by Stacey Rudin Wednesday August 12, 2020

“You’re a grandma killer.” “You’re not a scientist.” “You’d kill people to revive the economy.” “You should trust the experts.” “I knew you’d resort to conspiracy theories.” These phrases all have one purpose: silencing you, to control the competing narrative. The fact that they want to shame and intimidate you into compliance is evidence that your thoughts are dangerous — all the more reason to shout them from the rooftops. It is highly desirable and crucial to question motives, critique experts, and think for yourself. When that doesn’t happen, the force of the crowd prevails, and disaster occurs.

“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.” -George S. Patton

**“Stay home, give up everything you hold dear, shame your neighbors into compliance…save lives.”**

How many of us questioned the veracity of this image? We all saw them on social media, bombarding us with an astroturf campaign designed to convince us that support for lockdown was universal. After all, who wouldn’t be willing to simply remove himself from the “chain” of infection, thereby “saving lives?” Most people accepted the story. They put the “stay home, save lives” sticker on their social media profiles. They joined the team, collecting money for “frontline heroes,” and summarily ostracized outsiders. None of this is surprising: we have access to neverending media, but very few of us have pandemic management knowledge. This is a combustible combination.

The media propaganda hid the truth by effectively convincing us that the exact opposite was true. A disease this widespread in fact cannot be stopped with non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing. It requires herd immunity, the quicker the better, developed by the young and healthy while sheltering the high-risk. Failure to follow this protocol results in millions of unnecessary deaths. They fooled us, and now they are eager to cover their tracks. They arm propaganda soldiers with an array of weapons to silence us, the most pervasive of which are discussed below.

“You’re a conspiracy theorist!”

There is nothing crazy about suspecting a conspiracy. Conspiracies happen all the time. Enron, Watergate, Ponzi schemes, Iran Contra, the assassination of Julius Caesar, bank robberies, art heists, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ — all conspiracies. When circumstances do not add up, you can and should consider the possibility of a conspiracy.

Right now, society is treating as Black Plague a common type of virus with the following characteristics: (1) a survival rate of 997/1000, (2) average age of death above the life expectancy — with major co-morbidities, (3) did not cause significant excess mortality in countries and states that did not “lockdown” (lockdown is a mortality event in itself), (4) kills fewer children than lightning strikes, (5) presents with no symptoms at all in 60+% of cases, and (6) for which 80% of people already have pre-existing t-cell immunity.

Our reaction to this eminently manageable disease makes no sense, yet far from turning the ship, we continue ardently on course. Something is driving this, and we should all be trying to figure out what that something is.

“You’re not a scientist!”

This sad little statement is often the last resort of a cornered debate opponent. You don’t need to be a scientist to interpret data, understand how diseases work, and investigate how pandemics are supposed to be managed. Humans do this little thing called “learning” all the time, every single day. Anyone with the ability to read, a curious mind, and the dedication to understand can decipher the puzzle of COVID19.

“You should trust the experts!”

Often called “the argument from authority,” they mean “you should blindly trust our experts, without the ability to substantively test their recommendations!” This is a fallacy of rhetoric and logic. Take it from a litigator: you could find an equally-qualified expert to contradict everything their expert is saying.

In the realm of COVID19, for example, we have Anthony Fauci of the United States, and Anders Tegnell of Sweden. They each have credentials, ardent fan clubs, and completely divergent approaches to COVID19. Fauci loves lockdown; Tegnell says it’s unsustainable and hard to exit once implemented. These competing methodologies can only be fairly judged on their results, and now those results are in.

Sweden has far less excess all-cause mortality in 2020 than heavily locked-down areas like New Jersey and Michigan. Tegnell won. See where “trusting experts” like Fauci without question would have gotten you?

“Examine things as they appear to your own mind; objectively consider what is said by others, and then establish your own convictions. Trust nothing and nobody but yourself.” — Epictetus

“You won’t change your mind. You’re not objective!”

What a clever trick for preventing an opponent from ever being correct! They try to bring you around to their view by saying you need to admit you were wrong; if you won’t, it proves you’re wrong. A catch 22!

If you are confident you were right from the beginning, stand your ground. You have nothing to fear. Stand squarely behind your decision. They hate that!

“You’re a Trump supporter!”

What on earth does Donald Trump have to do with whether we have the ability to contain COVID19? Any mention of political leanings lets you know that the person speaking sees COVID19 as a political point-scoring war. Now you know what motivates their lockdown-loving actions: “winning!”

“You don’t care about human life!”

The lockdown masterminds created a Moral Panic by making everyone believe that lockdowns can stop deaths. Anyone opposed to their desired action — lockdown — was labeled a killer, allowing them full social control without any police action. Convenient! A psy op for the ages. Here is the truth:

People who believe in herd immunity believe in science. Herd immunity developed by the young and healthy is what spares the maximum number of lives of the most vulnerable. TRANSLATION: LOCKDOWNS KILL.

“Social distancing that cannot be permanently sustained is a different story. Some people will eventually be infected, and for every young low-risk person avoiding infection, there will ultimately be roughly one additional high-risk older person that is infected, increasing the death count.”

The quicker that herd immunity is developed, the faster the most vulnerable elderly can get back to their lives without fear. This is urgent, because they don’t have much time left in many cases.

So no. We do not want to kill grandma. You are the one killing grandma.

“This disease causes long-term health effects!”/“There is so much we don’t know!”

The strength of a hurricane is irrelevant to whether or not we can stop it. Should we burn our city to the ground to “avoid storm damage”? Because that’s what lockdowns do. With fear and despair, we are killing thousands and thousands of people whose lives could have been saved. The exact same percentage of the population will get COVID, lockdown or no lockdown, and we are currently foisting the majority of that burden on the working class and poor while rich young professionals take Zoom calls. This is unconscionable and disgusting. It needs to stop.

“There is so much we don’t know.” Indeed, and this will never change. We will never know for sure what COVID19 or any other virus has in store for us. Even if we knew every detail, we couldn’t stop nature.

So fight. Tell the truth. Do not be silenced. Epictetus again: