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?
Thanks for sharing your feeling Maxwell. They mirror my own as well. I too have been a liberal democratic and an activist my entire life. Yes, it is horrifying to realize just what has happened to us democrats. I have been told that I have "blood on my hands" by a friend for not getting vaccinated. I have been told by an attorney friend, who knows that I'm unvaccinated, that "all unvaccinated people should die". I believe the public health agencies knew exactly what they were doing by using the play book that they've employed. I also believe the underlying issues from our angry democratic friends and neighbors is called cognitive dissonance. Remember, the government has used profound fear to create the impetus for people to get vaccinated. They were assured that IF they took the vaccine, they would be safe. Once they followed instructions and got vaccinated, they were unable to hear anything that took away from that narrative. They couldn't even entertain the possibility that these experimental vaccines may prove to be dangerous.
You mentioned that the unvaccinated represent a wide group of people. That is absolutely true. The powers that be however can't allow an alternative narrative to happen so they invented a new reality which is that only crazy people, selfish people, people who don't care about their neighbors or community would be unvaccinated. They must be Trump supporters. Research however shows an interesting pattern which is represented in an inverted bell shape curse. On the top right of the curve of course is the Maga supporters who are reviled by the democrats so it's easy to hate them and blame them. On the left side of the curve are the highly educated. The Ph.D.'s, the scientists and physicians who understand how to read scientific research and have chosen to do a deep dive into the vaccines. Anyone who does so will become concerned about the long term safety issues with this experimental gene therapy. Prior to Covid, it took between 7-10 years for a vaccine to be considered safe. That's how long it can take for some long term safety issues to appear. To date, we are already seeing an overwhelming number of adverse effects and deaths. How long will this animosity last? I wish I had an answer for you. To be fully transparent, I have to say that I'm hurt and angry by the behavior of friends and neighbors. The most egregious, in my opinion, are those people who I have tirelessly explained the issues surrounding medical censorship. I have told them that I can provide them with the science and they can view the research for themselves. The vast majority have been unwilling to review the material I've wanted to send along. I suspect they're afraid to hear anything that will bring them closer to the fear of getting ill. They can only maintain their calm by listening to mainstream media and our public health officials who continually reassure them that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.. My husband and I have been isolated from our small community. Every single local friend of ours is vaccinated. Many were willing to have picnics with us in the nice weather or hike in the woods which was great. Once the cold weather settled in, we've been alone. We are not included in small indoor gatherings which vaccinated people have returned to enjoying - at least prior to Omicon. My husband and I have spoken on many occasions about how we can best handle our hurt from people's behavior. It's been a painful and long 2 years. That will be challenging but we're willing to let go of our resentful. At this point however, I'm actually feeling fearful for all of them. It appears that the biggest fears of those scientists/researchers in the immunology or virology arenas were that once vaccinated, these vaccines might have an adverse impact on long standing innate immunity. As hospitals around the world are being filled with those who have been vaccinated, I am afraid that their worst fears may have been actualized. We will know as time goes by but until then, I'm afraid for the vaccinated. It has been estimated that perhaps 10-15% of those vaccinated will suffer permanent innate immunity issues. Although the percentages are small, given the huge number of people that have been vaccinated, that will translate into millions and millions of people who may become ill with autoimmune disease or neurological, cardiac, or even fertility problems. It's unimaginable actually. That's been the word that I have been using since I started to really examine the science. It's almost impossible to break through the cognitive dissonance because what I've witnessed is literally unbelievable. Early on my husband and I would often say to each other, this isn't possible.....right?! We have terminated our subscriptions to all the mainstream newspapers that we've been readying throughout our adult lives. I'm even feeling the need to stop listening to OPB and NPR as they too have been captured thanks to the Trusted News Initiative. All we can do is insure that we're doing everything in our power to maintain our optimal health. We're optimizing our vitamin D level and meditate and exercise daily. We are using the prophylactic protocol developed by the FLCCC, which has allowed us both to feel more relaxed about getting Covid. We believe we'll be o.k if we do get a breakthrough infection of Covid. Their early treatment protocol is highly effective. It has been inspiring to work with the heroic team at the FLCCC and observe first hand what's been happening within the critical care ICUs around the country. Their protocols are saving the lives of countless people around the world. With over 25 countries utilizing the life saving medicine, ivermectin, it is gratifying to see what a difference their dedication has made. They have put patients first - ahead of their career, their reputation and their financial future. How many people can claim to have done that? I believe the future can still be bright for those of us who chose to be unvaccinated. To learn the life lesson of letting go of anger and resentment will serve each of us throughout the rest of our lives.
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.
Thank you for sharing your perspective Dr. Grant Smith. Regarding election fraud, I believe that if everyone was automatically registered to vote and given mail in ballots, as has been done in many states around the country for years (I live in Oregon for 20 years and that's the only way we can vote) that would essentially eliminate voter fraud as none has been exposed in such states over all these years. I believe everyone has a right and responsibility to vote. The GOP can't allow everyone to vote if they're to remain in power. The intentional voter suppression is not even subtle. You say that "mainstream media" wrote about widespread voter fraud - that wasn't legacy media. That was Fox News and others in that arena. There were over 60 lawsuits that were initiated by the GOP. The vast majority were thrown out without even a trial as the GOP was unable to make even a semblance of a legal argument. Also, a number of the judges who ruled as such were actually appointed by Trump. Then there were the repeated recounts in all contested states, even those with republican attorney generals - even among the wacky Cyber Ninjas who took months and months to determine that there wasn't any real voter fraud. We know that Trump is a narcissist and a sociopath. Countless psycholgoists and psychiatrists wrote urgent letters of concerns about him. We saw Trump support Putin in Helsinki, going against his own governments conclusions of Russia's involvement, in an international public forum. How much evidence do we need to see about this man before we determine that he's unfit for office? Do I trust the Democrats, the party that I've embraced for my lifetime. NO. I don't trust anyone anymore. I don't trust our crippled legal system. I don't trust any physician who has remained silent when they've seen the evidence of harm from these vaccines. They put their personal financial needs above their patients. Shame on all of them. I never would have imaged that human beings would sacrifice the global population in order to insure profits for Big Pharma. That is beyond shocking to me. I can't believe that the FDA would attempt to prevent the release of clinical trial data for 75 years. I can easily believe Pfizer would attempt that - but the FDA..? The corruption is intolerable to me. Everything needs to be reevaluated given the reality of what we've observed.
Please, call me Grant! Thanks for engaging with me in some discussion, there's a lot to unpack here. First off, I do agree with some of your premises. Specifically, I believe voter suppression favors GOP candidates. I also think it is possible to conduct widespread mail in voting, as you point out is done in Oregon, without fraud. I also believe that conversely, the DNC benefits from fraud, and that there is a critical element of mail in voting to ensure that the risk of fraud is mitigated. The critical measure I speak of is signature matching. Without signature matching I don't think fraud can be preventing. I feel it necessary to point out here that prior to 2020, ~20% of ballots would be rejected failing to meet signature matching standards (comparing signature on file to mail in ballot). In 2020 <%1 of ballots were rejected across the country for this reason. This is not an issue I'm recognizing in retrospect after all of these other issues you mention failed to bear fruit. You can watch youtube videos of Viva Frei and Robert Barnes discuss this issue at length as this issue unfold. Robert Barnes was very vocal that Sidney Powell's assertions were bogus and that recounts and other litigation would be a waste of time if signature matching was not examined, and it wasn't. Make no mistake, the DNC has the exact same incentive to engage in fraud that the GOP has to engage in voter suppression. I'd be curious to get your take on that now that you seem to recognize the DNC doesn't represent a cloister of angels opposing the demons that inhabit the GOP. You also shared a perspective I've never heard before when you indicated that Fox News "wasn't legacy media". The fact that you use the term legacy media then declare Fox to be outside it is crazy to me. I don't want to get too deep here, and I'm in the process of building my own understanding of this topic so please be charitable. I see any institutionally based media source that actively participates in the Hegelian dialectic of left vs. right as "legacy media". If you include all of the institutions that participate including academia and government you could call it "the Cathedral". I first heard about this from Michael Malice who adopted it from Curtis Yarvin (who I'm not a fan of in case you're wondering). Within this framework, dialogue is divided into thesis and antithesis (think left vs. right). From the perspective of the global technocratic elite, they are the only ones capable or arriving at synthesis (the end state of this model) justifying their right to strip the unwashed masses of their liberties while they continue to focus on and blame one another for all social, environmental, and economic problems. Populism interferes with this model which is why I find it so intriguing! I suppose that is a good segue to talk Trump in general and his judicial appointees specifically, but I'll save that pending your interest ;)
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.
Let me begin by saying that "a good person" doesn't hide behind anonymity as you have chosen to do. I will allow Vera Sharav and her fellow holocaust survivors to express this comparison. Having lived through this nightmare in their youth, they are the only ones qualified to draw this conclusion and they have clearly done so. Your personal beliefs are irrelevant. You obviously failed to hear what she had to say. No surprise there as it may threaten your internal dialogue. Your moral outrage is almost amusing along with your beliefs about how my parents would feel about my behavior. My parents would be extremely proud me, of this I have no doubt. Good luck to you my old friend. You're going to need it I'm afraid.
it is "mind blowing" to me that you would use this platform to extend such a personal attack upon the author while barely acknowledging the issues at hand. The author and other comments have said it far better than I ever could. So shame on you. The propaganda mechanisms used by the Nazis during WWII against the Jewish people directly parallel what we are seeing used today to blind and gather the sheep, all the while creating a scapegoat. It is easy enough for a discerning mind to see if one is looking.
She is the issue, you all are. Nobody is putting you in a concentration camp, torturing and killing you and putting you in gas chambers. Such nonsense. And you don’t even know the author. Only what she writes and hides behind.
You are missing the point. That's not what the article says. The discussion here is partly about the mindset of a population (the Germans, and worldwide in the case of the Holocaust) that looked the other way and allowed those atrocities to occur. The comparison is of the parallel method of deception used now to slowly erode liberties and freedoms until there is a Them vs. Us. A method employed to cause division and strife. The author states her name with this article. My name is here as well. Yours is not. I don't believe I know you and you don't know me, but you are wrong- I do know the author.
This is clearly a personal attack that only superficially touches upon the issues. But let's take the issues anyway.
1. Vaccine mandates. The debate here is NOT over whether vaccine mandates are "new" or if vaccine mandates are ever justifiable. The debate is over the vaccines on offer in response to the Covid pandemic.
First, the Covid vaccines are not conventional vaccines: they meet the definition only by fiat. They do not protect against infection or spread of the disease. Nor do they provide immunity. They are NOT sterilizing vaccines such as those for polio, smallpox, the measles, et cetera. In that sense, they are barely vaccines at all.
Second, the Covid vaccines carry risks for otherwise healthy people that in many cases outweigh the morality risks posed by Covid. And for the Omicron variant, especially so. No person who is otherwise healthy -- no one -- strictly needs or should be required to be vaccinated for Omicron. And requiring children to do so, despite the fact the vaccine carries more risk for them than Omicron, is a human rights abuse.
Let me quote directly from Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD, psychiatrist and bio-ethicist:
"...it was clear, early in 2021, that these were not sterilizing vaccines. And if that’s the case, we have to rely on traditional clinical ethics that says patients have the right to decline medical intervention if they so choose because they’re the ones who are assuming the risks and they’re the ones who are assuming the benefits."
So now the problem with vaccination mandates comes into even sharper focus. The mandates deny bodily autonomy, deny informed consent, trample on individual human rights and dignity.
The mandates are also NOT needed. Japan, which has far superior Covid outcomes to the USA, issued this statement:
"Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated."
2. The Holocaust reference. The connection and concern here is the lack of civil rights for those deemed or rather demonized as OTHER. In this case, the unvaccinated and anyone who could be labelled as "anti-vaccine." This demonization of the OTHER, and the desire to punish and restrict them is clearly in the USA state-sponsored as well as the product of moral panic and MSM manipulation. But there is more to unpack here.
First, the "unvaccinated" includes many who have already had Covid, recovered, and have robust natural immunity. These individuals -- which include many medical professionals who were on the front lines of the pandemic and saving lives -- have declined to meet the ever-shifting standard of fully vaccinated. Dr. Mollie James is one such medical professional; Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, another. Why natural immunity is still in process of being recognized by American health authorities -- when it has been globally -- is a related discussion but one which requires more detail than the present thread admits.
Second, the definition of "anti-vaccine" and now "not fully vaccinated" applies to anyone who fails to immediately comply with the ever-shifting definition of fully vaccinated. This now includes several leading figures in American public health, who had pushed back on Fauci who initially required that children receive two boosters. So Fauci slightly altered his definition again.
We have been conducting -- as the Great Barrington authors pointed out -- a massive and deeply flawed experiment in public health. We know now there will be generational consequences -- damages -- in health, child development, education, personal and national prosperity, and more, because of Anthony Fauci's reign of error and terror. But Fauci could not have implemented his program without the cooperation of the state, big pharma, and the MSM: without totalitarian corporatism.
A student of history should know that fascism does not exist without or independent of totalitarian corporatism.
So to pick up on Michelle Rabin's reference to Vera Sharav and her fellow holocaust survivors, who can surely speak for themselves, I wonder if they are -- like I am -- witnessing the American rise of totalitarian corporatism.
If we allow the "unvaccinated" and the "anti-vaxxers" to be denied their human rights and dignity, to be discriminated against socially and economically, to be publicly demonized and shamed, we are heading down a dark path indeed. We have been on such a path.
Japan, with far better Covid-19 public health outcomes, had no need for such tactics. Denmark, also with far better Covid-19 public health outcomes, recently declared the pandemic over.
But in the USA, the power grab continues. And people are being forced to submit to a "public health" regime that has no basis in sound medicine practice. None. How is this anything else but the trampling of human rights and human dignity?
I thank Michelle Rabin, PhD, for her substack and many excellent contributions to sanity and civility in our moment of mass hysteria. Michelle, stay strong and as the young people say: "Do you, be you."
Please don't apologize. You said everything perfectly. I'm on my way to read your post right now:) I have a feeling I'm going to thoroughly enjoy reading it. Thanks for speaking up on my behalf. As I was hovering my finger over the "publish" button, I was debating about sending my words and image off to the universe. I knew that I'd get some flack for what I'd written but I felt strongly that it needed to be said.
Michelle just want to thank you for this! For the last two years a lot of us have been questioning the narrative. We’ve felt alone and often wondered if we were going crazy. The more people like you write about this the more connected and empowered we all become. Really appreciate it!
Feb 5, 2022·edited Feb 5, 2022Liked by Michelle Rabin Ph. D.
Chiming in to support Michelle here. Like she says, let the Holocaust survivors speak for themselves.
Second of all we as a society have never ever mandated vaccines like this. Never have we required people to show proof of vaccination to sit at a restaurant or go into a bar. Never have we required proof of vaccination to work in an office, or drive a truck. We have not asked our families to show proof to attend a wedding, go to a party or visit family.
This is indeed very different. You must know that.
Thanks Vernon. I find it so interesting that strangers are speaking up on my behalf when friends, neighbors and family have not done so. On the one hand I feel profoundly sad about that. On the other hand, I'm inspired by those who don't know me personally yet are taking a position of support on my behalf. Again, thank you.
Agreed. I know of no period in American history, not even the during the Cold War, which had this level of control and surveillance. Add to your list the state not allowing people to attend funerals, or visit critically ill family members.
“a good person.” Oh the irony of your delusions so evident in your self proclaimed name.
Do you really think that everyday Germans didn’t fall victim to a biased, lying media and endless government lies? Hitler actually used accusations that Jews carried deadly illnesses to create the division necessary for no one to stop the trains from being loaded. It’s the process of othering and it’s been done throughout human history and it far too often leads to genocide.
As to your claim it’s “not new,” you appear to think vaccines are like skittles and lack even the most basic understanding of their various mechanisms of action, risk profiles, risk they prevent, and effectiveness.
Vaccine mandates for entirely new and still experimental drugs are absolutely brand new. Never been done. Vaccine mandates for the already immune are new. Vaccinate mandates for a vaccine that doesn’t work are new. Othering the unvaccinated is as new as masking toddlers like Taliban women (to their credit, the Taliban doesn’t dehumanize toddlers or young children, unlike American Democrats).
It is the path. The one you are on is dark, and there are only formerly good people at the end of it. Turn back now.
Thanks for your support. I appreciate your understanding of history of this personal attack and the history of the circumstances that led to the isolation and subsequent murder of countless Jews. I've come to realize that vaccinated people can't seem to understand the impact that the mainstream narrative has had on those who were unwilling to be vaccinated with an experimental gene therapy. This is even true of the Holocaust museums around the country. They seem to view this simplistically. They state that you can't compare a Jew being led to a furnace to be cremated as the same as what has happened to the unvaccinated. They are not able to see the systematic messaging and treatment which led up to that tragedy. I have reached out to the Holocaust Museum in Portland Oregon, an hour from my home, requesting a meeting with the executive director, but she never responded to my request. No big surprise. I even identified myself as a psychologist, a Jew, whose family members were killed by the hands of Nazis.....it made no difference. I guess it's not that much different than the reality that mainstream media won't report on the publically available VAERS data showing the deaths of over 20,000 people since the beginning of the vaccine roll-out. It doesn't matter that our public health agencies always had a policy of pulling any new vaccines that showed the deaths of at least 50 people. Not this time apparently. Perhaps one day I won't be surprise or enraged by all of this crap!
I think many are simply gullible. They think “this time it’s different” even though it never really is. Was it Mark Twain that said “history rhymes”?
Until there is full blown genocide, many will deny the path that leads to it. It never occurs to them the same people who are othering the unvaccinated also assured them school closures weren’t harmful and still promise masking toddlers is just fine. It almost never occurs to them to consider likely outcomes. It’s very easy for oppressive authoritarianism to take over if all you have to claim is that “it’s different this time.”🤦♀️
I’m also optimistic though. I have lots of vaccinated friends and family, fully supportive of my husband and I choosing not to get vaccinated, who fully understood the othering going on. My vaccinated parents cancelled going to events that required proof of vaccination to send a message and support for us and refusal to tolerate othering. Our vaccinated friends early on expressed curiosity in our opposition, but have never been scared of us or not wanted to hang out.
One wished I wouldn’t tell people we took horse de-wormer just to see the reaction because she wanted me to be clear we took human ivermectin from a human prescription we got filled. 😂. She pleaded “Stop telling people you took horse dewormer. They think you’re serious. They don’t understand how a successful couple could be so stupid as to take horse medicine. Tell them you took human ivermectin. Stop amusing yourself with the reaction. You didn’t take horse dewormer.” I still tell condescending people we took horse dewormer. 😂
We live in a woke city in a reddish-purple state. Just over 60% of people our age are “vaccinated” while about 25% of kids the age of ours, 5-11, are. Our kids go to a top ranked conservative private Christian school, but we have tons of friends with kids in public school who, unlike us, they lean left (they aren’t insane though).
It helps a lot to live somewhere you don’t have much of a life if you exclude huge portions of the population. It greatly limited the othering here - which made people more willing to see it in happening in the media and many deep blue cities.
By early April 2021 we found it suspicious that elderly people around the world were dying, while younger healthy people like my family were being bribed to get an experimental medicine we didn’t personally need. That struck us early as inhumane, if these things worked so well, to let old poor people die while we had ample access and pressure to get a “vaccine” in short supply despite being very low risk and well off people. It sent up our warning flag to pay attention - when a policy is inhumane it will only become more so.
The denial of natural immunity from the start, the claims kids in cloth masks would do anything to stop a virus while ignoring the clear likelihood of harm, the public school closures (my own kids went back in person full time on schedule mid August 2020 and no one from their large private school was hospitalized, much less died), the shutting down small businesses but not large ones, the censoring, the unscientific and outright illogical “public health” policies made it clear the powers that be were using Covid to control people, not a virus.
We knew in this situation it was a matter of time until the othering started - so we planned, traveled, lived normally, and challenged the perception of who is actually unvaccinated by owning it, knowing the data, reading the studies, and refusing to be othered. I’m so glad we did. Only our knowledge of history gave us the courage to not repeat the mistakes of others. Only those who lack that knowledge, and honestly paid zero attention to world wide replicated data, could be “outraged” by people acknowledging the very clear historical similarities involved in the process of othering as it relates to the unvaccinated. It was clear in Israel by early July they didn’t prevent spread and had a terrible side effect profile. Yet the othering here continued even after most “boosted” people got Omicron.
It seems to have ended because we now have a new geopolitical othering going on, and an expansion of overt authoritarianism. Yet the same people who don’t believe the comparisons to othering the unvaccinated are accurate are highly correlated to those who swear there is no fog of war propoganda going on because “this time it’s different.” 🤷♀️
While I was reading through your message, I was so surprised, and a bit envious if I was being honest, that your friends and family were so supportive of you. When I read further along that you're from a reddish-purpose state, now that started to make sense. Oregon, or I should say the areas where I frequent, Hood River and Portland, are extremely blue. Again I confess I have been a liberal democratic activist my whole life. I'm so saddened by the lack of support I've received by the majority of my long standing "friends" and family - all of whom are vaccinated. We had a friend pass away a number of months ago, yes fully vaccinated and died from heart related issues. ( I considered the possibility that his vaccination and boosted status might have contributed but of course that was never considered) We received notice that his memorial will be next month and his wife made attendance contingent upon being vaccinated. I believe we are her only friends who are unvaccinated. Is it hurtful to be excluded from the celebration of his life? Of course. My husband and I recently introduced ourselves to a person whom we knew was being attacked for his position on the unvaccinated. We wanted to let him know that we appreciated his taking a stand for the unvaccinated and understood the consequences of that courageous position that he was taking. That led to a huge shit show - excuse my french- that we would support such a "stranger". So I guess the long around what I'm saying is that you should be very grateful to have surrounded yourself with such people. I also want to applaud your parents. They sound terrific.
I’m so sorry for your treatment. That is so heartbreaking about your friend’s celebration of life. I hope you find peace, and some more open-minded friends, or that the ones you have open their minds and hearts. 💓💓💓
Pure curiosity - what’s wrong with supporting a stranger?
I am appreciative of where I live, but thank you for the reminder. 😊
Our county/ city is pretty blue - voted 68% for Biden and 72% for our Democrat governor. A much higher percentage vote for Democrats than our overall vaccination rate. 😂. The state is purple-red, not the cities.
I think there is something to southern hospitality and being a more religiously based culture. While outsiders, very falsely, sometimes believe people here are homophobic or uneducated or racist or whatever, the truth is regardless of how religious or not a person is personally, we tend to be rooted in our similarities as humans. We don’t care who marries who, who sleeps with whom as consenting adults, what people look like. Being rooted in truth, we also don’t think men can literally be “real” women, nor that a “man” can give birth. Our opposition to discussing gender and sex in grade school is not because of sexual orientation, but rather because it’s harmful to sexualized young kids regardless of orientation. We remember friends who cut in the 1990’s and see many troubled young people, especially girls, going down that path with gender ideology as teenagers to deal with the often painful time of puberty with life long mutilation as the punishment.
Political ideology is more limited at the extremes here by observed actual outcomes, and more open-minded culture that ins’t so, well, politically or activist centered. It takes the newbies a while to figure it out, along with how to properly use the term “bless your heart.”
Intersectionality here is also seen as over-simplistic and kinda silly because many don’t think it’s accurate or moral to reduce individual human experiences to some sort of weird 1-page demographic bubble test. That approach to life naturally applies to medical decisions - people are unique and so are their bodies.
My husband and I are conservative, hold traditional values, and send our kids to a top ranked k-12 private Christian school. We are also 1%, both have masters degrees, and my husband is a mixed race 1st generation college graduate. We are just as comfortable up a holler in WV or hanging with the locals under a leanto in Jamaica as at our country club or the charity galas we sponsor often. Like everyone we know, it’s hard to fit us unique individuals into boxes....... we don’t fit an intersectional theory, nor does anyone actual person we know. 🤷♀️
It feels to me, and I could be wrong it’s just the sense I get, but it feels like those who live in places where people see their politics as part of their personal identity have more trouble appreciating those with different personal values and perspectives, so excluding comes swiftly and unfortunately without much thought. It’s like loyalty goes to the ideology rather than individual people.
Living somewhere that people don’t really wrap up their identity in their political preferences that doesn’t seem to happen as often. It also keeps us politically moderate because more of us will vote for whomever we think needs to be elected for that position that day. We don’t see politics as a team we root for. We have sports for that. 🤷♀️
I do wonder if you have ever tolerated those with my views in your life? I hope so.
I have always been open to listening to anyone's views on just about anything. As a liberal democrat, I believe, as a group, we are centered on helping EVERYONE who is in need of assistance. We believe in inclusion as a philosophy and a guiding principle. We believe in science although Covid hasn't been part of that unfortunately. The captured public health agencies isn't new by any means. It's been the case with both parties that have been in office. From a religious standpoint, we are all over the board. I believed we were an opened minded group whose primary focus had been supporting the underprivileged and worked to create a stable middle class which ultimately would benefit everyone. Regarding gender issues, I believe it's best to get our guidance from those who specialize in those fields, those doing research and investigation into these important issues. Do I think elementary school children should be discussing issues of sexuality. NO. The dilemma comes in when a gay kindergarten teacher is doing a program on family trees. Is he disallowed to draw up his own family tree, which shows that his partner is a man? Yes, that's tricky but I believe it provides an opportunity to share that we are all different and that being different isn't necessarily bad. It's about accepting others who are different than us and our families. Truth is, kids are born being gay which is true in the animal kingdom and people around the globe. About 10% of the population hold a different sexual orientation. We also know that typically kids know they're "different" from their peers, usually in later elementary school, some even sooner. Parents will talk about their son's prefering to play dress up with their sisters clothes rather than playing with trucks or soldiers. Or a daughter whose always been a "tomboy". Shaming these kids, or compelling them to fit into gender approved roles isn't going to change their sexual or gender orientation, neither is kids hearing about homosexuality or gender identification. I honestly don't believe anyone would choose to be gay. Did you choose to be heterosexual? I certainly didn't. My body, my hormones, simply did what it's meant to do the vast majority of times. The path of kids that fall into that 10% aren't going to have an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that we can teach our kids to embrace the differences, whether it's a difference of skin color, athletic ability, intellectual ability, sports ability etc.
I can't say that my identity has been controlled by my political beliefs. I share my political ideology on this substack as a way of being transparent to the community I'm trying to create. As you likely know, the majority of those not being vaccinated are republicans so this is my audience for the most part. My hope is that my readers will see that all democrats are not vaxxed and that it's o.k. to make personal decisions in all arenas of our lives. We don't have to fit into any box, be it political, religious or otherwise. I applaud anyone to offers a different opinion than mine, assuming they speak in a respectful and sensitive way. Obviously the "good person" didn't do that and has gotten called out by many people. It has been so meaningful for me to have gotten support from strangers for the personal attack I received.
I also see you as a unique person - one who is equally comfortable at the country club as you are at a shack in Jamaica. ( I'm smiling remembering our times in Negril) I don't believe the vast majority of country club members could say the same. My husband's family were country club members and I can't say I ever felt like part of that tribe. Our values were so different.
What I want most of all is unite republicans and democrats. We are AMERICANS. That's what will serve our country the best. We have such existential issues that we're having to grapple with, like climate change and even the decsion of our planet to decide is we're a democracy or an autocracy. I'm heartened to see the EU taking such a strong and unified position, finally, against authoritarian rulers who had started to infiltrate the political arenas around the globe. I believe we must stop seeing ourselves as separate and realize we are all citizens of the world if we're to save our planet. Wasn't it in the original Star Trek series that created the United Federation of Planets? They united together to save the earth and multiple other planets from threats against dangerous players from other galaxies? Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to do everything in our power to hand down a planet to our children and grandchildren that will enable them to live in health, peace and justice for ALL.
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?
Thanks for sharing your feeling Maxwell. They mirror my own as well. I too have been a liberal democratic and an activist my entire life. Yes, it is horrifying to realize just what has happened to us democrats. I have been told that I have "blood on my hands" by a friend for not getting vaccinated. I have been told by an attorney friend, who knows that I'm unvaccinated, that "all unvaccinated people should die". I believe the public health agencies knew exactly what they were doing by using the play book that they've employed. I also believe the underlying issues from our angry democratic friends and neighbors is called cognitive dissonance. Remember, the government has used profound fear to create the impetus for people to get vaccinated. They were assured that IF they took the vaccine, they would be safe. Once they followed instructions and got vaccinated, they were unable to hear anything that took away from that narrative. They couldn't even entertain the possibility that these experimental vaccines may prove to be dangerous.
You mentioned that the unvaccinated represent a wide group of people. That is absolutely true. The powers that be however can't allow an alternative narrative to happen so they invented a new reality which is that only crazy people, selfish people, people who don't care about their neighbors or community would be unvaccinated. They must be Trump supporters. Research however shows an interesting pattern which is represented in an inverted bell shape curse. On the top right of the curve of course is the Maga supporters who are reviled by the democrats so it's easy to hate them and blame them. On the left side of the curve are the highly educated. The Ph.D.'s, the scientists and physicians who understand how to read scientific research and have chosen to do a deep dive into the vaccines. Anyone who does so will become concerned about the long term safety issues with this experimental gene therapy. Prior to Covid, it took between 7-10 years for a vaccine to be considered safe. That's how long it can take for some long term safety issues to appear. To date, we are already seeing an overwhelming number of adverse effects and deaths. How long will this animosity last? I wish I had an answer for you. To be fully transparent, I have to say that I'm hurt and angry by the behavior of friends and neighbors. The most egregious, in my opinion, are those people who I have tirelessly explained the issues surrounding medical censorship. I have told them that I can provide them with the science and they can view the research for themselves. The vast majority have been unwilling to review the material I've wanted to send along. I suspect they're afraid to hear anything that will bring them closer to the fear of getting ill. They can only maintain their calm by listening to mainstream media and our public health officials who continually reassure them that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.. My husband and I have been isolated from our small community. Every single local friend of ours is vaccinated. Many were willing to have picnics with us in the nice weather or hike in the woods which was great. Once the cold weather settled in, we've been alone. We are not included in small indoor gatherings which vaccinated people have returned to enjoying - at least prior to Omicon. My husband and I have spoken on many occasions about how we can best handle our hurt from people's behavior. It's been a painful and long 2 years. That will be challenging but we're willing to let go of our resentful. At this point however, I'm actually feeling fearful for all of them. It appears that the biggest fears of those scientists/researchers in the immunology or virology arenas were that once vaccinated, these vaccines might have an adverse impact on long standing innate immunity. As hospitals around the world are being filled with those who have been vaccinated, I am afraid that their worst fears may have been actualized. We will know as time goes by but until then, I'm afraid for the vaccinated. It has been estimated that perhaps 10-15% of those vaccinated will suffer permanent innate immunity issues. Although the percentages are small, given the huge number of people that have been vaccinated, that will translate into millions and millions of people who may become ill with autoimmune disease or neurological, cardiac, or even fertility problems. It's unimaginable actually. That's been the word that I have been using since I started to really examine the science. It's almost impossible to break through the cognitive dissonance because what I've witnessed is literally unbelievable. Early on my husband and I would often say to each other, this isn't possible.....right?! We have terminated our subscriptions to all the mainstream newspapers that we've been readying throughout our adult lives. I'm even feeling the need to stop listening to OPB and NPR as they too have been captured thanks to the Trusted News Initiative. All we can do is insure that we're doing everything in our power to maintain our optimal health. We're optimizing our vitamin D level and meditate and exercise daily. We are using the prophylactic protocol developed by the FLCCC, which has allowed us both to feel more relaxed about getting Covid. We believe we'll be o.k if we do get a breakthrough infection of Covid. Their early treatment protocol is highly effective. It has been inspiring to work with the heroic team at the FLCCC and observe first hand what's been happening within the critical care ICUs around the country. Their protocols are saving the lives of countless people around the world. With over 25 countries utilizing the life saving medicine, ivermectin, it is gratifying to see what a difference their dedication has made. They have put patients first - ahead of their career, their reputation and their financial future. How many people can claim to have done that? I believe the future can still be bright for those of us who chose to be unvaccinated. To learn the life lesson of letting go of anger and resentment will serve each of us throughout the rest of our lives.
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.
Thank you for sharing your perspective Dr. Grant Smith. Regarding election fraud, I believe that if everyone was automatically registered to vote and given mail in ballots, as has been done in many states around the country for years (I live in Oregon for 20 years and that's the only way we can vote) that would essentially eliminate voter fraud as none has been exposed in such states over all these years. I believe everyone has a right and responsibility to vote. The GOP can't allow everyone to vote if they're to remain in power. The intentional voter suppression is not even subtle. You say that "mainstream media" wrote about widespread voter fraud - that wasn't legacy media. That was Fox News and others in that arena. There were over 60 lawsuits that were initiated by the GOP. The vast majority were thrown out without even a trial as the GOP was unable to make even a semblance of a legal argument. Also, a number of the judges who ruled as such were actually appointed by Trump. Then there were the repeated recounts in all contested states, even those with republican attorney generals - even among the wacky Cyber Ninjas who took months and months to determine that there wasn't any real voter fraud. We know that Trump is a narcissist and a sociopath. Countless psycholgoists and psychiatrists wrote urgent letters of concerns about him. We saw Trump support Putin in Helsinki, going against his own governments conclusions of Russia's involvement, in an international public forum. How much evidence do we need to see about this man before we determine that he's unfit for office? Do I trust the Democrats, the party that I've embraced for my lifetime. NO. I don't trust anyone anymore. I don't trust our crippled legal system. I don't trust any physician who has remained silent when they've seen the evidence of harm from these vaccines. They put their personal financial needs above their patients. Shame on all of them. I never would have imaged that human beings would sacrifice the global population in order to insure profits for Big Pharma. That is beyond shocking to me. I can't believe that the FDA would attempt to prevent the release of clinical trial data for 75 years. I can easily believe Pfizer would attempt that - but the FDA..? The corruption is intolerable to me. Everything needs to be reevaluated given the reality of what we've observed.
Please, call me Grant! Thanks for engaging with me in some discussion, there's a lot to unpack here. First off, I do agree with some of your premises. Specifically, I believe voter suppression favors GOP candidates. I also think it is possible to conduct widespread mail in voting, as you point out is done in Oregon, without fraud. I also believe that conversely, the DNC benefits from fraud, and that there is a critical element of mail in voting to ensure that the risk of fraud is mitigated. The critical measure I speak of is signature matching. Without signature matching I don't think fraud can be preventing. I feel it necessary to point out here that prior to 2020, ~20% of ballots would be rejected failing to meet signature matching standards (comparing signature on file to mail in ballot). In 2020 <%1 of ballots were rejected across the country for this reason. This is not an issue I'm recognizing in retrospect after all of these other issues you mention failed to bear fruit. You can watch youtube videos of Viva Frei and Robert Barnes discuss this issue at length as this issue unfold. Robert Barnes was very vocal that Sidney Powell's assertions were bogus and that recounts and other litigation would be a waste of time if signature matching was not examined, and it wasn't. Make no mistake, the DNC has the exact same incentive to engage in fraud that the GOP has to engage in voter suppression. I'd be curious to get your take on that now that you seem to recognize the DNC doesn't represent a cloister of angels opposing the demons that inhabit the GOP. You also shared a perspective I've never heard before when you indicated that Fox News "wasn't legacy media". The fact that you use the term legacy media then declare Fox to be outside it is crazy to me. I don't want to get too deep here, and I'm in the process of building my own understanding of this topic so please be charitable. I see any institutionally based media source that actively participates in the Hegelian dialectic of left vs. right as "legacy media". If you include all of the institutions that participate including academia and government you could call it "the Cathedral". I first heard about this from Michael Malice who adopted it from Curtis Yarvin (who I'm not a fan of in case you're wondering). Within this framework, dialogue is divided into thesis and antithesis (think left vs. right). From the perspective of the global technocratic elite, they are the only ones capable or arriving at synthesis (the end state of this model) justifying their right to strip the unwashed masses of their liberties while they continue to focus on and blame one another for all social, environmental, and economic problems. Populism interferes with this model which is why I find it so intriguing! I suppose that is a good segue to talk Trump in general and his judicial appointees specifically, but I'll save that pending your interest ;)
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.
Let me begin by saying that "a good person" doesn't hide behind anonymity as you have chosen to do. I will allow Vera Sharav and her fellow holocaust survivors to express this comparison. Having lived through this nightmare in their youth, they are the only ones qualified to draw this conclusion and they have clearly done so. Your personal beliefs are irrelevant. You obviously failed to hear what she had to say. No surprise there as it may threaten your internal dialogue. Your moral outrage is almost amusing along with your beliefs about how my parents would feel about my behavior. My parents would be extremely proud me, of this I have no doubt. Good luck to you my old friend. You're going to need it I'm afraid.
it is "mind blowing" to me that you would use this platform to extend such a personal attack upon the author while barely acknowledging the issues at hand. The author and other comments have said it far better than I ever could. So shame on you. The propaganda mechanisms used by the Nazis during WWII against the Jewish people directly parallel what we are seeing used today to blind and gather the sheep, all the while creating a scapegoat. It is easy enough for a discerning mind to see if one is looking.
Thanks Kathryn. I very much appreciate your support and astute read of this disturbing dialogue.
She is the issue, you all are. Nobody is putting you in a concentration camp, torturing and killing you and putting you in gas chambers. Such nonsense. And you don’t even know the author. Only what she writes and hides behind.
You are missing the point. That's not what the article says. The discussion here is partly about the mindset of a population (the Germans, and worldwide in the case of the Holocaust) that looked the other way and allowed those atrocities to occur. The comparison is of the parallel method of deception used now to slowly erode liberties and freedoms until there is a Them vs. Us. A method employed to cause division and strife. The author states her name with this article. My name is here as well. Yours is not. I don't believe I know you and you don't know me, but you are wrong- I do know the author.
Well said! An excellent response.
This is clearly a personal attack that only superficially touches upon the issues. But let's take the issues anyway.
1. Vaccine mandates. The debate here is NOT over whether vaccine mandates are "new" or if vaccine mandates are ever justifiable. The debate is over the vaccines on offer in response to the Covid pandemic.
First, the Covid vaccines are not conventional vaccines: they meet the definition only by fiat. They do not protect against infection or spread of the disease. Nor do they provide immunity. They are NOT sterilizing vaccines such as those for polio, smallpox, the measles, et cetera. In that sense, they are barely vaccines at all.
Second, the Covid vaccines carry risks for otherwise healthy people that in many cases outweigh the morality risks posed by Covid. And for the Omicron variant, especially so. No person who is otherwise healthy -- no one -- strictly needs or should be required to be vaccinated for Omicron. And requiring children to do so, despite the fact the vaccine carries more risk for them than Omicron, is a human rights abuse.
Let me quote directly from Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD, psychiatrist and bio-ethicist:
"...it was clear, early in 2021, that these were not sterilizing vaccines. And if that’s the case, we have to rely on traditional clinical ethics that says patients have the right to decline medical intervention if they so choose because they’re the ones who are assuming the risks and they’re the ones who are assuming the benefits."
So now the problem with vaccination mandates comes into even sharper focus. The mandates deny bodily autonomy, deny informed consent, trample on individual human rights and dignity.
The mandates are also NOT needed. Japan, which has far superior Covid outcomes to the USA, issued this statement:
"Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated."
2. The Holocaust reference. The connection and concern here is the lack of civil rights for those deemed or rather demonized as OTHER. In this case, the unvaccinated and anyone who could be labelled as "anti-vaccine." This demonization of the OTHER, and the desire to punish and restrict them is clearly in the USA state-sponsored as well as the product of moral panic and MSM manipulation. But there is more to unpack here.
First, the "unvaccinated" includes many who have already had Covid, recovered, and have robust natural immunity. These individuals -- which include many medical professionals who were on the front lines of the pandemic and saving lives -- have declined to meet the ever-shifting standard of fully vaccinated. Dr. Mollie James is one such medical professional; Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, another. Why natural immunity is still in process of being recognized by American health authorities -- when it has been globally -- is a related discussion but one which requires more detail than the present thread admits.
Second, the definition of "anti-vaccine" and now "not fully vaccinated" applies to anyone who fails to immediately comply with the ever-shifting definition of fully vaccinated. This now includes several leading figures in American public health, who had pushed back on Fauci who initially required that children receive two boosters. So Fauci slightly altered his definition again.
We have been conducting -- as the Great Barrington authors pointed out -- a massive and deeply flawed experiment in public health. We know now there will be generational consequences -- damages -- in health, child development, education, personal and national prosperity, and more, because of Anthony Fauci's reign of error and terror. But Fauci could not have implemented his program without the cooperation of the state, big pharma, and the MSM: without totalitarian corporatism.
A student of history should know that fascism does not exist without or independent of totalitarian corporatism.
So to pick up on Michelle Rabin's reference to Vera Sharav and her fellow holocaust survivors, who can surely speak for themselves, I wonder if they are -- like I am -- witnessing the American rise of totalitarian corporatism.
If we allow the "unvaccinated" and the "anti-vaxxers" to be denied their human rights and dignity, to be discriminated against socially and economically, to be publicly demonized and shamed, we are heading down a dark path indeed. We have been on such a path.
Japan, with far better Covid-19 public health outcomes, had no need for such tactics. Denmark, also with far better Covid-19 public health outcomes, recently declared the pandemic over.
But in the USA, the power grab continues. And people are being forced to submit to a "public health" regime that has no basis in sound medicine practice. None. How is this anything else but the trampling of human rights and human dignity?
I thank Michelle Rabin, PhD, for her substack and many excellent contributions to sanity and civility in our moment of mass hysteria. Michelle, stay strong and as the young people say: "Do you, be you."
Aaron Kheriaty link: https://aaronkheriaty.substack.com/p/interview-march-in-dc-and-senate
Japanese government link: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/vaccine.html
Michelle, my apologies for all the verbiage. This is practically a post, so I made it one: https://americanexile.substack.com/p/in-support-of-michelle-rabin-phd
Please don't apologize. You said everything perfectly. I'm on my way to read your post right now:) I have a feeling I'm going to thoroughly enjoy reading it. Thanks for speaking up on my behalf. As I was hovering my finger over the "publish" button, I was debating about sending my words and image off to the universe. I knew that I'd get some flack for what I'd written but I felt strongly that it needed to be said.
Michelle just want to thank you for this! For the last two years a lot of us have been questioning the narrative. We’ve felt alone and often wondered if we were going crazy. The more people like you write about this the more connected and empowered we all become. Really appreciate it!
Really great reply! Thank you. I hadn’t heard about Japan. How cool to know ! Appreciate you.
Chiming in to support Michelle here. Like she says, let the Holocaust survivors speak for themselves.
Second of all we as a society have never ever mandated vaccines like this. Never have we required people to show proof of vaccination to sit at a restaurant or go into a bar. Never have we required proof of vaccination to work in an office, or drive a truck. We have not asked our families to show proof to attend a wedding, go to a party or visit family.
This is indeed very different. You must know that.
Thanks Vernon. I find it so interesting that strangers are speaking up on my behalf when friends, neighbors and family have not done so. On the one hand I feel profoundly sad about that. On the other hand, I'm inspired by those who don't know me personally yet are taking a position of support on my behalf. Again, thank you.
It’s a very strange world we live in right now! I hope your family and friends come around. The propaganda has been really strong ...
Thanks Vernon.
Agreed. I know of no period in American history, not even the during the Cold War, which had this level of control and surveillance. Add to your list the state not allowing people to attend funerals, or visit critically ill family members.
“a good person.” Oh the irony of your delusions so evident in your self proclaimed name.
Do you really think that everyday Germans didn’t fall victim to a biased, lying media and endless government lies? Hitler actually used accusations that Jews carried deadly illnesses to create the division necessary for no one to stop the trains from being loaded. It’s the process of othering and it’s been done throughout human history and it far too often leads to genocide.
As to your claim it’s “not new,” you appear to think vaccines are like skittles and lack even the most basic understanding of their various mechanisms of action, risk profiles, risk they prevent, and effectiveness.
Vaccine mandates for entirely new and still experimental drugs are absolutely brand new. Never been done. Vaccine mandates for the already immune are new. Vaccinate mandates for a vaccine that doesn’t work are new. Othering the unvaccinated is as new as masking toddlers like Taliban women (to their credit, the Taliban doesn’t dehumanize toddlers or young children, unlike American Democrats).
It is the path. The one you are on is dark, and there are only formerly good people at the end of it. Turn back now.
Thanks for your support. I appreciate your understanding of history of this personal attack and the history of the circumstances that led to the isolation and subsequent murder of countless Jews. I've come to realize that vaccinated people can't seem to understand the impact that the mainstream narrative has had on those who were unwilling to be vaccinated with an experimental gene therapy. This is even true of the Holocaust museums around the country. They seem to view this simplistically. They state that you can't compare a Jew being led to a furnace to be cremated as the same as what has happened to the unvaccinated. They are not able to see the systematic messaging and treatment which led up to that tragedy. I have reached out to the Holocaust Museum in Portland Oregon, an hour from my home, requesting a meeting with the executive director, but she never responded to my request. No big surprise. I even identified myself as a psychologist, a Jew, whose family members were killed by the hands of Nazis.....it made no difference. I guess it's not that much different than the reality that mainstream media won't report on the publically available VAERS data showing the deaths of over 20,000 people since the beginning of the vaccine roll-out. It doesn't matter that our public health agencies always had a policy of pulling any new vaccines that showed the deaths of at least 50 people. Not this time apparently. Perhaps one day I won't be surprise or enraged by all of this crap!
I think many are simply gullible. They think “this time it’s different” even though it never really is. Was it Mark Twain that said “history rhymes”?
Until there is full blown genocide, many will deny the path that leads to it. It never occurs to them the same people who are othering the unvaccinated also assured them school closures weren’t harmful and still promise masking toddlers is just fine. It almost never occurs to them to consider likely outcomes. It’s very easy for oppressive authoritarianism to take over if all you have to claim is that “it’s different this time.”🤦♀️
I’m also optimistic though. I have lots of vaccinated friends and family, fully supportive of my husband and I choosing not to get vaccinated, who fully understood the othering going on. My vaccinated parents cancelled going to events that required proof of vaccination to send a message and support for us and refusal to tolerate othering. Our vaccinated friends early on expressed curiosity in our opposition, but have never been scared of us or not wanted to hang out.
One wished I wouldn’t tell people we took horse de-wormer just to see the reaction because she wanted me to be clear we took human ivermectin from a human prescription we got filled. 😂. She pleaded “Stop telling people you took horse dewormer. They think you’re serious. They don’t understand how a successful couple could be so stupid as to take horse medicine. Tell them you took human ivermectin. Stop amusing yourself with the reaction. You didn’t take horse dewormer.” I still tell condescending people we took horse dewormer. 😂
We live in a woke city in a reddish-purple state. Just over 60% of people our age are “vaccinated” while about 25% of kids the age of ours, 5-11, are. Our kids go to a top ranked conservative private Christian school, but we have tons of friends with kids in public school who, unlike us, they lean left (they aren’t insane though).
It helps a lot to live somewhere you don’t have much of a life if you exclude huge portions of the population. It greatly limited the othering here - which made people more willing to see it in happening in the media and many deep blue cities.
By early April 2021 we found it suspicious that elderly people around the world were dying, while younger healthy people like my family were being bribed to get an experimental medicine we didn’t personally need. That struck us early as inhumane, if these things worked so well, to let old poor people die while we had ample access and pressure to get a “vaccine” in short supply despite being very low risk and well off people. It sent up our warning flag to pay attention - when a policy is inhumane it will only become more so.
The denial of natural immunity from the start, the claims kids in cloth masks would do anything to stop a virus while ignoring the clear likelihood of harm, the public school closures (my own kids went back in person full time on schedule mid August 2020 and no one from their large private school was hospitalized, much less died), the shutting down small businesses but not large ones, the censoring, the unscientific and outright illogical “public health” policies made it clear the powers that be were using Covid to control people, not a virus.
We knew in this situation it was a matter of time until the othering started - so we planned, traveled, lived normally, and challenged the perception of who is actually unvaccinated by owning it, knowing the data, reading the studies, and refusing to be othered. I’m so glad we did. Only our knowledge of history gave us the courage to not repeat the mistakes of others. Only those who lack that knowledge, and honestly paid zero attention to world wide replicated data, could be “outraged” by people acknowledging the very clear historical similarities involved in the process of othering as it relates to the unvaccinated. It was clear in Israel by early July they didn’t prevent spread and had a terrible side effect profile. Yet the othering here continued even after most “boosted” people got Omicron.
It seems to have ended because we now have a new geopolitical othering going on, and an expansion of overt authoritarianism. Yet the same people who don’t believe the comparisons to othering the unvaccinated are accurate are highly correlated to those who swear there is no fog of war propoganda going on because “this time it’s different.” 🤷♀️
While I was reading through your message, I was so surprised, and a bit envious if I was being honest, that your friends and family were so supportive of you. When I read further along that you're from a reddish-purpose state, now that started to make sense. Oregon, or I should say the areas where I frequent, Hood River and Portland, are extremely blue. Again I confess I have been a liberal democratic activist my whole life. I'm so saddened by the lack of support I've received by the majority of my long standing "friends" and family - all of whom are vaccinated. We had a friend pass away a number of months ago, yes fully vaccinated and died from heart related issues. ( I considered the possibility that his vaccination and boosted status might have contributed but of course that was never considered) We received notice that his memorial will be next month and his wife made attendance contingent upon being vaccinated. I believe we are her only friends who are unvaccinated. Is it hurtful to be excluded from the celebration of his life? Of course. My husband and I recently introduced ourselves to a person whom we knew was being attacked for his position on the unvaccinated. We wanted to let him know that we appreciated his taking a stand for the unvaccinated and understood the consequences of that courageous position that he was taking. That led to a huge shit show - excuse my french- that we would support such a "stranger". So I guess the long around what I'm saying is that you should be very grateful to have surrounded yourself with such people. I also want to applaud your parents. They sound terrific.
Thank you. My parents are my heroes. Even at 39.
I’m so sorry for your treatment. That is so heartbreaking about your friend’s celebration of life. I hope you find peace, and some more open-minded friends, or that the ones you have open their minds and hearts. 💓💓💓
Pure curiosity - what’s wrong with supporting a stranger?
I am appreciative of where I live, but thank you for the reminder. 😊
Our county/ city is pretty blue - voted 68% for Biden and 72% for our Democrat governor. A much higher percentage vote for Democrats than our overall vaccination rate. 😂. The state is purple-red, not the cities.
I think there is something to southern hospitality and being a more religiously based culture. While outsiders, very falsely, sometimes believe people here are homophobic or uneducated or racist or whatever, the truth is regardless of how religious or not a person is personally, we tend to be rooted in our similarities as humans. We don’t care who marries who, who sleeps with whom as consenting adults, what people look like. Being rooted in truth, we also don’t think men can literally be “real” women, nor that a “man” can give birth. Our opposition to discussing gender and sex in grade school is not because of sexual orientation, but rather because it’s harmful to sexualized young kids regardless of orientation. We remember friends who cut in the 1990’s and see many troubled young people, especially girls, going down that path with gender ideology as teenagers to deal with the often painful time of puberty with life long mutilation as the punishment.
Political ideology is more limited at the extremes here by observed actual outcomes, and more open-minded culture that ins’t so, well, politically or activist centered. It takes the newbies a while to figure it out, along with how to properly use the term “bless your heart.”
Intersectionality here is also seen as over-simplistic and kinda silly because many don’t think it’s accurate or moral to reduce individual human experiences to some sort of weird 1-page demographic bubble test. That approach to life naturally applies to medical decisions - people are unique and so are their bodies.
My husband and I are conservative, hold traditional values, and send our kids to a top ranked k-12 private Christian school. We are also 1%, both have masters degrees, and my husband is a mixed race 1st generation college graduate. We are just as comfortable up a holler in WV or hanging with the locals under a leanto in Jamaica as at our country club or the charity galas we sponsor often. Like everyone we know, it’s hard to fit us unique individuals into boxes....... we don’t fit an intersectional theory, nor does anyone actual person we know. 🤷♀️
It feels to me, and I could be wrong it’s just the sense I get, but it feels like those who live in places where people see their politics as part of their personal identity have more trouble appreciating those with different personal values and perspectives, so excluding comes swiftly and unfortunately without much thought. It’s like loyalty goes to the ideology rather than individual people.
Living somewhere that people don’t really wrap up their identity in their political preferences that doesn’t seem to happen as often. It also keeps us politically moderate because more of us will vote for whomever we think needs to be elected for that position that day. We don’t see politics as a team we root for. We have sports for that. 🤷♀️
I do wonder if you have ever tolerated those with my views in your life? I hope so.
I have always been open to listening to anyone's views on just about anything. As a liberal democrat, I believe, as a group, we are centered on helping EVERYONE who is in need of assistance. We believe in inclusion as a philosophy and a guiding principle. We believe in science although Covid hasn't been part of that unfortunately. The captured public health agencies isn't new by any means. It's been the case with both parties that have been in office. From a religious standpoint, we are all over the board. I believed we were an opened minded group whose primary focus had been supporting the underprivileged and worked to create a stable middle class which ultimately would benefit everyone. Regarding gender issues, I believe it's best to get our guidance from those who specialize in those fields, those doing research and investigation into these important issues. Do I think elementary school children should be discussing issues of sexuality. NO. The dilemma comes in when a gay kindergarten teacher is doing a program on family trees. Is he disallowed to draw up his own family tree, which shows that his partner is a man? Yes, that's tricky but I believe it provides an opportunity to share that we are all different and that being different isn't necessarily bad. It's about accepting others who are different than us and our families. Truth is, kids are born being gay which is true in the animal kingdom and people around the globe. About 10% of the population hold a different sexual orientation. We also know that typically kids know they're "different" from their peers, usually in later elementary school, some even sooner. Parents will talk about their son's prefering to play dress up with their sisters clothes rather than playing with trucks or soldiers. Or a daughter whose always been a "tomboy". Shaming these kids, or compelling them to fit into gender approved roles isn't going to change their sexual or gender orientation, neither is kids hearing about homosexuality or gender identification. I honestly don't believe anyone would choose to be gay. Did you choose to be heterosexual? I certainly didn't. My body, my hormones, simply did what it's meant to do the vast majority of times. The path of kids that fall into that 10% aren't going to have an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that we can teach our kids to embrace the differences, whether it's a difference of skin color, athletic ability, intellectual ability, sports ability etc.
I can't say that my identity has been controlled by my political beliefs. I share my political ideology on this substack as a way of being transparent to the community I'm trying to create. As you likely know, the majority of those not being vaccinated are republicans so this is my audience for the most part. My hope is that my readers will see that all democrats are not vaxxed and that it's o.k. to make personal decisions in all arenas of our lives. We don't have to fit into any box, be it political, religious or otherwise. I applaud anyone to offers a different opinion than mine, assuming they speak in a respectful and sensitive way. Obviously the "good person" didn't do that and has gotten called out by many people. It has been so meaningful for me to have gotten support from strangers for the personal attack I received.
I also see you as a unique person - one who is equally comfortable at the country club as you are at a shack in Jamaica. ( I'm smiling remembering our times in Negril) I don't believe the vast majority of country club members could say the same. My husband's family were country club members and I can't say I ever felt like part of that tribe. Our values were so different.
What I want most of all is unite republicans and democrats. We are AMERICANS. That's what will serve our country the best. We have such existential issues that we're having to grapple with, like climate change and even the decsion of our planet to decide is we're a democracy or an autocracy. I'm heartened to see the EU taking such a strong and unified position, finally, against authoritarian rulers who had started to infiltrate the political arenas around the globe. I believe we must stop seeing ourselves as separate and realize we are all citizens of the world if we're to save our planet. Wasn't it in the original Star Trek series that created the United Federation of Planets? They united together to save the earth and multiple other planets from threats against dangerous players from other galaxies? Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to do everything in our power to hand down a planet to our children and grandchildren that will enable them to live in health, peace and justice for ALL.