You Made Your Bed, Now Lie In It

I’m sorry. I know that title sounds callous, but really, what is there left to do? I have spent the better part of two years trying to inform people. I am not even saying (or least two years ago I wasn’t) that I am 100% certain I am correct. I just wanted people to talk to, to hash it out with. I even was attracted to the idea I was discussing all this with someone that was on the other side of the fence. I wanted to hear contrary argument to what I had concluded. I wanted to hear why I might have been wrong, what I might have missed, and what my limited scientific and medical knowledge could have gotten wrong.

Crickets. Well, more like demons screaming from hell. Usually any attempt to discuss, debate, or even just ask a question was, and still is, met with violent discourse, accusing the one attempting to engage in conversation of being lower than pond scum. But this reaction was not always the same. Sometimes the response was a, “I really don’t want to talk about that.” This response usually came from people who were taught as a child not to talk to the weird dirty man with a beard on the street. As an adult that translates to, “Avoid conspiracy theorists walking around blabbering misinformation.”

Once the shock of “never talk to a leper” wore off, I started to stick to my own kind. And although there is seldom debate (I am increasingly fascinated with how shrews think alike, not only about Covid, but nearly every other debatable subject) it is so nice to just have a conversation about all of this without someone melting down.  Obviously this is not ideal. Preaching to the choir is never ideal. But at least it is decent, sane, dialogue.

You’ve heard this all before, probably dozens of times. Once the initial dust settled, what did we get? A standoff, basically. Two sides of the same coin, which are both relatively easy to identify. Each side then continually presents their case in various formats. The shrews not so much anymore to convince the sheep of anything, but rather to support fellow shrews on their own, isolating, journey. The sheep side has an advantage in presenting their view because they are not censored. Shrews are.

One oddity as well is that the sheep side seldom defends its position. It will just put down the shrew side by calling them morons, or science deniers, or conspiracy theorists, or kooks. Very seldom, if ever, do they present evidence, or explain their position from a scientific perspective. When shrews DO explain their position in scientific terms, the sheep don’t even argue with them and present a counterpoint. If they do anything, they just attempt to vilify or denigrate the shrew making the claim.

Sure, the shrews are also involved in brave court cases, brave complaints to officials, and all of the more serious actions against the unfair and often illegal mandates. Thank God for that. But what I am talking about is the war of the masses…the common person who lives the “everyday life.” That battle seems to be rather polarized into warring factions that have little to say to one another directly anymore. Again, there is no debate, no discussion, just isolated bits of information that could, or not, be evidential truth.

Since I am obviously a shrew, when I read or hear something from our side of the fence, it makes logical sense to me. The evidence is clear, the points succinct and they pass the scrutiny of not only common sense but scientific sense. When I read or hear something from the sheep side, it invariably is filled with holes, doesn’t make much logical sense, and very seldom any sort of scientific evidence is presented. Even if I were not a shrew, I would find it immediately suspect and questionable.

NPR’s website recently posted an article that is an interesting one to comment on here. It is so filled with falsehoods, fabrications, and silly correlations you would think after reading it, an obsession with something as innocuous as stamp collecting could cause a person to lose all ability to reason for themselves. This article made me so angry I started to lose it, then I started to laugh. I mean, anyone can write anything, and you have to use your own logic powers and common sense to find what you read as reliable or not.

This article (check it out here) basically says a woman (Stephanie), 75, who later in life got into crystals, astrology, and various health alternatives, went bonkers and ended up dying from Covid because she was brainwashed by conspiracy theorists. Because of the influence of her “quirky” obsessions, she became a cult member and as such was led to refuse “science” as well as the vaccine. When she finally contracted Covid (or something) she refused treatments such as Remdesivir, and she also refused being put on a ventilator during the last stages of her disease. She claimed the doctors were trying to kill her, and that these treatments have been proven to cause more harm than good. Smart lady. Oh no, no, no…these decisions ultimately killed her!

Here are a few of the juicier quotes from the article:

[Stephanie] refused to get tested [when she first noticed symptoms]. Instead, she ordered drugs online from a natural healer in Florida. Two of the drugs, ivermectin [sic] and hydroxychloroquine [sic], are ineffective against COVID, but many conspiracy theorists believe they work. Stephanie waited for the pills to come.

Even after she was admitted [to hospital], she turned down some effective treatments for COVID. One drug, called remdesivir [sic], has been proven to reduce the severity of COVID, but Stephanie believed conspiracy theories claiming the drug was actually being used to kill COVID patients.

Interesting how Remdesivir has been noted to be a highly dangerous drug in many reputable journals. Whether it is being used to intentionally kill Covid patients, I don’t know.

Soon Stephanie’s husband got Covid (of course, they live together, don’t they?) Vikki, the daughter, drove him to get monoclonal antibodies…

…He worsened overnight, and the next day, he was admitted to the same hospital that Stephanie was staying in. Unlike his wife, Arnold accepted every treatment he was offered.

He said yes to everything. He said yes to every treatment they were willing to give him," says Vikki. "My Mom said no.

He, of course, survived with flying colours, but only after his wife did so poorly adhering to her “crazy conspiracy ideas” and the “system” pulled him in. What a testament!

The author of this primo piece of propaganda dribble ends the piece with this gem:

But she [Vikki, the daughter] still thinks about the people who make the paranoia-laced videos that her mother consumed day after day. She understands that something inside her mother drew her to those voices, but Laurie [one of the sheep specialists the family consulted] still sees Stephanie mainly as a victim of the grifters and attention-seekers who generate many hours of falsehoods every day to grab money, likes and shares.

Yeah, highly credentialed medical doctors with decades of experience such as McCollough, Kory, and Marik (among hundreds, if not thousands of others), are “grifters and attention-seekers who generate many hours of falsehoods every day to grab money, likes and shares.” Right, I’ll believe that if it starts raining monkeys, and maybe not even then.

These people that write such garbage need their mouths washed out with soap, maybe lye. Their actions are unconscionable. No doubt people like Vikki believe what she claims to believe, but I would bet money half of what went down in this scenario was left out of the article and the other half was fabricated. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if it all was completely made up, but it doesn’t have to be made up to absolutely see the flaws in such diatribe.

As an example of what I point out in the beginning of this article, this NPR story has no merit. It is an anecdotal piece of fluff, and certainly qualifies as propaganda. There are no testimonials from doctors or medical researchers, no scientific presentation of any kind to support the claims the author makes. Nothing. Anyone reading this with half a brain would identify it as a testament to a single agenda, a marketing presentation for a pharmaceutical company, a piece of trash. Clear and present propaganda. Yet…the sheep will eat it up. It will support their argument to no end, and will justify their prowess and common sense acumen for avoiding all of the pleading from family and friends who also like crystals, astrology, and even spirituality (did you catch that passive jab? And the picture of the angel figurine to show how her beliefs were “quirky”?) It is a highly destructive and dangerous article, yet ultimately its persuasion is avoidable if you still possess a brain and can think through this Der Stürmer garbage.

I have lost most of my empathy for sheep. They made their bed, and they defend it ferociously, they can just lie in it. I will certainly help enlighten anyone who comes to me for help, but beyond that, they can figure it out on their own. And if they don’t, nighty-night.

---

If you would like to support my efforts to write articles that you enjoy, but would rather not at this time commit to a yearly or monthly subscription. Please buy me a cup of coffee! The gesture would be greatly appreciated!!