You need to give the speech you were prepared to do. Post it on the artist formerly known as Twitter and demonstrate what a person of principle looks like.
The Twitter will run with it and hopefully some news orgs as well. Just a thought on pushing back on the mob.
And just as importantly, obtain and post the names of the weasels who complained about it and acted on their complaints. It's way past time to shine a light on these cockroaches and make sure employers and potential employers know who they are.
It amazes me how fortune 500 companies, Universities and professional organization cave to a minority of anti-free speech terrorists. It makes me ask. Don't any of the administrators of the powerful organizations have a backbone?
Not to rain on your parade, because I share your disgust and outrage, but how can you be certain that employers won’t agree with the cockroaches? It’s the ones with ultimate decision-making authority who are really to blame for the spread of cancel culture. Sadly, It’s easier and less damaging to the bottom line to just acquiesce to ideological demands than deal with bad publicity, demonstrations and wide-scale tantrums.
"how can you be certain that employers won’t agree with the cockroaches?"
Of course some do. Probably most NGOs and publicly funded propaganda outlets like PBS fall into that category but I think most of the offenders are just plain cowards. For a long time there was no price to their appeasement, and then Bud Light hired Dylan Mulvaney and Target started peddling "tuck friendly" baby clothes. If there's anything CEOs fear more than whiney key board warriors, it's a bad quarterly report.
You make a good point. Greed impelled the corporate offices of Bud Light and Target to assume that woke gender ideology had way more public acceptance than it actually did. What's interesting is that these two examples occurred in the corporate world rather than in academia. It demonstrates that money does indeed talk.
But since Prasad was cancelled in an academic/medical context, I was thinking more along the lines of academia. In Prasad's article here, and in the Sensible Medicine podcast episode on Prasad's cancellation, he mentions U. of Chicago geophysics professor, Dorian Abbot. In that case, college administrators at MIT caved to student demands to censor Abbot, who had been invited to give a prestigious talk ("about rocks," as Prasad quipped during the Sensible Medicine podcast on this issue). Abbot's crime was opining that universities should rely on metrics, i.e., academic performance, rather than race, when admitting students to their institutions.
And many lose more than just a lecture invitation; for instance, Professors Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying of Evergreen State University in Olympia, Washington, Kathleen Stock of the University of Sussex in the UK, Peter Boghossian of Portland State University in Oregon, and postdoctoral student Colin Wright at U. Penn. (They represent the tip of the iceberg.) In each case, they were abandoned by their administrations, which refused to defend their integrity against the student activist groups who used harassment, lies and intimidation to impel their resignations.
Academic administrators rely on wealthy donors to finance their sanctimony and cushy lifestyles. The number of donors closing their checkbooks in disgust with the rot everyone has witnessed is increasing.
Just as parents are starting to push back against the medical profession and woke school boards who kidnap our children through gender ideology, wealthy donors have a responsibility to future generations to salvage the integrity of academic institutions before they've been corrupted beyond hope.
I stand corrected. Target did not peddle "tuck friendly" baby clothes, they they managed to limit their peddling to "rainbow-colored onesies for infants and children". Still a pretty low level on their part if you ask me.
Bullying works. Yes, that's why bullies do it. And we need to push back on this immature high school tactic. These critics have a right to be critics. They have a right to be wrongheaded, overly sensitive cowards on Twitter, trapped in their crazy world where, somehow, everyone they agree with was right at every turn about a virus, disease, vaccines, and treatments no one knew anything about five minutes ago.
These people -- including the leaders who caved -- are laughable and need to be civilly confronted, which I will do later today from my official email with an .edu address because they have to hear from people in their own world that they are drunk on groupthink, their heroes on Twitter and at the NIH are not perfect, and that they should be ashamed of their odd fear and loathing of an esteemed speaker such as Vinay and of evidence-based medicine, which has been the driving force in Vinay's work for many years.
On a personal level, I’ve been reading Vinay and TFP since Bari started it...as I began to tell my Covid scared boyfriend about “off narrative” views he refuted the ideas. He attacked my freedom of wishing to learn...he ended our nice relationship because he didn’t like the change in my views. Yes, it’s his loss says my ego, yet why wasn’t he willing to listen, to hear, anyone questioning the narrative? This is problem we are facing everywhere....a willingness to listen to hear to consider 😞
The notion that ANYONE is treating science as a DESTINATION, and not a JOURNEY is no doubt the most fascinating thing that’s taken place in the last four years.
They are either a fraud, scared, unwilling to properly explore, despise the effort required to pursue fact. Or lastly, on the take for a profit somewhere.
Their education be damned. Not sure how they wake up and look in the mirror every day. It’s got to be brutal to do so.
Yup, I think that plain old cognitive dissonance accounts for a lot of mischief in the world. This reminds me of a funny sketch the talented English-born comedian/actress/singer (etc.) Tracey Ullman once did where she led a "Not Everyone Thinks Exactly the Same As You Do" support group, which catered to people who had been traumatized when they discovered that there actually existed other people who disagreed with them.
You dodged a bullet. Can you imagine the feelings of regret and being trapped in a terrible situation if you had gotten married and had children before you learned about his issues.
Yes, the blind acceptance of—insistence on—officially mandated narratives is a problem afflicting even solid marriages of decades. If one spouse remains fearful and refuses to admit contrary data, it puts an intractable strain on the relationship. It needs the underlying love fostered by a shared life (and children) to keep it strong.
This is not only hugely depressing, but just plain weird.
It is my impression that the medical/scientific community had reached consensus that: masking kids and keeping schools closed for so long during the pandemic was illadvised; and that downplaying the concept of natural immunity was just plain wrong - among others.
And of course, we made those mistakes because there was not enough information and discussion, not too much.
So how in the world could there be anyone left in authority who wants to continue to suppress those who wanted (and still want) to use the scientific process to get at better answers. Weird.
I'm not sure the size of the group is particularly germane, even a large group of idiots should not be able to inflict their silliness on the world.
Because that’s what bullies do. Rich and poor bullies alike LOVE to throw their weight around. And they will use money, leverage or power as a way to make their gain.
The best way to BURY these “insert word of choice” is to kill them with kindness and carry on the same. They’ve actually created a LARGER platform for Prasad if he’s so willing. He can deliver his exact same speech for the world to see. And the ACCP along with their bully activists can stew about while the world mocks them for spineless activists they are.
I think the more time a person spends in institutions like universities, the more insulated and prone to groupthink they become. These scientists/doctors are like birds in a cage who have forgotten how to fly.
As I continue to hear and read about the fear, cowardice, and weaknesses of people and organizations who so easily CANCEL a Speaker- someone who is a Professional in their Field- I feel it is no longer "good enough" to just comment on the
Information just as I am doing here. Little effort on my part. Rather, I feel that's it's time we go one step further, take a few extra minutes and respond DIRECTLY to the Organization who made this 'cowardly' decision:
Reach out to Alicia Lichvar who wrote the "open letter" - she is also on Linked In and you can message her directly in a respectful way with your comments. Reach out to Michael M - the Director of ACCP who extended the invite.
We are ALL preaching to the same choir here. This is our little bubble.
Our medical establishment - largely in the grasp and pocket of big pharma - is a disgrace. But no less than our own government that still stands behind and aid and abets one of the largest crimes in history. The Covid-19 virus did not emerge from nature It was created in a lab in Wuhan, with the aid and assistance of Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins and Peter Daszak. More, the Communist Chinese government, which oversaw the lab, lied about the release of the virus, killed or silenced its brave doctors who tried to warn the world and then spread it - possibly due to misfeasance but more likely malign malfeasance. The proper response would be inquiries, trials and reparations. Instead our own gangster government gave us lockdowns, mandates and repeated lies. Such a government has forfeited any pretense to legitimacy.
I have never understood how the virus can be successfully treated or contained without knowing what it is. Knowing what it is means knowing how it was created.
The knowledge is there to do so. The tragedy is that so many paid the ultimate price.
" It's true that decades ago we funded gain of function research that resulted in the creation of a viral pandemic that killed millions". Sometime in the future when your children or grandchildren are old the truth will be told.
100% spot on. If this situation is treated like the 2008 Wall Street induced financial crisis that blew up our economy on a massive scale and deeply harmed so many people, then the perpetrators (and copycats) will be back for multiple repeats. Close to zero prosecutions of those financial criminals and many of those creeps are still wealthy beyond most people’s imaginations. Do we want to see future generations continue to experience what we have gone through in the last three years of misery inducing authoritarian policies, as this gets swept under the rug, or do we want accountability?
This is so disturbing. I know Vinay has a pretty thick skin at this point, but I seriously worry about the quality of our medical care if medical professionals cannot even hear words from someone they have disagreed with previously. My god these people are pathetic.
Thank-you for speaking out, Dr. Prasad, and thanks to the Free Press for providing a platform. I am a new subscriber. Cancellation and bureaucratic control of academics is also an epidemic. I am a retired physician and studied pharmacy in my undergrad curriculum. As a recent retiree in the pandemic, I volunteered giving vaccinations. I ceased doing this when health care workers were coerced by their employers with threats of termination if they declined the mRNA vaccine. That marked the end of shared decision making and true patient consent.
It is scary. And cowardice is still multiplying. Consider all the top doctors who lost their medical licenses and livelihood simply for prescribing ivermectin for covid. Despite the fact the FDA has since acknowledged that doctors have the legal right to prescribe this drug for covid and has published a bizarrre partial retraction of their "you aren't a horse" campaign, medical licenses have not been reinstated. Why? The real crime was in not obeying the mob. And as readers know, "Cancel culture" is not just a medical issue. Racism with a capital "R" is the new Scarlet Letter (even before George Floyd). It doesn't matter if the charge is true or really causing harm... the Red Queen demands the accused be placed in the stocks or on the rack for public ridicule and harassment and punishment won't let up until the person is impoverished and broken. Not long ago the Free Press included an article by/about JK Rowling who was cancelled and burned in effigy in Hollywierd for stating there are only two genders. This "cancelling" ceremony was upheld by the ungrateful, partially talented, little snits whom she elevated to movie stardom with her incredible Harry Potter books. And naive me...I forwarded the JK Rowling article to my highly educated millennial nieces as all had been great Harry Potter fans. I thought it included interesting perspectives about her life. Good grief! They promptly and angrily texted me explaining she was a horrible person and deserved cancelling (or worse?). So this "disease" of unbelievable intolerance, censorship, cancelling, and condemnation has infected my family, It is frightening just like a cancer. And so much is generational. I recall stories of youth righteously ratting out their parents during Mao's cultural revolution-- instantly destroying not only their parent's lives but their entire family. Yes, please do post your speech. I look forward to reading it and will pass it on.
When my now-15-year-old entered elementary school, I was chagrined at the immediate and intense nature of the anti-bullying campaigns at the school, not because I am in favor of bullying, obviously, but because the then-superintendent used bullying as a tactic in his administration. I began to notice that in lots of spheres that were increasingly politicized, bullying is the M.O. du jour. What I often bring up in my comments here is “the juvenilization of America.” From our last President all the way down to the school yard, insecurity masked in arrogance and immaturity masked in virtue-signaling rule the day aka bullying. It is way past time for the adults to “re-enter the room” and show the bullies that, while they may be acting out of trauma and fear, this is not how a liberal (in the classical sense of the word) society operates.
Our country’s COVID response was abhorrent and a thumb in the eye of science and the scientific method. Once respected institutions- CDC, NIH - were enthralled by groupthink and co-opted by politics and failed miserably. The sad thing is, they still won’t admit how wrong they were even as the evidence unfolds and then they try to retcon the public into believing how great they did (see: Fauci).
It has been a consistent pattern that leftists are masters of projection. They accuse all others of “fascism” while cramming societal and behavioral mandates down our throats “for our own good”. They accuse their opponents of corruption while lining their pockets with filthy lucre from our adversaries and the very corporate entities they pretend to despise during their kabuki theatre.
Get the politics and ideology out of science. If not, our society and future is (even more) screwed.
They were effective in their brainwashing, as most people I know are anxiously awaiting their next booster, and seem willing to continue boosting as many times as they are told to -indefinitely!!
You need to give the speech you were prepared to do. Post it on the artist formerly known as Twitter and demonstrate what a person of principle looks like.
The Twitter will run with it and hopefully some news orgs as well. Just a thought on pushing back on the mob.
"Post it on the artist formerly known as Twitter
And just as importantly, obtain and post the names of the weasels who complained about it and acted on their complaints. It's way past time to shine a light on these cockroaches and make sure employers and potential employers know who they are.
It amazes me how fortune 500 companies, Universities and professional organization cave to a minority of anti-free speech terrorists. It makes me ask. Don't any of the administrators of the powerful organizations have a backbone?
Not to rain on your parade, because I share your disgust and outrage, but how can you be certain that employers won’t agree with the cockroaches? It’s the ones with ultimate decision-making authority who are really to blame for the spread of cancel culture. Sadly, It’s easier and less damaging to the bottom line to just acquiesce to ideological demands than deal with bad publicity, demonstrations and wide-scale tantrums.
"how can you be certain that employers won’t agree with the cockroaches?"
Of course some do. Probably most NGOs and publicly funded propaganda outlets like PBS fall into that category but I think most of the offenders are just plain cowards. For a long time there was no price to their appeasement, and then Bud Light hired Dylan Mulvaney and Target started peddling "tuck friendly" baby clothes. If there's anything CEOs fear more than whiney key board warriors, it's a bad quarterly report.
You make a good point. Greed impelled the corporate offices of Bud Light and Target to assume that woke gender ideology had way more public acceptance than it actually did. What's interesting is that these two examples occurred in the corporate world rather than in academia. It demonstrates that money does indeed talk.
But since Prasad was cancelled in an academic/medical context, I was thinking more along the lines of academia. In Prasad's article here, and in the Sensible Medicine podcast episode on Prasad's cancellation, he mentions U. of Chicago geophysics professor, Dorian Abbot. In that case, college administrators at MIT caved to student demands to censor Abbot, who had been invited to give a prestigious talk ("about rocks," as Prasad quipped during the Sensible Medicine podcast on this issue). Abbot's crime was opining that universities should rely on metrics, i.e., academic performance, rather than race, when admitting students to their institutions.
And many lose more than just a lecture invitation; for instance, Professors Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying of Evergreen State University in Olympia, Washington, Kathleen Stock of the University of Sussex in the UK, Peter Boghossian of Portland State University in Oregon, and postdoctoral student Colin Wright at U. Penn. (They represent the tip of the iceberg.) In each case, they were abandoned by their administrations, which refused to defend their integrity against the student activist groups who used harassment, lies and intimidation to impel their resignations.
Academic administrators rely on wealthy donors to finance their sanctimony and cushy lifestyles. The number of donors closing their checkbooks in disgust with the rot everyone has witnessed is increasing.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/wexner-foundation-says-terminating-harvard-university-relationship
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/business/upenn-antisemitism-israel-huntsman/index.html
This can’t happen soon enough.
Yes! This is the only way to make a dent.
Just as parents are starting to push back against the medical profession and woke school boards who kidnap our children through gender ideology, wealthy donors have a responsibility to future generations to salvage the integrity of academic institutions before they've been corrupted beyond hope.
Especially quarterly results that look to analysts, board members and shareholders like a self-inflicted wound.
Actually, the tuck-friendly clothes were for adults. Let’s not sink to their level by using exaggerations and distortions instead of facts.
I stand corrected. Target did not peddle "tuck friendly" baby clothes, they they managed to limit their peddling to "rainbow-colored onesies for infants and children". Still a pretty low level on their part if you ask me.
I would venture a guess that less than 1% of the community agrees with Lichvar. They’re just too cowardly to say so.
It’s the lawyers! They put the fear of G-d in executives that they’ll get sued.
Not good (smart, rational, with integrity) lawyers. Let’s not malign a whole profession. 😉
Yes, the lecture should be posted on numerous platforms for all to watch. Don’t let a good talk go to waste: X, YouTube, Rumble, etc.
What a great idea! I hope Vinay will do just that!
Locals
Agree! I would like to hear that talk.
Or have Heterodox Academy host it, like they are doing with the talk or panel that was recently canceled at an anthropology conference.
Bullying works. Yes, that's why bullies do it. And we need to push back on this immature high school tactic. These critics have a right to be critics. They have a right to be wrongheaded, overly sensitive cowards on Twitter, trapped in their crazy world where, somehow, everyone they agree with was right at every turn about a virus, disease, vaccines, and treatments no one knew anything about five minutes ago.
These people -- including the leaders who caved -- are laughable and need to be civilly confronted, which I will do later today from my official email with an .edu address because they have to hear from people in their own world that they are drunk on groupthink, their heroes on Twitter and at the NIH are not perfect, and that they should be ashamed of their odd fear and loathing of an esteemed speaker such as Vinay and of evidence-based medicine, which has been the driving force in Vinay's work for many years.
thanks for being brave in the terrifying world of academia!!
Would love to see how these bullies responded to high school bullies or REAL bad bullies like, oh, maybe, somebody like Hamas?
On a personal level, I’ve been reading Vinay and TFP since Bari started it...as I began to tell my Covid scared boyfriend about “off narrative” views he refuted the ideas. He attacked my freedom of wishing to learn...he ended our nice relationship because he didn’t like the change in my views. Yes, it’s his loss says my ego, yet why wasn’t he willing to listen, to hear, anyone questioning the narrative? This is problem we are facing everywhere....a willingness to listen to hear to consider 😞
The notion that ANYONE is treating science as a DESTINATION, and not a JOURNEY is no doubt the most fascinating thing that’s taken place in the last four years.
They are either a fraud, scared, unwilling to properly explore, despise the effort required to pursue fact. Or lastly, on the take for a profit somewhere.
Their education be damned. Not sure how they wake up and look in the mirror every day. It’s got to be brutal to do so.
Or all four.
Add in politics & activist takeover of govt & NGOs.
Sad, it seems that some folks are just deathly afraid of opening themselves up to the possibility that they find out that they are...wrong...
Yup, I think that plain old cognitive dissonance accounts for a lot of mischief in the world. This reminds me of a funny sketch the talented English-born comedian/actress/singer (etc.) Tracey Ullman once did where she led a "Not Everyone Thinks Exactly the Same As You Do" support group, which catered to people who had been traumatized when they discovered that there actually existed other people who disagreed with them.
Dave, I laughed out loud at the oh so timeless sketch you referenced. Here it is:
https://youtu.be/kkUOwBCt_0g?feature=shared
You dodged a bullet. Can you imagine the feelings of regret and being trapped in a terrible situation if you had gotten married and had children before you learned about his issues.
Yes, the blind acceptance of—insistence on—officially mandated narratives is a problem afflicting even solid marriages of decades. If one spouse remains fearful and refuses to admit contrary data, it puts an intractable strain on the relationship. It needs the underlying love fostered by a shared life (and children) to keep it strong.
This is not only hugely depressing, but just plain weird.
It is my impression that the medical/scientific community had reached consensus that: masking kids and keeping schools closed for so long during the pandemic was illadvised; and that downplaying the concept of natural immunity was just plain wrong - among others.
And of course, we made those mistakes because there was not enough information and discussion, not too much.
So how in the world could there be anyone left in authority who wants to continue to suppress those who wanted (and still want) to use the scientific process to get at better answers. Weird.
I'm not sure the size of the group is particularly germane, even a large group of idiots should not be able to inflict their silliness on the world.
They see admitting they were wrong as a threat to their hegemony. They do not want any cracks to show.
🛎️🔨
Because that’s what bullies do. Rich and poor bullies alike LOVE to throw their weight around. And they will use money, leverage or power as a way to make their gain.
The best way to BURY these “insert word of choice” is to kill them with kindness and carry on the same. They’ve actually created a LARGER platform for Prasad if he’s so willing. He can deliver his exact same speech for the world to see. And the ACCP along with their bully activists can stew about while the world mocks them for spineless activists they are.
Appalling, and so dangerous, what this mini-mob could accomplish. Keep talking Dr Prasad!
I think the more time a person spends in institutions like universities, the more insulated and prone to groupthink they become. These scientists/doctors are like birds in a cage who have forgotten how to fly.
As I continue to hear and read about the fear, cowardice, and weaknesses of people and organizations who so easily CANCEL a Speaker- someone who is a Professional in their Field- I feel it is no longer "good enough" to just comment on the
Information just as I am doing here. Little effort on my part. Rather, I feel that's it's time we go one step further, take a few extra minutes and respond DIRECTLY to the Organization who made this 'cowardly' decision:
Www.ACCP.com
They are also on LinkedIn
Reach out to Alicia Lichvar who wrote the "open letter" - she is also on Linked In and you can message her directly in a respectful way with your comments. Reach out to Michael M - the Director of ACCP who extended the invite.
We are ALL preaching to the same choir here. This is our little bubble.
Thoughts anyone?
Agreed.
https://www.accp.com/news/index.aspx?i=331
This is the link from ACCP stating they have rescinded Dr PRASAD invite to speak
"My job is to terrify cancer cells. But apparently it's not just malignant cells that get uneasy around me." - I love you so much my man. Keep it up.
I feel the same!
When we have a Supreme Court Justice who doesn't know what a woman is, this sort of thing is to be expected.
Our medical establishment - largely in the grasp and pocket of big pharma - is a disgrace. But no less than our own government that still stands behind and aid and abets one of the largest crimes in history. The Covid-19 virus did not emerge from nature It was created in a lab in Wuhan, with the aid and assistance of Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins and Peter Daszak. More, the Communist Chinese government, which oversaw the lab, lied about the release of the virus, killed or silenced its brave doctors who tried to warn the world and then spread it - possibly due to misfeasance but more likely malign malfeasance. The proper response would be inquiries, trials and reparations. Instead our own gangster government gave us lockdowns, mandates and repeated lies. Such a government has forfeited any pretense to legitimacy.
I have never understood how the virus can be successfully treated or contained without knowing what it is. Knowing what it is means knowing how it was created.
The knowledge is there to do so. The tragedy is that so many paid the ultimate price.
" It's true that decades ago we funded gain of function research that resulted in the creation of a viral pandemic that killed millions". Sometime in the future when your children or grandchildren are old the truth will be told.
100% spot on. If this situation is treated like the 2008 Wall Street induced financial crisis that blew up our economy on a massive scale and deeply harmed so many people, then the perpetrators (and copycats) will be back for multiple repeats. Close to zero prosecutions of those financial criminals and many of those creeps are still wealthy beyond most people’s imaginations. Do we want to see future generations continue to experience what we have gone through in the last three years of misery inducing authoritarian policies, as this gets swept under the rug, or do we want accountability?
This is so disturbing. I know Vinay has a pretty thick skin at this point, but I seriously worry about the quality of our medical care if medical professionals cannot even hear words from someone they have disagreed with previously. My god these people are pathetic.
Sad that freedom of speech is dead. We can’t have disagreements any more? The world is unglued.
It is lemming behavior.
Thank-you for speaking out, Dr. Prasad, and thanks to the Free Press for providing a platform. I am a new subscriber. Cancellation and bureaucratic control of academics is also an epidemic. I am a retired physician and studied pharmacy in my undergrad curriculum. As a recent retiree in the pandemic, I volunteered giving vaccinations. I ceased doing this when health care workers were coerced by their employers with threats of termination if they declined the mRNA vaccine. That marked the end of shared decision making and true patient consent.
It is scary. And cowardice is still multiplying. Consider all the top doctors who lost their medical licenses and livelihood simply for prescribing ivermectin for covid. Despite the fact the FDA has since acknowledged that doctors have the legal right to prescribe this drug for covid and has published a bizarrre partial retraction of their "you aren't a horse" campaign, medical licenses have not been reinstated. Why? The real crime was in not obeying the mob. And as readers know, "Cancel culture" is not just a medical issue. Racism with a capital "R" is the new Scarlet Letter (even before George Floyd). It doesn't matter if the charge is true or really causing harm... the Red Queen demands the accused be placed in the stocks or on the rack for public ridicule and harassment and punishment won't let up until the person is impoverished and broken. Not long ago the Free Press included an article by/about JK Rowling who was cancelled and burned in effigy in Hollywierd for stating there are only two genders. This "cancelling" ceremony was upheld by the ungrateful, partially talented, little snits whom she elevated to movie stardom with her incredible Harry Potter books. And naive me...I forwarded the JK Rowling article to my highly educated millennial nieces as all had been great Harry Potter fans. I thought it included interesting perspectives about her life. Good grief! They promptly and angrily texted me explaining she was a horrible person and deserved cancelling (or worse?). So this "disease" of unbelievable intolerance, censorship, cancelling, and condemnation has infected my family, It is frightening just like a cancer. And so much is generational. I recall stories of youth righteously ratting out their parents during Mao's cultural revolution-- instantly destroying not only their parent's lives but their entire family. Yes, please do post your speech. I look forward to reading it and will pass it on.
When my now-15-year-old entered elementary school, I was chagrined at the immediate and intense nature of the anti-bullying campaigns at the school, not because I am in favor of bullying, obviously, but because the then-superintendent used bullying as a tactic in his administration. I began to notice that in lots of spheres that were increasingly politicized, bullying is the M.O. du jour. What I often bring up in my comments here is “the juvenilization of America.” From our last President all the way down to the school yard, insecurity masked in arrogance and immaturity masked in virtue-signaling rule the day aka bullying. It is way past time for the adults to “re-enter the room” and show the bullies that, while they may be acting out of trauma and fear, this is not how a liberal (in the classical sense of the word) society operates.
New MAGA: Make America Grownup Again!!
Our country’s COVID response was abhorrent and a thumb in the eye of science and the scientific method. Once respected institutions- CDC, NIH - were enthralled by groupthink and co-opted by politics and failed miserably. The sad thing is, they still won’t admit how wrong they were even as the evidence unfolds and then they try to retcon the public into believing how great they did (see: Fauci).
It has been a consistent pattern that leftists are masters of projection. They accuse all others of “fascism” while cramming societal and behavioral mandates down our throats “for our own good”. They accuse their opponents of corruption while lining their pockets with filthy lucre from our adversaries and the very corporate entities they pretend to despise during their kabuki theatre.
Get the politics and ideology out of science. If not, our society and future is (even more) screwed.
They were effective in their brainwashing, as most people I know are anxiously awaiting their next booster, and seem willing to continue boosting as many times as they are told to -indefinitely!!
The booster that lasts for 3 months Oh and you may still get Covid anyway
I know! Unless you are in a very vulnerable group- why bother?