Jan 23, 2023·edited Jan 23, 2023Liked by Chris Bray
'Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions'
- Primo Levi
No President, Prime Minister, Dictator nor a King can plant the seeds of tyranny without legions of enablers.
But in order to rule with an iron fist of tyranny, otherwise decent people, must be rendered bystanders.
Count on your fingers how many people you know who stood up.
Unfortunately most people have been brainwashed by the media. Fear and loathing from the cabal and the media sychopants have done a great job terrorizing the lemmings. There are just to many cowards everywhere ...sad
I saw that thread through Euggypius, and I too had to check out the comments, having some fragile hope that he was being pounded into the dirt for his hysteria. But nope. I had to read the first one twice, accusing him of putting people in *danger* by suggesting it was safe to eat without a mask. I thought it was sarcasm! To be fair, there were some sane people on there, but the number of insane people is frankly depressing.
If we could agree on a reality and just disagree about how to react to it, I would have some semblance of optimism for the future. But we can't even agree on a reality.
That and the free-fall of our educational system. One size fits all education. A generation raised to believe that words are violence. Safety over all! Sicherheit über alles!
When discussion becomes completely impossible due to the breakdown of even the possibility of communication following the dissolution of even the most elementary common priors, bad things start to happen.
That could be why that city manager sent the cops to your house. Not that you'd threatened him, but simply because you'd questioned him and therefore revealed yourself as one of the ontic xenos who doesn't reside in his conceptual universe and with whom he therefore could not communicate. Deep down, at some primal level, he sensed that this inevitably means violence. He then assumed that clearly you must think the same. You asked what you thought was a simple question, he heard an Ork screaming WAAAAAGH and sent the imperial guard to intimidate you. Not realizing the officer lived in your conceptual universe and not his, and would therefore not intimidate you at all.
Jan 23, 2023·edited Jan 23, 2023Liked by Chris Bray
chris, you've done it again. there's a certain heaviness that has settled on me. i live on a lovely street and wonder how my neighbors or tenants would feel about me if they only "knew." my right next door neighbor loves me but also has opined that unvaccinated parents should have their children removed from their care! i wonder if that goes for cats?
i have had to rethink every single relationship that i have and will have to rethink relationships that i haven't even imagined yet. i've lost so much respect for so many people. call me shallow, but i can't feel the same about anyone who a) still has an "In this house we believe...." sign on their front lawn, b) flies a ukranian flag, c) regularly posts photos of needles going into their upper arm flab with self congratulatory updates on the number of boosters they've had, d) wears a mask outside. i could go on but that's a lot of people who i just don't like so much anymore.
and that doesn't even include the people who A) openly called for unvaccinated people to die, B) cheered when they did, C) blamed unvaccinated people for continuing the pandemic, D) were happy enough to see inalienable rights taken away, E) were comfortable with the discrimination inherent in a two tiered society. those people are lost and cannot be forgiven or invited back into my life.
an old friend is visiting Savannah this weekend and wants to see us while she is so close. in 2019, this would have been a cause for joy. but today my BF asks "didn't you say she posted very pro-vaccine stuff on her facebook page? didn't she say insulting things about the unvaccinated?" so here we sit, pondering the possible awkwardness of a dinner with an old friend. how delicate will we have to tread? what if the subject comes up? what if she asks me why i no longer work for the Spoleto Arts Festival where she was once on my costume crew? i'm to the point where i no longer care and if asked i will be indelicately direct which could make for an unpleasant evening.
we spent today feeling a little sick, wondering if we should beg off, my BF reliving the last dinner he had with his friend in NYC (once he was allowed in a restaurant there again), a man he had mentored, that descended into an uncomfortable argument over- he can't even remember the precipitating event but knows he doesn't want a redo.
at this point, i feel like there are maybe 10 people i feel unabashedly comfortable around. 3 of them are vaccinated and two of them live in germany so we're not around them all that much.
but i walk through my life, suspicious of everyone, wondering what role they will play in destroying the freedoms we have heretofore taken for granted in this country. will they not rest until the authorities have come to my door and force vaccinated me? it doesn't help to listen to the new PM of NZ threatening to search out unvaccinated people to achieve 100% compliance. not that we're near NZ but i realize that these people will not take NO for an answer.
i have nightmares of angry vaccinated zombies burning my house down in a purifying ritual and i wake up in a cold sweat with a dread that is difficult to shake even in the light of day.
for the most part i'm fine and we go on with life as usual which is pretty easy to do in the free state of SC but there is a wall between me and everyone else now. there are no unencumbered exchanges, no automatic trust, no simple human relations.
it's as if we live on two separate planets with no connection.
My wife and I joined friends for a gathering on their outdoor patio during “Lockdown Summer” in 2020. We live in Massachusetts. There were seven of us at the gathering.
The topic turned to the behavior of Floridians and the willingness of Governor DeSantis to permit a modicum of freedom there. One of the other guests stated, without hesitation, that Floridians who do not voluntarily behave like Massachusetts residents (i.e., with masks, distancing, etc.) should die! I will note that the offended woman is a highly educated attorney.
My wife, who is from Florida, and whose parents and many other family members live in Florida, told this guest that she just wished her parents dead! Things got ugly fast, and the gathering broke up within 15 minutes. What is wrong with these people? I welcome replies with thoughtful theories, especially Chris’s..
I was not raised with any political affiliation or leanings. Somehow, in my twenties, I discovered a book by the stoic philosopher Epictetus by accident. That led to Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, and finally to Bastiat, Rand, and Hayek, among many others. I became a small "l" libertarian. Why not? I was in my twenties and freedom sounded great to me. I began debating people at work about philosophy, politics, society, morals. This was in the '90s. Even back then, I was called a racist, selfish, heartless, fascist. I remember one guy listening to what I thought was a well reasoned point, and when I finished he simply said, "Fascist", and walked away. These people were every bit as authoritarian then as they are now.
The replies to Bob Wacthers Twitter essay about how he’s ready to visit small groups of people in well ventilated places with 5 boosters without a mask (maybe) really deserves a bracket tournament to see who had the craziest reply.
I was like you Chris, I bit the city officials and the local health officers on their ankles, and wouldn't let go until they answered me, like a rabid dog. WHY can't the gardeners mow our lawns, they're mowing yours! WHY does the sign say 'No Beach Access' when there clearly is? WHY do all the outdoor benches have yellow tape on them? WHY did you festoon our city with blue nylon ribbon to show strength? WHY are the cops parked all over the place? I never stopped.
Also, my family and my group of lifelong friends gradually stopped talking to me, and I was completely shunned when I didn't get the shot. Shocking and sad, I'm still not over it.
When Burbank USD fired it’s unvaccinated teachers and staff, including my daughter’s beloved kindergarten teacher, I asked the other class parents to sign on to a letter of objection. Only 9 of 16 parents agreed to participate. Several of the 9 parents had no problem firing an unvaccinated teacher, they were only annoyed that their kid was personally impacted.
With that and knowing that 85% of my neighbors dutifully trotted out to vote for Adam Schiff and Joe Biden, I have no interest in befriending my fellow Burbankians. We have nothing in common.
I know polls can be wrong but I’ll never forget how high the numbers are for crazy stuff like taking kids…putting people in camps…tracking people…the worst of the worst ideas…in this Rasmussen article/poll
With numbers like this I can’t go back to thinking about this country as I used to do.
With the take over of all of our institutions by the anarcho-communists, huge portions of our population are comfortable with giving up all or most of their liberty in return of some vague promise of security. This belief is drilled into them by all the right people and if you acquiesce, you can be a "good person". Those who question the state are "bad people". Also, being one of the "bad people" can have real world consequences, such as in employment, education, and having all your inalienable rights curbed, or like in the 6 January political prisoners, eliminated.
I sell PPE and know the masks are useless, even dangerous, but I see all sorts of folks wearing them outdoors. Ditto the injections, even though as the bodies mount up and more people become ill, at least that is becoming more obvious to even the most brain-dead conformists. That's why your Stack, plus all the others who resolutely and bravely point out the truth, is so important. We won't be able to educate many parts of our society. There will always be those, who like Japanese soldiers still fighting WW2 in the Philippines, in the 1960's, won't ever give up.
What's implicit in the three twitter replies is the failure to recognize liberty as a good. If liberty is recognized as more valuable than bodily health then the calculus changes entirely.(even assuming the other sides claims about the health benefits of their interventions)
They ask us to sacrifice for the common good, but the whole idea of America is sacrificing health and safety to obtain freedom. 'Give me liberty or give me death' are the words that the Covidians really and truly can't parse at all.
'Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions'
- Primo Levi
No President, Prime Minister, Dictator nor a King can plant the seeds of tyranny without legions of enablers.
But in order to rule with an iron fist of tyranny, otherwise decent people, must be rendered bystanders.
Count on your fingers how many people you know who stood up.
Unfortunately most people have been brainwashed by the media. Fear and loathing from the cabal and the media sychopants have done a great job terrorizing the lemmings. There are just to many cowards everywhere ...sad
I saw that thread through Euggypius, and I too had to check out the comments, having some fragile hope that he was being pounded into the dirt for his hysteria. But nope. I had to read the first one twice, accusing him of putting people in *danger* by suggesting it was safe to eat without a mask. I thought it was sarcasm! To be fair, there were some sane people on there, but the number of insane people is frankly depressing.
If we could agree on a reality and just disagree about how to react to it, I would have some semblance of optimism for the future. But we can't even agree on a reality.
That and the free-fall of our educational system. One size fits all education. A generation raised to believe that words are violence. Safety over all! Sicherheit über alles!
When discussion becomes completely impossible due to the breakdown of even the possibility of communication following the dissolution of even the most elementary common priors, bad things start to happen.
That could be why that city manager sent the cops to your house. Not that you'd threatened him, but simply because you'd questioned him and therefore revealed yourself as one of the ontic xenos who doesn't reside in his conceptual universe and with whom he therefore could not communicate. Deep down, at some primal level, he sensed that this inevitably means violence. He then assumed that clearly you must think the same. You asked what you thought was a simple question, he heard an Ork screaming WAAAAAGH and sent the imperial guard to intimidate you. Not realizing the officer lived in your conceptual universe and not his, and would therefore not intimidate you at all.
chris, you've done it again. there's a certain heaviness that has settled on me. i live on a lovely street and wonder how my neighbors or tenants would feel about me if they only "knew." my right next door neighbor loves me but also has opined that unvaccinated parents should have their children removed from their care! i wonder if that goes for cats?
i have had to rethink every single relationship that i have and will have to rethink relationships that i haven't even imagined yet. i've lost so much respect for so many people. call me shallow, but i can't feel the same about anyone who a) still has an "In this house we believe...." sign on their front lawn, b) flies a ukranian flag, c) regularly posts photos of needles going into their upper arm flab with self congratulatory updates on the number of boosters they've had, d) wears a mask outside. i could go on but that's a lot of people who i just don't like so much anymore.
and that doesn't even include the people who A) openly called for unvaccinated people to die, B) cheered when they did, C) blamed unvaccinated people for continuing the pandemic, D) were happy enough to see inalienable rights taken away, E) were comfortable with the discrimination inherent in a two tiered society. those people are lost and cannot be forgiven or invited back into my life.
an old friend is visiting Savannah this weekend and wants to see us while she is so close. in 2019, this would have been a cause for joy. but today my BF asks "didn't you say she posted very pro-vaccine stuff on her facebook page? didn't she say insulting things about the unvaccinated?" so here we sit, pondering the possible awkwardness of a dinner with an old friend. how delicate will we have to tread? what if the subject comes up? what if she asks me why i no longer work for the Spoleto Arts Festival where she was once on my costume crew? i'm to the point where i no longer care and if asked i will be indelicately direct which could make for an unpleasant evening.
we spent today feeling a little sick, wondering if we should beg off, my BF reliving the last dinner he had with his friend in NYC (once he was allowed in a restaurant there again), a man he had mentored, that descended into an uncomfortable argument over- he can't even remember the precipitating event but knows he doesn't want a redo.
at this point, i feel like there are maybe 10 people i feel unabashedly comfortable around. 3 of them are vaccinated and two of them live in germany so we're not around them all that much.
but i walk through my life, suspicious of everyone, wondering what role they will play in destroying the freedoms we have heretofore taken for granted in this country. will they not rest until the authorities have come to my door and force vaccinated me? it doesn't help to listen to the new PM of NZ threatening to search out unvaccinated people to achieve 100% compliance. not that we're near NZ but i realize that these people will not take NO for an answer.
i have nightmares of angry vaccinated zombies burning my house down in a purifying ritual and i wake up in a cold sweat with a dread that is difficult to shake even in the light of day.
for the most part i'm fine and we go on with life as usual which is pretty easy to do in the free state of SC but there is a wall between me and everyone else now. there are no unencumbered exchanges, no automatic trust, no simple human relations.
it's as if we live on two separate planets with no connection.
My wife and I joined friends for a gathering on their outdoor patio during “Lockdown Summer” in 2020. We live in Massachusetts. There were seven of us at the gathering.
The topic turned to the behavior of Floridians and the willingness of Governor DeSantis to permit a modicum of freedom there. One of the other guests stated, without hesitation, that Floridians who do not voluntarily behave like Massachusetts residents (i.e., with masks, distancing, etc.) should die! I will note that the offended woman is a highly educated attorney.
My wife, who is from Florida, and whose parents and many other family members live in Florida, told this guest that she just wished her parents dead! Things got ugly fast, and the gathering broke up within 15 minutes. What is wrong with these people? I welcome replies with thoughtful theories, especially Chris’s..
I was not raised with any political affiliation or leanings. Somehow, in my twenties, I discovered a book by the stoic philosopher Epictetus by accident. That led to Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, and finally to Bastiat, Rand, and Hayek, among many others. I became a small "l" libertarian. Why not? I was in my twenties and freedom sounded great to me. I began debating people at work about philosophy, politics, society, morals. This was in the '90s. Even back then, I was called a racist, selfish, heartless, fascist. I remember one guy listening to what I thought was a well reasoned point, and when I finished he simply said, "Fascist", and walked away. These people were every bit as authoritarian then as they are now.
The replies to Bob Wacthers Twitter essay about how he’s ready to visit small groups of people in well ventilated places with 5 boosters without a mask (maybe) really deserves a bracket tournament to see who had the craziest reply.
I was like you Chris, I bit the city officials and the local health officers on their ankles, and wouldn't let go until they answered me, like a rabid dog. WHY can't the gardeners mow our lawns, they're mowing yours! WHY does the sign say 'No Beach Access' when there clearly is? WHY do all the outdoor benches have yellow tape on them? WHY did you festoon our city with blue nylon ribbon to show strength? WHY are the cops parked all over the place? I never stopped.
Also, my family and my group of lifelong friends gradually stopped talking to me, and I was completely shunned when I didn't get the shot. Shocking and sad, I'm still not over it.
When Burbank USD fired it’s unvaccinated teachers and staff, including my daughter’s beloved kindergarten teacher, I asked the other class parents to sign on to a letter of objection. Only 9 of 16 parents agreed to participate. Several of the 9 parents had no problem firing an unvaccinated teacher, they were only annoyed that their kid was personally impacted.
With that and knowing that 85% of my neighbors dutifully trotted out to vote for Adam Schiff and Joe Biden, I have no interest in befriending my fellow Burbankians. We have nothing in common.
My worry for about a year has been that 5% or 10% of Americans are permanently impaired by covid anxiety, and that's why life will never be the same.
I know polls can be wrong but I’ll never forget how high the numbers are for crazy stuff like taking kids…putting people in camps…tracking people…the worst of the worst ideas…in this Rasmussen article/poll
With numbers like this I can’t go back to thinking about this country as I used to do.
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/jan_2022/covid_19_democratic_voters_support_harsh_measures_against_unvaccinated
Just hearing that j biden esq. seem to have 40% "approval" of late frightens me (4 out of 10 people are that f'd up?!)
With the take over of all of our institutions by the anarcho-communists, huge portions of our population are comfortable with giving up all or most of their liberty in return of some vague promise of security. This belief is drilled into them by all the right people and if you acquiesce, you can be a "good person". Those who question the state are "bad people". Also, being one of the "bad people" can have real world consequences, such as in employment, education, and having all your inalienable rights curbed, or like in the 6 January political prisoners, eliminated.
I sell PPE and know the masks are useless, even dangerous, but I see all sorts of folks wearing them outdoors. Ditto the injections, even though as the bodies mount up and more people become ill, at least that is becoming more obvious to even the most brain-dead conformists. That's why your Stack, plus all the others who resolutely and bravely point out the truth, is so important. We won't be able to educate many parts of our society. There will always be those, who like Japanese soldiers still fighting WW2 in the Philippines, in the 1960's, won't ever give up.
Danny Huckabee
What's implicit in the three twitter replies is the failure to recognize liberty as a good. If liberty is recognized as more valuable than bodily health then the calculus changes entirely.(even assuming the other sides claims about the health benefits of their interventions)
They ask us to sacrifice for the common good, but the whole idea of America is sacrificing health and safety to obtain freedom. 'Give me liberty or give me death' are the words that the Covidians really and truly can't parse at all.