I keep trying to understand why our country continues to remain so profoundly divided. We’ve shared a common life crisis - a global pandemic, which rather than unite us, has consistently divided us. I was living on the east coast, in Northern New Jersey, at the time of 9/11. Despite the devastation and destruction, New Yorkers and those in the Tri State area all rallied in ways never before seen in my lifetime. People helped each other. People supported their neighbors. Strangers reached out to strangers, offering assistance wherever they could. There was a strong sense of comradery that permeated all of our lives. It reminded me of what my parents used to tell me about their experience during WWII.
I believe part of the difference lies in the hands of the media, who chose collusion over facts. They controlled the public narrative, rather the public health agencies controlled the narrative which in turn has been controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. Had the MSM been willing to investigate all things Covid, there would have been a profound public outcry, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. You may have thought things got heated during the George Floyd protests. I believe the outrage over this heinous scandal would be a factor of 100 times more explosive. Think of all the unnecessary deaths this country has endured, when early treatment with safe, effective and evidence based FDA approved drugs, to have been used off-label, were available. It is common knowledge that 20% of all prescriptions written on any given day are for off-label use - of FDA approved drugs, but that was disallowed during a pandemic.
I’m reminded of the media in China or Russia. Perhaps a more appropriate term would be propaganda, as their citizens don’t have access to free speech. Their media is reflective of what their governments will allow to be discussed or shared. The horrifying reality is that this is what has been happening in this country. We no longer have free speech. If a well respected physician or scientist raises questions or reveals evidence that isn’t considered acceptable to the narrative, they are defined as misinformation spreaders. A physician in the U.S.A. in December of 2022, is no longer allowed to provide true informed consent to their patients. The doctor/patient relationship is no longer sanctioned by the AMA or our government. If a physician prints out a copy of a journal article and hands it their patient, and that peer reviewed journal article is not consistent with the approved narrative, that physician risks his medical license, if their patient or a colleague reports them. That sounds like Nazi Germany to me. Instead of it being Jews and homosexuals who were defined as evil, deceitful, dirty or dangerous, it is the unvaccinated who have been given that description. Even the President of the United States was told by his covid advisors that the reason our country was still suffering from this virus was because this was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”. We now know that that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Without a deep dive into the science, which had previously been the purview of investigative journalists, there was no opportunity for the general public to know that this was in fact disinformation. That led to more fear by the Democrats and more anger by the Republicans.
I had recently made a comment on Steve Kirsch’s substack about his post regarding Elton John. Steve was incensed that Elton John would take such a strong position of going off twitter since Elon took over. I made the point that I suspected Elton was unaware of the truth about vaccines and the “misinformation” that was coming from those outside of MSM and our public health agencies. I shared an unflattering story about myself, in the early days of Covid, right after Oregon instituted an outdoor mask mandate. I mentioned that I had initially accepted the public health mandates and actually bought into it hook, line and sinker. I believed that those who violated the mandates and were walking past me unmasked, were actually putting my life at risk. I was obviously driven by extreme fear from the successful fear porn that we all were exposed to. I explained that following a recent hike where I encountered an unmasked couple, I actually called the police to learn what my rights were, should I be confronted by an unmasked hiker in the future. I received numerous replies to my comment which were very thoughtful. Some called me “courageous” for sharing my folly with others and waking up to the truth soon thereafter. There were 2 people, however, who were furious. Their anger was so powerful that they didn’t even fully read my comment, believing instead that I called the police on the unmasked hikers.
Chelsea wrote - “I'll NEVER forget, or forgive gormless idiots like you yelling at people like me.....no compassion for those sheeple who helped row the boat of EVIL!! For taking 3 years to join simple dots up you deserve nothing!!”
Kim had this to say about it - “You tried to report them....I'm really glad you've come to your senses at this time....but I will never forgive people like you....I was walking in a park, with a friend only occasionally meeting someone on the trail (where we would step off the trail and let them pass) when we encountered a MAD woman, INSANE, start SCREAMING at us demanding we put on masks...we started to move off the trail to let her pass and she kept DEMANDING that we put on masks....so I stepped back on the trail and started to run towards her.....she almost had a heart attack, I even let out a little fake cough.....yeah, good times...NO, I'LL NEVER FORGIVE!”
I want to stress that the majority of comments to me were supportive and kind but the level of anger from these two women above is certainly concerning and reflective of far too many Republican attitudes and behaviors.
I believe this demonstrates the divide between the two parties. The Democrats bought into the profound fear for their lives. They accepted our gold standard public health agencies as being beyond reproach and bought into a psychological dynamic; If I catch Covid, I will likely die but thankfully the vaccines are “safe and effective” and if I follow the guidance of the agencies and wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart from strangers and get vaccinated, I will not die. Anyone who doesn’t conform is putting my life at risk unnecessarily. Yes, that has lead to anger, but underlying it, is that pervasive fear.
The Republicans had learned not to trust the Democrats and those supporting Trump typically believed that all Democrats were evil. The most outrageous beliefs were propagated through QAnon. According to Wikipedia:
The core QAnon conspiracy theory is that a cabal of Satanic,[2][3][4] cannibalistic sexual abusers of children operating a global child sex trafficking ring conspired against former U.S. President Donald Trump during his term in office.[8] The QAnon conspiracy theory has direct roots in Pizzagate, an internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier; it also incorporates elements of many other theories.[9] Some experts have described QAnon as a cult.
Given this pension for distrust and disrespect of the Democrats, when Biden won the election, it created an outstanding surge of judgement and anger, which we all witnessed. This was heightened when Trump kept repeating the story that the election was “stolen” from him. Despite the reality that Republican federal judges, appointed by Trump, threw out myriad efforts on behalf of the Trump Administration to prove the election was stolen. I believe over 60 cases, as well as a Supreme Court ruling with all of the Trump appointees, were all dismissed. Senior members of Trump’s administration, along with his appointed Attorney General, all stepped forward to confirm that the election had not been stolen but the “Stop The Steal” campaign continues in full force. We then had to listen to the Cyber Ninjas investigation which went on for months, only to conclude that no ballots were tampered with and, in fact, Biden got a few more votes than had been initially counted. Ultimately, it culminated in the attempted insurrection on January 6th. Those who participated in the assault on the Capital had a level of anger that wasn’t born that day, as it had deep roots. The unfortunate reality is that today, countless Republicans still believe that Biden is not the lawfully elected president of the U.S.
Just as we’re seeing in Democratic strongholds like New York City, and California, Democrats continue to trust the administration and the guidance from the CDC, the FDA and the NIH. Yes, they’ve quietly given up on the vaccines as an answer to Covid but they’re not prepared to look any further into the harm the EUA injections have caused, nor their lack of efficacy to prevent infection and transmission, which had never been scientifically determined, despite the reassurances of “safe and effective”. I must admit, it was a damn good tag line however.
We’re also seeing the rage, now expressed by the Republicans, who are happy to join the ranks of those who are shining a light on the fraud that has been pervasive regarding all things Covid. The above quotes speak for themselves. To my Republican readers, let’s not ignore the reality that it was Donald Trump’s administration who brought the vaccines to the public by accepting the conclusions of the captured public health agencies and his captured covid advisors.
My colleague, Diane Perlman, Ph.D. has written a recent substack about this very issue, which I’ve copied a section of below;
Strange Political Bedfellows -
Covid was deliberately, artificially and falsely politicized as a Republican/Democrat issue by design. Pitting us against each other creates a distraction from the true causes and hidden power players that allows the powers that be to exploit us. We expend physical and psychic energy and resources fighting the wrong enemy and preventing us from making vital alliances. See Let’s You and Him Fight: Can We Overcome a Manipulated Conflict?
"I knew I couldn’t kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But if I could get them to kill each other …". — Colonel Helmut Zemo, Captain America: Civil War
Sadly, there is no shortage of infighting in the health freedom movement that undermines, sabotages and sets back our ability to collaborate to overcome and transcend the actual forces of darkness.
Every Democrat, Green, Independent or Libertarian who questioned the official narrative and/or refused the injections was called some version of a selfish, dangerous, crazy, right wing, Republican, Trump supporter, seduced by propaganda. Many of us progressives found ourselves rejected, disrespected and demonized by lifelong friends, family and colleagues who used to love and even admire us. We all became simultaneously stupid overnight.
We found ourselves newly aligned with strange, formerly abhorred bedfellows who are allies on health freedom while adversaries on other issues. It can feel psychologically disruptive, in a good way, to disturb simplistic categories that have been so neat and easy. They didn’t require us to think deeply.
This is not exactly cognitive dissonance, an inner contradiction between one’s own behavior and beliefs, ideals, modes of thought. Maybe it’s social, political dissonance as we are challenged with holding strong positive and negative views of people.
It is more complicated since people’s beliefs may not reflect their true character at the core of their being, but are successfully manipulated by lies, fear and the most sophisticated $10 billion propaganda campaign designed by social scientists with another billion to unify all media messaging and censor alternative views.
Many of us progressives are astonished at the Democratic party’s abandonment of values and their new groupthink, mindless acceptance of convincing nonstop existential fear propaganda, vulnerability to manipulation and automatic refusal to question anything.”
So what’s our MSM media doing about all of this? They continue to strategically denounce any scientist, physician, researcher, immunologist, pathologist, cardiologist, OBGYN etc, who doesn’t comply with the doctrine of the captured public health agencies, essentially eliminating any chance to unite the two groups. They know that if we were able to unite, we would hold the power to change the system. By keeping us as enemies, they can continue to influence the general public while supporting the reign of power and maintaining the status quo held by the public health agencies. I know this sounds like a scary movie but it’s very real.
To step back and fully appreciate the price we have had to pay as a nation can only be likened to the scariest horror movie that you’ve even seen. It’s apocalyptic. Granted that is a bit hyperbolic as the true definition is “describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world”, but Covid has cost millions of lives…...unnecessarily. That’s the key issue here. Very early in the pandemic, we learned about early treatments which could have saved countless lives, so in that way, I feel justified in using the term apocalyptic. Perhaps cataclysmic is a more accurate description as its informal definition is “used to emphasize the extent of something bad or unwelcome”. But let’s not mince words. Horrific damage was done and continues to be done.
If the ultimate goal needs to be to unite us as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans or Independents, let me ask each and every one of you, what can you do to connect with a person from the opposing party? From what I’ve witnessed, the only way that families with differing viewpoints have survived over the last 3 years has been to completely avoid any discussions that are politically sensitive. Unfortunately, that won’t unite us. Republicans will have to move beyond their anger and frustration, finally realizing and accepting that to continue raging will not provide any solutions. Democrats will have to challenge the fear mongering and cognitive dissonance that they’ve been impacted by. That will require them to independently review the actual science. Read the Pfizer clinical trial data, which our FDA tried to block for 50 years before Pfizer came on board and requested it remain hidden for 75 years! You can’t make this stuff up! No, it won’t be an easy read. Alternatively, look for previously well respected experts, whose reputations may have been damaged since Covid, but if they had decades of being leaders in their respected field pre-Covid, I’d trust that. I would be happy to provide a few names of such people who had been lifelong Democrats and continue to support those inherent values of the party but whose only crime was questioning the Covid narrative.
Reading interesting and compelling substacks is an important first step. I know many of those who subscribe to my substack read multiple other authors as well. I applaud that. Let me be clear however. That’s not enough. Being informed is critical of course but if we’re going to unite as a country, each of us must take action. Consider what you’d be willing to do. I suspect all of those options will put you out of your comfort zone. Take a deep breath and pull up those big girl panties or big boy underpants and engage with someone. You can do whatever you put your mind to. We need each and every one of you in this fight. Some will do less than others. That’s fine. But please, do something. One day your children and grandchildren will ask you, what did you do during the Covid-19 pandemic? You’ll be able to proudly say that you were in the fight for truth.
Michelle - You have re-ignited my convictions to re-connect with some friends who I had given up on because they just weren't open to anything I was trying to tell them. I have one friend, in particular, that I will start with. He and his wife have both been vaxxed and boosted to the max. We have had numerous conversations over the past 2 years, and he has always stuck to the party line. I think I am going to approach him, once again, maybe more gently and by appealing to his professional scientific mind, and send him the link to the expert roundtable video that Senator Johnson put together. That, I believe presents the most comprehensive picture, presented in a very professional and scientific format by clearly knowledgeable experts. I am going to do my best to get back out there with the light of science and try and push back the darkness. Thank you for this spark!
Did you ever see the film “Social Dilemma” or “the great hack”? Both point to the dark digital matrix that has deeply embedded into all our lives. We are all like Neo from the Matrix series, trying to understand our own capture and the magnitude of the collective enslavement. While I think unplugging one other is not nothing, the vast majority are wired in so many different ways that 1984 seems quaint. Cambridge Analytica was but one node....I’ve always questioned everything, so I saw the wizard behind the curtain. The problem is that no one ever believes the wizard was there because he throws a false flag and flees before they catch on....