Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 197

[ecosophia]

We are now in the fourth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary more than three years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health are anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; public health authorities government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; and the story continues to unfold.

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 and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. 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 wholly owned 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 plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. 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. 

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion. 

Comments

Re: Hot takes

[(Anonymous)]

"Hot take" OP here. I hear you, Anonymous. I too run in PMC circles and yes, indeed, the TDS is bad. That said, in my experience, financial incentives do have a way of getting people to limber up their notions... slowly but surely... Maybe not everybody, but, as I say, vaguely enough, "many people."

And a note about TDS. Mainly I stay quiet when the people around me start thrilling to their TDS. And the funny thing is, they don't seem to notice that I'm staying quiet because they're so into it. They work themselves up sometimes to the point where they're practically spitting! And I'm not the only person who stays quiet in these situations. I'm noticing the people who stay quiet.

Re: Hot takes

[(Anonymous)]

Same, PMC circles, stay quiet, notice quiet.

There is a new thing in non-profit circles, a bit of an industry popping up around 'trump proofing' your org. News aggregators/NonProfit councils building a narrative around it and selling more subscriptions/memerberships. Lawyers offering advice. Webinars being sold. Now that people can make money off of it, they are ramping up the rhetoric and selling to the TDS vulnerable. They did this during covid and will do it again for the future current thing until they run out of this particular demographic.

Re: Hot takes

[(Anonymous)]

Just for grins yesterday, I met with a retirement planner, part of a PMC benefits package at work. The guy was probably in his early 60's. After I brought the conversation around to geopolitical risk, possible loss of faith in the dollar, he lost it, blaming the villainous Bad Orange Man for the uncertain times we all live in. Expectation was that things should pretty much continue as they've been going. But DJT was gumming things up.

The political rant struck me as completely inappropriate, but apparently it's par for the course here in Deep Bluelandia.

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

Re: Hot takes

[(Anonymous)]

Ochre Harebrained Crumudgeon,

Oh yes, I recognize this. I had a funny experience the other day. In a casual conversation, like thunder out of a blue sky, in came the blast of TDS. "Trump YAH YAH YAH YAH." I wasn't thinking about it, just said what popped into my head, and it was soothing words, as if to a child: "yes, yes, the bad orange man is very bad." And then I changed the subject.

I somewhat surprised myself by that. And I was a little worried that I might have insulted the other person by my tone, but, as far as I can tell, it seems not.

This isn't the forum to be getting into Trump, of course, but what I'm saying is, adults I have known all my life do not seem to me to acting entirely normally for them— still, after all this time.