BTW, earnest Q: why would you believe the lies for a year?
And what did it take to change your mind?
If you scroll my archive, I wrote 3-4 essays about why I knew this was a scam or at best a mistake. One is about caribou. Another is about pelicans. A third is about pranks.
BTW, earnest Q: why would you believe the lies for a year?
And what did it take to change your mind?
If you scroll my archive, I wrote 3-4 essays about why I knew this was a scam or at best a mistake. One is about caribou. Another is about pelicans. A third is about pranks.
Nor was I paying attention to the news. The CV news has been obviously histrionic since Day 1. But I have a scientific and sociological framework that enabled me to see that this was being badly overblown for political and economic gain.
Plus, I looked at my own large social circle and and saw no one under 80 and healthy dying from this.
Hence, I concluded that this was a scam. I've always been an independent thinker who doesn't care if people like me or not. I don't---and didn't-- go along to get along.
I wrote op-eds calling out the scam in March, 2020 that no paper would publish.
I wrote the following essay in May, 2020. Medium later took my account down. I later tweaked it and put it on Substack. It explains why I knew when other people didn't know. I'm not boasting. It just angers me that so many people were so gullible. The ostensible reasons to lock down etc. simply didn't add up.
When Covid arrived, I was already at least 12 years into my intellectual тАЬre-setтАЭ so I knew immediately that everything the public was being told by authorities, experts and the media was almost certainly a lie.
I trace my full тАЬawakeningтАЭ to Ron PaulтАЩs last presidential bid. I already admired Paul for his small-government ideology and his willingness to stick to contrarian principles, but what really caused me to re-evaluate the world was his criticisms of AmericaтАЩs тАЬinterventionsтАЭ in Iraq and Afghanistan. At one point, I was gung ho that America had to fight these тАЬterroristsтАЭ over there, so we didnтАЩt have to fight them in our own country. I bought the narrative that we were тАЬspreading democracyтАЭ and these nations were a тАЬthreatтАЭ to American тАЬnational security.тАЭ
Thanks to Paul, and my willingness to reconsider previous views, I did an about-face and quickly came to believe that these nations posed zero threat to America and that it was really our own government that was working to take away my тАЬfreedoms.тАЭ
This intellectual journey eventually caused me to re-asses just about everything I had previously accepted as sacrosanct.
But I was already closer to this intellectual destination than most of my friends. For example, Washington Post and Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson had a tremendous influence on me when he wrote a book with the title, тАЬUntruth: How (Almost All) Conventional Wisdom is Wrong.тАЭ (Today, it amazes me that, once upon a time, a columnist for one of the most famous mainstream press journals wrote a book developing such a theme).
John Stossel also influenced me with his libertarian journalism and news specials, segments that always challenged тАЬconventional wisdom.тАЭ Stossel of course no longer works for a major TV news network.
By the time Covid arrived, IтАЩd already developed my own theory, тАЬThe Law of Opposite Effects.тАЭ This maxim tells me that whatever the Powers that Be tell us will happen when the State implements some policy, the opposite result will almost certainly happen.
So when I was told that Covid was a great threat to everyone, I knew it was no threat to most people. When I was told that тАЬvaccinesтАЭ would prevent infections, I knew they wouldnтАЩt and that the they would, in fact, be very dangerous.
People who think like me are probably 1 in 10,000. In many ways, such a contrarian world view makes oneтАЩs life more difficult as you end up disagreeing with just about everyone. You also become certain that some policy that is supposed to help people will actually harm many people. But you feel impotent in preventing this outcome because you know nothing is going to change and that your lonely voice will be dismissed.
As a journalist, I intuitively knew that members of the Fourth Estate should be skeptics, should try to find real truths and should not be afraid of exposing corrupt leaders or тАЬfaux narratives.тАЭ Alas, I wrote for small papers and rarely did real тАЬinvestigative journalism.тАЭ I wrote simple stories and human interest pieces. It was only a couple of years ago, when I lost my job as a managing editor, that I decided to become a тАЬfreelanceтАЭ journalist and write about the stories that most interested me. As it turned out, the purpose of most of these stories was to debunk or challenge dubious narratives.
Today, it burns me up that my journalism peers at the big corporate news organizations consider such topics to be taboo. ItтАЩs frustrating that my articles and commentaries are deemed un-publishable at sites I now believe exist to protect false and harmful narratives.
But I still think the 1 person in 10,000 who is willing to challenge dogma or conventional wisdom is far more important than the 9,999 who are practicing тАЬpack journalismтАЭ and have swallowed the GroupThink Kool-Aid.
I also think a few more people have now made a similar intellectual journey as myself. More people are now also questioning things they would never have questioned before. This evolution might not have won them any friends (it probably cost them a few), but these converts might also be influencing other people.
Anyway, I still think itтАЩs a good thing that at least a few people are willing to search for the truth and no longer believe everything they are told. When no contrarians are left to question dubious narratives the world will be a dystopian place.
thanks for the book rec and this great little memoir of your journey. they are all so individual. As an example, I was against the war on terror from the start. Looking back, dating an Iranian at the time probably had the most to do with it. And I maintain that position to this day. But that's not to say I didn't buy into some good media manipulation for a few years here and there, most notably the trump hate and mass shooting hype. So for me, the awakening feels more like a roller coaster with lots of ups and downs. Been taking the big, seemingly never-ending plunge for just over a year now, but even that was preceded by a few teasers. Keep up your one in 10,000 work! you and Mark are on a mission.
Concentrated attention is a great way to put it. That's when it got as personal as it gets. I hated the lockdowns and school closures and by fall 2020 I could finally see the NLP being used in our press conferences, but I did not want to see nefarious intent for as long as possible. I wanted it to be panic and dereliction of duty. Actually very similar to my thoughts on 9/11. I didn't credit the inside job theory in a real way until this year. But that didn't stop me from being against all of the obviously idiotic policies. It took me a long time to realize that compliance just made it all worse.
BTW, earnest Q: why would you believe the lies for a year?
And what did it take to change your mind?
If you scroll my archive, I wrote 3-4 essays about why I knew this was a scam or at best a mistake. One is about caribou. Another is about pelicans. A third is about pranks.
I wasn't paying as much attention to the news as you.
What changed my mind was when I was forced to consider getting the vaccine. That concentrated my attention.
Nor was I paying attention to the news. The CV news has been obviously histrionic since Day 1. But I have a scientific and sociological framework that enabled me to see that this was being badly overblown for political and economic gain.
Plus, I looked at my own large social circle and and saw no one under 80 and healthy dying from this.
Hence, I concluded that this was a scam. I've always been an independent thinker who doesn't care if people like me or not. I don't---and didn't-- go along to get along.
I wrote op-eds calling out the scam in March, 2020 that no paper would publish.
I wrote the following essay in May, 2020. Medium later took my account down. I later tweaked it and put it on Substack. It explains why I knew when other people didn't know. I'm not boasting. It just angers me that so many people were so gullible. The ostensible reasons to lock down etc. simply didn't add up.
https://markoshinskie8de.substack.com/p/caribou-and-the-coronavirus-why-the?s=w
When Covid arrived, I was already at least 12 years into my intellectual тАЬre-setтАЭ so I knew immediately that everything the public was being told by authorities, experts and the media was almost certainly a lie.
I trace my full тАЬawakeningтАЭ to Ron PaulтАЩs last presidential bid. I already admired Paul for his small-government ideology and his willingness to stick to contrarian principles, but what really caused me to re-evaluate the world was his criticisms of AmericaтАЩs тАЬinterventionsтАЭ in Iraq and Afghanistan. At one point, I was gung ho that America had to fight these тАЬterroristsтАЭ over there, so we didnтАЩt have to fight them in our own country. I bought the narrative that we were тАЬspreading democracyтАЭ and these nations were a тАЬthreatтАЭ to American тАЬnational security.тАЭ
Thanks to Paul, and my willingness to reconsider previous views, I did an about-face and quickly came to believe that these nations posed zero threat to America and that it was really our own government that was working to take away my тАЬfreedoms.тАЭ
This intellectual journey eventually caused me to re-asses just about everything I had previously accepted as sacrosanct.
But I was already closer to this intellectual destination than most of my friends. For example, Washington Post and Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson had a tremendous influence on me when he wrote a book with the title, тАЬUntruth: How (Almost All) Conventional Wisdom is Wrong.тАЭ (Today, it amazes me that, once upon a time, a columnist for one of the most famous mainstream press journals wrote a book developing such a theme).
John Stossel also influenced me with his libertarian journalism and news specials, segments that always challenged тАЬconventional wisdom.тАЭ Stossel of course no longer works for a major TV news network.
By the time Covid arrived, IтАЩd already developed my own theory, тАЬThe Law of Opposite Effects.тАЭ This maxim tells me that whatever the Powers that Be tell us will happen when the State implements some policy, the opposite result will almost certainly happen.
So when I was told that Covid was a great threat to everyone, I knew it was no threat to most people. When I was told that тАЬvaccinesтАЭ would prevent infections, I knew they wouldnтАЩt and that the they would, in fact, be very dangerous.
People who think like me are probably 1 in 10,000. In many ways, such a contrarian world view makes oneтАЩs life more difficult as you end up disagreeing with just about everyone. You also become certain that some policy that is supposed to help people will actually harm many people. But you feel impotent in preventing this outcome because you know nothing is going to change and that your lonely voice will be dismissed.
As a journalist, I intuitively knew that members of the Fourth Estate should be skeptics, should try to find real truths and should not be afraid of exposing corrupt leaders or тАЬfaux narratives.тАЭ Alas, I wrote for small papers and rarely did real тАЬinvestigative journalism.тАЭ I wrote simple stories and human interest pieces. It was only a couple of years ago, when I lost my job as a managing editor, that I decided to become a тАЬfreelanceтАЭ journalist and write about the stories that most interested me. As it turned out, the purpose of most of these stories was to debunk or challenge dubious narratives.
Today, it burns me up that my journalism peers at the big corporate news organizations consider such topics to be taboo. ItтАЩs frustrating that my articles and commentaries are deemed un-publishable at sites I now believe exist to protect false and harmful narratives.
But I still think the 1 person in 10,000 who is willing to challenge dogma or conventional wisdom is far more important than the 9,999 who are practicing тАЬpack journalismтАЭ and have swallowed the GroupThink Kool-Aid.
I also think a few more people have now made a similar intellectual journey as myself. More people are now also questioning things they would never have questioned before. This evolution might not have won them any friends (it probably cost them a few), but these converts might also be influencing other people.
Anyway, I still think itтАЩs a good thing that at least a few people are willing to search for the truth and no longer believe everything they are told. When no contrarians are left to question dubious narratives the world will be a dystopian place.
I like Samuelson.
thanks for the book rec and this great little memoir of your journey. they are all so individual. As an example, I was against the war on terror from the start. Looking back, dating an Iranian at the time probably had the most to do with it. And I maintain that position to this day. But that's not to say I didn't buy into some good media manipulation for a few years here and there, most notably the trump hate and mass shooting hype. So for me, the awakening feels more like a roller coaster with lots of ups and downs. Been taking the big, seemingly never-ending plunge for just over a year now, but even that was preceded by a few teasers. Keep up your one in 10,000 work! you and Mark are on a mission.
Concentrated attention is a great way to put it. That's when it got as personal as it gets. I hated the lockdowns and school closures and by fall 2020 I could finally see the NLP being used in our press conferences, but I did not want to see nefarious intent for as long as possible. I wanted it to be panic and dereliction of duty. Actually very similar to my thoughts on 9/11. I didn't credit the inside job theory in a real way until this year. But that didn't stop me from being against all of the obviously idiotic policies. It took me a long time to realize that compliance just made it all worse.
the caribou piece is my very favorite of yours.