Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 128

[ecosophia]

We are now in the third year of these open posts. As the phrase "died suddenly" repeats in the mass media like a mantra, statistics for work days lost to illness and all-cause mortality mount up in heavily vaccinated nations, and more and more ugly facts about the official response to Covid spill out into public, we are entering what may well turn out to be the most difficult period of the Covid disaster -- the phase in which denial rises in lockstep with the death rate, and a great many people try not to admit what has been done to them by the people and institutions they trusted. It could get ugly, folks.

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. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Comments

[ari_ormstunga]

At the risk of over-simplifying what is probably a complex issue, I'd guess it's probably due to the myth of Progress. Many people believe things have to get better and better, and whatever is new and innovative is superior.

It may also be the influence of the Man, Conqueror of Nature narrative. Science just has to overcome all of the limitations and inconveniences of life, and there are seldom any downsides its advocates care to acknowledge (until it's too late, of course).

When deeply held narratives like that are challenged by events like those we've discussed here, advocates for them often double down. Those advocates basically run everything in the Western world. Insane stupidities ensue.

Finally, well, the vast majority of humans are of average intelligence or less, but most of us are convinced we are smarter than we actually are. Insane stupidities ensue.

[(Anonymous)]

It'll be an interesting thing to watch. The Slate Star Codex guy and his wife just had a baby. The wife works for the company selling the bacteria, and has used it herself. He's actually written a geekily cute ode to the new baby, but it includes the explicit hope that the bacteria will colonize the baby. If it turns out to be a problem... will he say anything about it in public at the risk of bad publicity for the wife's company?

[(Anonymous)]

Would he even make the connection? It might take months or years for it to show up, the symptoms would be baffling, it might take years to get a diagnosis, just weird health issues. Not to mention these are twins born after what sounds like an unusually hard pregnancy (even by twin pregnancies standards). The bacteria his wife got to avoid tooth decay is likely not going to be one of the first things he thinks about if they end up seriously ill....

[(Anonymous)]

Except, this doesn't apply to some of the cases I've seen. Yes, it absolutely applies to some; but much like how a lot of us were baffled by how many of the people who in 2019 refused on principle to ever use modern medicine were among those shrieking in 2021 about forcing people to take experimental injections, there are people who seem to be unable to think clearly about this topic, and only this topic.

And, well, I fully expect insane stupidities; most people are not that bright, and/or don't have the time and resources needed to do the research to find out things like this are risky. It's just, a lot of very bright people who are normally reasonably sane, even where issues of Progress come up, seem unable to think this through. This is what's baffling to me.

(Or weirder, some people are perfectly able to see potential issues with biotech, but seem unable to see issues with possible effects on future generations...

[slinky_weasel]

How do you get a mentat (as in, from Dune) to make a bad decision? Give them false input data.

If someone gets all their news from the MSM, well....

[(Anonymous)]

And some people are super bright in one area and not so bright in another. I won't be figuring out how to rescue the sinking submarine anytime soon.

The ability to be high-performing in multiple scenarios, running multiple high-function performances is just beyond most of us. I don't have a laboratory and if I did I sure wouldn't know what to do with the test tubes except make pretty colours. Oh look this silvery-black just slithered up my nose. Oh dear. I'm sure it's nothing.

I think also a healthy (even scathing) cynicism about authority and 'them' is very helpful when eliminating false steps and catastrophic mistakes in judgement. And people who want to sum things up in a pretty postcard picture aren't gonna take that route.