I also came here from Alex Berenson's comments. Great article about friends and family. Out of 19 family relatives, I am the only one not to choose the covid shots. I have one brother and a male cousin who have refused to see me if I don't get the shots. If I try to discuss anything with family about covid that is not mainstream news I am told to stop immediately. Not open for discussion.
For the last 18 months I complied with the lockdowns, wore a mask only when demanded in various indoor places, kept my distance etc. I drew a line in the sand when so called "vaccines" were made available. I live in a Canadian province and the Vaccine Passport will be in effect within days.
I am a 71 year old female with no comorbidities, rarely get a cold or flu and have never had a flu shot. I take various supplements including C, D, zinc, quercetin. Due to my decision to refuse the shots I will be unable to eat in a restaurant, attend a concert or indoor sports event etc. Sometimes it's hard to stay the course but finding this site has made me feel much better knowing I am not alone. Thankyou. I look forward to future posts on this website. This is the first time I have expressed my opinion on social media.
Thanks, Helen, for that message. What has happened is crazy and I know it's killed relationships. I feel bad for the seemingly few sensible Canadians like you. It dumbfounds me that so many have bought the scam.
Two days ago, I sent an e-mail to a dozen or so vaxxers, asking: How do the unvaxxed threaten the vaxxed? Simple Q, but no one has answered.
I've lost friends over the scam--and the vaxx--but am gaining new ones. I can't be dragged down by those who can't think critically. And I'm not taking the vaxx. My bosses will have to fire me. I love my job and I'm good at it. But I'm weary of the charade. And don't want to give the vaxxers credit for "crushing the virus" when they will have done no such thing.
I continually ask people who they know that's died from CV. I get ZERO good answers. Why do people trust the TV more than they trust what they see in real life?
Sad.
I have other essays posted on CV topics. I don't know: are these other stories visible on your screen? I'm not Net savvy.
Please try to enjoy each day. Home cooked food is better than restaurant food. And there are other good indoor and outdoor options until the governments give up this long-lasting charade.
I blame our mainstream media, dr fraudci, cdc, our president for this kind of messaging that has intentionally blamed the unvaccinated for vaccine failure and for viruses being what they do ... mutate regardless of lockdowns, masks, and vaccines which do not provide sterile immunity. If we had honest messaging , including acknowledging that the naturally immune likely have better coverage than those that are vaccinated , but this seems all too intentional and nefarious , to now create a second tier society that refuses to bend the knee.
Helen, I too am Canadian, female and in your age bracket. Seriously healthy. My answer to this madness has been to remove myself from Canada. I've been living in Central America for the past year to avoid the relentless 24/7 drivel and restrictions in BC and throughout Canada.
Thank-you for your comments re living in Central America for the last year. What is it like there regarding covid and how are they dealing with it? The Vaccine Passport has been implemented in my province and a few days before I had my "last meal" in a restaurant with my husband and sister and brother in law. They are all vaccinated. You are so fortunate to be out of Canada now. In the middle of all this insanity we are having a Federal election
on September 20th. Obviously I won't be voting for Trudeau and dread the
thought of him getting in again. Unfortunately he will most likely be elected,
once again, in spite of his dreadful track record and scandals. He is using fear and devisive tactics in an attempt to score a win. And it appears that mainstream media are all on board with him. At the moment most provinces are caving in and implementing Vaccine Passports. Anyone protesting these measures are being labeled "anti vaxers" or " covidiots". This is not the Canada I grew up in. I think things will get much worse for the unvaccinated, especially as the Vaccines start to fail as they have in other countries. We are an easy target to blame - modern day witch hunts.
In Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, fortunately people can travel between the countries easily. Antigen tests are required to enter Mexico and Panama. In Costa Rica, if you're not vaccinated, you just need to have insurance sufficient to cover you in the case of illness. It cost me less than $100 for 3 months. People are masking; people are getting vaccinated. But there are a surprising number of people who don't plan to get the vax for many of the same reasons as you and I (distrust in govt. among them). We go out and about for our daily activities, wearing a mask to go into stores or restaurants.
I am well-aware of the use of anti-vaxxers as an extreme pejorative in US and Canada. My mother-in-law is an example of the results of relentless pro-vax news stories. She says she won't invite us into her apartment unless we are vaxxed. Well, then; sorry. The vax passport scares me and people need to see that it is the jab that is the problem. This is blind obedience; do people not realise they are giving up their civil liberties?
Nothing works so well as fear in controlling people. Last year a false rumor started up on my small town's community FB page, to the effect that you would need to be vaxxed to go into our only bank. It was eye-opening and very sad to see how many people said, "Good!" "I'm all for it!". The Holocaust explained.
Im 66. Same response from relatives. "Not open to discussion". I dont have to worry about them refusing to see me though, because I smoke. One sister will, one will not.
Thanks for writing this Mark. If it wasn't for people like you I might consider putting myself on some kind of medication. I feel like I'm in a dystopian nightmare. I know what you mean about alienating family. My husband is a highly cited researcher and scientist who wears his face mask fully fitted when we're by ourselves on a freakin deserted beach! It's so irritating.
My adult daughter has a science degree and I sent her links to all the original data from pfizer's dog's breakfast of a clinical trial, protocol, FDA report etc. and asked here where the evidence was for risk reduction in hospitalisations and death. I was shocked she sent back links to marketing stuff.
They call me 'unscientific' because, unlike them, I don't have a science background but I read and write on a biotech and have 500 posts mostly about the science. I get a lot of good feedback on the forum but my husband reads my posts and says nothing.
Thanks Mark. The scientists in the family have actually called me crazy. I think my posts sound rational. I've been worried (as I've written on the forum) for a long time about the superficial way we're being trained to think, to reason through association, the one case that informs them all.
Now we have a world where all vaccines are exactly the same, work in the same way; everyone has the same risk/benefit, regardless of age or whether or not they've had Covid. It's a 'vaccine' so doses don't even matter. Just call them 'boosters'.
You're right. It is insane. A mass delusion.
I'm an investor in a company which trials mesenchymal stem cells, so obviously I have a confirmation bias, as I regularly state in my posts. I also fully accept the risk of buying in before a product is approved. Even if a person isn't interested in biotech, It's a great stock to blame a drinking problem on.
We've had years of constant raising and dashing of hope, which as you'll know is the best way to psychologically break someone. The company has a product for aGvHD for children who have a 70-90% risk of death. We long-term holders thought it would be a slam dunk because the therapy is very safe and highly effective and its competitor (Ruxolitinib) is toxic crap that's killing more patients than if it had never been approved: however, the biotech's therapy got knocked back by the FDA last year despite a ringing endorsement ((9-1) from its own expert committee.
It's the same therapy that's been trialled in a rigorous RCT (not like the dodgy Recovery trial in Dex) for moderate/severe Covid ARDS that got stunning results in mortality benefit in under 65s. I believe the trial could have been stopped for overwhelming efficacy if the NIH hadn't screwed it over in the latter half by referring patients who had been heavily pre-treated (MSCs respond to signals of inflammation) I don't buy the waffle about patients in the latter half being older. I understand about naive T cells but why would 8 years make that much of a difference?
My understanding is that if there had been a viable Covid therapy, the vaccines couldn't have got an EUA. I also understand the NIH is part owner of Moderna patents but I haven't checked this for myself. It comes from Public Citizen.
I hope the link below works. I'm preparing a new post to point out massive corruption. I do worry about what's coming, though. Because of the mass vaccination, I now think the virus poses a real threat. Vanden Bossche has restated his of view of Armageddon. Berenson tweeted that he was thinking of changing his name to Cassandra. The company has to run another trial and I view the delay as heinous.
This comment made me laugh and cry. My husband approached me last night to ask if I was okay (referring to mental health). I admitted that I'm not. I totally know what you mean about considering medication, lol. If my husband wore a mask at the beach, I would be institutionalized immediately. Take care friend. If you (or anyone reading this thread) is in or near Seattle, WA, let's be friends and meet at a mask-free coffee shop.
I'm in Melbourne Australia. I'd love to meet up and I hope to one day. Before Covid blew up we were planning a trip to the US and Seattle was on my list.
You can check out Avi Yemini's footage on Alex Berenson's substack on Australian madness to get an idea of what it's like here in Melbourne.
Hi Jo, I'm in Melbourne, too! I am utterly gobsmacked by what is going on and with people's general apathy and lack of critical thought. It has been especially gut-wrenching to watch as our beautiful city turns into a dystopian nightmare. People like us need to form a tribe as there is strength in numbers. So glad to know there is at least one other free thinker here.
Hi Claire, it's so nice to hear you're in the same city and great timing too because I was gobsmacked by an experience yesterday. I went on a walk with a friend and neighbour I've known for 25 years who used to work in childcare and is particularly kind, not just to her own children.
She brought up the Covid vaccines. I told her my concerns about rolling out them out to children because pfizer hadn't investigated the child who was paralysed in a cohort of 1,131. There was instantly hostile body language beside me and I quickly changed the subject.
We are out here but feeling a bit helpless at what actually to do besides not get the jab. I suppose that is enough for now. No longer have faith in the voting process since fraud of last Nov. in US.
Claire and JO...is it true how nutty it is there? arresting people? cutting off the internet? police shooting at people? shutting down protests? What little we heard about a few weeks ago looked CCRAAAZZZYYY
Yes, Cathie, it is all true. Police have been shooting rubber bullets into crowds, shutting down protests and knocking a 70-year-old woman to the ground and then pepper-spraying her (actually, two burly police officers pepper sprayed her simultaneously). We have also been treated to armed stormtroopers jumping from terrifying tank-like vehicles and chasing people down the street where they proceed to bash them. We have a shocking tyrant of a premier who gets more tyrannical and cruel by the day. Our city is unrecognisable.
it's hard here to convince people that it's true...now I have an eye witness. I believe you all are sort of the "test run" for what is coming. and it is. There is news in the epoch times about china gearing up for a "new wave of covid" - if so - they are just getting ready to release the next "bio-weapon" Your country is already building "camps" to send "infected" people to recover...of course, maybe the Chinese are setting up medical tents for the thousands of soldiers they expect to come back from the war they are getting ready to open up on the world..who knows...either way it's not good and it's not just about covid...I'm so sorry. rest assured, misery loves company and you aren't alone...and won't be for long I fear. It's shocking..you all were an island of the roughest - toughest - you know? originally a prison camp of thugs...with the DNA of outlaws!!! That mattered!!! No one could mess with you...and now...if it can happen there....it's coming to America...and everywhere...I only know to pray. And pray I will. I promise. Chin up.
Yes, it is. I didn't notice the Internet thing myself but I wasn't online that much at the time. There's a media blackout here and many people believe the BS pumped out by the MSM that the protesters are a few hundred violent neo-nazis. I think this video is by the real Rukshan, whose reporting has been more accurate throughout the insanity. I'm on the march on the bridge just to the left of the guy holding up the sign that says, "Andrews is the virus" but I'm out of the frame. I'm not sure this is to do with Victoria Police. It looked to me like some outside group. Note the symbol on the uniform that's highlighted.
Thank you for sharing. This is crazy. And utterly disturbing. Truly a wake up call. I will be praying for you all. This is the beginning of the NWO and I believe it will spread quickly. Likely not fully in US until after 2024 elections. Even then it will be a bloodier scene as we are well armed. To a much more gruesome battle that the NWO will win. But still. Shocking. Fight on.
Christina, I'm coming to Sea to visit the end of the month! I will meet you..will we get arrested? Actually - I'm headed to OR for a family funeral..and that Gov is a nut job..mask outdoors...what??? We came in 2020 for a family vacay during the worst of things...everything was still shut down...riots in Portland and CHOP had just sort of settled down..but it was the BEST vacation ever...the homeless had just been allowed out of the make shift shelter indoors and allowed back into the outdoors...lol...irony.. Anyway - mandates in Charlotte NC with threats of a misdemeanor if you violate - but I risk it and have not been approached! lol..!!!
You’re right, I would be super annoyed that my highly educated husband did something nonsensical like that . I just tell myself i need to let people do whatever they need to , to feel safe and not judge but come on, does that even make sense ?? And people driving alone in their car with a mask on, I just want to tell them , “wake up! It’s going to be ok. You don’t need to do this, take that damn thing off.”
Thanks for this article, Mark. My immediate family (my husband, 24 yo son, and I) are the only vax “hold outs” in our extended family. Fortunately, most everyone is fairly libertarian about it, except my younger sister, who has been a total Nazi about the whole virus thing: early on, she sent group texts around, browbeating the rest of us to “stay home and flatten the curve!” in the early days, and even half-bragged when her 13 yo son was hospitalized “out of an abundance of caution” after a reaction to his second jab.
At my tri-yearly “annual” physical, my doctor informed me that, “The vaccine doesn’t work,” which made me both giddy (I was right!) and sad (my parents and many of my friends are elderly). I kept the info to myself: my sister would just say my doctor is a quack, anyway, and besides: what’s the point? It would only create more contention.
I’ve not seen my boss (who is also a close friend) since March or April of 2020: though vaccinated, he’s deathly afraid of what I might unknowingly spread to him (but hasn’t that ALWAYS been the case?). And a recently-widowed (not COVID-related) friend from church has dumped me for my “carelessness”, evidenced by my unwillingness to wear a mask outside(!) or get vaccinated (FTR, I’m in my early 50s, fit/thin, get lots of sun, and am healthy as a horse).
And, like all us “anti-vaxxers” (right: my son had all his childhood vaccines…and has Tourette’s, which is *surely* coincidental 🤨), I, too, have had death (and more) wished upon me by strangers, endlessly, on social media.
I think human behavior is so interesting, in that we view ourselves as top of the animal pack, individually and collectively. Our big-brained, delusion demise, while we have such an inherent, self-destructive nature. We are in the middle of lemming behavior, different only in that this "lower" animal, I think, speeds off the cliff indiscriminately. Human packs seem more like Coyote, always -- predictably, heading for a certain demise by being the easy target for Road Runner sport.
Why cannot the pack feel they're being Coyote-played? Lots of clues, as one glaring: no group is more haughty than the president and all his assigns and congressional electeds who are shot exempt. Can the pack not sense that? Nancy Pelosi -- on bended knee -- while making cool bucks from her pharma stocks. How can we STAND ourselves🤢
I just re-read this and it brought up such a disturbing scene I’m seeing on social media.
Over a decade ago I spent a lot of time in - likely - the most leftist city in the Northeast. I owned a growing business there, had many friends and hung out in a popular club many nights a week. Being single and successful helped to meet a lot of people.
After I moved on I stayed “friends” with most of these people on Facebook. While they knew me not to be far-left (far from it) I didn’t mix politics with pleasure and generally didn’t post much political on FB. They - of course - have. I’ve seen these people devolve into hateful, spiteful people. But Covid insanity has really hit them.
These people are now mid and late 30’s (some early 40’s) professionals. All in decent health and very vocal about their opinions. They revel in cancel culture.
What disturbed me was this week. One posted that she just got the “booster.” She was excited beyond belief and in the comments she explained she lied about having any pre-existing condition that works require it. She was cheered. Others later posted their band-aid covered arms, clapping about lying and getting “boosted.” It’s sheer insanity. Like, completely crazy.
When the vax was 1st introduced one woman in the group posted that one of her breasts had swelled and was painful after the vax and rang her menstrual cycle was all messed up. She stated something to the effect that she was excited that the antibodies were coursing through her body causing this and that meant “it was working.”
This is where we are. They rant about the unvaxxed and hunt them down. They applaud people losing their jobs for refusing. And they celebrate being “boosted.”
Bragging about getting a booster? LOL! Remember when vaxxes were the solution?
It's not an exaggeration to say that the biggest epidemic in the US is mental illness.
I seek to fight this by telling people who I am and what I believe. It's not a way to make friends with liberals. But I don't want to be friends with crazy people. They drag you, and society, down. I've cut loose a few old friends this year. Had to.
I wrote about it on Stack.
Hang in, Max. There are other sane people. Find them.
I visited with a friend last night at a Halloween party with lots of ppl indoors. He had the booster and in the hospital with Pneumonia 3 weeks later. I had tried to talk him out of the booster to no avail. He was not wearing a mask although his dr told him. “you don't want to get covid”! He put it on for a few minutes and quickly took it off. No one else had on a mask save for a few Halloween outfits that covered the face. I asked him, “do you think the booster had anything to do with the pneumonia”. He said no, my Dr. said it didn’t. I just looked at him. He lost 15 lbs while in hospital 6 days, and not recovered yet but better. He needs to lose prob another 40-50 lbs. and is about 67 yo. I know he was an at risk person, but I get a bad feeling about his future health status and wonder if he had been better off to not get the booster. Dr. Yeadon said the boosters can possibly be the fatal one. I hope not.
Another thought - I’d love an opinion for you and any other here.
We are now in a period of outright tyranny.
Much of this needs to be blamed on a lot of Americans who sat back and let it happen. They wore the masks. They stood in line for an experimental drug. They listened to government and paid off “scientists” rather than learning anything about how viruses actually work. That said - we are now in this place.
I believe that we have to engage in civil disobedience. One way to do this is to lie to the liars. As you’ve stated - we’ve been scammed (well those that aren’t awake). Many of us have families and work at large “woke” corporations that demand vax compliance. I know of many that have complied - but really haven’t. They have the cards, many are even in “the system” but don’t have an experimental drug coursing through their bodies. Unnatural demand do not need to be followed. These folks will fight from the inside and are making their arrangements to escape - they just need time.
This is no different than freedom fighters in WWII that used forged “papers” to fight the Nazis from within.
Yes, these folks could get in trouble. Fines, maybe lose their jobs, at this point maybe even jail. But they are taking these risks. I support them.
From Day 1--for 18 months-- I've been telling people CV was a scam. I knew from the Italian data and the extremely hokey video of that Chinese guy laying on his back in the street scissoring his legs; who lays on their back in the street and scissors his legs in reaction to a respiratory virus?!
It's astounding and very sad that the vast majority of people that I know in NJ still think CV is an intense threat to everyone's life, even though no one I know knows any healthy person who died from CV. Under these circumstances, it's been impossible for me to get others to protest with me. The TV is trusted more than I am, or their personal experiences are. Propaganda won.
I live my daily life nearly as normal: no mask, no vax, often outdoors, travel interstate, etc. I posted a "Flatten the Fear" sign for my car and an "Overreaction" sign on my front porch. But the collective awareness of facts and science just isn't there.
It's pathetic. But that hasn't stopped me from directly, frequently engaging people re: CV and posting my signs. Too many people have been afraid to express their view to the fearful, unrealistic, media/doctor worshipers.
I support them. I'm honored to support people who push back, in all sorts of ways, including hidden ways, against tyranny. All pushback, including hidden, is beneficial to the good of all. I contribute to legal funds for those who are openly pushing back and would be happy to do so for those who tried to assert their basic human rights in a more clandestine manner, but got caught and are being unjustly prosecuted.
I told the truth, but not enough hospitalists where I am… the nazis told me to put in a religious exemption. Heard back in 2 hours. I will not succumb to any testing tho. If required, I’m retired officially. PS never was given N 95 and not sick. Fuc*k them.
I’ve just discovered you and am certainly glad I did. I have to thank the person that linked you on Alex Berensons Sub.
I’ll be your friend. You certainly think a lot like me. The one issue I have is living in a “mixed” household. My wife is hesitant on the vax and I’m an absolute no. We both agree that children and young people should avoid it at all costs. That’s all good, but wife is also an adamant masker and is absolutely scared to death to be around people. She won’t go into anyplace without a mask and won’t - obviously - dine out.
She also generally believes that phony science about Covid and firmly believes it lurks absolutely everywhere and on every surface. She believe the NPR “science” crowd and gets quite angry with me if I try to show her actual statistics. She hates when I tell her that - at 41 - she had a far greater chance of dying in a car accident going to mask up at Target to get Clorox wipes than she does of this virus. She screamed at me once when I didn’t wear a mask at a drive-thru window - had an absolute, shaking meltdown screaming that I am not interested in her safety.
Will it be the death of our marriage? For the sake of our confused 9 yr old I hope not. But she’s fallen into being an absolutely anxiety ridden mess because the government told her to be. She has bought the lies. And it’s hard to watch.
Max, thanks for the message. I'm writing these essays b/c I know many people share my anger with what has occurred and I want them to know they're far from alone. Messages like yours make me feel that the writing time isn't wasted. Though, of course, I'd much rather this scam never happened.
That is a very sad story about your wife. Those who schemed this scam had to have known that this would divide people, even families. That's a crime against humanity. I pray that there is peace under your roof.
I'm in NJ. If you want to meet, I'd be happy to. I've made some new friends this way. Sane people.
It sounds like your wife may have an anxiety disorder that was perhaps not apparent prior to March 2020. By some lucky chance, or God's providence, I had a panic attack in Jan 2020 that made me realize, on reflection, that I've suffered from significant anxiety all of my life (I'm 40). A lot of things in my past suddenly made a lot more sense.
And this simple realization has been a lifeline for me since we entered the Covid twilight zone -- because now I know that a lot of my fears are rooted in my own poor mental health and not in objective reality. I've learned to recognize what triggers or aggravates my anxiety, and I've learned how to force myself to do normal things (shop, go to church, travel) while ignoring my feelings of fear.
Throughout all of this my wife has been an incredible support to me -- it took her about two weeks of last March to recognize the scam and I'm ashamed to say that I snapped at her more than once about "risky" behavior last spring. But she has remained patient, kind, *and* firm with me all along. Maybe you can help your wife in a similar way. Anxiety is a cruel beast -- the more one gives in to it, the worse it gets. But simply recognizing it for what it is and being able to talk about it openly goes a long way toward defanging it.
My health and marriage fell apart a few years prior to Covid. I went through therapy and came to terms with my own anxieties then. I believe that is why I have been able to see through so much of the gaslighting and false narrative. I am forever grateful to therapists and support that got me through and helped me to start over. Little did I realize just how useful what I learned then would be in helping me to sort through these past two years.
That’s inspiring to hear. My marriage fell apart fairly early in the covid era after a two year period of extremely erratic and destructive behaviors on the part of my spouse, who I then realized had been pathologically lying to me for years, throwing away valuable belongings and untold thousands of dollars. Concerned for his well being, I tried to stick it out, find him support and treatment but in the end had to connect the dots going back 15 years and face the reality that this really was who he was all along - a sociopath who’s been poisoning my life for all this time. It has been an illuminating backdrop to the gaslighting we are witnessing now. I know that I resisted seeing what was right in front of me for SO LONG, long past the time that it should have been obvious but the rationalizations and denial continued until finally the scales fell from my eyes. Those of us who’ve been through this before can’t unsee this, but it truly is horrible. I’ve been on my own for a bit over a year and am an unvaxxed pariah in the physical and social environment I live in. Praying to find a community again. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Thanks - and yes she suffers from severe anxiety that has been exacerbated by the hysteria. Sadly she has no interest in seeking help at this point - though myself and family members have certainly tried. At this point she’s generally paralyzed by her fear. She’s a follower so my guess is only when others wake up will she.
If you do convince her to seek help, be sure to question the therapist/psychologist etc as to their beliefs. I had a therapist for another issue I was dealing with in my new widowhood. However, when covid came along she was mostly unable to discuss the issues. Anytime I mentioned for example Ivermectin, she replied she was concerned for me that I would take “horse dewormer”. I didnt want to be vaxed and she was concerned for me and had no ability to respect my thought on the matter. I tried to speak to her about how I was feeling scapegoated as a non-vaxed person and falsely blamed for others illness. It went onto many other related issues. She was/is not conservative and seemingly buys into what CNN says even though her fiancee is a neurologist. So just wanted to say it could be tricky finding someone who understands and can see it both ways.
The Vietnam Era shaped my childhood as well. These past 18 months have far surpassed the trauma that was inflicted by the events back then. I will be joining you in finding lots of new friends, as I have learned that most of my old ones are not interested in reason. I'm happy I found your writing here on Substack. It's like an oasis of sanity in a desert of lunacy.
Thanks, Bonnie. That's why I'm writing. To enable people to know they're not alone amidst this groupthink insanity. If you're in NJ, I'm up for meeting.
I’m in NYC and hoping to make some new friends. Aside from my cousin in the marines who is resisting, I am the only unvaxxed adult I know. Thank ypu for writing on this painful subject so many of us are facing.
My commiserations, Mark. We are stumbling around in a surreal hell-scape. I was recently struck by the insanity when we met up with friends after the long lockdowns. They have been reduced to fearful, tut-tutting admonishers. Labelling all anti-vaxxers as "Trumpists" (we're on an entirely different continent, ffs-excuse-the-french). Brandishing their double-vaccinated status with shrill, glassy-eyed triumph. Talking about acquiring a booster as soon as possible and weighing up whether to mix-n-match for "better protection". Like they are considering something innocuous like a new lipstick colour or hairstyle. At the time I hadn't got the vax and just looked on, mute, aghast. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or both. I subsequently relinquished to the pressure under extreme distress (threatened job-loss, education subsidy, family pressure). It was not worth it. I am bereft. Stripped of all my agency and how I choose to navigate through this life in the vessel that I was born with. The leaks and stresses in this old boat were all my own. Of my own making. I knew how to steer it. No longer. I now have something lurking in the depths that may or may not rot the wood sooner than it should. I will never know. But all I can do is try to wrest back the helm and keep a firm eye out for any more unwelcome invaders and fend them off, as best I can. And yes, I may also be looking for a new tribe. I belong to the ignominious club of vaxxed-under-duress. I belong to neither the vaxxed nor unvaxxed, but if pushed, I'll be choosing your side any day.
Actually I believe your words, and your story, to be exceedingly important - I believe there are many who feel as you do and there aren’t many voices out their that speak out on their behalf. It isn’t just the vaxxed and unvaxxed, it’s also the vaxxed who wish they weren’t. Please don’t despair; you are not alone!!! We need you.
Know you are not alone. Forcing people to do something that they have reasonable doubts over, and for which their is insufficient evidence to support its implementation, is morally reprehensible in the extreme. It is also undoubtably tyrannical. The only possible application for this purported vaccine now appears to be as a type of anticipatory therapeutic ("stops hospitalisation and death"). So fine. Let people opt for it if they are at risk or concerned. But there are plenty of other available and emerging treatment options which are on the table, thereby invalidating the vaxx as the only therapeutic option. It also invalidates the need for such draconian heavy-handedness. But reasoned argument is out the window now. At any rate, I really know how you are feeling and wish you strength.
Our son in law is a doc. They are considering giving our 6 yr old grandson the vac. “All of our pediatrician friends are going to vac their kids”. So far we are still able to be around/visit them without controversy, but we don’t dare discuss it. Years my heart out @ what may happen in my grandsons very healthy body. He actually had Covid, mild runny nose, very brief stint. Praying that they trust his antibodies &/or divine intervention to keep him un jabbed.
Apologies if this is double-posted: I keep getting told to login, and keep dutifully logging in only to be told I need to login again. Sigh.
Anyway, here goes in last try.
Last Thanksgiving my spouse’s relatives posted pics about how they’d placed a picnic table outside their dining room window for visiting relatives to celebrate Thanksgiving *with* them. ‘Cause CDC guidelines.
The very next week, the same CDC follower posted a pic of herself cheek-by-jowl in a crowded restaurant with her overfed besties.
Great read. I also enjoyed the story about Brian the picture hanger in your other article. I am fortunate my mom and sisters understand where I'm coming from and we can actually have reasonable conversations. One of my sisters only got the vaccine because of international travel that required it. She had already had COVID so the requirement did boggle her mind. As and engineer and a person old enough to have learned "real math" rather than "new math" the rapid deterioration of critical thought has been maddening, depressing, isolating and just downright crazy making. My husband and I can't even discuss it because he is a true believer and while highly intelligent he just doesn't want to hear it. As for friends, yes, I've lost several. Before the vaccine was even available I had lunch with some girlfriends. I live in TN so things weren't nearly as bad here, so, lunch was possible. During the conversation it went to COVID, of course, and I told them there was NO WAY I would get an mRNA vaccine. They definitely "side eyed" me and when I tried to explain why I could kinda see the light in their eyes go a little dimmer. I said I won't get it because it's not going to work because there's an animal reservoir for this virus, hence it's here to stay...not to mention it a massive clinical trial and I prefer to remain in the control group. After lunch I got a call from a mutual friend, a man, that had been instructed to call me and do some mansplaining about the virus and vaccines. I dutifully listened, said goodby and we haven't spoken since. That was more than a year ago. Glad I found this substack because sometimes feeling like the loan ranger gets really exhausting. Thanks!
I too came here from Alex Berenson’s comments. I share all of your same views and experiences- I relate to everything you said. I have lost multiple best friends during 2020. I met these particular women in a support group after the loss of my child 6 years ago. We became fast friends and talked every day and night, almost. Grief changes your address book and some people fell away from me, and from them, but we all found each other and were so tight knit. Nothing could break that sort of tragic bond, right? Wrong. Enter 2020 - my views and my interpretations of all this are mostly Alex Berenson’s. In the beginning, I share some of this on social media, and then I’m basically cancelled. We haven’t spoken since. I don’t hate them. But I think they hate me. I feel sad. I would have fallen away from them bc we’d have all gravitated towards others during this polarizing time, but it didn’t have to be like this. I do feel very thankful though that through the loss of them I’ve been led to some wonderful, more reasonable people. But I’ll always grieve the loss of these friendships. -Marie
Marie, that's a painful message. But I knew that other people were sharing my experiences of the past 18 months and wanted them to know they weren't alone.
It's hard to be surrounded by irrationally fearful people. Your statement that they hate you but you don't hate them back shows that you have a forgiving spirit.
If you're ever in NJ and want to meet, I'm down for that.
Enjoy your new friends. I am. Several of them speak only Spanish.
Reading this is so ironic. My family had Memorial Day and July 4th parties for vaxxed only. I’ve been so upset and felt so rejected, but recently decided to focus on the people who love me regardless of my vaccine status. I always valued family above friends, but our friends and our Church are becoming family.
It’s unbelievable what people are doing to one another. We live in an upside down world. I am glad you are finding new friends and “family.” We moved from Portland, OR to East TN and are doing the same.
70 years old, no medicines, no supplements, still hiking the mountains. Can't talk with my son and family about pros/cons of the covid vax, the growing body of studies that show that the cons far outweigh the pros - especially for them. They have made up their mind that the vax is safe and don't want to hear of new findings / evidence, because "I am always saying the same". Was flabbergasted. How can new data / evidence be "the same"? Now we are talking as if this whole mess/crazyness incl. the stigmatization and exclusion of the unvaccinated from social life, their loss of jobs and freedom to travel does not exist and everything is sunny and fine. Feels so disconnected and shallow. Do they want to be shallow in order to feel fine? Is the price of feeling fine to actively overlook all the misery and injustice this policy of lockdown and vaccine mandates is creating? Might mention that my field of work was statistic / methodology of science so I think that I am quite able to jugde the merits and faults of the trials conducted.
A friend also cant see what is occurring. I do think at least in part its bc he did get vaxed in order to continue as a practicing dentist, but thinks I am anti-vax when I talk about any of the deaths and injuries from the vaccines that are happening. He thinks I am “pre-occupied” where I feel HOW COULD I NOT BE WHEN THE WORLD HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN and A GENOCIDE IS BEING PERPETRATED! People seem to forget in the beginning we were told 99.7% would get and clear the virus. The media convinced everyone it was much more deadly and dangerous than it ever was for most ppl. 24-7 propaganda put ppl in a fear mode. Even with companies firing employees who refuse the vax, ppl STILL SOMEHOW cant make the connection that this is about SOMETHING other than OUR HEALTH? Its mind-boggling. I am reduced to having very few ppl in my life I can discuss this with. Its a lonely frustrating journey.
You're far from alone. I, and millions of others, see the scam as you do. But the media and government have millions more conned. I wrote this b/c I know that others are dealing with the same problem.
Another friend even though he is ready to go to civil war over the Pres election and mandates, says he isn't anti-vax which blows my mind he doesn’t make the connection they are related issues. I figure it might be bc he got the vaccine and now the regret or thought that he might have sacrificed his health by doing so is just TOO MUCH to swallow.
I understand how you feel. Ironically both my adult daughters told me I am obsessed and way too preoccupied with covid research. Actually you are doing better than I am since no one in my extended family of 19 vaccinated people will engage in any discussions about covid.
I read on Alex’s site a RN saying the halls in her hospital are full with beds & sick ppl in severe distress waiting for care (which wasn't true last year when media said it was) and going to get worse when the mandates come to fruition soon bc half the nurses are going to quit. They are already working a lot of OT and worn out and mandates will be the last straw.
I also came here from Alex Berenson's comments. Great article about friends and family. Out of 19 family relatives, I am the only one not to choose the covid shots. I have one brother and a male cousin who have refused to see me if I don't get the shots. If I try to discuss anything with family about covid that is not mainstream news I am told to stop immediately. Not open for discussion.
For the last 18 months I complied with the lockdowns, wore a mask only when demanded in various indoor places, kept my distance etc. I drew a line in the sand when so called "vaccines" were made available. I live in a Canadian province and the Vaccine Passport will be in effect within days.
I am a 71 year old female with no comorbidities, rarely get a cold or flu and have never had a flu shot. I take various supplements including C, D, zinc, quercetin. Due to my decision to refuse the shots I will be unable to eat in a restaurant, attend a concert or indoor sports event etc. Sometimes it's hard to stay the course but finding this site has made me feel much better knowing I am not alone. Thankyou. I look forward to future posts on this website. This is the first time I have expressed my opinion on social media.
Thanks, Helen, for that message. What has happened is crazy and I know it's killed relationships. I feel bad for the seemingly few sensible Canadians like you. It dumbfounds me that so many have bought the scam.
Two days ago, I sent an e-mail to a dozen or so vaxxers, asking: How do the unvaxxed threaten the vaxxed? Simple Q, but no one has answered.
I've lost friends over the scam--and the vaxx--but am gaining new ones. I can't be dragged down by those who can't think critically. And I'm not taking the vaxx. My bosses will have to fire me. I love my job and I'm good at it. But I'm weary of the charade. And don't want to give the vaxxers credit for "crushing the virus" when they will have done no such thing.
I continually ask people who they know that's died from CV. I get ZERO good answers. Why do people trust the TV more than they trust what they see in real life?
Sad.
I have other essays posted on CV topics. I don't know: are these other stories visible on your screen? I'm not Net savvy.
Please try to enjoy each day. Home cooked food is better than restaurant food. And there are other good indoor and outdoor options until the governments give up this long-lasting charade.
I blame our mainstream media, dr fraudci, cdc, our president for this kind of messaging that has intentionally blamed the unvaccinated for vaccine failure and for viruses being what they do ... mutate regardless of lockdowns, masks, and vaccines which do not provide sterile immunity. If we had honest messaging , including acknowledging that the naturally immune likely have better coverage than those that are vaccinated , but this seems all too intentional and nefarious , to now create a second tier society that refuses to bend the knee.
Thank-you for your kind reply. And yes I can see and read your other posts. Looking forward to more.
Helen, I too am Canadian, female and in your age bracket. Seriously healthy. My answer to this madness has been to remove myself from Canada. I've been living in Central America for the past year to avoid the relentless 24/7 drivel and restrictions in BC and throughout Canada.
Thank-you for your comments re living in Central America for the last year. What is it like there regarding covid and how are they dealing with it? The Vaccine Passport has been implemented in my province and a few days before I had my "last meal" in a restaurant with my husband and sister and brother in law. They are all vaccinated. You are so fortunate to be out of Canada now. In the middle of all this insanity we are having a Federal election
on September 20th. Obviously I won't be voting for Trudeau and dread the
thought of him getting in again. Unfortunately he will most likely be elected,
once again, in spite of his dreadful track record and scandals. He is using fear and devisive tactics in an attempt to score a win. And it appears that mainstream media are all on board with him. At the moment most provinces are caving in and implementing Vaccine Passports. Anyone protesting these measures are being labeled "anti vaxers" or " covidiots". This is not the Canada I grew up in. I think things will get much worse for the unvaccinated, especially as the Vaccines start to fail as they have in other countries. We are an easy target to blame - modern day witch hunts.
In Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, fortunately people can travel between the countries easily. Antigen tests are required to enter Mexico and Panama. In Costa Rica, if you're not vaccinated, you just need to have insurance sufficient to cover you in the case of illness. It cost me less than $100 for 3 months. People are masking; people are getting vaccinated. But there are a surprising number of people who don't plan to get the vax for many of the same reasons as you and I (distrust in govt. among them). We go out and about for our daily activities, wearing a mask to go into stores or restaurants.
I am well-aware of the use of anti-vaxxers as an extreme pejorative in US and Canada. My mother-in-law is an example of the results of relentless pro-vax news stories. She says she won't invite us into her apartment unless we are vaxxed. Well, then; sorry. The vax passport scares me and people need to see that it is the jab that is the problem. This is blind obedience; do people not realise they are giving up their civil liberties?
I underestimated peoples' gullibility and stupidity. It's just been incredible.
Nothing works so well as fear in controlling people. Last year a false rumor started up on my small town's community FB page, to the effect that you would need to be vaxxed to go into our only bank. It was eye-opening and very sad to see how many people said, "Good!" "I'm all for it!". The Holocaust explained.
Stay strong … 💪🏻🙏
Im 66. Same response from relatives. "Not open to discussion". I dont have to worry about them refusing to see me though, because I smoke. One sister will, one will not.
Duchess , glad your on substack 😊
Brandon, so glad you are here too!
You have no idea...
😘
I'm also about to lose a job I love over the mandate. But I won't give in to craziness or oppression.
Thanks for writing this Mark. If it wasn't for people like you I might consider putting myself on some kind of medication. I feel like I'm in a dystopian nightmare. I know what you mean about alienating family. My husband is a highly cited researcher and scientist who wears his face mask fully fitted when we're by ourselves on a freakin deserted beach! It's so irritating.
My adult daughter has a science degree and I sent her links to all the original data from pfizer's dog's breakfast of a clinical trial, protocol, FDA report etc. and asked here where the evidence was for risk reduction in hospitalisations and death. I was shocked she sent back links to marketing stuff.
They call me 'unscientific' because, unlike them, I don't have a science background but I read and write on a biotech and have 500 posts mostly about the science. I get a lot of good feedback on the forum but my husband reads my posts and says nothing.
That's why I'm writing, J. You're sane. It's the world around you that's crazy.
I was on a deserted NJ beach with my wife last summer at 77 PM and an old HS classmate and his wife walked up to me wearing a mask. Weird!
Please send me some links to your stuff. I'm interested in biotech.
Thanks Mark. The scientists in the family have actually called me crazy. I think my posts sound rational. I've been worried (as I've written on the forum) for a long time about the superficial way we're being trained to think, to reason through association, the one case that informs them all.
Now we have a world where all vaccines are exactly the same, work in the same way; everyone has the same risk/benefit, regardless of age or whether or not they've had Covid. It's a 'vaccine' so doses don't even matter. Just call them 'boosters'.
You're right. It is insane. A mass delusion.
I'm an investor in a company which trials mesenchymal stem cells, so obviously I have a confirmation bias, as I regularly state in my posts. I also fully accept the risk of buying in before a product is approved. Even if a person isn't interested in biotech, It's a great stock to blame a drinking problem on.
We've had years of constant raising and dashing of hope, which as you'll know is the best way to psychologically break someone. The company has a product for aGvHD for children who have a 70-90% risk of death. We long-term holders thought it would be a slam dunk because the therapy is very safe and highly effective and its competitor (Ruxolitinib) is toxic crap that's killing more patients than if it had never been approved: however, the biotech's therapy got knocked back by the FDA last year despite a ringing endorsement ((9-1) from its own expert committee.
It's the same therapy that's been trialled in a rigorous RCT (not like the dodgy Recovery trial in Dex) for moderate/severe Covid ARDS that got stunning results in mortality benefit in under 65s. I believe the trial could have been stopped for overwhelming efficacy if the NIH hadn't screwed it over in the latter half by referring patients who had been heavily pre-treated (MSCs respond to signals of inflammation) I don't buy the waffle about patients in the latter half being older. I understand about naive T cells but why would 8 years make that much of a difference?
My understanding is that if there had been a viable Covid therapy, the vaccines couldn't have got an EUA. I also understand the NIH is part owner of Moderna patents but I haven't checked this for myself. It comes from Public Citizen.
I hope the link below works. I'm preparing a new post to point out massive corruption. I do worry about what's coming, though. Because of the mass vaccination, I now think the virus poses a real threat. Vanden Bossche has restated his of view of Armageddon. Berenson tweeted that he was thinking of changing his name to Cassandra. The company has to run another trial and I view the delay as heinous.
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/ann-mesoblast-update-on-covid-19-ards-trial.5824426/page-1032?post_id=52345645#.YTl2ICgvND8
I was concerned about the same thing: the vaxxes juicing up the virus.
People intervene too much. Kind of like Brian, the picture rearranger.
There was a viable Covid therapy. It's called Ivermectin.
This comment made me laugh and cry. My husband approached me last night to ask if I was okay (referring to mental health). I admitted that I'm not. I totally know what you mean about considering medication, lol. If my husband wore a mask at the beach, I would be institutionalized immediately. Take care friend. If you (or anyone reading this thread) is in or near Seattle, WA, let's be friends and meet at a mask-free coffee shop.
I'm in Melbourne Australia. I'd love to meet up and I hope to one day. Before Covid blew up we were planning a trip to the US and Seattle was on my list.
You can check out Avi Yemini's footage on Alex Berenson's substack on Australian madness to get an idea of what it's like here in Melbourne.
You take care too.
Kind regards,
Jo
Hi Jo, I'm in Melbourne, too! I am utterly gobsmacked by what is going on and with people's general apathy and lack of critical thought. It has been especially gut-wrenching to watch as our beautiful city turns into a dystopian nightmare. People like us need to form a tribe as there is strength in numbers. So glad to know there is at least one other free thinker here.
Take care,
Cheers,
Claire
Hi Claire, it's so nice to hear you're in the same city and great timing too because I was gobsmacked by an experience yesterday. I went on a walk with a friend and neighbour I've known for 25 years who used to work in childcare and is particularly kind, not just to her own children.
She brought up the Covid vaccines. I told her my concerns about rolling out them out to children because pfizer hadn't investigated the child who was paralysed in a cohort of 1,131. There was instantly hostile body language beside me and I quickly changed the subject.
My email is jovitastanne@gmail.com if you want to drop me a line. Take care.
We are out here but feeling a bit helpless at what actually to do besides not get the jab. I suppose that is enough for now. No longer have faith in the voting process since fraud of last Nov. in US.
Claire and JO...is it true how nutty it is there? arresting people? cutting off the internet? police shooting at people? shutting down protests? What little we heard about a few weeks ago looked CCRAAAZZZYYY
Yes, Cathie, it is all true. Police have been shooting rubber bullets into crowds, shutting down protests and knocking a 70-year-old woman to the ground and then pepper-spraying her (actually, two burly police officers pepper sprayed her simultaneously). We have also been treated to armed stormtroopers jumping from terrifying tank-like vehicles and chasing people down the street where they proceed to bash them. We have a shocking tyrant of a premier who gets more tyrannical and cruel by the day. Our city is unrecognisable.
You're governed by idiots.
So are we.
it's hard here to convince people that it's true...now I have an eye witness. I believe you all are sort of the "test run" for what is coming. and it is. There is news in the epoch times about china gearing up for a "new wave of covid" - if so - they are just getting ready to release the next "bio-weapon" Your country is already building "camps" to send "infected" people to recover...of course, maybe the Chinese are setting up medical tents for the thousands of soldiers they expect to come back from the war they are getting ready to open up on the world..who knows...either way it's not good and it's not just about covid...I'm so sorry. rest assured, misery loves company and you aren't alone...and won't be for long I fear. It's shocking..you all were an island of the roughest - toughest - you know? originally a prison camp of thugs...with the DNA of outlaws!!! That mattered!!! No one could mess with you...and now...if it can happen there....it's coming to America...and everywhere...I only know to pray. And pray I will. I promise. Chin up.
Yes, it is. I didn't notice the Internet thing myself but I wasn't online that much at the time. There's a media blackout here and many people believe the BS pumped out by the MSM that the protesters are a few hundred violent neo-nazis. I think this video is by the real Rukshan, whose reporting has been more accurate throughout the insanity. I'm on the march on the bridge just to the left of the guy holding up the sign that says, "Andrews is the virus" but I'm out of the frame. I'm not sure this is to do with Victoria Police. It looked to me like some outside group. Note the symbol on the uniform that's highlighted.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/aApaoLWrSMSX/
Thank you for sharing. This is crazy. And utterly disturbing. Truly a wake up call. I will be praying for you all. This is the beginning of the NWO and I believe it will spread quickly. Likely not fully in US until after 2024 elections. Even then it will be a bloodier scene as we are well armed. To a much more gruesome battle that the NWO will win. But still. Shocking. Fight on.
Christina, I'm coming to Sea to visit the end of the month! I will meet you..will we get arrested? Actually - I'm headed to OR for a family funeral..and that Gov is a nut job..mask outdoors...what??? We came in 2020 for a family vacay during the worst of things...everything was still shut down...riots in Portland and CHOP had just sort of settled down..but it was the BEST vacation ever...the homeless had just been allowed out of the make shift shelter indoors and allowed back into the outdoors...lol...irony.. Anyway - mandates in Charlotte NC with threats of a misdemeanor if you violate - but I risk it and have not been approached! lol..!!!
In Charlotte? What kind of mandates?
I'm across the sound from you. But TBH, I avoid Seattle like the plague since the whole CHAZ and defund police movements.
If my husband wore a mask at the beach, I too would be institutionalized. Twenty years to life.
You’re right, I would be super annoyed that my highly educated husband did something nonsensical like that . I just tell myself i need to let people do whatever they need to , to feel safe and not judge but come on, does that even make sense ?? And people driving alone in their car with a mask on, I just want to tell them , “wake up! It’s going to be ok. You don’t need to do this, take that damn thing off.”
Confucius say: Man who wear mask alone on beach dumb enough to wear condom alone in bed
Lol
Thanks for this article, Mark. My immediate family (my husband, 24 yo son, and I) are the only vax “hold outs” in our extended family. Fortunately, most everyone is fairly libertarian about it, except my younger sister, who has been a total Nazi about the whole virus thing: early on, she sent group texts around, browbeating the rest of us to “stay home and flatten the curve!” in the early days, and even half-bragged when her 13 yo son was hospitalized “out of an abundance of caution” after a reaction to his second jab.
At my tri-yearly “annual” physical, my doctor informed me that, “The vaccine doesn’t work,” which made me both giddy (I was right!) and sad (my parents and many of my friends are elderly). I kept the info to myself: my sister would just say my doctor is a quack, anyway, and besides: what’s the point? It would only create more contention.
I’ve not seen my boss (who is also a close friend) since March or April of 2020: though vaccinated, he’s deathly afraid of what I might unknowingly spread to him (but hasn’t that ALWAYS been the case?). And a recently-widowed (not COVID-related) friend from church has dumped me for my “carelessness”, evidenced by my unwillingness to wear a mask outside(!) or get vaccinated (FTR, I’m in my early 50s, fit/thin, get lots of sun, and am healthy as a horse).
And, like all us “anti-vaxxers” (right: my son had all his childhood vaccines…and has Tourette’s, which is *surely* coincidental 🤨), I, too, have had death (and more) wished upon me by strangers, endlessly, on social media.
MountainBlues is right: What a world.
You're not alone. And you're not wrong. It's been pathetic.
Also came here from Alex B. Hi Mark. Well done!
I think human behavior is so interesting, in that we view ourselves as top of the animal pack, individually and collectively. Our big-brained, delusion demise, while we have such an inherent, self-destructive nature. We are in the middle of lemming behavior, different only in that this "lower" animal, I think, speeds off the cliff indiscriminately. Human packs seem more like Coyote, always -- predictably, heading for a certain demise by being the easy target for Road Runner sport.
Why cannot the pack feel they're being Coyote-played? Lots of clues, as one glaring: no group is more haughty than the president and all his assigns and congressional electeds who are shot exempt. Can the pack not sense that? Nancy Pelosi -- on bended knee -- while making cool bucks from her pharma stocks. How can we STAND ourselves🤢
I just re-read this and it brought up such a disturbing scene I’m seeing on social media.
Over a decade ago I spent a lot of time in - likely - the most leftist city in the Northeast. I owned a growing business there, had many friends and hung out in a popular club many nights a week. Being single and successful helped to meet a lot of people.
After I moved on I stayed “friends” with most of these people on Facebook. While they knew me not to be far-left (far from it) I didn’t mix politics with pleasure and generally didn’t post much political on FB. They - of course - have. I’ve seen these people devolve into hateful, spiteful people. But Covid insanity has really hit them.
These people are now mid and late 30’s (some early 40’s) professionals. All in decent health and very vocal about their opinions. They revel in cancel culture.
What disturbed me was this week. One posted that she just got the “booster.” She was excited beyond belief and in the comments she explained she lied about having any pre-existing condition that works require it. She was cheered. Others later posted their band-aid covered arms, clapping about lying and getting “boosted.” It’s sheer insanity. Like, completely crazy.
When the vax was 1st introduced one woman in the group posted that one of her breasts had swelled and was painful after the vax and rang her menstrual cycle was all messed up. She stated something to the effect that she was excited that the antibodies were coursing through her body causing this and that meant “it was working.”
This is where we are. They rant about the unvaxxed and hunt them down. They applaud people losing their jobs for refusing. And they celebrate being “boosted.”
It’s quite possible we are truly doomed.
Bragging about getting a booster? LOL! Remember when vaxxes were the solution?
It's not an exaggeration to say that the biggest epidemic in the US is mental illness.
I seek to fight this by telling people who I am and what I believe. It's not a way to make friends with liberals. But I don't want to be friends with crazy people. They drag you, and society, down. I've cut loose a few old friends this year. Had to.
I wrote about it on Stack.
Hang in, Max. There are other sane people. Find them.
I visited with a friend last night at a Halloween party with lots of ppl indoors. He had the booster and in the hospital with Pneumonia 3 weeks later. I had tried to talk him out of the booster to no avail. He was not wearing a mask although his dr told him. “you don't want to get covid”! He put it on for a few minutes and quickly took it off. No one else had on a mask save for a few Halloween outfits that covered the face. I asked him, “do you think the booster had anything to do with the pneumonia”. He said no, my Dr. said it didn’t. I just looked at him. He lost 15 lbs while in hospital 6 days, and not recovered yet but better. He needs to lose prob another 40-50 lbs. and is about 67 yo. I know he was an at risk person, but I get a bad feeling about his future health status and wonder if he had been better off to not get the booster. Dr. Yeadon said the boosters can possibly be the fatal one. I hope not.
It’s not surprising. That age group of Millennials is the worst thus far.
Another thought - I’d love an opinion for you and any other here.
We are now in a period of outright tyranny.
Much of this needs to be blamed on a lot of Americans who sat back and let it happen. They wore the masks. They stood in line for an experimental drug. They listened to government and paid off “scientists” rather than learning anything about how viruses actually work. That said - we are now in this place.
I believe that we have to engage in civil disobedience. One way to do this is to lie to the liars. As you’ve stated - we’ve been scammed (well those that aren’t awake). Many of us have families and work at large “woke” corporations that demand vax compliance. I know of many that have complied - but really haven’t. They have the cards, many are even in “the system” but don’t have an experimental drug coursing through their bodies. Unnatural demand do not need to be followed. These folks will fight from the inside and are making their arrangements to escape - they just need time.
This is no different than freedom fighters in WWII that used forged “papers” to fight the Nazis from within.
Yes, these folks could get in trouble. Fines, maybe lose their jobs, at this point maybe even jail. But they are taking these risks. I support them.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Max.
From Day 1--for 18 months-- I've been telling people CV was a scam. I knew from the Italian data and the extremely hokey video of that Chinese guy laying on his back in the street scissoring his legs; who lays on their back in the street and scissors his legs in reaction to a respiratory virus?!
It's astounding and very sad that the vast majority of people that I know in NJ still think CV is an intense threat to everyone's life, even though no one I know knows any healthy person who died from CV. Under these circumstances, it's been impossible for me to get others to protest with me. The TV is trusted more than I am, or their personal experiences are. Propaganda won.
I live my daily life nearly as normal: no mask, no vax, often outdoors, travel interstate, etc. I posted a "Flatten the Fear" sign for my car and an "Overreaction" sign on my front porch. But the collective awareness of facts and science just isn't there.
It's pathetic. But that hasn't stopped me from directly, frequently engaging people re: CV and posting my signs. Too many people have been afraid to express their view to the fearful, unrealistic, media/doctor worshipers.
I support them. I'm honored to support people who push back, in all sorts of ways, including hidden ways, against tyranny. All pushback, including hidden, is beneficial to the good of all. I contribute to legal funds for those who are openly pushing back and would be happy to do so for those who tried to assert their basic human rights in a more clandestine manner, but got caught and are being unjustly prosecuted.
You might enjoy this, friend. https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-biblical-defense-of-fake-vaccine-ids.html
love this...thanks for sharing...ya - totally want to get coffee with you!
I support them too. I’d also like tips on how they have succeeded with it!
I told the truth, but not enough hospitalists where I am… the nazis told me to put in a religious exemption. Heard back in 2 hours. I will not succumb to any testing tho. If required, I’m retired officially. PS never was given N 95 and not sick. Fuc*k them.
I’ve just discovered you and am certainly glad I did. I have to thank the person that linked you on Alex Berensons Sub.
I’ll be your friend. You certainly think a lot like me. The one issue I have is living in a “mixed” household. My wife is hesitant on the vax and I’m an absolute no. We both agree that children and young people should avoid it at all costs. That’s all good, but wife is also an adamant masker and is absolutely scared to death to be around people. She won’t go into anyplace without a mask and won’t - obviously - dine out.
She also generally believes that phony science about Covid and firmly believes it lurks absolutely everywhere and on every surface. She believe the NPR “science” crowd and gets quite angry with me if I try to show her actual statistics. She hates when I tell her that - at 41 - she had a far greater chance of dying in a car accident going to mask up at Target to get Clorox wipes than she does of this virus. She screamed at me once when I didn’t wear a mask at a drive-thru window - had an absolute, shaking meltdown screaming that I am not interested in her safety.
Will it be the death of our marriage? For the sake of our confused 9 yr old I hope not. But she’s fallen into being an absolutely anxiety ridden mess because the government told her to be. She has bought the lies. And it’s hard to watch.
Thanks for the sanity.
Max, thanks for the message. I'm writing these essays b/c I know many people share my anger with what has occurred and I want them to know they're far from alone. Messages like yours make me feel that the writing time isn't wasted. Though, of course, I'd much rather this scam never happened.
That is a very sad story about your wife. Those who schemed this scam had to have known that this would divide people, even families. That's a crime against humanity. I pray that there is peace under your roof.
I'm in NJ. If you want to meet, I'd be happy to. I've made some new friends this way. Sane people.
It sounds like your wife may have an anxiety disorder that was perhaps not apparent prior to March 2020. By some lucky chance, or God's providence, I had a panic attack in Jan 2020 that made me realize, on reflection, that I've suffered from significant anxiety all of my life (I'm 40). A lot of things in my past suddenly made a lot more sense.
And this simple realization has been a lifeline for me since we entered the Covid twilight zone -- because now I know that a lot of my fears are rooted in my own poor mental health and not in objective reality. I've learned to recognize what triggers or aggravates my anxiety, and I've learned how to force myself to do normal things (shop, go to church, travel) while ignoring my feelings of fear.
Throughout all of this my wife has been an incredible support to me -- it took her about two weeks of last March to recognize the scam and I'm ashamed to say that I snapped at her more than once about "risky" behavior last spring. But she has remained patient, kind, *and* firm with me all along. Maybe you can help your wife in a similar way. Anxiety is a cruel beast -- the more one gives in to it, the worse it gets. But simply recognizing it for what it is and being able to talk about it openly goes a long way toward defanging it.
My health and marriage fell apart a few years prior to Covid. I went through therapy and came to terms with my own anxieties then. I believe that is why I have been able to see through so much of the gaslighting and false narrative. I am forever grateful to therapists and support that got me through and helped me to start over. Little did I realize just how useful what I learned then would be in helping me to sort through these past two years.
That’s inspiring to hear. My marriage fell apart fairly early in the covid era after a two year period of extremely erratic and destructive behaviors on the part of my spouse, who I then realized had been pathologically lying to me for years, throwing away valuable belongings and untold thousands of dollars. Concerned for his well being, I tried to stick it out, find him support and treatment but in the end had to connect the dots going back 15 years and face the reality that this really was who he was all along - a sociopath who’s been poisoning my life for all this time. It has been an illuminating backdrop to the gaslighting we are witnessing now. I know that I resisted seeing what was right in front of me for SO LONG, long past the time that it should have been obvious but the rationalizations and denial continued until finally the scales fell from my eyes. Those of us who’ve been through this before can’t unsee this, but it truly is horrible. I’ve been on my own for a bit over a year and am an unvaxxed pariah in the physical and social environment I live in. Praying to find a community again. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
That is painful. Many marriages and families have been tested by this abnormal period. I pray that you find peace in the near and longer term.
Thank you, it’s true that so many have been seriously challenged. Given all this, do I feel lucky every day to be breathing truth.
Thanks - and yes she suffers from severe anxiety that has been exacerbated by the hysteria. Sadly she has no interest in seeking help at this point - though myself and family members have certainly tried. At this point she’s generally paralyzed by her fear. She’s a follower so my guess is only when others wake up will she.
Hard. I feel bad for you.
The Democrats didn't care about these vulnerable people.
If you do convince her to seek help, be sure to question the therapist/psychologist etc as to their beliefs. I had a therapist for another issue I was dealing with in my new widowhood. However, when covid came along she was mostly unable to discuss the issues. Anytime I mentioned for example Ivermectin, she replied she was concerned for me that I would take “horse dewormer”. I didnt want to be vaxed and she was concerned for me and had no ability to respect my thought on the matter. I tried to speak to her about how I was feeling scapegoated as a non-vaxed person and falsely blamed for others illness. It went onto many other related issues. She was/is not conservative and seemingly buys into what CNN says even though her fiancee is a neurologist. So just wanted to say it could be tricky finding someone who understands and can see it both ways.
The Vietnam Era shaped my childhood as well. These past 18 months have far surpassed the trauma that was inflicted by the events back then. I will be joining you in finding lots of new friends, as I have learned that most of my old ones are not interested in reason. I'm happy I found your writing here on Substack. It's like an oasis of sanity in a desert of lunacy.
Thanks, Bonnie. That's why I'm writing. To enable people to know they're not alone amidst this groupthink insanity. If you're in NJ, I'm up for meeting.
I’m in NYC and hoping to make some new friends. Aside from my cousin in the marines who is resisting, I am the only unvaxxed adult I know. Thank ypu for writing on this painful subject so many of us are facing.
My wife and I are unvaxxed. I may soon lose my job over it.
If you want to come to New Brunswick, NJ, we would welcome you.
I may take you up on it ! I’m so sorry you are navigating this deep injustice.
I wouldn't suggest welcoming you it if I didn't mean it. How do we communicate without making our contact info public?
Will delete this post when I receive an email
Sure would love that. Unfortunately, I'm in California. If I'm ever headed to New Jersey, I'll be sure to keep your offer in mind. :-)
Crazy people on both coasts. then.
I met someone who traveled through the Midwest and said the people he met there were sane about this.
Midwesterners do often seem more reasonable. At least many years ago that was true.
My commiserations, Mark. We are stumbling around in a surreal hell-scape. I was recently struck by the insanity when we met up with friends after the long lockdowns. They have been reduced to fearful, tut-tutting admonishers. Labelling all anti-vaxxers as "Trumpists" (we're on an entirely different continent, ffs-excuse-the-french). Brandishing their double-vaccinated status with shrill, glassy-eyed triumph. Talking about acquiring a booster as soon as possible and weighing up whether to mix-n-match for "better protection". Like they are considering something innocuous like a new lipstick colour or hairstyle. At the time I hadn't got the vax and just looked on, mute, aghast. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or both. I subsequently relinquished to the pressure under extreme distress (threatened job-loss, education subsidy, family pressure). It was not worth it. I am bereft. Stripped of all my agency and how I choose to navigate through this life in the vessel that I was born with. The leaks and stresses in this old boat were all my own. Of my own making. I knew how to steer it. No longer. I now have something lurking in the depths that may or may not rot the wood sooner than it should. I will never know. But all I can do is try to wrest back the helm and keep a firm eye out for any more unwelcome invaders and fend them off, as best I can. And yes, I may also be looking for a new tribe. I belong to the ignominious club of vaxxed-under-duress. I belong to neither the vaxxed nor unvaxxed, but if pushed, I'll be choosing your side any day.
Actually I believe your words, and your story, to be exceedingly important - I believe there are many who feel as you do and there aren’t many voices out their that speak out on their behalf. It isn’t just the vaxxed and unvaxxed, it’s also the vaxxed who wish they weren’t. Please don’t despair; you are not alone!!! We need you.
That's why I wrote this.
https://markoshinskie8de.substack.com/p/losing-friends-and-alienating-family
Thank you so much, Jhigh68. I am firmly on the side of those who will not be mandated.
Know you are not alone. Forcing people to do something that they have reasonable doubts over, and for which their is insufficient evidence to support its implementation, is morally reprehensible in the extreme. It is also undoubtably tyrannical. The only possible application for this purported vaccine now appears to be as a type of anticipatory therapeutic ("stops hospitalisation and death"). So fine. Let people opt for it if they are at risk or concerned. But there are plenty of other available and emerging treatment options which are on the table, thereby invalidating the vaxx as the only therapeutic option. It also invalidates the need for such draconian heavy-handedness. But reasoned argument is out the window now. At any rate, I really know how you are feeling and wish you strength.
*for which there...
Our son in law is a doc. They are considering giving our 6 yr old grandson the vac. “All of our pediatrician friends are going to vac their kids”. So far we are still able to be around/visit them without controversy, but we don’t dare discuss it. Years my heart out @ what may happen in my grandsons very healthy body. He actually had Covid, mild runny nose, very brief stint. Praying that they trust his antibodies &/or divine intervention to keep him un jabbed.
Apologies if this is double-posted: I keep getting told to login, and keep dutifully logging in only to be told I need to login again. Sigh.
Anyway, here goes in last try.
Last Thanksgiving my spouse’s relatives posted pics about how they’d placed a picnic table outside their dining room window for visiting relatives to celebrate Thanksgiving *with* them. ‘Cause CDC guidelines.
The very next week, the same CDC follower posted a pic of herself cheek-by-jowl in a crowded restaurant with her overfed besties.
Can’t make this stuff up.
Great read. I also enjoyed the story about Brian the picture hanger in your other article. I am fortunate my mom and sisters understand where I'm coming from and we can actually have reasonable conversations. One of my sisters only got the vaccine because of international travel that required it. She had already had COVID so the requirement did boggle her mind. As and engineer and a person old enough to have learned "real math" rather than "new math" the rapid deterioration of critical thought has been maddening, depressing, isolating and just downright crazy making. My husband and I can't even discuss it because he is a true believer and while highly intelligent he just doesn't want to hear it. As for friends, yes, I've lost several. Before the vaccine was even available I had lunch with some girlfriends. I live in TN so things weren't nearly as bad here, so, lunch was possible. During the conversation it went to COVID, of course, and I told them there was NO WAY I would get an mRNA vaccine. They definitely "side eyed" me and when I tried to explain why I could kinda see the light in their eyes go a little dimmer. I said I won't get it because it's not going to work because there's an animal reservoir for this virus, hence it's here to stay...not to mention it a massive clinical trial and I prefer to remain in the control group. After lunch I got a call from a mutual friend, a man, that had been instructed to call me and do some mansplaining about the virus and vaccines. I dutifully listened, said goodby and we haven't spoken since. That was more than a year ago. Glad I found this substack because sometimes feeling like the loan ranger gets really exhausting. Thanks!
I too came here from Alex Berenson’s comments. I share all of your same views and experiences- I relate to everything you said. I have lost multiple best friends during 2020. I met these particular women in a support group after the loss of my child 6 years ago. We became fast friends and talked every day and night, almost. Grief changes your address book and some people fell away from me, and from them, but we all found each other and were so tight knit. Nothing could break that sort of tragic bond, right? Wrong. Enter 2020 - my views and my interpretations of all this are mostly Alex Berenson’s. In the beginning, I share some of this on social media, and then I’m basically cancelled. We haven’t spoken since. I don’t hate them. But I think they hate me. I feel sad. I would have fallen away from them bc we’d have all gravitated towards others during this polarizing time, but it didn’t have to be like this. I do feel very thankful though that through the loss of them I’ve been led to some wonderful, more reasonable people. But I’ll always grieve the loss of these friendships. -Marie
Marie, that's a painful message. But I knew that other people were sharing my experiences of the past 18 months and wanted them to know they weren't alone.
It's hard to be surrounded by irrationally fearful people. Your statement that they hate you but you don't hate them back shows that you have a forgiving spirit.
If you're ever in NJ and want to meet, I'm down for that.
Enjoy your new friends. I am. Several of them speak only Spanish.
Thank you! I’d love to connect someday! The Team Reality people are the best.
Reading this is so ironic. My family had Memorial Day and July 4th parties for vaxxed only. I’ve been so upset and felt so rejected, but recently decided to focus on the people who love me regardless of my vaccine status. I always valued family above friends, but our friends and our Church are becoming family.
"Vaxxed only" family gatherings? That's really sad. The propagandists won.
It's good you're making new friends. There are plenty of sane people left, though seemingly under 50%
It’s unbelievable what people are doing to one another. We live in an upside down world. I am glad you are finding new friends and “family.” We moved from Portland, OR to East TN and are doing the same.
Wonderful article, well written. My wife and I have had these some observations. Thank you.
70 years old, no medicines, no supplements, still hiking the mountains. Can't talk with my son and family about pros/cons of the covid vax, the growing body of studies that show that the cons far outweigh the pros - especially for them. They have made up their mind that the vax is safe and don't want to hear of new findings / evidence, because "I am always saying the same". Was flabbergasted. How can new data / evidence be "the same"? Now we are talking as if this whole mess/crazyness incl. the stigmatization and exclusion of the unvaccinated from social life, their loss of jobs and freedom to travel does not exist and everything is sunny and fine. Feels so disconnected and shallow. Do they want to be shallow in order to feel fine? Is the price of feeling fine to actively overlook all the misery and injustice this policy of lockdown and vaccine mandates is creating? Might mention that my field of work was statistic / methodology of science so I think that I am quite able to jugde the merits and faults of the trials conducted.
A friend also cant see what is occurring. I do think at least in part its bc he did get vaxed in order to continue as a practicing dentist, but thinks I am anti-vax when I talk about any of the deaths and injuries from the vaccines that are happening. He thinks I am “pre-occupied” where I feel HOW COULD I NOT BE WHEN THE WORLD HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN and A GENOCIDE IS BEING PERPETRATED! People seem to forget in the beginning we were told 99.7% would get and clear the virus. The media convinced everyone it was much more deadly and dangerous than it ever was for most ppl. 24-7 propaganda put ppl in a fear mode. Even with companies firing employees who refuse the vax, ppl STILL SOMEHOW cant make the connection that this is about SOMETHING other than OUR HEALTH? Its mind-boggling. I am reduced to having very few ppl in my life I can discuss this with. Its a lonely frustrating journey.
Sharon,
You're far from alone. I, and millions of others, see the scam as you do. But the media and government have millions more conned. I wrote this b/c I know that others are dealing with the same problem.
Hang in and do something you like each day.
Mark
Another friend even though he is ready to go to civil war over the Pres election and mandates, says he isn't anti-vax which blows my mind he doesn’t make the connection they are related issues. I figure it might be bc he got the vaccine and now the regret or thought that he might have sacrificed his health by doing so is just TOO MUCH to swallow.
I understand how you feel. Ironically both my adult daughters told me I am obsessed and way too preoccupied with covid research. Actually you are doing better than I am since no one in my extended family of 19 vaccinated people will engage in any discussions about covid.
It is, as you say, a lonely frustrating journey.
19 more people with closed, mistaken minds.
I read on Alex’s site a RN saying the halls in her hospital are full with beds & sick ppl in severe distress waiting for care (which wasn't true last year when media said it was) and going to get worse when the mandates come to fruition soon bc half the nurses are going to quit. They are already working a lot of OT and worn out and mandates will be the last straw.