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Welcome to the New (Brainwashed) Civilization
I had a disturbing conversation with a relative, a cousin who is an off-the-charts left-leaning liberal and much older than me. She lives out west. She’s my flesh and blood and I let it drop today that I, and others in our family and my husband’s family had not been vaccinated. My reasons are personal preference due to major food allergies and a very bad reaction to a flu shot in 2008.
She and her husband have been vaccinated and boosted out the tail. When I disclosed this, she had a meltdown. “OH! OH! Oh no!! Oh! NO! I never would have thought you were like that! I am sweating — I can’t talk — I have to end this conversation! Oh no! A super spreader — how could you not?!! We had no post-symptoms!
The reason I brought it up at all, gingerly, was because she has been double-vaxed and boosted all up, and has worn a mask since everywhere, but got Covid in May 2022. She had a rough time, she raspily said but recovered. So now, they’ve discovered she’s severely anemic since May! She’s had bloodwork and the outcome has not yet been determined. I’m waiting to hear.
My new neighbor from California was forced to be vaxed to keep her job, and three hours after first shot experienced sudden high blood pressure, a detached retina, and eye bleeding. Yet they are still prescribing the shots, and pushing them on children.
My sister had not been vaxed but tested via a (Chinese) drugstore home test that she’s positive. After three days of feeling ill and quarantining, she is on the mend — with homemade chicken soup and aspirin. All of our family members have been well. My conversation with my cousin today alarmed me. I would never disclose my political views. I got the feeling that would send her permanently over the edge. But I was shocked by her reaction today — given the fact that she has been fully vaxed and boosted, got Covid, and is now having further health issues.
She could not speak to me! She made it clear she’s never without a mask. I haven’t worn a mask in over a year. God bless her, but as a well-educated woman (a retired teacher), there was no room for discussion or opinion.
I’m still stunned that some of our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors have turned into stiffly single-minded, intolerant, and fearful people. We’re edging up to midterm elections. This is one issue among many that I see red lines, hostilities, and anger where there should be open discussion, and above all, freedom to differ. At least in a democracy.
I also see many mental health issues evolving from these recent societal upheavals, where they were not so present in society and families before, to this degree, that I can recall.
What has happened to our world, and who did this to us? Not a questionable virus — this is much bigger. I was upset today, but I realize I cannot change someone dear to me or her way of thinking. I can keep the door open and pray for our world that it comes to its senses.
But what does our world look like going forward if this is the norm? Maybe in communist countries, but in free societies, this is not acceptable!
Published in General
Fear is the most powerful emotional source that can be tapped into for political power. It’s insidious. And because man is an irrational animal fear is difficult to overcome.
Good luck.
This is the kind of stuff that is an enemy of a free society.
Not sure why I should care if other people were vaxxed, or why they should care if I was. Different people have different situations that may lead to different decisions. If you trust your personnel physician, ask him or her. If you don’t trust your personnel physician, you need a different personnel physician.
I try to helpfully remind people that COVID didn’t shut anything down — the government did. Usually good for a rise.
@frontseatcat, I wouldn’t worry overmuch about sending that relation over the edge.
I have been person non grata with many of my co workers, friends and family. Mainly because as one co worker calls me I am a freedom guy. I do not know if the vax works or not. I suspect not as advertised. I am sure masks do not in a community setting after it breaks out in the population. Use masks and/or vaxs as you want. It is your call, it is your health. Everybody’s situation is different. The fact that my position is not the norm in this country makes me very sad. We are not the people we once was. We are not the people I thought we were before 2020.
Same Here.
Fear is powerful indeed, but I think it may come in second, to hatred of an ‘other’.
Leftist political movements are often based on creating divisions in society, and then capitalizing on the resulting mistrust of their selected opposition, which has now been painted as pure evil by news media, social media, etc. Then leftists can feel virtuous simply by hating people they’ve never even met. They don’t have to go meet those people, to see if they’re really as evil as they’ve been portrayed. They don’t have to think or understand. They just have to express hate. In fact, it’s generally much easier to hate something or someone that you don’t fully understand.
Once the Republicans are portrayed as evil, then the further you are from their beliefs, then the more virtuous you become. The resulting relentless move further and further away from Republican ideas keeps the accepted narrative moving ever further left. This also creates consistent messaging, and discourages even their supporters from considering other points of view, lest they find themselves being moved from ‘virtuous’ to ‘evil’.
That is very powerful stuff, and very difficult to recover from.
I also think it’s difficult to keep people scared indefinitely. Hatred is easier to maintain. Democrats running for mayor in towns you’ve never heard of are still using Trump in their campaign ads. Their voters may not be as scared of climate catastrophe as they were 50 years ago. But they still hate Trump, and his supporters.
Hate is more powerful, and easier to maintain long term.
It also tends to eventually lead to violence, which Democrats apparently view as more of a feature than a bug.
You’re right, EJ, fear is a powerful political tool. But it can’t compare to hatred.
The Democrats’ ongoing efforts to break American society into groups of tribes which don’t trust one another is pure poison.
This is very powerful stuff, and it will be difficult to recover from.
Fear has to come first. You have to become fearful of something before you hate it. This is what these people are planning to do. You must fear their potential actions so that you may hate them.
Every man is a rapist. Every conservative is a fascist. You fear those things. So you hate them.
Your relative is sick. Tell her to call a doctor and move away. She may not have died of Covid, but she was most certainly lost to Covid.
And if you live in California, you need to move because your physician no longer can provide advice unless it is approved by Gov. Newsom
The big problem facing those of us who know the truth regarding COVID is that explaining the science of why those who believe the COVID lies happen to be wrong is complicated.
Fear is a powerful motivator. Additionally, a fear-based propaganda campaign can use very simple memes to get the idea across.
For instance, compare the below screed written By Janci Lindsay PhD to the much simpler statement that “those who didn’t care enough about others to submit to a simple shot are going to infect others with COVID.”
Which one requires the average person to hear or read the message several times to dissect the meaning and which one doesn’t?
And therein lies the problem.
There’s all kind of fear. And all kinds of objects of fear, even oneself. And Phobia is not just a moon of Saturn.
I think the fear, even in previously confident people, is a preexisting, latent condition. Some people are just deeply fearful, and either hide it or live in a world in which their various fears have never been triggered. In other words, some people are neurotic, waiting to meet their neuroses.
I’ve never considered my self a fearless person, perhaps stupid but not fearless. But I was afraid (and thought of writing out my will) for maybe Jan and Feb 2020 (I didn’t). After that, I realized that it was not a rampant and effective bioweapon.
Why? It was the lies. Maybe it was the indefinite continuation of the 2-weeks-to-stop-the- spread. Maybe it was the over the top reporting of portable morgues outside NYC hospitals. Maybe it was the denial that it came from China. Maybe it was the switching up of explaining why not to mask, to how to mask with a scarf, to then just wearing a common hospital mask. Maybe it was the immediate suggestion of permanent societal changes; the designer masks, or that Fauci said we would never be able to shake hands again. Maybe it was the total disingenuousness of the media, poo-pooing existing medicines, and very likely is was Neil Cavuto’s utterly ridiculous “Hydroxychloroquine! It will kill you!!!” Lies.
Maybe it was the immediate retraction of an Indian paper showing that covid contained HIV coding, while everyone was denying it. Lies. If they were denying or hiding it, you know that they’re already necessarily aware of the coding, which means that this was not a surprise to anyone, which means they knew what the virus was, and it means that though they had intimate knowledge of it, they had dismissed it — which means it was not an effective bioweapon. Which takes away the principle fear.
By May of 2020 I was shaking hands with everybody I could. Just to see who was afraid, and maybe encourage them not to be. Most people were not, only the 20-year-olds were. In all, we’ve taken our chances, taken mild vitamin precautions, and we’ve never gotten covid. We’re fine.
It’s a shame other people are still overwhelmed with fear. And as I said, I am by no means fearless.
What gets me is that the vaccine is not seen as a vaccine or treatment, but a righteous action of purity. She’s completely insane even from the CDC point of view – some people cannot get vaccines for medical reasons, and just because she did not have a reaction it means nothing for someone else with a different body and immune system.
I’m honest conflicted on getting the new booster. I’d be curious if there are any people affiliated with the Great Barrington Declaration who have a good review on the safety of the booster. Sad to say, I just can’t really trust most public health authorities much anymore.
I don’t want any prophylactic mRNA vaccines ever again. Specifically, the flu or the possible combined flu/covid shot. I haven’t had the flu shot in a decade and haven’t knowingly gotten the flu. So why take an unknown (perhaps disingenuously described) vaccine that I don’t have to.
According to Western Journal GIs in both Washington State and Maine got covid shots instead to the flu shot — by accident. Riiight. How do multiple medics coincidentally give the wrong vaccine? Trust not.
FSC, maybe you can invite her to Thanksgiving and gently talk to her. :)
I don’t agree, but I think it’s a highly effective way to generate hatred.
I don’t think this is brainwashing at all. I think fear – saturating, societywide, completely voluntary, possibly enthusiastic fear – has been the norm since at least October 2001, when as far as I could tell the whole country was too scared to travel after 9/11. Even overland, as I was.
At the time I had no idea at all that this might be a portent of anything at all. Maybe it was, for two decades later. Or longer. I am very pessimistic.
About society. Not so much about government, and even less about vaccines.
Fear of what you don’t understand, can often times be very rational. If you didn’t know a neighborhood well, would it be unwise to maybe not get get out of your car and walk around after dark?
Consider the fact that most conservative leaning people, seem to have a fairly decent understanding of the liberal left. Conversely most left-leaning people have very little actual understanding of conservatives. If you never try to actually consider things that you don’t understand, then you will never understand them at all.
Also with many people it seems to be a dichotomy between safety, and Liberty. Most people who cherish Liberty, will weigh the pros and cons of safety versus autonomy. Those who cherish safety will give very little consideration to being free to choose, when the choice is made for them.
In your cousin’s mind, your non-vaccinated status means you are much more likely to get Covid and transmit it to others. She finds this terrifying, and it is incomprehensible to her that you would choose to put yourself and others at risk of a possible deadly disease. You can show her studies and explain your reasoning, but she likely won’t be receptive.
If you want to keep this relationship, the best thing you could do is let her tell you all of her reasons to get vaccinated (so she feels she’s been heard), then tell her that you’ll think about it all, but that most likely you’ll have to agree to disagree. (Telling her you viewpoint would be useless; she can’t hear it.)
If she can live with this then you’ve likely still got a relationship with her. If she can’t, and keeps disrespecting your boundaries despite you telling her such things as, “Cousin, I know you feel strongly about this, but we’ve agreed to disagree and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop talking about it,” then you’ll have to cut off contact, since she certainly won’t be less evangelical about her other leftist positions.
One concern I might have, if I’d previously gotten jabbed, is that those might have weakened or otherwise altered my own immune system so that I may be in the future dependent on artificial measures. Even if the future artificial measures add more complications of their own.
Fortunately I never got jabbed, so I don’t have that concern.
She can kiss her job and license to practice medicine goodbye . . .
well said – we’re not the people I thought we were either – it’s all been a shock.
“Hatred is easier to maintain. Democrats running for mayor in towns you’ve never heard of are still using Trump in their campaign ads. Their voters may not be as scared of climate catastrophe as they were 50 years ago. But they still hate Trump, and his supporters. Hate is more powerful, and easier to maintain long term. It also tends to eventually lead to violence, which Democrats apparently view as more of a feature than a bug.”
Doctor – these are powerful statements that have certainly been observable, and the more unstable, the more incidents we see…
She seems happy with the illusions and I get the feeling that her spouse and friends are like-minded..
I have 3 new neighbors from CA and they confirm this is true – in fact, much worse than people or I imagine.
I hope you’ve made it clear that they must no longer vote as if they are still in the People’s Republic of California.
And therein lies the problem. Lying to achieve control and profit tends to create disbelief.
Business opportunities for the unvaccinated… seen in Edmonton, Alberta:
At the current exchange rate American women can get a 25% discount!
He should only sell to unvaxxed customers too, otherwise why bother?
Are you still overseas? My sister’s friend returned from Europe and it was ok to go – more relaxed, but returning to US, they had to show Covid cards, all kinds of ID and were highly scrutinized, etc.