Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 53
Aug. 9th, 2022 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
As we move into the second year of these open posts, it's pretty clear that the official narrative is cracking as the toll of deaths and injuries from the Covid vaccines rises steadily and the vaccines themselves demonstrate their total uselesness at preventing Covid infection or transmission. It's still important to keep watch over the mis-, mal- and nonfeasance of our self-proclaimed health gruppenfuehrers, and the disastrous results of the Covid mania, but I think it's also time to begin thinking about what might be possible as the existing medical industry reels under the impact of its own self-inflicted injuries. (Yes, the change in image theme reflects that; the earlier sequence served its purpose. With a nod to El Gato Malo (1, 2, 3), the posts to come will be headed by thoughtful memes relevant to the Covid mess. Yes, I'll take nominations -- you can post links in the thread.)
So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:
1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.
2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.
4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.
With that said, the floor is open for discussion.
Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-10 02:14 am (UTC)https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/aug/09/rep-jaime-herrera-beutler-concedes-perez-will-face-kent-for-the-3rd-district/
He is running on the more populist ticket, specifically anti mask and vax mandate, along with very pro-life and second amendment. Given he was one of two major challengers to the republican incumbent, I think his odds are good for November.
This really floors me how much things have changed, me as well. In the 90's and during the Bush years, Republican was a dirty word to me. I still have the same views on preserving civil liberties and avoiding foreign interventions ( euphemism for blowing up other countries ). I used to strongly support the pro-choice movement on grounds of bodily autonomy, but considering their deafening silence on the mandates, to call them prostitutes would insult honest sex workers just trying to support a habit.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-10 04:30 pm (UTC)I'm not entirely sure if I'm interpreting your thought process here correctly, but I would encourage you not to allow your personal views with regard to abortion access to be changed by the behavior of the social/political movements that are fighting over that issue.
I know it's tempting to be able to go "all in" for a particular party or candidate, but for me at least the last two years have taught me that I'm going to have to hold my nose to vote for anyone from either of the opposing teams, and I'm hopeful that this will lead to enough political homelessness that we could see the rise of viable third parties and independent candidates.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-10 08:26 pm (UTC)There you go being the voice of reason again. :P
I guess how we deal with betrayal and what we learn is another one of the tests. Gods know there's enough of that going around. It is good if one is cleaver enough to avoid a trap as long as they do not snap at the bait in another. Oops.
I do agree we could use viable third parties, the two party system frames the debate too narrowly. As I see it right now, the populist movement that is growing in the Republican party is the most promising at the moment. Promising, not perfect. Given that our current ruling class looks dead set on creating an authoritarian state while trying to spark WW3 and put us in the cross hairs of an energy shortage and famine, I'm very willing to go in with those who think this a bad idea.
The candidate I cited is not perfect, but a good sign that enough citizens have had enough of mandates along with state and corporate overreach in our lives.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 12:53 am (UTC)Bingo. That is how it must be framed to start a populist movement. You want to make sure there are enough people on your side to get a good movement (especially those that are already most in power), but just a select list of people that are already on the margins that you can unhuman and take the rights away from in order to ensure the true citizens are put back in their rightful place. Poles. Roman Catholic clergy. Roma. "Loose" women. Whatever.
Take the new government of the Czech Republic for example - the public there was too smart to fall for the "forced sterilization and segregation" of covid vaccines and mandates, so voted out the Baddies who were into that sort of thing!: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/czech-government-dismisses-mandate-vaccination-plan-82352700
Oh, oops...
"After decades during which Roma children were corralled into special needs institutions, legislation to improve Roma access to the education system was introduced in 2014.
Meanwhile, in a landmark move last year, the government agreed to pay compensation to hundreds of women who were involuntarily sterilised.
But some Roma still suffer chronic social and economic exclusion.
...
As in other parts of Europe, Czech Roma complain that they commonly face violence and aggression from far-right mobs and police.
...
One regional mayor from STAN, one of the five parties in the centre-right government coalition that took power in December, boasted last month of his call to have Roma shot. He still plans to run for re-election."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/3/czech-roma-reclaim-holocaust-site-but-equality-feels-distant
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 04:27 am (UTC)To keep on topic for this post, the disastrous response from Cooties has fed the populist response. Not just the fox and mask mandates either. A large number of small businesses were crushed from the lockdowns while large corporations reaped the windfalls. Corporate used to be a dirty word in some liberal circles, now it seems to be in more conservative ones. Then there's the likely illegal rent moratoriums issued by the CDC. Mom and Pop investors who put their nest egg into a rental property or two got a ticket to forclosureville. Renters did not have to pay, but property owners were still on the hook for the mortgage payments the rents were to cover.
While not big enough yet, there's a growing push to put limits on state and federal emergency powers.
I very much would like to see the individuals responsible for the abuses of the last two and a half years held to account, but yes, there is the danger of scapegoating groups as well. That needs to be constantly watched for. History has enough examples. We do not need to add another. We are vulnerable enough to that kind of mob mentality, myself included.
At the moment, it looks like the best bet for any meaningful reforms is coming from the conservative side. I hope it works, the alternatives look grim. Best of luck on your side of the boarder as well, and thanks for the sobering warning.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 04:50 am (UTC)The fact that both of these have come under determined attack in the last 12 months has led to plenty of impassioned discussions and ultimately to a deeper understanding of each other which has been good. My experience with religious "no exceptions" ideologues on the issue of vaccination has made me more sympathetic to her experience with religious "no exceptions" ideologues on the issue of abortion, and vice versa. However, the strangely hypocritical fact that the pro-choice position of these respective issues are being actively pushed by opposing teams means that neither of us can vote our conscience on our Most Important Issue without seriously disappointing the other unless and until we can find a viable third party.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 03:24 pm (UTC)Many pro-choice people rolled hypocrites on vaccines to stay with their team.
Anti-choicers remained consistent - it is still choice for me but not for thee. No one publicly did,to my knowledge, what you did, and notice the parallels (the exact parallels, as my story I shared here before was meant to demonstrate). I saw a few people notice how exact the logic of forced vaccination was to rape - specifically it is "corrective rape", though seldom did the people noticing seem to know the term. But that didn't seem give many a broader perspective on that social issue, either. Which is illustrative, given a very prominent feminist who used to write about such things is now a darling on the right.
And of course, many people against mandatory vaccines then revoked their pro-choice stance on forced birth in a convulsion of punitive single-issue illogic that is consistent with the way the covid mass mind works, at least, so I guess also predictable.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-10 06:00 pm (UTC)Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-10 09:07 pm (UTC)Mandating experimental gene therapies is just...violating. Even without the ghastly effects we are seeing. I am still somewhere between floored and furious that many of those who rightly said 'my body, my choice' turned a blind eye to this.
TBH, that our likely congress critter is pro-life is not a big selling point for me, but that is his stance. Given that the Supreme Court turned abortion rights back to the states, he would have to be a state representative to have much effect on that. If he's running in favor of ending mandates, preserving civil liberties, and against more wars, that's good enough for me.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 09:04 am (UTC)I have often pondered how it could be that the pro-choice, bodily autonomy ethic could have diverged into two such polarised and opposed camps. One, pro-choice in relation to vaccination and anti-choice in relation to pregnancy, the other pro-choice in relation to pregnancy and anti-choice in relation to vaccination.
This phrase of yours made me thoughtful: "Denying a medical treatment can have destructive consequences, but forcing an experimental treatment"...
Because (perhaps) what is disguised here is a pharmaceutical interest which is pro-choice when it comes to helping people avail of drugs or medical procedures, but anti-choice when it comes to helping people to refuse drugs or medical procedures.
And so, the divergence (in bigger picture) starts to look more like a pro- or anti-pharma dispute, disguised in this mutually contradictory way, under the language of choice and bodily autonomy.
Hmmm... much more to think about. Thank you.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 08:07 pm (UTC)If you start from the position that medical interventions always make thing better, it does go a long way to explaining the embrace of vaccine mandates (as well as the ever-expanding, no-such-thing-as-too-many-shots childhood vaccine schedule), support for abortion access throughout the entire pregnancy, the "affirm and transition" approach to gender dysphoria, the pushing of drug-based treatments for things like ADHD and mood disorders, hormone therapy for routine menopause, and even constant covid testing (keep sticking a swab up your nose until you find a "disease"!). Medical intervention is always good and you always need more of it.
I don't think they consciously think of it that way, of course. I think it's just embedded in the PMC liberal mind set at this time.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-12 02:17 am (UTC)Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 07:56 pm (UTC)Between COVID and the overturn of Roe v. Wade, I have had obvious cause to think about this, and have come to the conclusion that forcing a medical treatment is worse than denying one. Both are bad imo. But the former is more violating.
I'm pro-bodily autonomy on both the jabs and abortion, and I don't find many politicians speak for me. But given the imperfect choice between a candidate who seeks to deny abortions (even in the first trimester) but opposes forcing vaccines on people, and a candidate who claims to be "pro-choice" but wants to mandate injections, I will vote for the former.
I wonder how many others there are like me, and if we're going to be the cause of any surprises in the midterms.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 09:29 pm (UTC)And I'm sure we are. I think GA's new abortion law is completely stupid, terribly written, and short sighted. And I *still* think our governor cheated by not recusing himself from his own electoral commission. I will hold my nose and probably vote primarily R this year regardless simply because my calculation came out about the same as yours.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 10:24 pm (UTC)Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-11 11:34 pm (UTC)If you forced me to choose between outlawed abortion with no exceptions and mandatory vaccination with these particular shots, I would come to the same compromise as you.
In general though?
What if we had a powerful political lobby that believed any intervention to extend human life is a blasphemy against God's plan for our time to die, and therefore all life-extending medical treatment is both immoral and a drain on shared resources and should therefore be banned?
I think denying and especially criminalizing medical treatment has the potential to be just as harmful as mandating it, and it all comes down to specifics and personal values.
Re: Good news from SW Washington
Date: 2022-08-12 09:36 pm (UTC)Same although it's tough because I'm trying to conceive and don't want to die. I mean I'm at high risk for PPROM, aka "What Killed Savita Halappanavar In Ireland."
(And Ireland didn't even have a no-exceptions law at the time! There *was* an exception for "mother's life in danger." It's just that by the time she *had* severe sepsis--as opposed to "just" being "likely going to get it if we don't terminate"--it was too late to save her. But a no-exceptions law would lead to the same outcome.)
So yeah, agreed.