One mid-week, early September, 1986 morning, my backpack and I took a ferry from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia. Upon arrival, I met a Customs Agent. He asked where I was headed. I told him I didn’t know. I’ve often traveled with only a vague plan, which I adapt as I speak with people I meet along the way.
As an MD i can say that im filled will disgust for all the associates and colleagues that went along w this nonsense. I had an internist acquaintance who came to my office recently for a personal problem . He was wearing a mask. I said “you dont have to wear that”. He said “well ... so far ive been wearing this the whole time and ... no covid...”
And this is an internist...
the health commissioner of nj is a miserable human being.. a fake catholic.. dripping with cant .
The heads of the local hospitals are slavish pandering disgraces
Most of my colleagues were weak cowardly lemmings.
Did u see the tennis player dojokovic win the US open. The open was sponsored by Moderna. And Moderna sponsered a “shot of the day” which unjabbed Dojokovic won... ah the delicious irony
In my youth i went on a bunch of cycling camping trips with this group called American youth hostels. I went to the St lawrence river valley one summer and camped on a few of the “thousand islands” in the st lawrence river. We were attacked by swarms of ants and mosquitos. On one of these trips i was attacked by two farm dogs which i beat with my Zefal bicycle pump.
And I would really like to meet you. Maybe next Thursday at the Community garden?
Like you, I knew in March 2020 that the response was all wrong. I’ve read probably millions of words since then, on various Substacks, about the bone-headed perversity of the coronamaniacs. I’ve had very little success in persuading anyone over the last three and a half years of my point of view and have pretty much given up trying. Because of my life experience and education I did not have high hopes of my fellow humans, but the reality turned out to be even worse than my already low expectations. A few writers have been helpful to me in confirming that I am not completely alone, and you are definitely one of them. This piece is one of the best I have read. Apart from all the good sense, it’s a great rat story. Many thanks.
I would like to put my hand up and be considered among the sane - thank you. I read on Substack, in no particular order, el gato malo, Peter McCullough and John Leake, Unacceptable Jessica, Alex Berenson, Steve Kirsch, the Naked Emperor, William Makis, Pierre Kory, Robert Malone. Amongst many others. Don’t agree with everything I read and can’t understand the complex science of eg Jessica, but I am as a dog with a series of bones - it all gives me something to gnaw on. Going way back, my degree was in Russian, which meant I got to read a lot of Soviet literature and history, dystopian literature in general, and probably most formative of all, I got to spend several weeks travelling around the Soviet Union.
Later on, I had access to an academic library and read widely around a range of subject areas unrelated to what I was supposed to be there for. I encountered the work of John Ioannidis, and especially his landmark 2005 paper about medical research. So, in March 2020, I wondered what Ioannidis had to say about Covid and found his thoughts on the Diamond Princess, at which point I became pretty sure that my initial reaction was the right one.
But of all these influences, I think the time spent in the Sov U was probably what set me on my lifelong path of scepticism.
If you haven't added C&C... you're in for a treat! Coffee&Covid, Jeff Childers substack... He began writing at the beginning of covid and never stopped. Brilliant local attorney who fought and won against the mandates.
Catherine, thanks for sharing that interesting part of your life!
Your list reads like my own, tho I have some substack additions to suggest:
2nd Smartest Guy In The World - who actually haunts these pages!
Tessa Lena
Sasha Latypova
Justin Hart of Rational Ground
Jeff Childers - Coffee & Covid
For a deep dive into science, but understandable with some patience & help from the internet's great "Book of Knowledge" (Chesnut's also a colleague of McCullough's!):
Walter M Chesnut of WMC Research
For a deep dive into what I formerly would have thought were wild conspiracy theories:
I can second your comments. My travel experience included East Germany. I have always attributed that time period as having had a strong effect on my world view and inclination to question authoritative pronouncements.
Yes indeed, Betsy. I’m pleased to hear you developed a similar viewpoint. It doesn’t automatically follow, unfortunately. I was disappointed that people I knew from my university days who had also spent time in the Soviet Union, did not immediately see, as you and I did, the parallels between the Communist regimes and the ‘new normal’ that afflicted us in 2020. Some of the most committed Coronamaniacs I know are intelligent and well-educated people with similar experience to my own in the Soviet Union.
Simulation Commander is another good one. Eugyppius trouble me because he is so convinced of the goodness of nuclear power and doesn't brook much argument about it.
Something has shifted for me in the past week. Maybe it's the latest booster being pushed. Or it could be strength derived from fearless and relentless substack authors and commenters.
Well, I've had it. I've been wanting for a long time to figure out how to speak the truth to people I really care about and even others, but I've been holding back, keeping my powder dry. Not wanting to drive certain people away by telling them uncomfortable facts and opinions.
So last night I let loose and did not hold back, and they listened. So, I'm going to share here in case any of this inspires any of you.
FWIW, I did not tell them they were stupid, but I told them how disturbing and chilling it is that debate and simple raising of questions has been called "anti-science," while we all know, because we are old enough to remember, that the scientific method requires putting your theory out there and allowing other scientists to question and debate you, with the aim of getting to the truth. I brought up the example of how, as a child, it was a mystery how the dinosaurs had gone extinct. But then in 1980 this giant asteroid impact was discovered. And a new theory was born. This is science. Curiosity breeds discovery. But if you won't seek, you will never find.
I also pointed out how, all throughout history, many scientists have been maligned for their ideas which challenge the mainstream view, but which later turn out to have merit.
I mentioned how I was raised to be polite, and so it is uncomfortable for me to speak up in this way, but it is clearly now a matter of life and death, so I am moving out of the politeness zone because it is so clear to me that people are being given harmful advice, and I cannot remain silent. And that I understand there are a lot of strong opinions, but that no one should shy away from a debate and seeking true information by doing their own research (which could amount to as little as being willing to read some substack articles by dissenting experts or listening to these dissenting experts speak on some of the many videos available.
I talked about how troubling I find the obvious censorship of contrary ideas, the curated "news," and how that shuts down critical thinking in the viewer. And how I'd rather use my own brain to discern, rather than being spoon-fed. We are all smart individuals, and I'm not willing to outsource that to others. That's lazy and, as it turns out, dangerous.
There's too much at stake. I brought up how the shots rolled out without proper testing, how the contents do vary among vials and that should not be -- and that there is no quality control to speak of. This is disturbing, is it not? And how about the lethality of COVID itself... many people were frightened early on because of the words used, which caused a panic reaction. Most people thought, "OMG it's a 'novel' virus -- that means we have zero immunity to it and we are all at equal, great risk of dying!!!" and none of that was true. But the variants that appear to be around now are extremely mild. Are we trying to vaccinate against the common cold? That's even more ridiculous than taking a flu shot, because of the rapid mutations and ineffectiveness. Moreover, the excess mortality data is pretty damning, is it not? I would not take any more of these things, if I were you! Talk about a calculated risk - -that equation is very clear: there is the potential for great, cumulative harm, while the benefits, if any, are unknown. Even if there are benefits, these are fleeting, as the data clearly shows that most of the people catching COVID now are vaccinated.
And even though my own example does not prove anything alone, it is true that I have taken none of these shots, and I've had barely a sniffle these past four years, while every single vaccinated person I know has had several moderately bad bouts of a flu-like illness (whether they test positive or not). Immune systems are being damaged with each successive shot of this experimental fluid, of which we still do not know the contents because it's proprietary and furthermore, manufacturers protected from liability.
I wrapped it up by saying that it never was true that no treatments were available, and that new protocols for prevention and treatment are being developed throughout, but they never heard about them. I mentioned how the ventilators killed people, and was entirely the wrong approach. How people were told to stay home without any treatment and only go to the hospital once they were having trouble breathing (to keep from overloading the hospitals?!?) -- but by then it was too late. Early treatment is the way to go, and always has been, and there are preventive things they can take (and I listed a few). Then I mentioned how it was so awful and bizarre that a safe and effective medicine like ivermectin was mocked and maligned by people like Rachel Maddow, and even to this day, though the CDC has quietly added ivermectin to their website as an approved treatment for COVID, many people still are under the delusion that it's a "horse dewormer." This is evidence of how poor the "news" is as a source of truthful, life-saving information.
-------- THAT is what I said. I left out the parts about the shunning. That will come later. I did say that I remembered how hard they tried to persuade me to take these shots, early on, and I know it was because they really care about me and didn't want me to die. And that the division between people is the ugliest thing, and just because I have not spoken up much in the past year does not mean that I do not feel it. But this really is a life or death matter, and I'll be complicit if I remain silent.
My admiration for all of you who have consistently spoken up throughout; I took a break because I had no others like me in real life and I'm not an island. But I've had enough time in retreat, keeping my thoughts to myself, and it's time to put it all out there in front of people, regardless of the risk of driving them away. The enemy is not going to stop, and we should not, either.
You are right that it was overdue..... to be clear, I talked a lot about what I was seeing at the time, same as you (2020, 2021). At the end of 2021, the threat of vaccine passports rolled out here, and I testified against them (there were about 400 people who submitted testimony). I let everyone know at the time that ivermectin was safe and effective. The pushback was ugly and shocking. I went into retreat mode in early 2022 because I couldn't take the shunning anymore and I was concerned about workplace relationships. This has been a period over the past year where I stepped back from speaking up, because I had already said everything and no one had listened, they refused to do their own research, and it felt pointless. For the past few months, I've regained the mental and emotional strength to return to the battlefield, but was waiting for the opportunity and inspiration. It's here now. This time, I will not back down. They've already done everything to me that they can, and my resolve is battle-hardened.
I wouldn't know, and you are probably right. I've been historically more motivated to maintain connections and nurture relationships. Also, I am very certain that had I even ONE good friend who was like-minded to go through this with together (and had not gone through the bad experience of having the guy I was dating for two years decide that he didn't want to date an unvaccinated person because of pariah reasons as well as my wrongthink about the horsedewormer..... that was a blow! Though good riddance, in retrospect) -- so, since I was alone in real life, that depleted my strength. Interestingly, though the situation has not changed in terms of having unvaccinated, like-minded local friends or whatever (I'm still doing this solo in this highly vaccinated community), I have really toughened up. I feel like I lost everything and went through that shunning and survived, and there is residual anger and maybe that boosts testosterone, too.....?
Dani, as with others who've had to face this alone, my heart goes out to you, & my respect is off the charts! You've got more "testosterone" than many guys I know.
I have to disagree slightly with both of you on one small point - It is never too late to "get back on the bicycle", as long as you get back on before you're dead!
MO - your article is off the charts, spot on as usual, thank you. Your comment on testosterone had me 😂. Thru what you have written, you have gathered an amazing group of people who follow you, & write their opinions in your comments....what a gold mine this truly is.
As an aside, I grew up from 1962 on in NW WA State, & even lived for a year in Vancouver, BC in '67-'68, when 7-8 yrs old, & in Grade 2. The interjection is best described as "aay?" & not "eh?" IMNSHO! 😁
Luckily, I did have one good like minded friend. Unluckily, my partner of 24 years was like your partner of 2. And now I am truly on my own. I guess we have to lose all sometimes to get to a better, clearer place even if we can't see it just yet.
Battle-hardened indeed. Or like John Denver once sang, some days are diamonds, some days are stone.
Not a lot of diamonds right now, though. But these awesome substackers, like Mark, are so helpful. I'll have to check out your substack.
Excellent point, and one important to remember. But it also makes a female who's "man enough" especially admirable. Which is a quality I saw in my wife 43 years ago, and has never waned. Not letting someone like that get away wasn't a tough call either.
I was raised around boys -- three brothers and our favorite family of cousins -- five boys. Five more boys across the street, plus the boys who were friends with my brothers. I watched and listened. None of them pulled any punches with me. (No, they didn't actually punch me...) If I made a statement, I had to back it up. I had to defend myself just because boys...will be boys. Add to this my mother being the straightest shooter you'd ever want to meet, I couldn't help arcing toward the logical, the provable, the truthful. And let me tell, women in general do not appreciate those characteristics in another woman...In business where I began working with more and more women, I had to temper those inclinations. Come to think of it...I'm not sure men appreciate those characteristics in a woman either. Bruises their egos or something...
Luckily for us all, there are more people speaking out now. Ron DeSantis held a seminar yesterday on the new Spikeshot boosters, attended by people that actually know something. Here is a link, and Jeff Childers' Coffee and Covid discussion about it. This should help people get perspective that is current. Here is the link: https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1702001373704007996
And here is Childers' summary:
And there’s even more! Yesterday, Governor DeSantis of Florida — following The Science™ — held a roundtable of medical-scientific experts discussing the FDA’s rubber-stamp approval of the new Covid booster shot. The conference, hilariously titled “No Way FDA,” is a little on the long side (45 minutes), but the whole thing was terrific.
All the panel experts agreed that the FDA rushed booster approval through without having a scrap of evidence of safety or efficacy.
At 24:30 in the clip, standout Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya opined that the old FDA would never have approved the shots:
A small trial, with a biomarker? Where you’re recommending it at scale to the entire population? No. I mean, I think that it is an absolutely irresponsible move by the FDA to approve this product, and of the CDC to recommend that everyone take it.
The European agencies are doing something very, very different with this. They’re being much more careful given the paucity of data. Much more responsible.
We need more data… How is a doctor supposed to advise a patient…? There’s no answer they can give that’s backed by actual data.
The FDA in historical times would — no chance would they have approved this, Governor, no way.
And I don’t understand what’s going on at the FDA right now that they would, and the CDC would, recommend it at scale.
At 20:00, Traci Beth Hoeg, MD, PhD, told Governor DeSantis the pre-clinical data supplied by the manufacturers to the FDA showed an unacceptably-high level of serious adverse events:
[Serious adverse events occurred in the preclinical trials in] one out of 50, so it was two percent. So, no, that’s very concerning. It was a medically-attended adverse event. I’ve had a number of people look, as well as myself, and we cannot figure out what that adverse event was. It doesn’t appear that it was reported.
But obviously, if you need a medical professional to attend to that event, and the study authors deemed that it was related to the vaccine, they had other adverse events in the trial as well that they found were unrelated to the vaccine.
The fact they found this was actually related to the vaccine, that’s very concerning. When we look at the harms side of the ledger, we know there was this — it’s two percent out of this 50 people who got it — that’s a high rate of adverse events.
At 16:45, Patrick Whelan, MD, PhD, calculated the risk of a serious adverse event from the jabs was at least one in 800 people who took the shot:
We found that there were significant adverse events in about one in 800 people who were vaccinated, which is a pretty high level of serious adverse events. It would have been even higher if it weren’t for the fact that the Moderna placebo group had a very high adverse events rate.
The new boosters have not been tested for safety and effectiveness at all, and certainly not in children at this point.
I take care of many children who have a neurobehavioral condition called Panda’s syndrome, and I take care of a lot of teenagers who have long-covid kind of symptoms. There are real concerns about the role the coronavirus and the vaccines have played in triggering these under-studied disorders.
It seems to me that, in the best of all worlds, we would be demanding now that the vaccine makers release patient-level data to researchers in order to balance the real risks against the probable benefits in selected populations.
In England, Mexico, and countries across Europe, they’re only asking people over 65, and people who are immuno-deficient, to be vaccinated with the new boosters.
Dr. Whelan also noted that the federal government isn’t even really trying to figure out the risks of the shots:
There is no robust follow-up now with regards to the side-effects of the older vaccines. I would think we’d want to create a means by which the parents of every covid-vaccinated child would be called at a one-week, one-month, six-month interval to ask how they’re doing, rather than making people navigate the vicissitudes of the VAERS system.
I had a patient, a 7-year-old, who died in our hospital after he received a covid vaccine, and VAERS would not allow me to update my initial VAERS report to indicate the child had actually died subsequently.
Even with the VAERS database, we’re under-appreciating how grave the risks of the vaccine might be.
Following the discussion, Florida’s outstanding Harvard-trained Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state health department will soon issue guidance to Florida doctors that: (1) the shots are not recommended for anyone under 65 who is not in a high-risk group, and (2) doctors must discuss the absence of safety and efficacy data with all patients when discussing the boosters, as part of informed consent.
I checked Florida’s current covid dashboard, which reports that, in the most recent weekly update (August 25-31), only seven people got vaccinated in my county of Alachua. In Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade (pop. 3 million), only 188 people were vaccinated.
Now that’s progress! It’s a good thing the federal government just bought 20 million doses of the shots destined for the landfill.
Here’s my suggestion to Florida: two can play the scientific study game. Using some of its budget surplus, Florida’s Department of Health should fund a bunch of grants for studies of shot harms, including followup surveys of parents whose children got the jabs. How about that idea?
There is no benefit that has been shown anywhere that ive looked for anyone taking these shots. El Gato and Berenson are both great at parsing the data and putting into layman terms for regular folk like myself. All I see is negative. Steve Kirsch also. The data doesnt lie. The shots killed old people. The vaccinated are the ones getting covid over and over. Now they come out with some new shot that has basically zero testing and reccomend it to everyone. Its evil, plain and simple. However, at this point the people still bought in have noone to blame but themselves for being this ignorant about it. The information is out there for anyone interested in finding it.
The main thing for me was that they sat there in stunned silence and listened. I heard no argument back.
And I just kept going -- I could tell they were listening, so the words kept pouring out of me. Towards the end, I emphasized a whole range of "common sense" preventive measures they could be doing right now to support their immune systems (vitamin D+K, zinc, quercetin, C, the nasal iodine rinses -- and additionally: healthy diet, exercise, sunshine, peaceful frame of mind....) and how important early treatment is, and if they think that taking one of these shots is the only prevention they need, I have no sympathy. We all bear an individual responsibility to take care of ourselves and not outsource this to a one-size-fits-all "system."
They said they agreed with that.
But I don't know if they will get the new booster or not. At least, I've said my piece.
With the new Booster rollout from our mindless CDC, it's obvious to me that this is basically about money and power. Pfizer is a huge political pac donor mostly to dems. The dems who hire the "scientists" at said agency who cannot be questioned. They in turn buy millions of doses and the cash is laundered back in political contributions. And round and round we go in our late stage republic.
I'm going to agree with you, but I'm going to reverse what you said and make the motivation primarily "power" -- and money is merely the tool used by people (Dr. Evil types) to control others, either as a carrot or as a stick.
Great story! And it makes an important point. I'm no doctor but I've noticed the same attitudes amongst my family and friends who participated in the scam: multiple injections, masks, hiding in their homes and away from people, and all the other strange virtue signaling tasks they did, and insisting others do, as well. That was hysteria: now, it's more like ontological shock. They just cannot get their heads around the fact that millions of people have been sickened and died from injections, hundreds of millions more have been severely damaged financially and professionally, and billions more impoverished, so that a small group of individuals can become richer and even more powerful than they were before March 2020. This evil is more than they can take intellectually, so many just pretend it will all go away and they don't have to think about it. But you're correct when you write the rest of us who were skeptical, or have since taken the red pill, have to keep speaking the truth and sharing the facts. Many will never listen and go to their graves insisting their virtuousness in following the authorities' chastisements and protocols. But many will realize you and the rest of us saw this for what it was: a gigantic financial scam, with totalitarian underpinnings, to achieve a culling of populations and to "save the planet" from rapacious humans.
I’m with you on this. I always tell people , don’t wear a mask they don’t work, you are much more likely to die from the shot than from the disease, and if you are scared of life maybe you should move to Canada, I hear they have a great program that can help you.
Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023Liked by Mark Oshinskie
My own West Coast Trail experiences go back to 1974, just after I'd graduated college. I took a way too heavy backpack up and down those ladders and log bridges and beach and have the fondest memories of the solitude and beauty. I have no recollection of any dealings with either rats or mice, but I was quite impressed with the size of the slugs I encountered in the rain forrest.
Sadly most of my friends and family who bought the covid nonsense don't seem to be struggling with the levels of cognitive dissonance that should be rather overwhelming if they were paying any attention at all to how they have been lied to. It wasn't like I had retained much faith in the integrity of ANY American or Western institutions before the covid idiocy, but I can say that the endless lies and criminality of that operation has destroyed any vestige of trust. I am still stunned by having to come to terms with the fact that such a large segment of the population - when told to "jump" by the morally and ethically bankrupt "experts" and MSM - had only one question - "how high?!"
Cool that you've been there, Gary. That was an outstanding place. I heard that now you have to lottery in and it costs a chunk of money. I paid no one but the skiff guy. (The salmon sellers had none left). The ferry ride back from Nanaimo was stunning. I hadn't known that Canada had fjords.
Your second paragraph is so on target. Thanks for writing it.
Like rats, these reality-deniers (...I like that, sorta counter-punchy), will eat your eyelids and other soft parts if you lie still for too long (true forensic pathology fact...along with terrier dog breeds like Jack Russels). Screw them I say. Find the biggest object you can to metaphorically bludgeon them before they devour you.
The goal is not to be continually nicey-nice so the woke people will not feel uncomfortable, but to be useful.
You best do that by creating cognitive dissonance which makes them uncomfortable because truth trying to fit in the same psychological space as an unexamined assumption will cause anxiety.
Furthermore, it's feel-good payback because they previously made us uncomfortable. We can self-righteously tell ourselves that they deserve it.
You stated toward the end what I was about to mention: “The Covid-panicked whom I know have often expressed strong, albeit misinformed, opinions about a wide array of other topics. This is the lawn sign crew.” The truth of this observation is often compounded by an intense religiosity and desperation born of amygdala-driven fear. They seek the food of “safety” at any cost, like the unrelenting rats who were about to eat through your tent. Let me warn you about them, they’re big and they travel in groups...
These two things happened in the last couple of days with long-time "friends" of mine- both female and in their 70s. (1.) Proudly posting a photo of herself and her husband sitting on their front porch after "having covid"- they finally got dressed and went outside. She is one of those that proudly posted masked photos of herself getting vaccinated. (2.) Had lunch with another friend yesterday lamenting how "all her friends are dying" (most came up with heart conditions) so she doesn't have anyone to travel with anymore. She then tells me she is getting yet another shot on Saturday. She's probably had four at this point already. These are college educated people who held careers in nutrition and education. Furthermore they were "rebels" in the 70s and fought for causes and went against their parent's wishes to further declare their independence from "control" and "the system". Should I feel guilty at this point of NOT saying something to them as I would hate to see them develop serious health problems in the near future- but I believe their brains have already been affected...it's amazing to witness and horribly sad/scary at the same time. Train wreck in the making. Thank you always for your wise posts and letting us know we aren't alone!
I don't think many 60s and 70s "rebels" were true rebels at all. They went along with what was popular in their peer group, which happened to be anti-government. It was actually the easiest path for them at the time. They were always followers, never independent thinkers.
I actually went to the same institution they did....and we are in our 70s...how do people get to be like this growing up in the same era and raised in the same town/schools??? Mind boggling!
Yes, you say something ! But they are friends are important to you, so ask questions of them and make them think. You don’t have to go all nuclear if it’s not warranted.
"I’ve made plenty of mistakes. But when I err, I admit it and take responsibility." I try to do that myself. Sadly, far too many can't or won't More people need to worry less about "losing face" and be concerned about learning from their mistakes, so they won't be repeated. What's the saying, "Those who fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it"?
People saying things like this: “We couldn’t have known that this virus didn’t threaten any approximately healthy person.” Need to be reminded about a few things:
- "threaten" is too vague to justify the drastic action taken.
- If you take that statement honestly (but why should we?), neither did they know that it would cause enough injury/death to take the action that they took. They clearly assumed a preferred scenario.
- they should have known for sure before electing to take action on such destructive measures
- for any emergency action to be taken, the exit criteria must clearly be stated in a way that has an objective measure -- we never got that and still don't have it for their next round of tyranny
- individual rights must be upheld during emergencies, no matter how dire the case may be
There are just so many ways to prevent this kind of absolute criminal tyranny but it'll never happen as long as individuals cling to the excuses that allow the perpetrators to walk away without so much as an apology. These people were drastically and even homicidally wrong and they cannot be allowed to avoid facing the consequences of their actions.
Pretty good, considering the calamities, both fallen and impending, that threaten all of us.
I loved this one because of the PNW camping story, being a backpack enthusiast myself. I love the way you connected the two stories, ignoring advice and covid.
Once again. as expected, Mark hits the right touchstones. Barney's real life avatar's social media was quite counter narrative all along. Even during the late spring early to mid summer window when the MD spouse of a good friend persuaded me, temporarily, that Covid was "real" and uniquely dangerous. Against Betty's wishes and advice and perhaps somewhat to the detriment on the business. I have resolved from fairly early to convince normies of the fallacies in all forms or misguided official countermeasures. With very little success, along with some notable admissions of agreement or admiration from select collègues or associates. Some who even commended the ill-advised open proclamations. I've attempted over and over to come up with the perfect elevator pitch on various topics such as the mask evidence or lack of of real vaccine trials and completely non-existent heretofore required pharmacovigilance, ignored for expediency. The truth is they tried to make us feel stupid. Unconsciously, my delivery tends to do the same to them. Dropping my elevator pitch to the bottom of the shaft.
Nonetheless, I remain resolved to try as often as possible to enlighten those who dont admit to seeing the truth yet. We have to. We have to prevent those we love who don't know to stop accepting the safe and effective lie. We have to resist mask mandates which will lead to new attempts to forcibly inject us.
The most common refrain is "What about all the people that died, especially the children." This was so well pre-bunked by the Mainstream Miscreants, few normies are open to objectively consider the real data that shows there was no real pandemic.
As an MD i can say that im filled will disgust for all the associates and colleagues that went along w this nonsense. I had an internist acquaintance who came to my office recently for a personal problem . He was wearing a mask. I said “you dont have to wear that”. He said “well ... so far ive been wearing this the whole time and ... no covid...”
And this is an internist...
the health commissioner of nj is a miserable human being.. a fake catholic.. dripping with cant .
The heads of the local hospitals are slavish pandering disgraces
Most of my colleagues were weak cowardly lemmings.
Did u see the tennis player dojokovic win the US open. The open was sponsored by Moderna. And Moderna sponsered a “shot of the day” which unjabbed Dojokovic won... ah the delicious irony
Y'know who else didn't ever get CV? My unmasked, unvaxxed wife and I. And millions of others like us.
Health care administrators have no insight whatsoever. Bunch of money-hungry bureaucratic robots.
If you have time to hang out, I'm in New Brunswick.
In my youth i went on a bunch of cycling camping trips with this group called American youth hostels. I went to the St lawrence river valley one summer and camped on a few of the “thousand islands” in the st lawrence river. We were attacked by swarms of ants and mosquitos. On one of these trips i was attacked by two farm dogs which i beat with my Zefal bicycle pump.
And I would really like to meet you. Maybe next Thursday at the Community garden?
Please email me at forecheck32 at gmail.
You will enjoy every minute of your meeting. And however good you are, Mark is a better gardener then you...lol.
At least your health bureaucrats have at least one redeeming quality- they are motivated by money.
In Canada our properly socialised bimbocrats don't have access to great financial rewards so feast on power and control.
Apparently we have 14 times more "health managers" per capita than Germany, we may even be ahead of you.
You should have replied with: “well ... so far I've been carrying a rabbit's foot the whole time and ... no covid...”
I have used that one a few times.
Exactly.
that man will forever be my hero. just ordered a Tshirt saying Novax Djokovic. Its on Ebay
Just ordered mine! Thx for the idea!👍🏼
Like you, I knew in March 2020 that the response was all wrong. I’ve read probably millions of words since then, on various Substacks, about the bone-headed perversity of the coronamaniacs. I’ve had very little success in persuading anyone over the last three and a half years of my point of view and have pretty much given up trying. Because of my life experience and education I did not have high hopes of my fellow humans, but the reality turned out to be even worse than my already low expectations. A few writers have been helpful to me in confirming that I am not completely alone, and you are definitely one of them. This piece is one of the best I have read. Apart from all the good sense, it’s a great rat story. Many thanks.
Thanks, Catherine. I write to accompany the sane.
Who else are your reading?
What are the main arguments you've heard from the maniacs?
I would like to put my hand up and be considered among the sane - thank you. I read on Substack, in no particular order, el gato malo, Peter McCullough and John Leake, Unacceptable Jessica, Alex Berenson, Steve Kirsch, the Naked Emperor, William Makis, Pierre Kory, Robert Malone. Amongst many others. Don’t agree with everything I read and can’t understand the complex science of eg Jessica, but I am as a dog with a series of bones - it all gives me something to gnaw on. Going way back, my degree was in Russian, which meant I got to read a lot of Soviet literature and history, dystopian literature in general, and probably most formative of all, I got to spend several weeks travelling around the Soviet Union.
Later on, I had access to an academic library and read widely around a range of subject areas unrelated to what I was supposed to be there for. I encountered the work of John Ioannidis, and especially his landmark 2005 paper about medical research. So, in March 2020, I wondered what Ioannidis had to say about Covid and found his thoughts on the Diamond Princess, at which point I became pretty sure that my initial reaction was the right one.
But of all these influences, I think the time spent in the Sov U was probably what set me on my lifelong path of scepticism.
Catherine, if you haven't already, I would suggest you add Eugyppius to that list of Substack authors.
Yes, dear me, how could I overlook Eugyppius in my list! I have read him with great pleasure since early on.
Gato Malo is great.
Jeff Childers' Coffee and Covid is another of the top sites out there. Not as good a writer as Mark, but blissfully snarky.
Thanks very much - that’s a new one for me. I’ve had a read and I’ve subscribed. I like a bit of sarcasm.
Margaret Anna Alice is another one to follow.
Yep, I follow her too.
jeff childers, mickey z, covidsteria, patrick, all lmemes. at least you get a laugh as well !
the expose. they just posted the concoction used for polio. https://expose-news.com/2023/09/14/heres-1950s-propaganda-about-salks-polio-vaccine/#respond
If you haven't added C&C... you're in for a treat! Coffee&Covid, Jeff Childers substack... He began writing at the beginning of covid and never stopped. Brilliant local attorney who fought and won against the mandates.
Catherine, thanks for sharing that interesting part of your life!
Your list reads like my own, tho I have some substack additions to suggest:
2nd Smartest Guy In The World - who actually haunts these pages!
Tessa Lena
Sasha Latypova
Justin Hart of Rational Ground
Jeff Childers - Coffee & Covid
For a deep dive into science, but understandable with some patience & help from the internet's great "Book of Knowledge" (Chesnut's also a colleague of McCullough's!):
Walter M Chesnut of WMC Research
For a deep dive into what I formerly would have thought were wild conspiracy theories:
Celia Farber from the Truth Barrier
Another excellent substacker on the subject is A Midwestern Doctor.
I can second your comments. My travel experience included East Germany. I have always attributed that time period as having had a strong effect on my world view and inclination to question authoritative pronouncements.
Yes indeed, Betsy. I’m pleased to hear you developed a similar viewpoint. It doesn’t automatically follow, unfortunately. I was disappointed that people I knew from my university days who had also spent time in the Soviet Union, did not immediately see, as you and I did, the parallels between the Communist regimes and the ‘new normal’ that afflicted us in 2020. Some of the most committed Coronamaniacs I know are intelligent and well-educated people with similar experience to my own in the Soviet Union.
Simulation Commander is another good one. Eugyppius trouble me because he is so convinced of the goodness of nuclear power and doesn't brook much argument about it.
el gato malo is my hero
guylaine Lanctot wrote a book 20 years ago, the medical mafia, which I am reading.
Something has shifted for me in the past week. Maybe it's the latest booster being pushed. Or it could be strength derived from fearless and relentless substack authors and commenters.
Well, I've had it. I've been wanting for a long time to figure out how to speak the truth to people I really care about and even others, but I've been holding back, keeping my powder dry. Not wanting to drive certain people away by telling them uncomfortable facts and opinions.
So last night I let loose and did not hold back, and they listened. So, I'm going to share here in case any of this inspires any of you.
FWIW, I did not tell them they were stupid, but I told them how disturbing and chilling it is that debate and simple raising of questions has been called "anti-science," while we all know, because we are old enough to remember, that the scientific method requires putting your theory out there and allowing other scientists to question and debate you, with the aim of getting to the truth. I brought up the example of how, as a child, it was a mystery how the dinosaurs had gone extinct. But then in 1980 this giant asteroid impact was discovered. And a new theory was born. This is science. Curiosity breeds discovery. But if you won't seek, you will never find.
I also pointed out how, all throughout history, many scientists have been maligned for their ideas which challenge the mainstream view, but which later turn out to have merit.
I mentioned how I was raised to be polite, and so it is uncomfortable for me to speak up in this way, but it is clearly now a matter of life and death, so I am moving out of the politeness zone because it is so clear to me that people are being given harmful advice, and I cannot remain silent. And that I understand there are a lot of strong opinions, but that no one should shy away from a debate and seeking true information by doing their own research (which could amount to as little as being willing to read some substack articles by dissenting experts or listening to these dissenting experts speak on some of the many videos available.
I talked about how troubling I find the obvious censorship of contrary ideas, the curated "news," and how that shuts down critical thinking in the viewer. And how I'd rather use my own brain to discern, rather than being spoon-fed. We are all smart individuals, and I'm not willing to outsource that to others. That's lazy and, as it turns out, dangerous.
There's too much at stake. I brought up how the shots rolled out without proper testing, how the contents do vary among vials and that should not be -- and that there is no quality control to speak of. This is disturbing, is it not? And how about the lethality of COVID itself... many people were frightened early on because of the words used, which caused a panic reaction. Most people thought, "OMG it's a 'novel' virus -- that means we have zero immunity to it and we are all at equal, great risk of dying!!!" and none of that was true. But the variants that appear to be around now are extremely mild. Are we trying to vaccinate against the common cold? That's even more ridiculous than taking a flu shot, because of the rapid mutations and ineffectiveness. Moreover, the excess mortality data is pretty damning, is it not? I would not take any more of these things, if I were you! Talk about a calculated risk - -that equation is very clear: there is the potential for great, cumulative harm, while the benefits, if any, are unknown. Even if there are benefits, these are fleeting, as the data clearly shows that most of the people catching COVID now are vaccinated.
And even though my own example does not prove anything alone, it is true that I have taken none of these shots, and I've had barely a sniffle these past four years, while every single vaccinated person I know has had several moderately bad bouts of a flu-like illness (whether they test positive or not). Immune systems are being damaged with each successive shot of this experimental fluid, of which we still do not know the contents because it's proprietary and furthermore, manufacturers protected from liability.
I wrapped it up by saying that it never was true that no treatments were available, and that new protocols for prevention and treatment are being developed throughout, but they never heard about them. I mentioned how the ventilators killed people, and was entirely the wrong approach. How people were told to stay home without any treatment and only go to the hospital once they were having trouble breathing (to keep from overloading the hospitals?!?) -- but by then it was too late. Early treatment is the way to go, and always has been, and there are preventive things they can take (and I listed a few). Then I mentioned how it was so awful and bizarre that a safe and effective medicine like ivermectin was mocked and maligned by people like Rachel Maddow, and even to this day, though the CDC has quietly added ivermectin to their website as an approved treatment for COVID, many people still are under the delusion that it's a "horse dewormer." This is evidence of how poor the "news" is as a source of truthful, life-saving information.
-------- THAT is what I said. I left out the parts about the shunning. That will come later. I did say that I remembered how hard they tried to persuade me to take these shots, early on, and I know it was because they really care about me and didn't want me to die. And that the division between people is the ugliest thing, and just because I have not spoken up much in the past year does not mean that I do not feel it. But this really is a life or death matter, and I'll be complicit if I remain silent.
My admiration for all of you who have consistently spoken up throughout; I took a break because I had no others like me in real life and I'm not an island. But I've had enough time in retreat, keeping my thoughts to myself, and it's time to put it all out there in front of people, regardless of the risk of driving them away. The enemy is not going to stop, and we should not, either.
Time to go on the offensive.
It's kind of overdue to go on the offensive. But I applaud you for doing so, Dani.
You are right that it was overdue..... to be clear, I talked a lot about what I was seeing at the time, same as you (2020, 2021). At the end of 2021, the threat of vaccine passports rolled out here, and I testified against them (there were about 400 people who submitted testimony). I let everyone know at the time that ivermectin was safe and effective. The pushback was ugly and shocking. I went into retreat mode in early 2022 because I couldn't take the shunning anymore and I was concerned about workplace relationships. This has been a period over the past year where I stepped back from speaking up, because I had already said everything and no one had listened, they refused to do their own research, and it felt pointless. For the past few months, I've regained the mental and emotional strength to return to the battlefield, but was waiting for the opportunity and inspiration. It's here now. This time, I will not back down. They've already done everything to me that they can, and my resolve is battle-hardened.
It's easier being male. Testosterone facilitates confrontation.
I wouldn't know, and you are probably right. I've been historically more motivated to maintain connections and nurture relationships. Also, I am very certain that had I even ONE good friend who was like-minded to go through this with together (and had not gone through the bad experience of having the guy I was dating for two years decide that he didn't want to date an unvaccinated person because of pariah reasons as well as my wrongthink about the horsedewormer..... that was a blow! Though good riddance, in retrospect) -- so, since I was alone in real life, that depleted my strength. Interestingly, though the situation has not changed in terms of having unvaccinated, like-minded local friends or whatever (I'm still doing this solo in this highly vaccinated community), I have really toughened up. I feel like I lost everything and went through that shunning and survived, and there is residual anger and maybe that boosts testosterone, too.....?
I understand, Dani. People went crazy.
What if there was never any shot (We'd be better off). Would people still be hating the uninjected?
We should meet. You don't scare me.
Me neither. I'm lucky enough that I can tell you, when you get one like that you thank your lucky stars every single day.
Wow!
Dani, as with others who've had to face this alone, my heart goes out to you, & my respect is off the charts! You've got more "testosterone" than many guys I know.
I have to disagree slightly with both of you on one small point - It is never too late to "get back on the bicycle", as long as you get back on before you're dead!
MO - your article is off the charts, spot on as usual, thank you. Your comment on testosterone had me 😂. Thru what you have written, you have gathered an amazing group of people who follow you, & write their opinions in your comments....what a gold mine this truly is.
As an aside, I grew up from 1962 on in NW WA State, & even lived for a year in Vancouver, BC in '67-'68, when 7-8 yrs old, & in Grade 2. The interjection is best described as "aay?" & not "eh?" IMNSHO! 😁
Luckily, I did have one good like minded friend. Unluckily, my partner of 24 years was like your partner of 2. And now I am truly on my own. I guess we have to lose all sometimes to get to a better, clearer place even if we can't see it just yet.
Battle-hardened indeed. Or like John Denver once sang, some days are diamonds, some days are stone.
Not a lot of diamonds right now, though. But these awesome substackers, like Mark, are so helpful. I'll have to check out your substack.
24 years, that's rough, and overly common.
Hang tough.
Excellent point, and one important to remember. But it also makes a female who's "man enough" especially admirable. Which is a quality I saw in my wife 43 years ago, and has never waned. Not letting someone like that get away wasn't a tough call either.
I was raised around boys -- three brothers and our favorite family of cousins -- five boys. Five more boys across the street, plus the boys who were friends with my brothers. I watched and listened. None of them pulled any punches with me. (No, they didn't actually punch me...) If I made a statement, I had to back it up. I had to defend myself just because boys...will be boys. Add to this my mother being the straightest shooter you'd ever want to meet, I couldn't help arcing toward the logical, the provable, the truthful. And let me tell, women in general do not appreciate those characteristics in another woman...In business where I began working with more and more women, I had to temper those inclinations. Come to think of it...I'm not sure men appreciate those characteristics in a woman either. Bruises their egos or something...
Great synopsis!
I was raised to be polite as well, and still am...
But several years ago, I politely became "brutally honest".
Some appreciate it, others, not so much.
So, yeah, I figuratively got off the fence...
Luckily for us all, there are more people speaking out now. Ron DeSantis held a seminar yesterday on the new Spikeshot boosters, attended by people that actually know something. Here is a link, and Jeff Childers' Coffee and Covid discussion about it. This should help people get perspective that is current. Here is the link: https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1702001373704007996
And here is Childers' summary:
And there’s even more! Yesterday, Governor DeSantis of Florida — following The Science™ — held a roundtable of medical-scientific experts discussing the FDA’s rubber-stamp approval of the new Covid booster shot. The conference, hilariously titled “No Way FDA,” is a little on the long side (45 minutes), but the whole thing was terrific.
All the panel experts agreed that the FDA rushed booster approval through without having a scrap of evidence of safety or efficacy.
At 24:30 in the clip, standout Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya opined that the old FDA would never have approved the shots:
A small trial, with a biomarker? Where you’re recommending it at scale to the entire population? No. I mean, I think that it is an absolutely irresponsible move by the FDA to approve this product, and of the CDC to recommend that everyone take it.
The European agencies are doing something very, very different with this. They’re being much more careful given the paucity of data. Much more responsible.
We need more data… How is a doctor supposed to advise a patient…? There’s no answer they can give that’s backed by actual data.
The FDA in historical times would — no chance would they have approved this, Governor, no way.
And I don’t understand what’s going on at the FDA right now that they would, and the CDC would, recommend it at scale.
At 20:00, Traci Beth Hoeg, MD, PhD, told Governor DeSantis the pre-clinical data supplied by the manufacturers to the FDA showed an unacceptably-high level of serious adverse events:
[Serious adverse events occurred in the preclinical trials in] one out of 50, so it was two percent. So, no, that’s very concerning. It was a medically-attended adverse event. I’ve had a number of people look, as well as myself, and we cannot figure out what that adverse event was. It doesn’t appear that it was reported.
But obviously, if you need a medical professional to attend to that event, and the study authors deemed that it was related to the vaccine, they had other adverse events in the trial as well that they found were unrelated to the vaccine.
The fact they found this was actually related to the vaccine, that’s very concerning. When we look at the harms side of the ledger, we know there was this — it’s two percent out of this 50 people who got it — that’s a high rate of adverse events.
At 16:45, Patrick Whelan, MD, PhD, calculated the risk of a serious adverse event from the jabs was at least one in 800 people who took the shot:
We found that there were significant adverse events in about one in 800 people who were vaccinated, which is a pretty high level of serious adverse events. It would have been even higher if it weren’t for the fact that the Moderna placebo group had a very high adverse events rate.
The new boosters have not been tested for safety and effectiveness at all, and certainly not in children at this point.
I take care of many children who have a neurobehavioral condition called Panda’s syndrome, and I take care of a lot of teenagers who have long-covid kind of symptoms. There are real concerns about the role the coronavirus and the vaccines have played in triggering these under-studied disorders.
It seems to me that, in the best of all worlds, we would be demanding now that the vaccine makers release patient-level data to researchers in order to balance the real risks against the probable benefits in selected populations.
In England, Mexico, and countries across Europe, they’re only asking people over 65, and people who are immuno-deficient, to be vaccinated with the new boosters.
Dr. Whelan also noted that the federal government isn’t even really trying to figure out the risks of the shots:
There is no robust follow-up now with regards to the side-effects of the older vaccines. I would think we’d want to create a means by which the parents of every covid-vaccinated child would be called at a one-week, one-month, six-month interval to ask how they’re doing, rather than making people navigate the vicissitudes of the VAERS system.
I had a patient, a 7-year-old, who died in our hospital after he received a covid vaccine, and VAERS would not allow me to update my initial VAERS report to indicate the child had actually died subsequently.
Even with the VAERS database, we’re under-appreciating how grave the risks of the vaccine might be.
Following the discussion, Florida’s outstanding Harvard-trained Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state health department will soon issue guidance to Florida doctors that: (1) the shots are not recommended for anyone under 65 who is not in a high-risk group, and (2) doctors must discuss the absence of safety and efficacy data with all patients when discussing the boosters, as part of informed consent.
I checked Florida’s current covid dashboard, which reports that, in the most recent weekly update (August 25-31), only seven people got vaccinated in my county of Alachua. In Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade (pop. 3 million), only 188 people were vaccinated.
Now that’s progress! It’s a good thing the federal government just bought 20 million doses of the shots destined for the landfill.
Here’s my suggestion to Florida: two can play the scientific study game. Using some of its budget surplus, Florida’s Department of Health should fund a bunch of grants for studies of shot harms, including followup surveys of parents whose children got the jabs. How about that idea?
Here's another: how about NOBODY gets recommended these shots?
What is the rationale for leaving 65+ and "high risk group" individuals out of the "not recommended" group?
What is the benefit to older and high risk individuals to keep taking these poisons?
There is no benefit that has been shown anywhere that ive looked for anyone taking these shots. El Gato and Berenson are both great at parsing the data and putting into layman terms for regular folk like myself. All I see is negative. Steve Kirsch also. The data doesnt lie. The shots killed old people. The vaccinated are the ones getting covid over and over. Now they come out with some new shot that has basically zero testing and reccomend it to everyone. Its evil, plain and simple. However, at this point the people still bought in have noone to blame but themselves for being this ignorant about it. The information is out there for anyone interested in finding it.
That’s really impressive. What did they say in response?
The main thing for me was that they sat there in stunned silence and listened. I heard no argument back.
And I just kept going -- I could tell they were listening, so the words kept pouring out of me. Towards the end, I emphasized a whole range of "common sense" preventive measures they could be doing right now to support their immune systems (vitamin D+K, zinc, quercetin, C, the nasal iodine rinses -- and additionally: healthy diet, exercise, sunshine, peaceful frame of mind....) and how important early treatment is, and if they think that taking one of these shots is the only prevention they need, I have no sympathy. We all bear an individual responsibility to take care of ourselves and not outsource this to a one-size-fits-all "system."
They said they agreed with that.
But I don't know if they will get the new booster or not. At least, I've said my piece.
With the new Booster rollout from our mindless CDC, it's obvious to me that this is basically about money and power. Pfizer is a huge political pac donor mostly to dems. The dems who hire the "scientists" at said agency who cannot be questioned. They in turn buy millions of doses and the cash is laundered back in political contributions. And round and round we go in our late stage republic.
I'm going to agree with you, but I'm going to reverse what you said and make the motivation primarily "power" -- and money is merely the tool used by people (Dr. Evil types) to control others, either as a carrot or as a stick.
Great story! And it makes an important point. I'm no doctor but I've noticed the same attitudes amongst my family and friends who participated in the scam: multiple injections, masks, hiding in their homes and away from people, and all the other strange virtue signaling tasks they did, and insisting others do, as well. That was hysteria: now, it's more like ontological shock. They just cannot get their heads around the fact that millions of people have been sickened and died from injections, hundreds of millions more have been severely damaged financially and professionally, and billions more impoverished, so that a small group of individuals can become richer and even more powerful than they were before March 2020. This evil is more than they can take intellectually, so many just pretend it will all go away and they don't have to think about it. But you're correct when you write the rest of us who were skeptical, or have since taken the red pill, have to keep speaking the truth and sharing the facts. Many will never listen and go to their graves insisting their virtuousness in following the authorities' chastisements and protocols. But many will realize you and the rest of us saw this for what it was: a gigantic financial scam, with totalitarian underpinnings, to achieve a culling of populations and to "save the planet" from rapacious humans.
Danny Huckabee
100%, Danny.
I’m with you on this. I always tell people , don’t wear a mask they don’t work, you are much more likely to die from the shot than from the disease, and if you are scared of life maybe you should move to Canada, I hear they have a great program that can help you.
My own West Coast Trail experiences go back to 1974, just after I'd graduated college. I took a way too heavy backpack up and down those ladders and log bridges and beach and have the fondest memories of the solitude and beauty. I have no recollection of any dealings with either rats or mice, but I was quite impressed with the size of the slugs I encountered in the rain forrest.
Sadly most of my friends and family who bought the covid nonsense don't seem to be struggling with the levels of cognitive dissonance that should be rather overwhelming if they were paying any attention at all to how they have been lied to. It wasn't like I had retained much faith in the integrity of ANY American or Western institutions before the covid idiocy, but I can say that the endless lies and criminality of that operation has destroyed any vestige of trust. I am still stunned by having to come to terms with the fact that such a large segment of the population - when told to "jump" by the morally and ethically bankrupt "experts" and MSM - had only one question - "how high?!"
Cool that you've been there, Gary. That was an outstanding place. I heard that now you have to lottery in and it costs a chunk of money. I paid no one but the skiff guy. (The salmon sellers had none left). The ferry ride back from Nanaimo was stunning. I hadn't known that Canada had fjords.
Your second paragraph is so on target. Thanks for writing it.
Like rats, these reality-deniers (...I like that, sorta counter-punchy), will eat your eyelids and other soft parts if you lie still for too long (true forensic pathology fact...along with terrier dog breeds like Jack Russels). Screw them I say. Find the biggest object you can to metaphorically bludgeon them before they devour you.
The goal is not to be continually nicey-nice so the woke people will not feel uncomfortable, but to be useful.
You best do that by creating cognitive dissonance which makes them uncomfortable because truth trying to fit in the same psychological space as an unexamined assumption will cause anxiety.
Furthermore, it's feel-good payback because they previously made us uncomfortable. We can self-righteously tell ourselves that they deserve it.
You stated toward the end what I was about to mention: “The Covid-panicked whom I know have often expressed strong, albeit misinformed, opinions about a wide array of other topics. This is the lawn sign crew.” The truth of this observation is often compounded by an intense religiosity and desperation born of amygdala-driven fear. They seek the food of “safety” at any cost, like the unrelenting rats who were about to eat through your tent. Let me warn you about them, they’re big and they travel in groups...
These two things happened in the last couple of days with long-time "friends" of mine- both female and in their 70s. (1.) Proudly posting a photo of herself and her husband sitting on their front porch after "having covid"- they finally got dressed and went outside. She is one of those that proudly posted masked photos of herself getting vaccinated. (2.) Had lunch with another friend yesterday lamenting how "all her friends are dying" (most came up with heart conditions) so she doesn't have anyone to travel with anymore. She then tells me she is getting yet another shot on Saturday. She's probably had four at this point already. These are college educated people who held careers in nutrition and education. Furthermore they were "rebels" in the 70s and fought for causes and went against their parent's wishes to further declare their independence from "control" and "the system". Should I feel guilty at this point of NOT saying something to them as I would hate to see them develop serious health problems in the near future- but I believe their brains have already been affected...it's amazing to witness and horribly sad/scary at the same time. Train wreck in the making. Thank you always for your wise posts and letting us know we aren't alone!
So crazy how "anti-establishment liberals" have monolithically fallen for this oppressive Pharma-government Scam.
Sheep say "Baaaaa!"
And how the once anti-war types now support the Ukraine slaughter.
Yes, exactly. The former hippie rebels are now "Press your thumb on me a little harder, Daddy!" It's unbelievable.
THEY were supposedly the "activists" in High School/College....weird.
I don't think many 60s and 70s "rebels" were true rebels at all. They went along with what was popular in their peer group, which happened to be anti-government. It was actually the easiest path for them at the time. They were always followers, never independent thinkers.
College INDOCTRINATED
They were woke before woke was a thing. Same disastrous result.
I actually went to the same institution they did....and we are in our 70s...how do people get to be like this growing up in the same era and raised in the same town/schools??? Mind boggling!
Do you feed your brain a steady diet of CNN, WaPo, Obama-worship?
Are you on SSRIs?
Are you an iconoclast?
Trying to understand what makes people tick.
Are you secure or insecure?
Very secure in my skin- but my friends I am talking about don't really watch TV or are on social media for that matter. It's just bizarre to me.
It's cultish, they're in an echo chamber.
They're being fed propaganda from somewhere - email, church/pastor/rabbi, blog... because they're all synced to the same bs and repeat the same lies.
People we know and like(d).
Yes, you say something ! But they are friends are important to you, so ask questions of them and make them think. You don’t have to go all nuclear if it’s not warranted.
Wonderful story, and great segue into latter half of your post.
I too, called BS around March 2020.
And then there was EUA...
The term alone, should have opened some deniers eyes...
Thanks, Indrek.
And thanks for hanging with the long story. I cut it as much as possible.
Did your backpack survive the night-of-the-rats?!?
Never mind... You answered a few inches down from here!
"I’ve made plenty of mistakes. But when I err, I admit it and take responsibility." I try to do that myself. Sadly, far too many can't or won't More people need to worry less about "losing face" and be concerned about learning from their mistakes, so they won't be repeated. What's the saying, "Those who fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it"?
Thank you for eloquently expressing exactly how I feel.
I was just about to type the same words. And I'll add: Thank you, thank you so much, Mark.
PS The attack of the rats story was pretty wild.
Thanks, TB, for what you do.
I did not enjoy that experience.
People saying things like this: “We couldn’t have known that this virus didn’t threaten any approximately healthy person.” Need to be reminded about a few things:
- "threaten" is too vague to justify the drastic action taken.
- If you take that statement honestly (but why should we?), neither did they know that it would cause enough injury/death to take the action that they took. They clearly assumed a preferred scenario.
- they should have known for sure before electing to take action on such destructive measures
- for any emergency action to be taken, the exit criteria must clearly be stated in a way that has an objective measure -- we never got that and still don't have it for their next round of tyranny
- individual rights must be upheld during emergencies, no matter how dire the case may be
There are just so many ways to prevent this kind of absolute criminal tyranny but it'll never happen as long as individuals cling to the excuses that allow the perpetrators to walk away without so much as an apology. These people were drastically and even homicidally wrong and they cannot be allowed to avoid facing the consequences of their actions.
And how I feel, also.
How about the backpack, how did it make out.
It had two holes chewed into it. I wrote that in the draft. But I edited it out it b/c the post was too long.
Well, glad to hear it mostly escaped damage when the rats discovered it wasn't edible.
Just glad to know that at that time, don't know about now, they didn't't return for you.
I think this might be your best writing on our past few year debacle.
You wrote some really good, quotable phrases.
Thanks, AnnMarie.
There are others I like more but I think this one is worth reading, even though it's kinda long.
How are you doing in OR?
Pretty good, considering the calamities, both fallen and impending, that threaten all of us.
I loved this one because of the PNW camping story, being a backpack enthusiast myself. I love the way you connected the two stories, ignoring advice and covid.
Once again. as expected, Mark hits the right touchstones. Barney's real life avatar's social media was quite counter narrative all along. Even during the late spring early to mid summer window when the MD spouse of a good friend persuaded me, temporarily, that Covid was "real" and uniquely dangerous. Against Betty's wishes and advice and perhaps somewhat to the detriment on the business. I have resolved from fairly early to convince normies of the fallacies in all forms or misguided official countermeasures. With very little success, along with some notable admissions of agreement or admiration from select collègues or associates. Some who even commended the ill-advised open proclamations. I've attempted over and over to come up with the perfect elevator pitch on various topics such as the mask evidence or lack of of real vaccine trials and completely non-existent heretofore required pharmacovigilance, ignored for expediency. The truth is they tried to make us feel stupid. Unconsciously, my delivery tends to do the same to them. Dropping my elevator pitch to the bottom of the shaft.
Nonetheless, I remain resolved to try as often as possible to enlighten those who dont admit to seeing the truth yet. We have to. We have to prevent those we love who don't know to stop accepting the safe and effective lie. We have to resist mask mandates which will lead to new attempts to forcibly inject us.
I try to ask people to tell me what I'm wrong about. But I don't usually get that far. Almost no one has ever wanted to really discuss this.
"no one has ever wanted to really discuss this."
A common characteristic of the afflicted! Absolute refusal to engage in meaningful discussion. Or any discussion.
The most common refrain is "What about all the people that died, especially the children." This was so well pre-bunked by the Mainstream Miscreants, few normies are open to objectively consider the real data that shows there was no real pandemic.
https://twitter.com/0rf/status/1694370372005560377
Or see Denny Rancourt among others.