I am so friggin tired of the bullshit. As my readers are aware, the last 3 years of Covid were painful for me. I live in Hood River, Oregon, which I’m told is the most democratic county in all of Oregon. Prior to the pandemic, that was fine with me. As a lifelong, liberal Democratic activist, you might say I was comfortable surrounded by like minded people. Enter Covid. Those 3 years were likely the loneliest years of my life. As an unvaccinated person, despite my medical exemption, my husband and I were persona non grata to our community and beyond. We weren’t invited to social events, weddings, you name it, indoors or out, we were excluded from everything.
Over the last few months, it feels like Covid is behind us (of course I’m not talking about the hideous adverse effects that have disabled countless people). Enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. I had learned early on, during Covid, not to share any truthful, scientific information with my friends and family but I hadn’t anticipated a problem sharing Kennedy’s announcement of his presidential run. The man has been a lifelong democrat. The man was a Kennedy. Boy, was I wrong. I actually got an email back from a friend who said “I would never support a candidate who was anti-climate.” To which I responded, yea, neither would I. What does that have to do with Kennedy? Apparently he had read an article in mainstream media (MSM) that called Kennedy anti-climate. My response was - wait a minute. Take a step back and forget about politics. Are you aware of Kennedy’s decades of activism for the environment? Are you aware that he litigated and won over 500 cases of corruption against major polluters and our federal government? Are you aware that the group he started - River Keepers - have turned the Hudson River into the healthiest waterway in the Northern hemisphere? Now I ask you, do you really believe that such a man could be anti-climate? I really thought I’d convinced him to listen to Kennedy’s speech but apparently I hadn’t. I have also found that any democratic person whom I’ve spoken to since, my friends and family, have all had only disparaging things to say about him. My endless response is, Please listen to him directly. Then make your decision about the man. This advice has fallen on deaf ears.
What I have come to understand is that this is exactly what happened during the Trump years with the Republican masses. I often asked myself, during that time, how his supporters could remain by his side. Didn’t they realize that he did this, or that? Why didn’t anything he did or say result in any kind of a shift in perception for them? The answer was FOX news. If the only news one listens to is Fox News, then of course they would remain loyal to Trump. When the Mueller Report came out, the Republican party hatched a plan. They decided they simply weren’t going to read it…and they didn’t. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Thanks to the Trusted News Initiative and the advertisers for MSM ( Big Pharma), and the influence of the White House and their successful, recently revealed attempts to ignore the First Amendment and pressure social media companies to comply with their narrative, the Democrats are only listening to their favored channels or newspapers. I used to be one of those people. I trusted everything that was printed in the New York Times. I got my nightly news from Rachel Maddow or CNN… until I woke up.
I believe the play book being used by our government and MSM is beyond anything we’ve been subjected to in this country before. I’m talking military intelligence level strategies. I’m reluctant to say that as it reeks of a conspiracy theory but the reality is, that’s what they've been doing. They know only too well that words and emotions are powerful, and they know exactly which words trigger the emotions they know will result in the kind of reaction they are looking for - antivaxer, anti-semitic, anti-climate. Once those labels stick to a person and are repeated verbatim and ad-infinitum, the public stops wanting to hear what he/she has to say. I try to wake them up a bit by asking, “how do you feel that you were lied to about the vaccines preventing transmission?” Some say, the public health agencies just didn’t know. That’s a very convenient excuse. They remind me how new this virus was and that it was virtually impossible to get everything right. I respond that any researcher would know that a non-sterilizing vaccine could not prevent transmission. Some actually say, “I don’t remember anyone saying they prevented transmission.” Pause while I pick myself up off the floor. Wait a minute my friend. That was one of the primary messaging tactics that the administration utilized. Their message was that it was our humanitarian obligation, our responsibility as good people to take the jab to protect, not only ourselves but everyone else such as our neighbors, co-workers, friends and especially grandma. I then sent them the actual video clip of President Biden and Rachel Maddow saying exactly that. Wait for this… that made no difference. One friend said she wouldn’t listen to Kennedy because she saw him photographed with his arm around Steve Bannon. I’m personally not a fan of Steve Bannon but I certainly wouldn’t refuse to listen to someone who had a photo taken with him with an arm around him… would you? Can I scream now?
I remember one interesting thing about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. By her own report, she was friends with Justice Anthony Scalia. She actually liked him. Despite the fact that many of their beliefs were at opposite ends of the spectrum, she liked the man. Despite the fact that he didn’t support her strong beliefs in women’s right to choose, she liked him. They were known to socialize. Imagine that.
Let’s start with Kennedy’s most consistent label - anti-vax. MSM can’t seem to speak his name without the preamble anti-vaxxer. He’s not just Robert F. Kennedy Jr, he’s anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His actual crime had been to request, from our public health agencies, the clinical trials proving the safety of childhood vaccines. He’s been asking for 20 years. What does he get back from the FDA, the CDC and the NIH… crickets , and then propaganda. I know many people who have experienced significant vaccine side-effects. They are now being called anti-vaxxers if they speak up about it. In my opinion, if one took an EUA vaccine, they most certainly cannot be called anti-vaxxers.
Recently, Kennedy has been called anti-semitic. That’s another interesting one. By taking one sentence out of context, they’re able to conclude that he is indeed anti-semitic. I’ve had a strong reaction to this specific ploy. I am a Jew myself. I used ancestry.com to see if I had any relatives that I hadn’t been aware of. I was actually hoping to find some interesting genetic aspects of my heritage. Maybe a Native American thread or another noble culture. I remember when I was a child and had surgery. The surgeon said to me that I had “proud skin”. I asked what that meant. He said my scar was keloid which was typical of certain ethnic strains. I believe he mentioned African Americans. I can tell you that being keloid isn’t remarkable within Jewish ethnic groups. I remember when my ancestry.com results appeared in an email I received. 100% Ashkenazi Jew. Boy was I disappointed. I felt bland and uninteresting :) That said, I feel I’m free to voice my strong feelings about the references that have been made of the Holocaust. My maternal grandmother lost her 5 sisters in concentration camps during WWII. She had emigrated to the U.S. decades earlier to marry, in an arranged marriage, my grandfather. I actually wrote a post on a previous substack where I photographed myself wearing a mask, holding a book - The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich - with a yellow star of David that said unvaxxed. The cruelty and hostility I received was unexpected. One such attack actually came from my niece. In the substack, I was explaining how the propaganda strategies against the unvaccinated was similar to that used by the Nazis. Vera Sharav, a holocaust survivor, identified the tactics she observed used by the Germans.
Use the psychological weapons of fear and propaganda
Demonized a class of people as the spreaders of disease and the cause of their misery.
Systematically obliterated moral norms and values
Destroyed their social conscience in the name of public health.
I would add isolate those who are targeted.
I believe those very tactics were done to the unvaccinated. When fearporn was at its peak, frightened people were told that “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” An attorney friend said that he hoped all of the unvaccinated would die - knowing that we were unvaccinated. I believe strongly that this tactic has tremendous power and efficacy. Did I say that my experience of being judged and isolated is similar to what Jewish people endured during the holocaust? Absolutely not. Judgement and isolation does not in any way compare to mass murder, the performance of illegal and immoral medical experiments, or the systematic starvation of millions of people. I simply said that similar propaganda had been utilized. What I have witnessed however is that anyone who voices an association to the Holocaust is found to be anti-semitic. Even the Holocaust museum and other Jewish organizations took this prejudicial position during Covid. Any analogy to the holocaust is verboten… period! I believe we must learn the lessons from that horrendous time in our history to insure it never happens again. I believe we must learn the lessons from this God awful pandemic to insure it doesn’t happen again. The German government chose, in response to the horrific actions of their people, to prohibit any speech or reference to Nazism in their country. Although it certainly restricts freedom of speech, I must admit that in this specific circumstance, I believe it’s warranted and justified. Yes I know - it’s a slippery slope.
Mr. Kennedy initially, vehemently denied such an attribution to himself, but ultimately went on to apologize for his statement. Why should he have to apologize? Why not simply explain the full message, what he was attempting to communicate and why he felt that way. That should have been sufficient. But in truth, it wasn’t. Hopefully he’s learned a very valuable lesson. Every word he utters must be carefully considered. MSM will twist and distort every word that leaves his mouth. I believe 100% that the unvaccinated were scapegoated by our government and I resent the hell out of them for that. I want them to be accountable for their propaganda. Once it came out that the Covid jabs were not able to prevent infection or transmission, that should have been the end of prejudice against the unvaccinated. It clearly wasn’t however. We have MSM to thank for their failure to do a deep dive into all things Covid. Their collusion with the Federal Government has been complete. Since the Facebook files have come out, perhaps we’ll finally see some consequences toward those who violated our constitution and did substantial harm to those people who decided not to be vaccinated with an experimental medical product. The harm done to me was emotional/psychological. The pain and suffering was existential for me. I still can’t fully wrap my brain around how intelligent people can simply deny/ignore any scientific information if it isn’t coming from MSM.
I had a meeting last week with the head of the board of my local library. I had requested weeks ago that they carry the book Turtles All The Way Down. They refused to order the book. Their excuse was that the authors were anonymous and their policy was that they would not carry any book that prevented them from assessing the author. I explained the reason why it was necessary for the authors to remain anonymous, clearly showing that they’d lose their jobs, reputations, and possibly even licenses and livelihoods, for going against the conventional beliefs about vaccines. I brought the issue all the way up the chain at the library with no success. I then decided to reach out to the board that oversees the library. Perhaps I could find an intelligent person who would understand. After all, there are always exceptions to any rule. I’m sorry to report that although my meeting with the board chair lasted for 2 hours, I didn’t influence his thinking one iota. It was one of the most frustrating meetings I can remember having. He was firmly in the democratic camp. He believes our public health agencies represent the “gold standard” of public health agencies in the world. When I explained the regulatory capture of these agencies by sharing the conclusions of 3 editors in chief of the leading peer reviewed journals who agree with my conclusions, he said that’s only 3 people’s opinion (I brought the quotations with me of course). I asked, who would be in a better position to know what goes on with scientific research and the publishing of journal articles? Since there were countless other editors of journals who didn’t share those views openly, he was not convinced by the 3 that I quoted. They always have an excuse of course.
I was heartened by the Harvard - Harris poll that came out recently. According to their research, Kennedy has a 47% approval rating which beats every single candidate running for President, including Joe Biden. Also, his unfavorable number of 26% is the lowest of any candidate. President Biden’s approval rating is 39% while his unfavorable is a nasty 53%. Remember, this is a Harvard poll so of course it’s accurate - she said sarcastically. What’s shocking is that the elites (Harvard) chose not to hide the evidence. Kennedy appears to be appealing to many, many diverse people. What new tactics will MSM and the democratic party utilize? We’ll have to wait and see. We saw what they did to Bernie Sanders didn’t we, when he was running against the party’s chosen candidate Hillary Clinton? I can assure you that, unfortunately, it will be somewhat effective. There will always be people who refuse to see the truth. They won’t take the time to listen to what each candidate is saying, directly from the candidate’s mouth. They will simply trust The New York Times or MSM to do the work for them. Until they realize that MSM doesn’t have their best interests at heart, they will continue to vilify Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. So let me ask you, how will you respond when you’re confronted with that sentiment. Perhaps you might want to ask yourself… am I a leader or a follower? Of course it’s up to you to decide.
Excellent piece, Michelle. I continually get the same response from my many liberal friends — many of them in the news business. It’s heartbreaking.
Totally agree with you Michelle. I have experienced the same issues with most of the "educated". I have come to realize that the smart, educated professionals are more entrenched in their beliefs than others. Whenever I get into a cab anywhere in the world, I find 90% of the drivers are awake. I've realized that the educated professionals have had a lifelong history of trusting authority ( myself included until now), many of them spend years and lots of $ to become more educated, and then they themselves become the authority. It is nearly impossible for them to let that go. It is no longer about following information or critical thinking, it literally becomes a religion. Getting someone to change their religion is damn near impossible.