My eldest sister went even further... She blamed the unvaccinated for the rise of vaccine escape variants like omicron.
"My point is that if vaccine uptake had been more rapid and widespread, then variants like omicron would not have occurred."
And this is a woman whose job title is "Independent Research Consultant". She is charged with checking medical studies to ensure all protocols are met and the study is regulation compliant.
A special kind of ignorance, one that is supported by education and intellectualism. I call this institutionalized ignorance: the teaching of invalid, contradictory concepts that undermine the ability to see the obvious.
I would love to discuss all these points with her, but she has stopped speaking on the subject, at least with me. I think she wishes there were do-overs in life
I'm pretty sure two of my brothers aren't speaking to me. They'll acknowledge birthday and holiday texts, but I haven't seen them in over two years...and we live within 30 minutes of each other. This plandemic has broken many friendships and family relationships. We can only hope time will heal us.
My daughter will respond to texts but won't talk on the phone or Zoom and when she came to stay with her father the last time I had to be away, made sure she arrived a few hours after I had left and returned home several hours before I got back.
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if this has morphed from distancing from her unclean, wrong-thinking, anti-vaxx mother to avoiding facing up to the mounting evidence she's been wrong. My grandson tells me she's way too deep in the matrix to see the bits of reality that are breaking through on even the most highly guarded mainstream media, but I'm hoping she's waking up.
I was talking with a friend today whose relationship with her daughters is similarly strained, and we agreed that what these criminals have done to our most precious relationships is as abominable a crime as the deaths and injuries they've inflicted.
My response to her and my family was simple. If the vaccine provided sterilising immunity like real vaccines, then you would be right but the manufacturer never made that claim and reality and time proved that true
I've read that. Others like the Ethical Skeptic believe Omicron was already in circulation, possibly for several years, and rose to dominance aided by the jabs. Both seem plausible to me.
My husband claims the same thingтАжitтАЩs got to be in the propaganda somewhere that I havenтАЩt seen тАжand logic be damnedтАжthe same man understands that you must take all of your penicillin to prevent superbugs but cannot translate similar logic to the shots, which to me is the easiest, lay-person way to relate it (and neither of us have a strong scientific background, so easy to understand stuff is what we need)
I tried to use an analogy to illustrate the absurdity of shutdowns, lockdowns and isolation dictates in a discussion on 2020: "it's like preventing sudden infant death by drowning babies at birth" which as you might imagine didn't go over well.
I had to explain I wasn't advocating drowning babies at birth (really) and the point is that unless we evaluate the consequences of our actions fully, the outcome really isn't good. I stopped using analogies...and having risk/reward conversations with most people.
BTW did have one person respond "if you prevent the birth through birth control or early abortion, you don't have to worry about SIDS" and not being sarcastic. Another level of scary that this kind of thing is OK to say in public but questioning risk/reward of a drug isn't.
It's really dispiriting when people come out with those non-sequiters that show how completely differently they're recieving what you're saying, how divorced your realities are.
It's very difficult not to just quit the conversation when you realise they're still 7 storeys further back down the chain of reasoning, and the elevator is probably not working too well.
back when "the science" of climate change started it's assent away from fact-based, logically consistent observation based science, I knew a lot of professional scientists and engineers who 'signed on' despite the obvious inconsistencies and stopped asking the wrong questions because they realized it was necessary to continue to work: to get funding, and get published, etc. You'd have a couple beers (or shots of tequila) and they'd readily admit it was BS but what are you gonna do when you've seen what happens to those who question it.
That's a decade or more ago (maybe 2 by now?) and what is alarming is that this "the science is settled" is now believed by so many who will then accept repression of "the deniers" when even that label should be a red flag to anyone studied in science. A consequence of this new culture of suppression of inquiry, I fear, is a new kind of "dark ages" limiting progress in the sciences because we can not overcome the burdens and boundaries of established convention (which has always been needed to advance beyond those boundaries).
"The vaccine protects us from the disease". When we get the disease "but I didn't die because the vaccine made it less severe". And then "the vaccine protects me from the original virus, not the variants, which is why I took two booster doses of the same vaccine". Finally "I got sick because of those mean, ignorant uneducated vax deniers" who's physiology somehow defeat the vaccine I took....
It just seems to get deeper and deeper, and yes, people who really should know better suspend all basic sensibility to follow the dictates of The Party in which they believe.
I don't know much about the Jehovah's Witness religion, but I am quite familiar with the religion of The Party and secularism, which seem to be link such that each requires the other.
The inherent conflict of secularism is that it exhibits all the negative traits of a religion that the average secularist or athirst claim are why they have rejected traditional religions. It requires fanatical dedication to the cause, unwavering faith in the "church" (party) leadership, and unquestioning loyalty. This leads to amazing things, like self-proclaimed liberals who are completely intolerant of anyone expressing a different view, who must demonize all that do not conform, and can't even consider an alternate explanation or allow even asking questions perceived to challenge their desired narrative "deniers", demonstrating closed minds to any alternate possibilities. And even more amazing things like these same people explaining why free speech is bad and self-identified Jews endorsing disarmament, and suppression of political opponents using extreme measures like declaring them insurrectionists and imprisoning them without due process of law.
See logic 101 above: if you believe in the vaccine, the logically the unvaccinated affect only other unvaccinated. To conclude that unvaccinated harm vaccinated people we must logically conclude the vaccine is ineffective. The only way to resolve this logical inconsistency is redefine what is expected from a vaccine...but even that is illogical.
So we cling to irrational explanations: "I got the plague but didn't die because I had the vaccine" . Just a start...
hell a year into it they were still blaming "cases and deaths" on the unvaccinated
My eldest sister went even further... She blamed the unvaccinated for the rise of vaccine escape variants like omicron.
"My point is that if vaccine uptake had been more rapid and widespread, then variants like omicron would not have occurred."
And this is a woman whose job title is "Independent Research Consultant". She is charged with checking medical studies to ensure all protocols are met and the study is regulation compliant.
Isn't it the reverse? Doesn't a leaky vaccine encourage the evolution of variants that can bypass limited immunity?
Of course it is. The ones who say otherwise are living in bizarro world.
And really ignorant
A special kind of ignorance, one that is supported by education and intellectualism. I call this institutionalized ignorance: the teaching of invalid, contradictory concepts that undermine the ability to see the obvious.
Yup
Upside down world
Only in a world of facts and logic. Only where math works and science requires inquiry. ;-)
Yes.
Oy vey! ЁЯджЁЯП╝тАНтЩАя╕П
Omicron is not a descendant of Wuhan or Delta. It's a sibling or a cousin.
Also, there were plenty of variants before the jabs were deployed.
I would love to discuss all these points with her, but she has stopped speaking on the subject, at least with me. I think she wishes there were do-overs in life
I'm pretty sure two of my brothers aren't speaking to me. They'll acknowledge birthday and holiday texts, but I haven't seen them in over two years...and we live within 30 minutes of each other. This plandemic has broken many friendships and family relationships. We can only hope time will heal us.
My daughter will respond to texts but won't talk on the phone or Zoom and when she came to stay with her father the last time I had to be away, made sure she arrived a few hours after I had left and returned home several hours before I got back.
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if this has morphed from distancing from her unclean, wrong-thinking, anti-vaxx mother to avoiding facing up to the mounting evidence she's been wrong. My grandson tells me she's way too deep in the matrix to see the bits of reality that are breaking through on even the most highly guarded mainstream media, but I'm hoping she's waking up.
I was talking with a friend today whose relationship with her daughters is similarly strained, and we agreed that what these criminals have done to our most precious relationships is as abominable a crime as the deaths and injuries they've inflicted.
Yes, I'm sure we all have similar stories. It's horrific what this has done to families. The criminals must be brought to justice.
I sympathize with you for what happened with your daughter. Here's hoping she will see the light.
I'm sorry.
I certainly feel like a pariah amongst my siblings.
My Trump-voting brother and sister-in-law are fine. My TDS-suffering Biden voting brothers and their wives have lost their minds.
My response to her and my family was simple. If the vaccine provided sterilising immunity like real vaccines, then you would be right but the manufacturer never made that claim and reality and time proved that true
We all wish there were do overs.
I know I do
Omicron was a later release
I've read that. Others like the Ethical Skeptic believe Omicron was already in circulation, possibly for several years, and rose to dominance aided by the jabs. Both seem plausible to me.
I hadnтАЩt heard that before. ItтАЩs very plausible.
We'll likely never know.
There is none so blind as she who refuses to see.
My husband claims the same thingтАжitтАЩs got to be in the propaganda somewhere that I havenтАЩt seen тАжand logic be damnedтАжthe same man understands that you must take all of your penicillin to prevent superbugs but cannot translate similar logic to the shots, which to me is the easiest, lay-person way to relate it (and neither of us have a strong scientific background, so easy to understand stuff is what we need)
I tried to use an analogy to illustrate the absurdity of shutdowns, lockdowns and isolation dictates in a discussion on 2020: "it's like preventing sudden infant death by drowning babies at birth" which as you might imagine didn't go over well.
I had to explain I wasn't advocating drowning babies at birth (really) and the point is that unless we evaluate the consequences of our actions fully, the outcome really isn't good. I stopped using analogies...and having risk/reward conversations with most people.
BTW did have one person respond "if you prevent the birth through birth control or early abortion, you don't have to worry about SIDS" and not being sarcastic. Another level of scary that this kind of thing is OK to say in public but questioning risk/reward of a drug isn't.
It's really dispiriting when people come out with those non-sequiters that show how completely differently they're recieving what you're saying, how divorced your realities are.
It's very difficult not to just quit the conversation when you realise they're still 7 storeys further back down the chain of reasoning, and the elevator is probably not working too well.
With this description, your sister is not a scientist. At best, she is a "compliance monitor", a species of bimbocrat equivalent to a legal assistant.
We all do our little pieces, but do not have to appreciate or acknowledge the big picture.
I think your description is fitting. She has a high IQ, but is an authoritarian to the bone. So compliance to authority seems to be her schtick.
back when "the science" of climate change started it's assent away from fact-based, logically consistent observation based science, I knew a lot of professional scientists and engineers who 'signed on' despite the obvious inconsistencies and stopped asking the wrong questions because they realized it was necessary to continue to work: to get funding, and get published, etc. You'd have a couple beers (or shots of tequila) and they'd readily admit it was BS but what are you gonna do when you've seen what happens to those who question it.
That's a decade or more ago (maybe 2 by now?) and what is alarming is that this "the science is settled" is now believed by so many who will then accept repression of "the deniers" when even that label should be a red flag to anyone studied in science. A consequence of this new culture of suppression of inquiry, I fear, is a new kind of "dark ages" limiting progress in the sciences because we can not overcome the burdens and boundaries of established convention (which has always been needed to advance beyond those boundaries).
Yes logical extension of denying logic.
"The vaccine protects us from the disease". When we get the disease "but I didn't die because the vaccine made it less severe". And then "the vaccine protects me from the original virus, not the variants, which is why I took two booster doses of the same vaccine". Finally "I got sick because of those mean, ignorant uneducated vax deniers" who's physiology somehow defeat the vaccine I took....
It just seems to get deeper and deeper, and yes, people who really should know better suspend all basic sensibility to follow the dictates of The Party in which they believe.
I don't know much about the Jehovah's Witness religion, but I am quite familiar with the religion of The Party and secularism, which seem to be link such that each requires the other.
The inherent conflict of secularism is that it exhibits all the negative traits of a religion that the average secularist or athirst claim are why they have rejected traditional religions. It requires fanatical dedication to the cause, unwavering faith in the "church" (party) leadership, and unquestioning loyalty. This leads to amazing things, like self-proclaimed liberals who are completely intolerant of anyone expressing a different view, who must demonize all that do not conform, and can't even consider an alternate explanation or allow even asking questions perceived to challenge their desired narrative "deniers", demonstrating closed minds to any alternate possibilities. And even more amazing things like these same people explaining why free speech is bad and self-identified Jews endorsing disarmament, and suppression of political opponents using extreme measures like declaring them insurrectionists and imprisoning them without due process of law.
See logic 101 above: if you believe in the vaccine, the logically the unvaccinated affect only other unvaccinated. To conclude that unvaccinated harm vaccinated people we must logically conclude the vaccine is ineffective. The only way to resolve this logical inconsistency is redefine what is expected from a vaccine...but even that is illogical.
So we cling to irrational explanations: "I got the plague but didn't die because I had the vaccine" . Just a start...