Rising fascism in the US

@Walter Hinteler,

Yes, the bolds and italics were mine for emphasis on what I felt was important.

The piece focuses on the three reasons that public condemnation and censorship should not be used against people who have questions about the safety of vaccines.

General thought:

A lack of thinking and questioning government edicts reminds me more and more of Nazi Germany. So few people stopped to ask themselves and others, “Why do I feel pressured to hate my friend?” “Why do I feel pressured to publicly denounce my neighbor?”

Why did so many people here and elsewhere online feel so comfortable attacking people here or elsewhere online who posed challenging questions about vaccines? Like a mindless mob.

When we have such a searing example of where that can lead.

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@Lash,

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Is that a person?

Yup.

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Alaric DeArment is a senior reporter at MedCity News covering biotech and pharma and its convergence with information technology. He has covered health care and drug development for 10 years, having previously worked at BioPharm Insight and Drug Store News. He graduated cum laude from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, in 2008 with a degree in journalism, having previously spent three years living in China. A native of Seattle, he enjoys traveling, nature walks, cooking, reading and writing in his spare time. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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I’m thankful scientists and doctors and people like Greenwald are questioning and researching the safety of those shots.

I am too. And I am aware of Greenwald's Pulitzer which was awarded to him eight years ago for reporting on the NSA. People can change. The fact that Greenwald won a Pulitzer doesn't mean that everything he's done subsequently is above criticism. No more than the fact of Chris Hedges' past plagiarism automatically disqualifies him as a social critic.

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...monetizing is how people are paid for their work.

Pandering to anti-vaxxers and uncritically providing a platform for self-declared enemies of public health for money is a mockery of independent journalism, hardly different from the click bait headlines in online tabloids.

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I agree completely with the careful forecast of what censorship could cause. It’s precisely what happened.

But not because of government censorship. This pandemic occurred in an unprecedented political environment compared with previous public health measures taken, for instance, against polio or for fluoridation. In the early 2000's, web culture had a lot to do with this as "experts" on message boards can pop up instantly and make a claim like "vaccines cause autism" which then gets spread around until it finds, say, a host community of parents whose kids have autism. For some parents, this was a lifeline, something that confirmed their suspicions, and these people formed a support movement – with a political edge. The Government is somehow to blame.

Political activists with an anti-government mindset were quick to recognize the anti-vaxxers as potential allies. Talk show hosts interviewed them. When the alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism was proven false it didn't matter – the fraudulent report from the early '90s in the Lancet is still being referenced by anti-vaxxers. The whole incident has been characterized as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". As activists began turning this into a partisan issue it became as toxic as guns or abortion, a great wedge issue. It also became embarrassing for the corporate advertisers which generate income for the media companies who then had to monitor content more heavily for hate speech and disinformation. When the covid pandemic arrived it was as if a rich prepared bed of fertile soil was already in place – which leads to your question here:

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Why did so many people here and elsewhere online feel so comfortable attacking people here or elsewhere online who posed challenging questions about vaccines?

Because it was no longer a question about vaccines, just as it's no longer a question about guns, or LBGTQ stuff, or CRT – all these topics have been politicized as never before and are argued, not on their practical utility but as some sort of tribal identifier. If someone attacks you online it's probably not because you support a different political viewpoint as much as it is that they just don't like you.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Live Nation, iHeartRadio, SIRIUSXM, Ticketmaster, and Pandora are Now All Under the Control of One Man.

Swell!

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@hightor,

Greenwald and Hedges remain trustworthy skeptical research journalists—unafraid of criticism—seeking answers where they lead.

The attacking I referenced happened mostly among the couple of hundred people I encounter on Facebook and other online sites.

They didn’t just suddenly decide they didn’t like each other—but they were pitted against one another by our government and media, which basically characterized anyone who was skeptical about hastily manufactured vaccines as Trump voters, idiots, murderers of society causing rampant death by not getting the jab.

I saw it.

Friends turned on one another, people lost careers.

Now, that the skeptics’ concerns have recently been validated, people are being rehired, some are receiving back pay and benefits from what they lost during that harsh time of censure and government pressure.

If the article had been heeded, all of that loss could have been avoided.

1 Reply

https://www.wcvb.com/amp/article/massachusetts-offers-to-rehire-some-state-employees-fired-under-covid-19-vaccine-requirement/41767290

Massachusetts offers to rehire some state employees fired under COVID-19 vaccine requirement

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https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

A partial accounting:

Myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. Most patients with myocarditis or pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly. Most cases have been reported after receiving Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna (mRNA COVID-19 vaccines), particularly in male adolescents and young adults.

A review of vaccine safety data in VAERS from December 2020–August 2021 found a small but increased risk of myocarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Over 350 million mRNA vaccines were given during the study period and CDC scientists found that rates of myocarditis were highest following the second dose of an mRNA vaccine among males in the following age groups:

12–15 years (70.7 cases per one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech)
16–17 years (105.9 cases per one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech)
18–24 years (52.4 cases and 56.3 cases per million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, respectively)

Multiple studies and reviews of data from vaccine safety monitoring systems continue to show that vaccines are safe. As a result, the agency will refocus enhanced surveillance and safety monitoring efforts toward children and adolescents.

As of November 10, 2022, there have been 1,044 preliminary reports in VAERS among people younger than age 18 years under review for potential cases of myocarditis and pericarditis. Of these, 250 remain under review. Through confirmation of symptoms and diagnostics by provider interview or review of medical records, 695 reports have been verified to meet CDC’s working case definition for myocarditis. See below for counts of verified reports of myocarditis by age group.

5-11 years: 22 verified reports of myocarditis after 21,778,319 doses administered

12-15 years: 361 verified reports of myocarditis after 24,545,414 doses administered

16-17 years: 312 verified reports of myocarditis after 13,471,735 doses administered

As the COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for younger children, CDC and FDA will continue to monitor for and evaluate reports of myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination and will share more information as it becomes available. Learn more about myocarditis and pericarditis, including clinical considerations, after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. More than 646 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through November 9, 2022. During this time, VAERS received 17,392 preliminary reports of death (0.0027%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. CDC and FDA clinicians review reports of death to VAERS including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records. Continued monitoring has identified nine deaths causally associated with J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccination. CDC and FDA continue to review reports of death following COVID-19 vaccination and update information as it becomes available.
__________________

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Thank goodness Justice prevailed.

https://news.yahoo.com/york-supreme-court-reinstates-employees-161336350.html

The New York state Supreme Court has reinstated all employees who were fired for not being vaccinated, ordering back pay and saying their rights had been violated.

The court found Monday that "being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19." New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed earlier this year that his administration would not rehire employees who had been fired over their vaccination status.

NYC alone fired roughly 1,400 employees for being unvaccinated earlier this year after the city adopted a vaccine mandate under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
_______________

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@Lash,

Quote:

They didn’t just suddenly decide they didn’t like each other—but they were pitted against one another by our government and media, which basically characterized anyone who was skeptical about hastily manufactured vaccines as Trump voters, idiots, murderers of society causing rampant death by not getting the jab.

I don't see it that way, I don't see it as anything instigated by any outside forces directing from offstage. Looks like the behavior of frightened angry people to me. Remember how deadly the virus was at the start of the pandemic – people really thought it was a matter of life and death.

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@hightor,

I guess we’ll leave it there. No sense in reiterating what I saw that you didn’t.

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https://youtu.be/vhyQRc1vzkg
Jon Kiriakou who rose through the CIA ranks, became a whistleblower who was imprisoned by Obama, tells us what our country is up to. Do you want to know?

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

https://youtu.be/vhyQRc1vzkg
Jon Kiriakou who rose through the CIA ranks, became a whistleblower who was imprisoned by Obama, tells us what our country is up to. Do you want to know?

How about you, Lash. Do you want to know?

1 Reply

@Frank Apisa,

Yes, let’s talk about it. What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Yes, let’s talk about it. What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

I do not KNOW a damn thing about Kiriakou's experiences in the CIA...and anyone about whom you DO KNOW was either its director or a piss poor analyst or agent.

I suspect Kiriakou was not a "victim" of the Obama administration.

So...the question remains. Do you "want to know what our country is up to"...or are you content to listen to people like Kiriakou and Putin?

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank, your boomer attitude is hanging out.

This thread is about governmental encroachments against society, corruption. I have enough material to last forever, unfortunately.

I particularly hate my own government’s attacks on whistleblowers and speech. The Obama administration wanted to silence good men from telling the world about their murders and other abuses. These facts are easily verifiable.

But, you don’t care about what your government is guilty of. You have no desire to call criminals out and force people who run this country to adhere to certain civil and human rights standards—you want to hide the truth and join with those who murder, attack, and threaten those who would tell the truth.

People like you support the collapse of decency in this country.
People like you are responsible for the **** this country perpetrates.

If hearing facts about your silly, corrupt team bothers you, block me. Your ridiculous ad hominem responses just make you look pathetic—along with the Democrat cheer squad who high five you—all sitting around, grinning with your thumbs up you asses. 👍🏼

I do listen to whistleblowers.
You should too.

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Yes, let’s talk about it. What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

The question remains.
What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

1 Reply

@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Frank, your boomer attitude is hanging out.

This thread is about governmental encroachments against society, corruption. I have enough material to last forever, unfortunately.

I particularly hate my own government’s attacks on whistleblowers and speech. The Obama administration wanted to silence good men from telling the world about their murders and other abuses. These facts are easily verifiable.

But, you don’t care about what your government is guilty of. You have no desire to call criminals out and force people who run this country to adhere to certain civil and human rights standards—you want to hide the truth and join with those who murder, attack, and threaten those who would tell the truth.

People like you support the collapse of decency in this country.
People like you are responsible for the **** this country perpetrates.

If hearing facts about your silly, corrupt team bothers you, block me. Your ridiculous ad hominem responses just make you look pathetic—along with the Democrat cheer squad who high five you—all sitting around, grinning with your thumbs up you asses. 👍🏼

I do listen to whistleblowers.
You should too.

You HATE your country...and damn near everything about it. You ACCEPT the accounts of people who are, by law, criminals. You DEMONIZE people who will not go down that destructive path you are on...who look on life as something better than merely something that must be endured.

I pity you...which is more than most people in this forum are able to muster for you.

So...calm down.

Question still remains: Do you "want to know what our country is up to?" Or are you content with your "glass is half empty and cracked at that" perception of it?

1 Reply

@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Lash wrote:

Yes, let’s talk about it. What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

The question remains.
What do you think about Kiriakou’s experiences in the CIA and as a victim of Obama’s administration?

Fair enough.

I do not KNOW...and I would not be willing to guess.

Not sure why you are willing to guess, but I suspect it is a form of confirmation bias.

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@Frank Apisa,

Not accepting the government in its current form is not hating—it’s demanding decency.

Whistleblowers were revered when they told on politicians you hated. Now, they’re suddenly criminals when they tell about the abuses of your sacred cows.

I don’t respect anyone whose idea of decency switches between teams.

1 Reply

@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Not accepting the government in its current form is not hating—it’s demanding decency.

Okay, I'll buy that. But what you are doing is hating your country...NOT demanding decency.

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Whistleblowers were revered when they told on politicians you hated.

Not by me.

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Now, they’re suddenly criminals when they tell about the abuses of your sacred cows.

What "sacred cows" is your mind dreaming up? I can think of nothing that I consider a sacred cow.

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I don’t respect anyone whose idea of decency switches between teams.

My guess is that few people here give a damn about whom or what you respect or do not respect, Lash.

I KNOW for certain I do not. Your kind do more harm to this nation than good. I can only hope you eventually see that. I doubt that will happen, though.

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Jason Stanley (from a lecture)

"Fascism is an ideology that is centered on power, loyalty, and fear of the other."

"Plato's Republic is the response to a figure, Thrasymachus, and Thrasymachus argued that all is power, virtue is weakness, and justice is weakness, and the most powerful person should rule, and morality is for the weak, and all value goes with winning.

"All of Plato's Republic is responding to Thrasymachus and Plato in book 8 discusses how democracy will always lead to tyranny. He talks about how a leader will rise and sow fear of one group and represent himself as the protector of the people. And democracy because it allows freedom of speech will allow a demagogue to rise to power, will allow a demagogue to use this kind of rhetoric, and we will always fall prey to this type of figure. And democracy will immediately lead to tyranny."

"Our country, fascism is not some foreign thing. It's always been here. But our country is a heroic example of our fight against fascism. If you look at the examples of literature that black intellectuals have been creating over the past 150 years, what have they been doing? They've been fighting fascism forever because they've been the victims."

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Rising fascism in the US

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