We have all heard the Big Lie that was initiated by and perpetuated by the former president and the GOP. “The 2020 election of Joe Biden was stolen”. Given 60 legal cases before judges, many of whom were placed on the bench by former President Trump, I believe that lie has been dispelled, despite the persistent belief among the majority of Republicans. Keep this in mind, however, that by continuing to spew a lie, if it is persistently repeated, it will remain a threat to the truth. The damage this has done to our very democracy can been seen in the January 6th insurrection and their attempt to interfere with the time honored democratic tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. This damage and unfortunate narrative isn’t going away any time soon as the The New York Times shared the startling reality today that the GOP just declared that the insurrection was a “legitimate political discourse” and felt the need to censure Cheney and Kinzinger for investigating it. Despite what everyone in America and around the world saw with their own eyes as it was unfolding, the Republican party insists that nothing nefarious was happening, despite the loss of lives and permanent damage done to our Capital police and local enforcement officers. As long as the GOP sustains this meme, nothing will change within the party I’m afraid.
Thank you for writing this article. I found it very informative. So many links to explore!
For context, I have been a liberal my entire life, and in more recent years considered myself firmly on the Left. However, I have been struggling to understand the phenomenon of how American liberals, and even large swaths of the organized Left, have completely reorientated. Even though it was Trump who initiated Operation Warp Speed, it is Biden who is pushing relentlessly for vaccine mandates. Safety and efficacy questions aside, the burden of these mandates fall most harshly on the working class—the very same "heroes" who worked tirelessly during the first year of pandemic before vaccines were available. Now, in a very shocking and grotesque display of bigotry, American liberals have turned sadistic towards the unvaccinated who they now see as right-wing fascists and their ideological enemies. In reality, the unvaccinated include a very diverse group of people including gays and lesbians, people of color, highly educated people, the laptop class, and laborers—their neighbors! While they enthusiastically punch down at these people who were once honorary members of their esteemed political party, they now kiss up to the political "elite," the biomedical authorities, the "experts," and the technocrats.
As a retired shrink, have you any theories of what is going on and when and if it can be remedied. Is this going to be the rest of my life?
We am delighted to see that we are in agreement in lots of arenas. What a coincidence that we both experience Negril as our happy place!
Regarding climate change however, that's where we have the biggest difference. I choose to respect the 97% of the global scientologist who have concluded that we cannot protect the planet from current climate change with existing technologist and that we are at high risk for the planet to become uninhabitable in many areas around the world. I wholeheartedly agree that innovation can provide the solutions however. I also agree about the necessity to use nuclear energy but I insist that we design improvements that can prevent catastrophic failures of the system. The current designs have been around for 50 years and desperately need updating their safety and resource needs. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates but he had an amazing project with China apparently to build an innovative nuclear plant that is 100% safe and actually used spent fuel rods to accomplish the power source. Each rod would produce energy for 25 years. Now that's a win/win for sure. Cleaning up the waste and putting it to use.
I agree that political tribalism is a serious problem and actually a threat to our very democracy. I believe decisions should be made based on what's best for all Americans and the planet. Whether one is a democrat or republican should be irrelevant in those critical decisions. To be a citizen of the world should NOT interfere with the appreciate, participation and respect for each culture around the world. Each is precious and should be preserved.
So yes, I think we agree more than we disagree. It's always a pleasure for me to engage with people who are respectful, thoughtful, curious and bright. That's how we bridge the political divide. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and feelings. If we lived nearby, I'd be inviting you to meet for coffee/tea or a hike perhaps:)
Thank you Michelle for this article and for the attention you have drawn to an issue that needs to be brought into the limelight and kept there. Thank you for helping those of us who question the narrative see that we are not alone, and that together we can stand and spread the truth.
I've got an alternative perspective for you on the first big lie you mention in this article, but I do believe it will take some concerted effort on your part to consider it after spending decades looking at things through the left/right paradigm so I will not be offended if you write it off! I learned from you that the Trusted News Initiative was initially formed to counteract "election misinformation." I think that your current perspective on this issue has been shaped in no small part by the TNI.
I believe a more useful paradigm for analyzing political issues is that of realpolitik. In this context (election fraud) there is a concise way of framing this perspective: Just like there is and always will be some degree of voter suppression in any election, there is and always will be some degree of fraud. It is the extent of which, and whether this extent is sufficient to alter the outcome of the election in question that is most important to consider in any meaningful analysis.
So you might be wondering, if the TNI is responsible for shaping my perception here, why was there mainstream coverage of allegations of "widespread voter fraud" that included radical statements about interference from Venezuela, electronic voting machine tampering etc. from the likes of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood? I think this is the COVID equivalent of allowing the propagation of voices saying things like "the virus doesn't exist" and "the vaccines have computer chips" etc. These are claims that are ultimately easy to refute, straw men if you will. If you want the steel man concerns regarding election fraud in 2020 that parallel your concerns over the suppression of early COVID treatment and vaccine safety and efficacy you're in luck as an article was just published yesterday that lists several examples that have been substantiated: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/ballot-bombshells-20-episodes-exposing-fraud-illegalities-and
The reason it is easy for me to consider this is not because I am partisan, it is because I watched Robert Barnes explain all this as it was happening, and even predicted certain aspects of this issue that I will elaborate on if you're interested. Now I understand that interpreting such can be greatly impacted by bias. If you are a dedicated never-trumper (whether right, left, or center) then all of this isn't fraud, it's just "election fortification" https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
I just wanted to ensure that you had the opportunity to consider this perspective as I'm sure you've been frustrated that people you have reached out to over the last 2 years have disregarded your perspective on COVID as if you'd become a right wing loon for questioning "the narrative" established by the TNI. I'm also intrigued by the prospect that the egregious overreach of our ideological enemies in terms of manipulation and censorship in the covid context can facilitate productive, respectful discussions over issues that were previously impossibly divisive.
Mind blowing that you would compare mass genocide to getting a vaccine. Mind blowing that you let your priorities get so fucked up. Nobody in their right mind would compare the Holocaust to vaccine mandates when vaccine mandates aren’t a new thing. And shame on you. You are a mother. The one person you should love more than anything and do anything for, you have failed. Your priorities are so out of place. Your own mother and father are turning over in their grave for how you have treated your daughter. No decent mother or human does what you did. Bernard would be disgusted with what you have turned into.
Thank you for writing this article. I found it very informative. So many links to explore!
For context, I have been a liberal my entire life, and in more recent years considered myself firmly on the Left. However, I have been struggling to understand the phenomenon of how American liberals, and even large swaths of the organized Left, have completely reorientated. Even though it was Trump who initiated Operation Warp Speed, it is Biden who is pushing relentlessly for vaccine mandates. Safety and efficacy questions aside, the burden of these mandates fall most harshly on the working class—the very same "heroes" who worked tirelessly during the first year of pandemic before vaccines were available. Now, in a very shocking and grotesque display of bigotry, American liberals have turned sadistic towards the unvaccinated who they now see as right-wing fascists and their ideological enemies. In reality, the unvaccinated include a very diverse group of people including gays and lesbians, people of color, highly educated people, the laptop class, and laborers—their neighbors! While they enthusiastically punch down at these people who were once honorary members of their esteemed political party, they now kiss up to the political "elite," the biomedical authorities, the "experts," and the technocrats.
As a retired shrink, have you any theories of what is going on and when and if it can be remedied. Is this going to be the rest of my life?
We am delighted to see that we are in agreement in lots of arenas. What a coincidence that we both experience Negril as our happy place!
Regarding climate change however, that's where we have the biggest difference. I choose to respect the 97% of the global scientologist who have concluded that we cannot protect the planet from current climate change with existing technologist and that we are at high risk for the planet to become uninhabitable in many areas around the world. I wholeheartedly agree that innovation can provide the solutions however. I also agree about the necessity to use nuclear energy but I insist that we design improvements that can prevent catastrophic failures of the system. The current designs have been around for 50 years and desperately need updating their safety and resource needs. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates but he had an amazing project with China apparently to build an innovative nuclear plant that is 100% safe and actually used spent fuel rods to accomplish the power source. Each rod would produce energy for 25 years. Now that's a win/win for sure. Cleaning up the waste and putting it to use.
I agree that political tribalism is a serious problem and actually a threat to our very democracy. I believe decisions should be made based on what's best for all Americans and the planet. Whether one is a democrat or republican should be irrelevant in those critical decisions. To be a citizen of the world should NOT interfere with the appreciate, participation and respect for each culture around the world. Each is precious and should be preserved.
So yes, I think we agree more than we disagree. It's always a pleasure for me to engage with people who are respectful, thoughtful, curious and bright. That's how we bridge the political divide. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and feelings. If we lived nearby, I'd be inviting you to meet for coffee/tea or a hike perhaps:)
Thank you Michelle for this article and for the attention you have drawn to an issue that needs to be brought into the limelight and kept there. Thank you for helping those of us who question the narrative see that we are not alone, and that together we can stand and spread the truth.
I've got an alternative perspective for you on the first big lie you mention in this article, but I do believe it will take some concerted effort on your part to consider it after spending decades looking at things through the left/right paradigm so I will not be offended if you write it off! I learned from you that the Trusted News Initiative was initially formed to counteract "election misinformation." I think that your current perspective on this issue has been shaped in no small part by the TNI.
I believe a more useful paradigm for analyzing political issues is that of realpolitik. In this context (election fraud) there is a concise way of framing this perspective: Just like there is and always will be some degree of voter suppression in any election, there is and always will be some degree of fraud. It is the extent of which, and whether this extent is sufficient to alter the outcome of the election in question that is most important to consider in any meaningful analysis.
So you might be wondering, if the TNI is responsible for shaping my perception here, why was there mainstream coverage of allegations of "widespread voter fraud" that included radical statements about interference from Venezuela, electronic voting machine tampering etc. from the likes of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood? I think this is the COVID equivalent of allowing the propagation of voices saying things like "the virus doesn't exist" and "the vaccines have computer chips" etc. These are claims that are ultimately easy to refute, straw men if you will. If you want the steel man concerns regarding election fraud in 2020 that parallel your concerns over the suppression of early COVID treatment and vaccine safety and efficacy you're in luck as an article was just published yesterday that lists several examples that have been substantiated: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/ballot-bombshells-20-episodes-exposing-fraud-illegalities-and
The reason it is easy for me to consider this is not because I am partisan, it is because I watched Robert Barnes explain all this as it was happening, and even predicted certain aspects of this issue that I will elaborate on if you're interested. Now I understand that interpreting such can be greatly impacted by bias. If you are a dedicated never-trumper (whether right, left, or center) then all of this isn't fraud, it's just "election fortification" https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
I just wanted to ensure that you had the opportunity to consider this perspective as I'm sure you've been frustrated that people you have reached out to over the last 2 years have disregarded your perspective on COVID as if you'd become a right wing loon for questioning "the narrative" established by the TNI. I'm also intrigued by the prospect that the egregious overreach of our ideological enemies in terms of manipulation and censorship in the covid context can facilitate productive, respectful discussions over issues that were previously impossibly divisive.
Mind blowing that you would compare mass genocide to getting a vaccine. Mind blowing that you let your priorities get so fucked up. Nobody in their right mind would compare the Holocaust to vaccine mandates when vaccine mandates aren’t a new thing. And shame on you. You are a mother. The one person you should love more than anything and do anything for, you have failed. Your priorities are so out of place. Your own mother and father are turning over in their grave for how you have treated your daughter. No decent mother or human does what you did. Bernard would be disgusted with what you have turned into.