/sparkly which mostly hides the fact that the masks have huge holes in them. A few folks have realized they are fake, but most don't even seem to notice. Often, if I'm checking out at a store the attendant will look up and say "I like your mask!" I just say - yup! it's my dancing with the stars mask! And mostly, seems folks just smile and don't give it another thought. My daughter wears one of those pretty fake masks to school - thank god they've yet to spot it.
The Double Fake Mask (fakemaskworldwide2.com). Looks pretty solid on the outside but breathable. Do not tell them it is a “fake mask.” Kids blurt. I have four, grown up, but I remember.
Thank you! Interestingly, the link was blocked on my browser (and I even use Duck duck go) - but I was able to type in the address. Thanks! My boys' lungs will thank you too.
This worked for me. https://fakemaskworldwide.com/
The problem is complying. Fake masking does nothing to fight back. It's the same as acquiescing. Until parents refuse to mask their kids - which is abuse - and demand this insanity stop, it won't. They will add on new abuses just watch. You are complying - so the punishments will just get worse.
You are fortunate to be in Idaho. I am in WA and it is totally different here. If I fought every battle with the same intensity, I would not have the energy for the important battles. Sometimes, flying under the radar for a quick errand is less aggravation. I deal with conflict daily, as an attorney. Then running my business besides, more conflicts. Just noticed yesterday at home doing online banking that a vendor I cancelled 15 months ago sucked money out of my bank account without my authorization. I had to sit on hold for a half hour with Chase Fraud Unit to dispute the charge. Now, tomorrow, I will have to send another certified, return receipt letter to the President of the Company and the VP of Global Sales (as I did last year when they would not cancel) to stop this insanity. So, a fake mask to run into Safeway for a bag of lettuce? Yes. I am tired and I can only fight so many battles per day. I learned a long time ago in the practice of law, that fighting for the principle of the thing does not always work out the way one wishes. Pick your battles wisely and save your energy for the important ones.
If you think all that's tough - you haven't seen anything yet. I'm not fortunate to be in Idaho; I did everything I could to escape CA. I guess the gravity of the situation is lost on most. Oh well.
Well, I used every bit of strength I had to get TF out of CA. And my rent is cheaper. I don't know why people don't pull up stakes and leave the wokie blue coastal states. It won't end well for you.
Vida, I agree with you in principle. In action, my boys are 12 and 15 and they WANT to go to school. They also DON'T want to draw attention to themselves. I've been advocating as much as I can with the school and the policy-makers, but I can't expect my kids to take a moral stand for something that is my fight and they don't see the long-term implications the way adults do. I have encouraged them that I will back them 100% if they get in trouble for not masking in the classroom; my 12 old plays games where he sees how many periods he can go before a teacher says something, and he likes the fake mask idea. These are some small things.
I'm trying Vida. I'd homeschool them in a second if they'd prefer that. But at the moment, they prefer being with friends and complying than standing up for truth and being persecuted. I wish it were different, but I'm not going to shame them for that at their tender ages.
I will say that they don't wear their masks when we go in stores. I think having me or their dad right there with them helps them find their courage. So they get a taste of civil disobedience.
So your kids make the decisions, even though you know better? Good luck with that.
My daughter tried this in college at the University of Arizona and they kicked her out of classes ... she's planning to transfer if they continue this.
Mine just graduated this past May. We are so thankful they got out right before this dystopian nightmare began. Maybe your DD should just postpone college until (hopefully) the non-delusional regain power of the world.
My son was at Texas Tech and was miserable sitting in his apartment all day doing online classes, ended up coming home for his second semester sophomore year and doing classes online. He's back this year and there are no masks, no mandatory anything, parties, packed football games, and he's doing great. There's no hysterics. At U of A they actually told me that they are going to keep masks until "there is no transmissibility" -- WTF does that mean? My daughter has a doctors note, she can't wear a mask (severe asthma, she has reduced lung capacity and masks make her dizzy.) ... Grand Canyon University, a private college, is full open, no masks, and she's thinking of transferring. She's working to see if she can get the same amount in scholarships that she has now at U of A.
I know exactly how you feel, but sleeping well at night has always been more important to me than just getting along.
The worst part about this whole thing is how many of my friends would have gladly turned in Anne Frank or runaway slaves, because 'it's the law'.
I think about my eventual Life Review when I leave this plane of existence. I prefer being true to myself than going along with the herd. And your are absolutely right about those we thought we could trust. Inslee’s little surrogate eyes are everywhere.
And, it's not even the law.
That is probably the worst part about this entire last couple years. Our actual system of creating laws has simply been bypassed using vague health orders.
And people just follow them. That's why we're screwed. Not because the psychos are putting these vague health orders in place, but because we acquiesce. People think this is going away if they 'just behave' but if you notice, it gets worse and worse.
You can't comply your way out of tyranny.
WA state MD here. I don’t mask unless there’s no option (on a plane but not in an airport)
"unless" - there's the problem. People should refuse, and walk out. No 'unless'. What are people not getting with regard to this?
FL doctor here. Stay strong and brave. I'm glad to hear of left coast doctors that will not submit to the performative religion of the mask and when others see you they will think, OK, maybe I can go without a mask too. This was me last year when my county had a mask mandate yet many stores were not enforcing except for big box/national chains, and now they have dropped it. I am without a mask in my office since the governor rescinded the health emergency on 4/24/21. I am vaccinated. Nothing has happened. Not one case nor COVID in my office in 6 months, even thru the delta surge. This mask madness MUST stop and we are the ones to stop it, the politicians and bureaucrats will not cede an inch and love the control.
Wow. The idea that my kids could even go to the dentist normally seems years away here. They make me CALL from the parking lot, double check if we have COVID-like symptoms, and then they check the boys' temps, etc. Everything is plasticed over and it looks like something out of the last scenes of that movie ET. It's despicable.
The repercussions from delayed and postponed care are going to be epic, I'm so sorry this whole disaster is affecting your children
I hear you about the courage it takes. It would seem such a dinky thing to have to exercise courage on, and yet, truly, I'm not there yet. The farthest I go while out shopping here in WA is to wear the thing below my nose. I look up to the 1% of people I see without a mask on at all.
For that brief respite in summer when we were told vaccinated folks didn't need the rag, I happily joined the 10% or so who were barefaced at the grocery store, and I kept it to myself that I hadn't been jabbed. (If memory serves, the percentage hardly topped 10% here before masking was demanded of us again.)
I guess what I've learned about myself is that I'm happy to break the rules when I don't like them, but I can't bear to be seen to be too brazen about it. So, yay me: it would seem I have neither the virtue of obedience nor that of courage in any great measure. C'est la vie.
You might surprise yourself yet. Sometimes I pray in the car for a moment before going in. I rehearse what I will say to someone if there is a comment or question.
This is the battle of our time. I don't want to sit on the sidelines and regret that I didn't fight when I had the opportunity and the ethical reasons.
I don’t wear one in the grocery. Usually I am one of 2 or 4 or 5 on a good day. I live in a blue city in a purple state. When I first walk in it’s hard. My neighbors wouldn’t take well to seeing me acting so immorally. I am so over this BS and people’s stupidity that I mostly don’t care. It’s been a learning curve for sure. I’m more of a live and left live person. When I last went shopping, I realized that I should probably have something ready to say if I were ever confronted.
I didn’t wear it then either. Now I wear a cloth one as shittily as possible. Small resistances.
I wore a red lace mask for most of the pandemic! Once or twice, I got called out for it, but for the most part, people didn't want to engage. Now, I mostly go bare-faced and just smile at people if they give me a weird look. I think most people realize how contentious all this has become, and they really don't want to get into a fight with a little old Italian lady!
Smile back at them, it confuses them!!!!
As shittily as possible has become my mo also.
Unless you refuse to wear one at all, you're just helping the people who have put out these illegal mandates. Acquiescence = agreement.
Good job fighting the sheep. Are masks required everywhere in WA? This madness has to stop!!!!
Yes they are!! An entire state mandate.
The eastern part of the state is freer, but I live in the epicenter of marxism!
The worst worst worst is the kids. I can make a decision for myself and be refused service (it happens) but the kids won't get to go to school if they don't comply.
I didn't know this, naively I thought it was up to businesses. In FL it depends on the county , and there are like 5 leftist counties where the groupthink is horrendous. I'm in solid R Collier County where I haven't worn a mask in a public setting save healthcare for 6 months (and even then as thin as possible with the 2nd ply cut out). It's child abuse for the kids, full stop. Kids aren't developing language, socialization, reading, speech and their immune systems are being wrecked by masks. I would home school if I lived there, or move.
If it was up to businesses, everybody would go where they don't require masks.
Inslee knows this so he doesn't give us the choice.
I have refused to wear one and last winter I was the only one who did so, over here in southeast Boise. It's not CA (I ran screaming from there in 8/2020), but they still have a Karen attitude in many places. I make it my goal to NEVER wear one. So far, so good.
I observed exactly the same thing
Good God this is a giant psychosis!!! The mask does nothing to contain or prevent covid. Everyone I know who had COVID was "really careful and masked all the time" and still got it. I wonder if it hampers immunity to rebreathe your own vapor laden exhalations--it must. Keep fighting! Wear as thin a weave as possible and go without even the second you walk out of the automatic doors pull it off!
this story is pleasantly, though distressingly, insightful. thanks
Your posts are my catnip 😻
Same :)
"that most astonishing and un-killable cockroach of public health tony fauci" Still laughing!
yes and posing on covers of mags like he is a rock and roll god. smug prick...(excuse dirty word). hopefully one day we all will have the last laugh as he is kicked to the curb.
I am an NP in MI that sees primarily elderly patients with vascular disease. Most are at high risk from multiple comorbidities (DM, obesity, HTN, etc), as well as advanced age (70+). Most are eagerly pursuing boosters, and the population that I see has been heavily vaccinated early on last winter-several, with breakthrough infections and hospitalizations. It seems to me, as generations are now widely-spread out geographically, the decreased physical closeness of an extended family, and perhaps decreased spirituality or religious presence in many people's lives, many of my patients are truly fearful of dying. They are staying home, masking up, and avoiding people and thus potential exposures. Many are very anxious about dying, and I suspect they are all watching way too much TV. They are spending their final years choosing not to live, in an attempt to avoid death.
100% I agree with this assessment. America (the world?) is covered in a crippling spirit of fear. Once you realize that you can be at peace with dying (even of COVID!) then the other pieces fall into place and it's easy to say no thanks to mask and vax.
When friends try to bludgeon me with “But you could die!” because I refuse to get vaccinated, my response is—besides sharing the extraordinary low odds of that happening—that if it’s my time, it’s my time. I’d rather die an honest death than one caused by me being too scared to stay true to who I am. I am sure they think I am brainwashed. You can see it in their eyes that they just can’t comprehend that I am not captured by fear.
They are already dead if they're so afraid of living. This is a horrific psy op.
I absolutely agree with this assessment. Growing up religious I was never afraid of death as even my non-religious husband always has been. I have since left my religion and I am now agnostic. However, my spiritual foundation remains helpful. I see many who do not have this struggling. And Professor Desmet addresses that in one of the first interviews I saw him give (in Dutch only sadly). He discusses the enormous disconnect from "God," nature and community caused by the industrial revolution that continues to impact us negatively today. I seem to remember another Belgian philosopher writing along those lines early in the pandemic, noting that our ancestors who lived through the 1918 pandemic would look at our response askance because suddenly no one is allowed to die. It's truly bizarre. What's even weirder is that now we are killing people with vaccines and no one seems to care.
My 81 year old father has just declined our Thanksgiving invitation because we are unvaccinated. I don’t know if it is he, his wife (not my mother), or both who are so fearful. But they watch CNN at times, so the fear porn has gotten to them. ☹️
Aww, so sorry to hear that. Crazy how this is dividing families. 😢
Agree with your thoughts. A friend’s husband won’t even see his grandchildren. Why.
In the 90s and 00s the trope was that the elderly are more at peace with death - https://youtu.be/lbhnVhVq3MY - who knows what changed. Maybe it was nothing more than a myth.
Perhaps those elderly have passed on, and it was their children that are now the ones with this fear. Also, the media have pummeled the elderly SOOOO much, and I notice that they seem to get stuff in their heads on a broken record and can't see clearly past the lies anymore (just speaking for my own parents and my in-laws).
I feel like the STALWARTS that would have been engaged in this fight are NOT engaged. Are they too old to be moved to action? Are they too removed from the threats (job loss, kids with masks, etc)?
I don't know. I could theorize that once you accept any measure of medicalized life-prolongation you forgo any potential access to serenity with death. I honestly find it impossible to comprehend being less than happy to go when it's time to go.
Very insightful! I would just add that human beings need a sense of meaning in their lives. In the past, most people got that through traditional religion and family. As traditional religions have waned in the West, and family structures have broken down, many have become increasingly anxious and desperate and susceptible to charlatans promising some new cult will fill their empty lives with meaning. It could be Scientology, or the Global Warming Cult, or the Covid Death Cult… The people who turn to these weird faiths do so in a sad and futile attempt to rescue themselves from nihilism and despair.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s been interesting to see the look of disbelief and terror on friends’ faces when I tell them I am not vaccinated and don’t plan on getting it. Their first question is always, “But you could die!” I explain the statistics—the infinitesimal chance of that—and they just can’t comprehend it. It’s like their brain is breaking. Before Covid their main purpose in life was to be terrified of Trump and Republicans, AKA, fascists. As a person who used to suffer from chronic anxiety, I sense their anxiety levels have skyrocketed since Nov 2016.
It amazes me how quickly the conversations gets to some form of "You could die!" It's also like nothing else that can kill you matters (heart disease, car accidents, depression from constant negative messaging and being locked down...). I've been scratching my head over the laser focus on COVID so many have, but Gato's post here has been illuminating.
Yes, yes, yes! As a person who crunches numbers all day long, I can rattle off all kinds of stats to people (like COVID is less deadly than flu for anyone under 70), and they just can't comprehend. Or I'll say, even the overinflated COVID death rates are still lower than the '58 and '68 flu epidemics (per capita), and no one stopped living then, but telling people facts like that won't change their mind at all, if they're among the 30% cited above. Their brains are entrapped in steel walls!
Yes, totally. Trump Derangement Syndrome paved the way for all of this covid crap.
Good points about family and religion. But not universally explaining the phenomenon of branch covidians. I know family people and religious people falling for it too. The fear of death seems to be the common denominator. If the people can't find and can't see any other way out (e.g., used to delegate the research to "authorities", not educated enough to do their own research, blindly trusting the media, etc.), what are they to do? When they are so-so scared? And when they are told to sit tight at home, no treatment or prophylaxis, and wait for the grim reaper to come and collect them? Or take the vaxx and never look back?
Perhaps it is a desire for safety? All the fear mongering/fear porn all day for the last almost 2 years has worn them down? Others seem to latch on to the idea that injecting oneself with experimental gene therapy technology is requisite to being a good human/citizen. Also I think many have not really researched/tried to understand how different these vaccines are than the ones we grow up with.
I gather from my experiences in the hospital (having children), that many people generally do not ask questions about what medicines they are being given, what side effects they have, etc. I am very resistant to take medicine unless it is critically needed, so I ask many questions about the risks/benefits, side effects. The doctors/nurses always comment something to the effect of how it is refreshing to have someone asking them, as many patients don't seem to care.
That coupled with the lack of transparency/deceptive advertising & marketing the drug companies/public health orgs are engaging in, and I think most people really don't realize what they were getting themselves into. I think more and more are getting pissed because they've either been injured, or somehow are catching on that all of this is not adding up.
As a side note, I often think that if any other type of business/industry tried to make claims similar to those being made about the vaccines (for their own products), they would be receiving FTC complaints right and left.
As someone who grew up in a christian cult, I can tell you that Desmet is right on target. Mass hypnosis does not require a "Grand hypnotist" or any sort of central control/plan. Mass delusions are normal in human history, and occur with alarming regularity. Remember the "sonic weapon" that we accused people of using against our embassy people? Mass delusion. Look through history and you'll find countless examples of large numbers of people (I hesitate to call them low IQ or low intelligence, for many of them were not), falling for a storyline/narrative that entirely distorts reality into a contrived bit of nonsense.
I got involved in one in college after I got out spent quite a bit of time wondering "How the hell did that happen to me?" and did tons of reading. The entire COVID narrative and its effect on people feels so eerily similar. And yes, intelligent people are not immune and may be even harder to reach once they're "in" because in their minds, they're way too smart to be fooled.
Do you think we are being fooled on our side of things in all of this? And if so, where do you suspect our weaknesses are?
From my view, I think that perhaps vaccines are more efficacious than I'm willing to admit. Perhaps side effects are not as potentially bad as I feel like they are.
But things I don't waffle on - that COVID isn't deadly enough to warrant things like vax passports or getting fired or forcing masks on healthy kids. These things am I deluded on? Because I don't feel willing to move on these points.
I think about that. It's so important to review evidence, even if it doesn't match up with what you believe.
A large number of my social circle has gotten vaxxed, and I can't say for *sure* anything bad has happened to them because of it, but there are some things that give me pause, like shingles in a 40-year old friend. An even younger friend got psoriatic arthritis and the doc even said it could have been caused by the shot. I have a neighbor who started having eye issues this year, and she thinks it might be related. But yeah, most of the people I know who have gotten it seem just fine (although some did catch COVID).
People who have had problems or know someone who did are going to be in higher percentages on websites that are critical of the vax than in the general population and after reading a lot of comments on those sites, I might have a skewed sense of how dangerous the shot is. But no one knows the long term effects yet. If these things do weaken the immune system, that should be abundantly clear after this winter. I hear a few anecdotal things about increased cancer, but I don't think anything concrete has come out.
So, what's the chance of serious side effect? 1/100? 1/1000? 1/10000? As a healthy 40-something who already survived COVID with ease, I'd rather take my chances with the disease. An older person with serious health issues might think differently. It does seem to at least have a short term protective effect and lessens (but not eliminates) the chance of hospitalization and death (from COVID, anyway).
And I 100% agree with your last paragraph, especially if they force boosters as well.
What's coming out in the published literature now is putting me solidly on the side of, "These shots have no positive risk-benefit ratios for any age group of healthy people. They may be useful for people with significant pre-existing conditions and limited expected lifetime, but that's case-by-case."
I say that because:
1) Scientists have released studies on mice with different injection methods of these mRNA viruses, and mice with mRNA in their bloodstream had such massive heart damage it was terrifying.
2) British physicians have documented that 60% of their patients show blood-test evidence of blood-clots only a week or so after getting jabbed.
3) If 60% of the people receiving jabs have that kind of blood reaction after getting the jab, then blood clots must be common, not rare.
4) if blood clots are common, not rare then it is common for these vaccines to make their way into the blood.
5) If these vaccines commonly make their way into the bloodstream before delivering payload, then the entire basis on which their research was based (the injection stays at the site, so it's safe), MUST BE THROWN OUT THE WINDOW, AND ALL SAFETY RESEARCH MUST START AT THE BEGINNING.
But, but, it's "safe and effective!" Doctors and health organizations say so!
I hadn't heard that 60%, but there are definitely enough cases of clots that I don't want that stuff in my body. There's discussion about this happening because injectors aren't aspirating, but still, no one should be forced to get it and those who want the shots should be aware of the risks.
That's what I saw at first, that aspirating makes a difference. However, if 60% of people are showing blood-test evidence of an existing blood clot after getting the jab, then either 60% of the nurses administering this vaccine are hitting blood veins (unlikely), or the more likely scenario is that the mRNA vaccine is making its way through the endocrine system intact and getting into the blood.
If one is not allowed to give blood after getting the jabs, that should tell you everything you need to know. We will become the “pure bloods” as time goes on.
This is new to me....no blood donation after a jab, period, or no donation for a period of time after the jab? Just curious...
I would say 1/1 - 1/10 territory, but I'm skeptical of the cold chain on the first roll-out.
I had a job in logistic that involved some frozen shipments; there were gaps. And this was back in the 00s when it actually seemed like US corporations were semi-competent and cared about quality control for a minute. So, did a majority of recipients back in the winter and spring actually get transfected in all regions, or was it more like Russian roulette?
Who knows. There was way fewer stories of shipments being ruined than there should have been. Presumably this was less the case with younger recipients who were injected later, and won't be the case at all for the rollout to 5-11 year-olds...
Interesting. Are you saying that the decline in the efficacy of the vaccine could be because people’s doses were not kept cold enough to be viable? I suppose even if that is true it can’t account for the VAERS reports and the booster train.
The best evidence for the limited "infection efficacy" window is from the Phase I/II trials + Israel and UK data. All of these experiments probably had more consistent cold chain than the US. So if you superimpose that over the US, you can assume the "actually" dosed adults stopped being protected circa July and the "blank" dosed adults never had any immune response all along. It's not like anyone was following up with millions of 50 year-old recipients in California or anything. Who knows if the injections being given there in the spring were any good.
I am going with 1 in 1 within 3-5 years based on what I read about animal test results in the prior attempts to develop mRNA- type jabs over the past 20 years. I am often chided for my paranoid, pessimistic, “the syringe is STILL half-full” approach, however…
Here's how you know you're not being fooled:
1) You're still willing to hear what the other side says, there are no forbidden thoughts or forbidden speech in your mind.
I am immediately skeptical of anyone who says "the science is settled." I mean, heck, for decades they told us trans fats were good for us.
"The science is settled" is political propaganda.
Lol so true!
Yea, ate trans fat until I got breast cancer and learned about the correlation. First thing I threw out was Crisco.
I look at it this way: even if 90% of the bad vaccine side effects that I've read about have been fabricated, that's still a whole lot of f*cked-up-ness, and please excuse my language.
The biggest red flag, to me, is that the vaccine is not necessary. We know vitamin D works. We know ivermectin works. FLCCC, Dr. Peter McCullough, Mercola, and many others have discussed successful prevention and treatment. So why won't Fauci, Wallensky, et al even mentiin these things, except for derogatorily?? We're not deluded.
When the scary news started coming out of Italy in early 2020, I got worried, and I admit, I thought 15 days to flatten to curve to keep the hospitals from getting overrun made sense. But when I started seeing how any piece of potential good news was suppressed and potential treatments were mocked and it was all panic all the time, I started to question. Then with all of the extra money hospitals got for treating COVID patients and knowing of someone who died of a stroke getting counted as a COVID death early on made me doubt the numbers. And fifteen days later *cough, cough* he we are.
Right! The LIES LIES LIES are actually helping me determine which side of this fight I'm going to be on. And there is no middle ground! These people that try to stay neutral are siding with the totalitarian measures.
There should be no need to pick sides. Live your own life. Enjoy it.
You can say that, until people follow illegal government orders and use force to prevent you from travelling, eating out, enjoying freedom. Then you are in fact forced to pick a side.
What state are you in? If you are in a locked-down state like I am, then I am very impressed that you are able to go about your business without COVID politics intruding on your daily activities!
I think it's our moral duty to pick the side that is fighting to preserve the freedoms and rights of Americans.
I've learned over the past year that this is simply how public health works. It's not a COVID thing. A policy is chosen and a communication plan is made to support that policy. Nuance and uncertainty must be avoided because it would only 'confuse the public' and lead to lower acceptance which would prevent the policy goals from being achieved.
As a result, public health authorities are resistant to changing the policy even when the situation changes because that would appear inconsistent and would 'confuse the public'.
All of this doesn't work when the situation is too dynamic and drags on for too long. Maybe it's also fundamentally incompatible with the social media age.
From what I understand, if they admitted alternatives were available they never would have gotten emergency use authorization. It also seems like people are not so willing to get the shot so they have to try to squash all competition. It's sick.
I see it this way: we know more about COVID than about the vaccines. We may find out that we were wrong about COVID death- and hospitalisation rates and that they're higher than we thought. However, because of the amount of data we have, that's very unlikely and it would be even more unlikely that we missed the mark by a significant amount.
The vaccines, however, are much less well-known. The likelihood that they will turn out worse than we thought is much bigger than with COVID, and the likelihood that we missed the mark by a significant amount is also much bigger.
Essentially, you're comparing a known risk (COVID) with an unknown risk (vaccine). If that known risk is large for someone of your age and health status, it may be worth taking the unknown (but probably smaller) risk of a vaccine.
But if you're young and healthy, the known risk becomes very small and it turns into a very different issue. I think a lot of people recognise this which is why arguments that get aimed at or repeated by younger people are rarely about the medical effects of the vaccine itself.
Billy No-Mates, what an articulate logical way of thinking about this. You really boiled it down. Reading it that way, I would never get a COVID vaccine for the very same reason I'd never get a flu shot - why bother about something I'm not personally concerned about, especially when in life I have a reasonable risk tolerance.
And yet I recently read a friend's thread where most of our peers are saying they would prefer the unknown long term risk (perceived as low) of vaccines to the perceived high risk of long covid when choosing to vaccinate their children. My jar truly dropped that these well educated people seem to have no understanding of risk assessment.
I too wonder where I am deluding myself. I don’t want to do what I think “the other side” is doing: Being unwilling, or unable, to objectively look at the facts and letting rational thinking rather than emotional reaction guide you.
About every two weeks, my husband and I sit down and try to objectively say, "Ok, are we wrong about all this? Are we the ones who are wrong?" So far, we have come to the no doubt extremely-biased conclusion that no, we are not wrong. But we at least try to open our minds.
Great observation. I regularly ask myself where my blind spots might be
I'm glad you gave voice to this. I've had similar thoughts. Like, I hear the perspective some have articulated to the effect that we might just hold our nose and get the vax, because the data (so some say) show it to mitigate severe disease, even though we loathe the coercive aspects around the pushing of it.
I hear that perspective, and enjoy how broad-minded and realistic it feels, but I can't embrace it. Only thing is, I can't give an absolutely airtight reason why not, and I know I should be on my guard against exaggerating or misconstruing the reasons I do have. I mean, our side doesn't need its own, "Haha, you're eating horse dewormer" moment.
The real unsettling bit is when I catch myself hoping the vax really is that dangerous, so I can enjoy the sweet vindication. For a moment it's like I forget that almost everyone I know and care about has received the jab, and I wouldn't want them to suffer on account of it. (Hope they got the saline!)
Here's your airtight reason for not embracing the vaccine: because there is not a single person on the face of the planet who can tell you what the long-term effects are. Never give in.
This is exactly what I told my eldest daughter to say. Nothing more, nothing less. She will turn 12 in December and I am dreading the conversations she will have to have in school and with friends. I wanted her to be prepared to diffuse all of it. Be respectful because you want respect. But STAND YOUR GROUND.
THIS⬆️
Yeah. I don't intend to give in, though mostly because the coercion and manipulation doesn't sit well with me. "No means no" is airtight here, so far as I am concerned.
It's just that when it comes to arguments pro or con for the vaccine, I feel less sure. That hearkens back upthread where someone was asking, Could it possibly be that the vax itself is more helpful and less dangerous than we've wanted to admit?
I think that unlikely, but I also know that even if the evidence strongly inclined that way, I'd still fight the conclusion *hard* within myself, notwithstanding the horrorshow that the opposite conclusion leads us to: a craptastic and potentially lethal vax being foisted on a world eagerly awaiting their boosters.
I don't know whether to hope I'm wrong or to hope I'm right in my position. But I've been told facts don't care about my feelings anyway, so...
In any case; I see that "airtight" was the wrong standard to drop into this combox. It's too much to ask for right now from the science. Not even my homemade cloth mask is held to that standard, but still it was enough to keep me and my friends from getting the flu last season, even though I wore it poorly and inconsistently.
I too have found myself wishing the effects of the vaccines are all that bad—something that can’t help but to wake people up (which it probably still wouldn’t) and to feel vindicated. I hate admitting that. I too have many loved ones who are vaccinated and don’t wish them ill.
There isn’t any air-tight reasoning for any side. It’s just the other side is more dug in and loud—and sometimes mean. While so much is unknown and evolving about the virus and vaccines, I use other ways to help myself decide what to do: the past history of other pandemics, past track records of other vaccines and pharmaceuticals, the actual dangerousness of covid for my age group and health level (exceedingly low), the evolving data of the effectiveness of the vaccines, etc. I couldn’t argue myself out of an alley fight over my “immorality” for choosing to not get vaccinated (I’m a terrible debater), but it doesn’t mean my personal choice is wrong.
I am impatiently waiting for the Covid Papers expose in 10 or 20 years.
I believe we are on the right side of history, but worry there won't be any honest people around to tell it.
And I am torn right along with you. I don't want bad things to happen to the regular people who took the shot because they thought it was good for them. As far as people who are deceiving, manipulating, mandating, and/or getting rich off it, I have a lot less compassion.
“I don’t want to” is a valid reason. Can qualify with “yet”
Were there really witches in New England? See what is actually in front of you. Do research. Trust your judgment. Live.
Saw this growing up in the Mormon Church. Not a member of that now either. Left when I turned 30 and woke up. I could tell you stories.
Ooooh! It took me a decade longer than you to leave.... but covid was the catalyst and vice versa. Everything is now open to questioning. I cannot understand the mormons who question the vax but not the church and I equally cannot understand and am significantly frustrated with the postmos who have left the church only to have evolved into fucking vax evangelists. Excuse my language, that's how mad it makes me. I have felt socially homeless this past year.
The programming is strong. Sounds like the people you know just transferred their fanaticism to the jab. I understand the feeling of abandonment. I said when I was leaving, “where do you go when you’ve been told the other churches are not true?” It is very lonely losing that community. But to stay and know it’s a lie? Big No.
In an interview, Dr. Peter McCullough mentioned so many of his fellow doctors seemed to be walking in a trance. When I first heard Desmet in an interview, I thought of McCullough's comment. Desmet's explanation would explain that trance.
I find mentioning that the CDC says 100 million Americans have natural immunity, and that many studies from the support that natural immunity is best, it is accepted in some countries, and that Fauci said he “doesn’t know why” (yeah, right) it’s not counted here, gets through to some of the 40%. Then they think maybe many people are not infectious, and maybe we do need to examine the policies more … they feel they have learned a little science, and it’s easy to grasp.
The 40%, I find, simply have no curiosity and don’t want to hear about any of this but they give me maybe one minute before losing interest. They don’t seem to mind that one point about natural immunity, and I say how they could test health care workers and first responders instead of firing them. Then they think about the loss of those services and how that impacts them. Gotta make it about benefits to them.
I totally find this issue with "the 40%". At a bible study, a person brought up that her daughter lost her job due to vax mandate (she's a dental hygienist). Another woman said we needed to get back on track on not "get off in the weeds". HELLO? How can someone be that disconnected from reality. Ostriches with their heads in the sand, putting their religion in a nice tidy box.
As someone who will likely lose my job in two weeks due to the vax mandate (I've put in for a religious exemption, but employer has made it clear that there will be VERY few granted), I am taken aback by the number of friends and family members who are incredulous when I tell them I'll be getting fired. Usually they say something like, "Oh, they're not REALLY going to do that, are they?" Uh, yeah, they really are. My point being that, people who are not suffering any consequences, who are still considered good members of society and not "unclean" like us, are completely clueless as to what is happening and what life is like for those who have chosen not to take the poison. And, understandably, they don't really care, because it doesn't affect them.
That's so heartbreaking. My RE has been temporarily granted (to be reassessed quarterly by my employer), so I hope yours will be get accepted.
If the tide doesn't turn, eventually all these people that haven't been paying attention to the discrimination going on are going to see a very different world around them, one with less safety on the streets, slower service in the hospitals, and their most principled friends having moved away.
Seems to me that a quarterly assessment of your religious exemption is just another way to coerce you to get the vaccine. It's not like you're going to become an apostate out of the blue.
Oh absolutely. They are leaving the out for when they feel they can justify not being able to accommodate me anymore. We're definitely looking to move. BTW, Idaho is freaking expensive. Sigh. Dang it.
Exactly!
Thanks, Susanna! Crazy, that they are going to "reassess" quarterly. Just in case you change your mind...?? 🙄😆
yeah reassess what? weird. that's why some lawyers have been against REs. The appeal really should be fundamental bodily autonomy. But hard to win sadly.
First they came for..... and then no one was left. Do we need to print up posters? How do people forget this shit? I frigging live in the country of Anne Frank. We don't have many employer mandates yet, but we do have vax passes for 13+ and lots of towns are converting these to wristbands to save time and make discrimination visible. It's so embarrassing.
I'm so sorry you are going through this. I hope you don't lose your job. It's amazing how clueless people are. I didn't lose my job through lockdowns, but even so, it was obvious to me how many people would suffer from them, and it made me very angry to see that.
Thanks, Sophia!
My boss even confessed to being slow to wrap his mind around the fact that I might really be fired over this. Dude, my work boss! Who is running this show anyway??
However, he also recalled he hadn't believed the lockdowns would actually happen, and, to his credit, acknowledged, "I've had a terrible track record predicting these things."
(For myself, if I'm honest, I am like 85% convinced that unvaccinated people can't go out to eat in NYC or Paris. I don't claim that makes me a hero, but it's a pretty solid score in the battle against cognitive dissonance.)
Do you mean there are ways to avoid the health passes? I'm not sure I follow. Do you partially not believe the people who live in these places how bad it really is? It's really effing bad. We don't have the employer mandates in the Netherlands, but I can't fucking take my children to an indoor playground or the GD movies. My girlfriend in Hawaii who homeschools can't even go into the public library. It's like the twilight zone. It is a hill to die on. I am dumbfounded by people like your boss who can't see how bad this is.
I think my boss will come around. He is more open-minded than many, and he has been seriously trying to come to terms with the mess we are in. I didn't really mean to pick on him in this combox. He has actually been very supportive of me as I have tried to swing an exemption to the vax mandate at work, and he's been willing to hear me out as I have tried to share my perspective on what's going on.
My comment was just an attempt at wry humor, as though that would, briefly, let me give voice to something I struggle to express otherwise. Sometimes humor is more nimble than other modes of expression.
I thought it was telling that my own boss was late to wrap his mind around the reality of the mandate imposed on us at work. This thing was barreling towards us like a runaway freight train, but no one I talked to, although they were in positions of authority, seemed to really want it to happen, or to have any power to stop it. That seemed frankly absurd and a little unsettling, on top of the unwelcome imposition of the mandate itself.
Moreover, I think many of us are still struggling to really sustain an awareness of the enormity of what is being done to humanity right now. We're trying to make sense of data suggesting just how ill-advised the mass vaccination campaign probably was (as per this cat's substack, inter alia), and how unnecessary and harmful mandates and health passes, etc are.
Speaking for myself, I fully comprehend that it's happening: I've seen it first hand at my work, and I have no reason to doubt it's being pushed, in various forms, elsewhere. The cognitive dissonance enters in because it violates an implicit assumption, growing out of a lifetime of living a basically cush, untroubled existence, that something this terrible couldn't really happen--especially not to nice, middle class, first-world people like me and my friends.
We know that it's happening, but we also "know" that it can't happen, so where does that leave us? Maybe 85% certain, on a strong day, that it really is happening, and really is as bad as all that.\
The formula for computing that result is something like:
100% * WTF?! ~= 85%
I would like to be stronger (cf. "I don't claim this makes me a hero"), but I've got to be honest with myself about the struggle to accept the reality of the situation if I am to overcome it, and perhaps help others to overcome it too. I have little doubt left that it's a battle worth fighting, if only I could figure out effective ways of doing so.
Thank you for this clarification! It makes more sense now. I think I am somewhat conditioned to victimhood being one of very few who have made certain health decisions. Even good friends do not seem to truly comprehend why. It's unsettling and disorienting that their critical thinking abilities have disappeared. They view me as an extremist shouting that the sky is falling and they would rather just talk about how blue the rain is. So I totally understand what you are saying about cognitive dissonance. I see it everyday. It's just funny to turn it on ourselves; but you are absolutely right, there are times when even I can't process it all. I had the hardest time with inexcusable police violence towards protesters in my country. I just couldn't even watch the videos. It kept me from protesting though. That eventually calmed down for whatever reason and now I try to go once a month at least, but it doesn't seem to help much. In a way the violence may have been more effective--it undeniably shows how monstrous this all is. Maybe that is what we all need. So our nice, middle class, first-world friends and your boss get a clue. But even then, it probably won't click until it affects them directly as it is affecting us. It's really scary that the "people in charge" don't see what is happening, they can't stop it or worse they do and they don't care. I will always remember reading the Grapes of Wrath and being shocked at how the bank employees would not/could not take responsibility for what they did and the suffering they caused. Just cogs in a machine, not real people. Real people would never do that to each other. It made me feel very adrift. And 100 years later nothing has changed. We are trapped by social "progress." Utterly trapped. And I don't know how to fight effectively either. That's why I come here, to get ideas. We will strengthen each other. Good luck with your exemption!
It’s the ‘Good Germans” thing, like under Hitler.
It seems Someone knows their history.
The right response, of course, would be to show some sympathy and offer to pray for the family. So cold.
I wonder if the loss of interest you mention stems from exhaustion. The media and powers that be have done a wonderful job of breaking people down.
Yes! Embarrassingly I did not really see through the theater until this time last year when we went back into lockdown and the vaccines were about to rollout and natural immunity was completely ignored. It was my wakeup call having had covid in March 2020. We tested antibodies in December and they were still going strong. I finally had proof they were lying and I told anybody and everybody. It cost me many friendships, but it's really a great argument. Another friend was sick the same time as me and just got her antibodies tested. Still going strong. Go team natural immunity!
I pray you are right. I do see it unraveling but not fast enough. Living in batshit crazy Bay Area makes it harder to see the middle growing skeptical as we have no middle here… but California has a middle. They just don’t live here (and I hate it too!).
as a one time resident of SF, i feel you.
that is an echo chamber of surpassing power and aggression.
it will be one of the last to emerge.
But they did wake up enough to try to recall school board members in SF, a crack of daylight
but newsom remained.....heaven help us.
That man's face is terrifying. Always chills my soul whenever I see him, especially if he's grinning. *shudders*
He has empty eyes. We all laugh that he looks like an alien from another planet.
Yes, very empty.
Either that, CA, OR, and WA will succeed and create their own facist utopia. People like us will be long gone. WA soon to be in my rear view vision. Not soon enough for my comfort, however.
People keep saying that the western states will secede, but unless the NewPacStates, (or whatever they call themselves) they'll have to create a monetary system and give the retired their social security--the money thing will take years, and there is no way the Feds let Calif go. And everything north of Sacramento, they aren't going anywhere with the rest of the state. I don't see it happening.
Yes! State of Jefferson is alive and well in So. OR! I think what will happen is enough of us will move and leave these states to whatever destruction their governors envision for them. Plus, we have a duty to mitigate the blue wave in red states. Hope is lost for WA, CA, or OR right now. Not enough to outvote the trash in Sacramento, Willamette Valley, or King County.
ugh, bay area,,,dont know how you are staying sane but glad you are. you deserve a medal for toughing it out this far.
It’s not easy. But I won’t let the crazies steal my optimistic outlook of life.
damn right you won't
I live up in the foothills beyond Sacramento, and things have been fairly "normal" and sane up here, so it's hard to wrap my head around the hysteria taking place in CA's bigger cities. Our restaurants fought back up here, and a great many of them defiantly stayed open even in early 2020. Two neighboring counties fought back against the county government at one point and they backed off. I've been going regularly to my particular gym since the pandemic began, while other gyms shut down for lengthy periods. In my gym no one wore masks, and no one got covid, by the way. We do have "mandates" up here, but the police wink and don't enforce them. Some stores have clients who mask up rather a lot, while in other stores you don't see a mask anywhere except on store employees, who have to wear masks for appearances sake. I go into all stores maskless and thus far, no one has said anything or even really taken notice of my unmasked status. They seem to take the attitude that masking is their choice, being maskless is mine, all is ok. So far so good. The BAD thing is that a lot of the fearful Bay Area people are buying homes up here and bringing their stupid hysteria with them.
There are significant groups of people who are themselves miserable and rather than work on themselves, they would rather make everyone else miserable, believing this is "equity" or "equality". You could also apply this to climate activists and most leftist causes in general.
As gato says, they really don't have anything else going on, so this makes them feel powerful and in charge.
Imagine being so pathetic you hitch your wagon to that of politicians.
The problem here is that the hypnotized 30% pretty much run everything. They run the media, the censoring tech companies, the schools, most of the GloboCorp 500, the churches, the entertainment industry, nearly all the Federal bureaucracy (more powerful than the elected officials), all the Blue State governments and Blue Cities. Where are the power centers for the awake 30%? Substack? They're banned from everything else.
While I totally agree with your analysis of the problem, I don't think it's going to be that easy to get to the 40% because the information stream is damned up at a million points, while the disinformation stream flows 24x7 like Niagara. But there are cracks. Even things like "Let's Go Brandon" slipping out into mainstream consciousness is helpful.
But historically, revolutions always come from a place of power. There are no "revolutions of the people." That's a myth. I think this is going to take longer than you think, but perhaps we'll get there eventually. But the Karens have to really feel some pain, and so far they haven't.
Are they really in the *30%* or are they cynically doing this for their own benefit? I tend to think, the lower levels of the 30% are clueless, brainwashed tools, but ones on top know exactly what they are doing. They are making trillions on this.
As the late, great James Burnham wrote in a different context: “The difference between a Liberal and a Communist is the communist knows what he’s doing.” That hasn’t changed.
Absolute truth!
I have heard that about revolutions only coming from the powerful classes, but I don’t think it is that pat. I read about a reforestation movement that arose among women in a place in Africa who got tired of walking longer and longer distances to scrounge a few sticks of firewood. They were opposed by the powers that be for some reason, and the leader was jailed. They took to wearing t-shirts that said something like “as for me, I have made my choice” and by doing that signaled to each other which side they were on and eventually they won the issue. Maybe not a revolution but maybe a useful illustration that speaks to the problem of how to move from 30% to 70%.
Need to find some simple gesture or symbol to let people know who we are. Maybe sans mask. Maybe a Q tackpin, maybe a WWG1WGA sticker on your car (me). The way Mormons identify each other by noting the outline of the religious underwear under their clothing. Or the Tzit-tzit hanging out for Orthodox
Jewish men. Need to find our peeps. Stand up while everyone else is kneeling or bowing.
a handshake! wink wink
This is a lovely story! I have become a sticker activist and have a poster in my window to signal my stance (in the Netherlands it's a simple red heart) but it doesn't really increase interaction with others. Something wearable seems like a great idea! Especially since now our vax passes are morphing into a wristband so we can make discrimination visible. In a country that had to enforce the Jodenster. Sigh.
Andreas Oehler
13 min ago
Not so simple. I personally know a few normal successful middle class people that fell for it "head over heels". They are playing with people's fear of death on the subconscious level. After they were made really scared for their or their loved ones' lives, they are offered a wonderful remedy that will make them whole and secure again. This is the critical fate-defining moment! If and after they buy that, they feel enormous relief and a regained sense of security. Now a schmuck like me comes along and says that not only are they safe again, but, in fact, doomed now, not then, and because of their own making. How do you think they will feel toward me? They start hating me with passion. And now they are told that, in fact, they are not safe yet also because of me and the ilk - the pandemic of the unvaccinated, breeding variants - rabid dogs. Day in, day out. So they go berserk. Not because they are bad people, just because this is the way we are built, and someone knows how to pull the strings. And someone is pulling them real hard, real well...
Like I said in the other thread. Facts don't matter even to the middle group but the idea that they are about to have to take MORE injections really rings their bells. Loudly.
"How many shots are you going to take?"
Then tell them the following:
"Canada has bought 135 million MORE shots for 38 million people. That's 3 MORE each plus extra for spoilage and waste"
Then follow up with:
"Israel just took away privileges from 1.5 million people for refusing the 3rd injection. They've announced the 4th is coming. Lithuania is the same but announcing the 4th & 5th shots"
And finally leave them with this thought:
"You can say "NO" at zero injections or you can say "NO" at 3, 4, 5 and the result is the same. When you REFUSE you lose all your PRIVILEGES because you have NO RIGHTS. You gave them away when you agreed to the vaccine passport"
The deer in the headlights is obvious. Some deny but you can see the gears kicking into action in the vast majority.
How many shots are you going to take? Say "NO" now or just leave your sleeve rolled up and be a pin cushion for experimental gene therapy injections.
Excellent tips for discussions. I need stuff like this. I can see it all, but suck at explaining it in person.
I love you, El Gato. Great stuff as always.