Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
Agreed on all points. Thank you for your charitable summary of the pro-life position. The woman who is pro-choice on abortion, vaccines, and masks was never the problem during the height of the covid crazy. It was the women who are pro-choice on abortion but were (are?) pro-mandate on *public health* mandates. Though a smaller contingency, in my area of suburbia, we also had women who are pro-life on abortion but were silent on covid mandates.
I wrote about Emily Oster's anemic faux-pology today too, but one point I didn't emphasize is that she is not at all sorry for the spirit of the positions she took. For example, she advocated vaccine passports at sporting events. The only reason she doesn't push them now is because she finally had to acknowledge the shot doesn’t stop transmission. Given a vaccine that was 100% effective in stopping transmission, she'd have no problem with medical apartheid.
In other words, Emily Oster is sorry she was wrong about Covid, but misses that she was wrong PERIOD.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
There is an amazing level of mental gymnastics at play, not only for Oster, but for all ostensible progressives, it seems. When ends justify means, totalitarianism is afoot.
Correct. Make no mistake: If & when Emily Oster finally gets it and says, "I was wrong when I said and did the following things.....I acknowledge I contributed to the harm in the following ways...I have no excuse...I'm sorry....please forgive me," I will be the first in line to say, "I forgive you," with a hug.
I may be getting a reputation for being pessimistic on these issues, but all I can say is, "Don't hold your breath." Several of us have had thoughtful Twitter conversations on the "why's" of this, but the book, "Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me" offers some fascinating thoughts. OTOH, @jamessmithPT_ is the only "blue check mark" I have seen make a heartfelt, genuine apology about this stuff.
It should be noted that Oster was solidly on the "open the schools" side. So, to clarify, do you think that she was wrong about this and that we should have taken more precautions?
If so I agree with you, but it doesn't sound like Burns would.
No, she wasn't. she was solidly on the "mitigations can help us to open schools" side--which provided the cover for the teachers unions to close schools. The other Emily temporized constantly, and contradicted her own data. Her study which showed masks made no difference, still had a line at the end saying "but masks are still a useful precaution." That line from that study, was used by my own school to keep my kids masked in 2021. I have spent copious amounts of time showing that these mitigations did nothing to keep schools open (look earlier in this substack, and on Twitter), and in fact were inversely correlated. Emily Oster knows the same, b/c she and I purchased the same data set. I am not a fan of Oster because her cowardice perpetuated this. And I have never been supportive of schools being closed. The way to handle the risk was by offering people choice, and then encouraging others based on the results. Our leaders did the opposite.
I should just let this go, since Emma and Emily already provide insight and facts I would struggle to communicate. Still... The thing about masks that frustrates me now, and frankly always has, is that the data is not now, nor was it ever, disputed, sparce, contradictory, or any of that. Dating back to before 2020, the WHO collected a veritable crap-ton of masking data and developed a grid of various NPIs for responding to a respiratory epidemic. (I have cited it on Twitter, as has the Bad Cat. No desire to dig it back up at this point, honestly.) That grid said, "there is no data showing that masks provide any benefit" or words to that effect. Note: NO DATA. In typical politically motivated ass-covering, they go on to say, "use them if it makes you feel better." (Again, or words to that effect.) Despite taking that grid down in 2021, in support of The Narrative™, when the WHO put it back up, it still said the same thing! Masks are worthless and have always been worthless theatre for protecting, mitigating, slowing, or any of that, for covid. I actually believe they provide negative efficacy, but maybe that is for another rant.
Regardless of their efficacy (or lack there of) masks were never about health. They were simultaneously a psychological tool and an identification system.
1) IDENTIFICTAION- Masks identified to the system those citizens most likely to be compliant with government edicts. I say edicts because as far as I know there was no legislative action at Federal or state level about masks. They were demands (aka edicts) by elected leaders and dangerous ones at that because of precedence; that which government uses to do a run-a-round to law and constitutional rights. Both Civil Asset Forfeiture and Qualified immunity were created from precedence; one enables law enforcement to legal steal form citizens (as long as they split the take with the Feds, give the Feds their cut like any organized crime syndicate ) and the other allows government employees and elected leaders to escape almost all/any accountability for what they do.
2) PSYCHLOGICAL TOOL - The masks helped subconsciously reinforce teh idea that there was a deadly pandemic taking place. Imagine that there had been no masking requirements, no social distancing and no lock-downs. It would have been solely up to the news media's marketing efforts to keep the idea of a deadly pandemic alive because there would be no visible actions to remind people; no dead bodies packed up on street corners or even around Hospitals.
Masks were never about health. That's not to say many further down teh regulatory chain didn't honestly believe it was about the public health but those at the top who started it didn't implement these measures for the purposes given. Social Distancing helped destroy healthy relationships and lock-downs were highly effective at destroying a sizeable number of small/independent businesses, those not owned by giant corporations.
Show me when and where Dr. Oster was solidly on the "open the schools" side.
I have a very long memory of this debate in Twitterdom, including of what I and others said to her.
Emily Burns is my friend, and while I don't speak FOR her, I believe we are and always have been on the same side with regard to schools.
They never should have closed, based on what we actually knew at the time. Certainly for no more than two weeks. There was ZERO excuse for ANY closed schools in Fall 2020.
We citizens know that the government will absolutely lie to us. They know that qualified immunity will prevent them from any accountability so lying to us is no brainer. Once the 14 days to curb teh spread was over and they kept it going red flags should have gone off in everyone's head. At the very least all should have been saying if they were wrong or lying about the 14 days then why should I believe what they're telling me now. Most are unaware of teh appeal to authority logical fallacy, a fallacy which was effectively used by our government during the pandemic.
Day 15 should have been the WTF wake-up call for most but it was for only a few. Over time more began to ask but too few did on day 15. Day 15 is when I first suspected this was a scam. I recalled Ram Emanuel, Obamas chief of staff, saying never let a crisis go to waste and saw this as exactly that. They were using a virus outbreak as an excuse for a power grab and money which could come from the vaccine. They also could offer up political favors to large corporations by heling permanently shut down competition from small independently owned business via the lock down. I don't doubt for a second someone in the US Federal Government got paid in some way by one or more Walmart types to extend the lock down long enough too kill small businesses. And even if they get court later on, qualified immunity is their "Get out of accountability free" card.
Keep in mind that when you've spent years, possibly a life time practicing mental gymnastics it becomes relatively easy to maintain multiple confliting ideas simultaneously without any indication of problems and most of these people have been practicing for many years. It's necessary to maintain their ideological belief system otherwise it would collapse, maybe even implode.
Who do you think you’re helping with this hyperbolic nonsense? Viral pandemics have nothing in common with pregnancy nor has anyone suggested the people who don’t want to get vaccines should go to some Gulag. No one has been forced to get a vaccine. That said, society has a right to exclude from its public spaces those who refuse to take precautions that would protect the rest of us. You yourself were vaccinated before you entered school. And look! Here you are today alive and well to spout nonsense on the Internet.
* if they didn't want to go to college. (My son, a freshman THIS YEAR, had to provide proof of COVID vaccination to be allowed to register for classes.)
* if they didn't want to fly out of the country (where proof of vaccination was for a time required for reentry).
* if they didn't care about being a Blue Check.
The fact that actual, physical gulags were not put into place does not mean:
* that they weren't being openly contemplated, and
* that a virtual gulag that deprived offenders of livelihood, society, and freedom of movement was not clearly in evidence.
Your mom didn't abort you. And look! Here you are today alive and well to spout nonsense on the Internet.
"No one has been forced to get a vaccine." Who are you POSSIBLY kidding? Go talk to the millions who were unable to travel, attend school, work, eat out, go to their church without being forced to get a vaccine!
And then you offer us this gem: "society has a right to exclude from its public spaces those who refuse to take precautions that would protect the rest of us." When Joe Biden declares he is leading the institution of "precautions" that will ban you from commenting "to protect the rest of us", who are you going to call?
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
The struggle for women's bodily autonomy has nothing in common with vaccine science. Nothing. Take your nonsense elsewhere, I'm not buying it. The harm done is the million plus dead thanks to anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Trust a man to insist that women's bodies be governed by men.
How can anyone take you seriously, you are ignorant of the basic facts and are simply a fear monger. You stated "millions died" of Covid which is an false, it's not even debatable, it's just wrong.
Even the CDC now admits vaccines did nothing to stop transmissions so there was ZERO public benefit to vaccines.. other than making Big Pharma billions.
At least Ms Oster and 99% of the reading public, now realizes everything they did and said was wrong and is begging for forgivness. Not you though, you remain with your head fully buried in the sand believing the world is flat. Stay uninformed, the Dems need you.
DP your answers are those of a typical liberal know-nothing. You insist, INSIST, that you need to control what can and cannot be discussed, regardless that the entire known world of politics, logic, and science stand in opposition to you.
We are all used to such foolishness. Look for our response on Nov. 8, 2022.
You will notice, Mark, that I do not recur to personal insults to make my points while you do. I have offered you well-respected sources of good data to continue this discussion in a civilized manner; your only response is an ad hominem attack. You are either a Russian disinformation guy or just some sad, angry man with whom there is no point engaging. You have given me no reason to care what you have to say so I will not be reading your outbursts in the future.
The struggle for women's bodily autonomy HAS BEEN WON. No one in this country has a legal right to force any woman to have a baby. No one has any legal right too force her to have sex against her will. No one has a legal right to keep her barefoot and in the kitchen. No one has a legal right to keep her out of any career she wishes, provided that she can fulfill the physical and/or mental requirements of that career.
What struggle? What are you talking about? Abortion remains perfectly legal for the vast majority of the US population, and as for those who live in states with more restrictive policy, well, they're always free to move if that bothers them so much. Heck. That is what I was told when I was terrified that my 7 year old will not be able to attend school in CA (any school, including private schools) unless I agree to give her the pfizer covid vaccine. Freedom for me but not for thee. I honestly don't care about abortions at this point, and all the virtue signalers out there who deeply deeply care about bodily autonomy- where the heck were you over the past 2 years? Do you know what I care about, though? Let me tell you. I care about my governor wanting to prevent my child from attending school and literally extorting families to forcefully vaccinate kids with a vaccine that did not have the full FDA approval (nor does it have it now BTW, it's still on emergency authorization) and was by large unnecessary (to say the least) for their age groups. Oh! And also increased their risk of minor things, like myocarditis. So please. Go repeat those slogans somewhere else. We're not buying.
is the a real person?? If so you must be a troll. I find it impossible for someone to be this ignorant to reality. I can only assume you get a rise out of riling people up. If you actually believe the nonsense you are spewing, I feel sorry for you, because it means you have severe mental illness.
True. Abortion is about a woman being legally allowed to terminate (aka kill) the the life within her body where as the vaccine mandate is about violating the Nuremberg code like the Nazi's did forcing people to take one or more drugs but instead of doing it to a particular ethic group the covid vaccine is being pushed onto all so at least the covid vaccine push is being diverse, equitable and inclusive.
The COVID vaccine has a mortality that is greater than all other vaccines together over the last 30 years. I studied virology and worked in a lab at a respectable university. I am very much pro vaccine, if the vaccine is safe, reliable, and effective. I had my first COVID shot within 6 weeks of its release. As soon as we found out this vaccine was not only ineffective, but also harmful (especially to young men), any and all mandates should have been dropped, and all unvaccinated workers welcomed back to their employment with open arms and apologies. No excuses.
It didn't work because it wasn't a vaccine but a new type of mRNA based drug that they marketed as if it were a vaccine and they did that for both legal reasons and sales/marketing. You said teh word vaccine and its automatically trusted by most because until recent vaccines had a good history. We have too many of them on teh childhood vaccine schedule but you can thank greed for that. Once the US Government gave the industry a "get out of liability free" card for any vaccine for kids that makes the schedule naturally the industry is goin to try and create as many vaccines as they can whether they make sense or not.
1) Conflation is the act of trying to alter the appearance of one thing by mixing it up with others it does not belong to like conflating the gene therapy based covid vaccine with traditional sterilizing vaccines that do provide immunity form teh virus the vaccine is targeting. Aside from teh word "vaccine" the covid vaccine has nothing in common with other vaccines like those on teh childhood vaccination chart. You might as well say a musket from the 1800s is the same as a nuclear warhead because both are "weapons".
2) People were being forced to take it via coercion. Just because they weren't being arrested and imprisoned that doesn't mean they weren't being forced to take it. Having to pick between having a career or being jobless is effectively forcing someone and that's exactly what some like those in the medical field who were licensed were facing; loss of license top practice med or take the shot. In some nations like Australia they were rounding up people and detaining them.
"Loss of license to practice med or take the shot" is especially interesting because more recently we found out that high level doctors, CEOs and other powerful people in hospitals who were hesitant, or refusing, to take the shot were given fake vaccine cards.
I would not be surprised if 99% of politicians and others pushing the drug/gene-therapy have not taken the shot and never planned to. Even Biden and other politicians getting the injection on national television... it could very easily have been water or some other innocent substance.
I would guess that its a mix. You have some at not just the top but various levels who are in on it and know some or all of the plan and they are on board with it to make money or obtain power. Then you have those not participating who are being threatened for refusing to tow teh lien. In California they've p[assed a bill where a doctor can loose his license in CA if he/she says something about covid to a patient the government considers misinformation about covid and or teh vaccine. And you know those fukcers in the California government WILL absolutely be sending in spies to doctors to try and catch them saying something so that teh CA government can purge the California medical system of anyone who doesn't tow the line.
The problem isn't being wrong. Everyone is, sometimes often, sometimes occasionally. The problem is the blindness to being wrong and not even noticing, much less apologizing or making amends for it.
It's obvious that real problem -- the technocratic class's lust for power and spreading of Platonic "noble lies" to get and keep power -- hasn't been addressed. As Plato himself wrote, it's precisely these people who lust for power the most, who most need to be kept away from it.
Emma I just want to thank you for your voice during all this. In the darkest days of 2020 I would read your Twitter and feel more empowered and less alone. You made a difference. Thank you.
Amnesty = Amnesia. Yet, we need punishment to prevent it from ever happening again and to start reparations: they should lose all their assets to pay for treatments.
How many lives can still be spared? few are still suicide vaxxing!
How many teen lives have been ruined with myocarditis when they knew in advance it would be widespread?
Abortion and COVID could not be more different. A communicable virus and procreation have nothing in common from a public health perspective. Nothing. "Medical apartheid"? Are you nuts?
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
Right.
Where anti-covid mandate pro-life and pro-choice people diverge re: abortion is issues about what a body is, when it "begins", and who has authority over it, both in general and given certain circumstances/parameters.
Post-Dobbs, as someone with a pro-life stance, I've been able to have respectful, mutually-enriching conversations with pro-choice folks who were/are anti-mandate on covid issue. Emily Burns (whom I now know IRL & have spoken f2f with on this topic ) is one example.
No. Are you just being deliberately dim? Pregnancy is not contagious, COVID is. When it comes to pandemics, you don't get to indulge in your individual "beliefs" about science and the public welfare.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
I get to be afforded my God-given, inalienable rights and Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties. My kids do too.
Neither the government nor fellow citizens get the right to make me pretend I'm sick when I'm not, or to pretend that not-sick is sick. They also don't get the right to force people to cover their faces with cloth or submit to medical treatments they don't want (or need, in most cases).
The past two+ years happened because Emily Oster & others promoted a myopic view and unattainable goal. I'm sorry to see you were misled by it.
Ahhh...but my "individual beliefs" on COVID science included the 14 random controlled studies completed prior to January of 2020 of which none concluded that masks were particularly effective in preventing the transmission of viruses in non-health care environments. But apparently public health policy embraced YOUR "individual beliefs" that was pulled from lesser quality science. Your solution to this conundrum is authoritarianism. Mine is individual liberty. And in hindsight it is becoming more obvious everyday that liberty had the better public welfare outcome.
No, that sounds like a trial, Karen: a rejection of government under farcical state of emergency and restoration of rule of law. True, a dozen baddies were condemned, ten were hanged, then cremated, and their remains dumped in a river. You can pick the river, if it makes you feel better.
It's you who are ignoring science. My God, even the CDC admits the vax did nothing to stop transmissions. Both the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins studies concluded everything the Nazi's did during the Scamdemic did NOTHING to prevent any deaths.
You are clearly living in Zucherberg's Metaverse because not too many of you, even among liberals, still think anything during the Scamdemic was correct or useful
Can't give up the power over others, can you? The COVID-19 was a problem a few years ago, COVID-22, not so much, yet vaccines continue to be pushed on the public. Likewise ineffective masking. Your body, your choice, my body, your mandate? I think not.
The one good thing about the COVID charade was that it revealed that every position taken by the Democrat Party and their Press Catamites ("my body, my choice" and "no government between a patient and her doctor," to name but two) was as disposable as a used condom if it got in the way of them acquiring more power. And, like a condom, they are always happy to pick up another one when they need to fuck us again.
Oh, "Y'all" don't get it (I love how Soros-trained trolls use "y'all" to sound down-homey). Your choices affect my life. - if y'all don't vax-and-mask-up, I might catch a sniffle. Can't have that.
Oh look, a used condom...where's that recycling bin?
Actually, it's true- they have nothing in common. Medical coercion to agree to a novel treatment without sufficient data on efficacy and safety is not legitimate. It is especially not legitimate to fire people, threaten their livelihoods and threaten their children's ability to go to school unless they agree. In this issue, every single liberal person should have defended one's right to decline and protect the sovereignty of their own body. To coerce someone by holding their livelihood and their children's education hostage would have required a hefty pile of evidence for benefit to others and to public health. No such pile of data ever existed. In fact, the more time passed, the more it became evident that whether someone got vaccinated for covid had no effect over others in the community, since the vaccine did not do what normal vaccines do- which is to prevent spread. At this point all mandates became completely illegitimate. I find it especially problematic that our government instead of apologizing at that point doubled down on the insanity. The only way I can explain this to myself is deep, deep corruption. The FDA, CDC- they are all defunct and corrupt and in bed with big pharma. We should defund and abolish them completely. I personally want to see Dr. Fauci and the rest of the technocrats and corrupt government minions- who pushed for mandates and deprived the people of this country of their constitutional freedom (literally freedom to work and send their kids to school!)- prosecuted for corruption, bribery, and for endangering the health of the public by pushing and forcing a potentially dangerous drug without sufficient data. They all belong in jail.
With abortion to be honest with you that does actually affect the life of someone else- that of the foetus, especially beyond a certain week of gestation. And to be honest, since there are so many safe and effective (yes, I will use that term) methods of contraception, not meaning to become pregnant is a poor excuse. And phrasing that as being "pro choice". Seriously? Unless you were raped or a minor, lots of choices led to that situation, don't you think? And I say this as a woman, as a mother, and as someone who for a very long time relied on contraception when I did not want to become pregnant (l will let you in on a secret- it kind of works!).Abortion for medical reasons is a different thing and that should be a separate discussion. At any case, my body my choice is a poor argument for abortion, because it's not only your body, it is also the body of another human being, who has done nothing to deserve being deprived of the right to be born and live. (There are other arguments pro abortion, abortions are a convenience, often at a terrible cost, but they are definitely not a right or always a legitimate choice as the current 3rd wave feminist movement is trying to portray them. Heck, they are not even a legitimate feminist cause imo, and they are a red herring).
OMG. I kept trying to hit EDIT to correct a misspelled word and it took several times to realize this was not post, it just read so much like my own. LOL
Great piece. Oster has penned the straw that should break the remaining camels’ backs. The rage generated by this article is real heartfelt rage - not the lefty virtue-signaling pseudo rage. Lest anyone still doubted where these people stand, here you have it. They will stop at nothing. They are incapable of introspection, of accepting culpability. They will just move on to the next excuse to uncork more authoritarian control. They must be banished from all positions of authority.
Exactly. Even if covid were a virus that killed 5-10% of the populace, everything they promoted was immoral (and largely illegal, at least in the U.S.).
I miss The Actual Atlantic. The one with the comment section. Not the current high function NPC download version ("Here is what to think and say, high level Non-Player Characters.")
The one where FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND comments would have utterly destroyed Emily Ostler's [corrected, thanks] self-serving--and Democratic National Committee-serving--fluff job. My guess: most comments on an article ever. 97% negative. Top ones either devastatingly witty or devastatingly heartfelt.
Yes, there's a REASON Steve Jobs' wife bought The Atlantic & killed the comments. In a few important cases The Narrative would get a SHARP rap on the knuckles in that comment section (Ta-Nehisi Coates being a nauseating racist for example.)
I can't Johnny. The comment section is GONE DADDY GONE.
It's gone because it was one of the best on the web. Unspeakable and unBEARable for the Narrative crowd. Had to die. Good counterpoint got voted up, thus it was absolute anathema to the Narrative.
You'll just have to trust me that there was a counterpoint for every article that needed one & if there wasn't you could post it. If you want conceptual proof, consider that I got 2000 upvotes or more on a heartfelt *anti-feminist* comment there. 10 years ago.
A concise rundown of how men actually live & (especially) die, stats on why the "wage gap" is a well-merited earnings gap plus notation on the ingroup bias in both women & men for women. Nothing fancy but clearly written & hard to argue with.
It was liter(ar)ily the embodiment of why comment sections should exist. Duo & more partisan, plenty of good stuff along with the inevitable dreck. Thus it had to DIE. Too many PC's with agency threatens the thinking orders. to the NPC's. One might become sentient. Many did in fact.
I have never understood, or to be honest, respected, the one-issue voter. And I have rarely voted for a Republican. But this Nov 8 I will be a one issue voter. That issue: Vote the Democrats out of office.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
Nice articulation of your journey- well written and enjoyable to read.
Those of us who have always felt this way - and gently said- warned 'you' of the dangers of the authoritarian leftist for years before the 'reset' welcome you. We will NOT always agree on everything- but we can ALWAYS agree on the F word as you put it so pithily- the centralized state run by 'expert' is the natural enemy of the free citizen and their interactions with others of like mind by CHOICE and common interest.
The founders of this country knew this, many of us knew this and have for years been trying to reach you. We are happy to see you -while exceedingly saddened at the cost we all paid- arrive at the awakening that is happening seemingly everywhere as you so articulately demonstrate herein.
Welcome back to the free thinking AMERICAN citizenship that is your birthright, and the reclamation of everything that means back to your own hands, free of rule by authoritarians and their minions that operate the dictatorial 'rule by "expert"' that is embodied by the democrat (and weak republican fakes) automatons.
Do not allow them to take it from you ever again. We must agree to band together to limit the F word as it is far far afield from where it is allowed to be, and work to find agreement where we disagree.
Absolutely brilliant. I'm a 50 year old australian male married parent of 2 kids and all your points are perfectly articulated. I have a new f word too. Local and decentralised is the only way back to any sort of trust in my community and it starts with outing the bullshit which, my friend you just did perfectly. Bravo.
Compared to the abuse you Australians suffered, our tribulations were mild (we ONLY ruined our economy & children's education. No camps.)
I mean this in all seriousness: you should have never ever given up your guns. The price we pay in murders is well worth it (secret fact: most of it is black on black city crime. We have Canadian levels of murder elsewhere. + The guns of consequence politically are rifles. Very little rifle crime.)
"I have come to believe that the horror of abortion that characterizes conservative politics does honestly come from reverence for creation, and a deep-seated respect for individuals and the families that nourish them. I have no doubt that these things are at the heart of why more conservative states were more likely to keep school open. They value their children.
The narrative that conservatives seek to limit access to abortion in order to keep women down is a just that—a story. In order to prop it up, fetuses had to be literally dehumanized, and the narrative bolstered with overtly anti-natal supporting philosophies, philosophies which, in their anti-natalism rob life of most of its meaning for most people. For women, this anti-natalism is expressly anti-mother, hence, anti-feminine, transforming motherhood—one of the few truly transcendent human experiences—into a dupe’s prison."
Thank you for this. We can disagree on when 'life' begins, but for me and for everyone else I know my belief in life at conception has never had anything to do with 'keeping women down'. While in a perfect world every child would be received into a loving family, I realize that we'll have to compromise on when abortion is appropriate.
But it helps move the conversation forward when one side isn't being called baby killers and the other side isn't being compared to the Handmaiden's Tale.
The "keeping women down" narrative must by necessity assign "false consciousness" to the tens of millions of women who are anti-abortion, and false consciousness has been BS ever since Engels invented the term.
Personal story here. I lost my granddaughter two years ago - not to COVID, but to the panic reaction to COVID. She died alone, the result of several mistakes by the hospital - which may have been prevented except that we were not allowed to be with her when it mattered. Those of you who have ever been through this know that MANY mistakes have been prevented because someone who is visiting catches it and schools the nurse or attendant. Didn't happen here.
So No, I'm not in a forgiving mood. It's more like a keen sense of loss, with a heavy dash of cold rage. And yes, I'm going to respond in the only civilized way I can - by voting ALL of them OUT.
The Democratic Party has optimized the destruction of the poor but especially poor blacks. They did this by pushing abortions, abysmal public schools, pampered teachers unions, defund the police, nearly no arrests or prosecutions of urban violence, and a disingenuous media.
You missed the worst one: kicking the father from the home for welfare eligibility.
Go look up Lyndon Johnson's quote on how they've trapped black women forever with The Great Society. I'm not sure you can quote that one even on Substack. Not sure I would even if I knew I could.
Now here we have a precision rhetorical missile strike: Two thumbs up. I would just add that people who really care about “ our democracy” should be demanding accountability for the mistakes, malpractice and mendacity of the pandemic crisis, not pleading for forgiveness. If there’s no democratic accountability, there’s no democratic government. That’s the bottom line.
It's a bit pedantic but nonetheless important: no Democracy has lasted beyond 2 generations. This is a Republic. Every time you hear "it threatens 'our Democracy'" what you're really hearing = "it threatens our eternal quest for power."
No Founding Father ever said "A Democracy, if you can keep it." 'Cause you can't keep it. The Demos always votes for it's own subjugation. Or just slurps up the subjugation as per the Wuhan Corona 'crisis.'
A republic with democratic features, one of which is or should be democratic accountability, would be my definition. Otherwise I agree with you. The envisioned "democracy" of the illiberal Left is a people's democracy, with a governing elite interpreting and enacting the "will of the people" by the crudest mesasure: 50% + 1.
Nov 2, 2022·edited Nov 2, 2022Liked by Emily Burns
Great essay. As a Brit, one of things which fascinated me was the wilful blindness of politicians across the West and beyond. The forget the political axiom that it matters less about what the majority thinks on a specific issue, and far more HOW MUCH they care. Generally, the apathetic middle have undertaken a collective amnesia, even though the 'science' now shows that the institutions were wrong on any number of issues- from masks to school closures, from vaccinations for the healthy under 30s to lockdowns themselves.
But consider this- once firmly entrenched in the Democrat camp are a significant number of Black Americans who were the most vehemently opposed to vaccines and refused them, despite the restrictions to liberty and work which this entailed- and many in this group will likely switch party or stay home because of this specific issue. The Latino community was one of the worst hit by lockdowns, with their constituency consisting of a solid blue collar base and a thriving small business community. Many will have family members or close friends who lost businesses or whose businesses were permanently harmed.
Worst hit were the kids. An early study on childhood development shows that younger children lost the equivalent of 22 points worth of developmental IQ, and nobody knows just how much of this is permanent, because some windows in development are finite- potential, once lost, can be lost forever. So whilst those who were for the restrictions and violations of personal autonomy have become forgetful of past tyrannies imposed, harms inflicted, those who were victims of the COVID regimes will have far longer memories. They will not forget. They will not forgive.
Besides, most of the support for abortion entails the hypothetical protection of the rights of other women. Most women who support abortion support access for the less fortunate, but would not willingly choose it for themselves. Those of us who are all too familiar with the Culture War often forget the basic concerns of ordinary people- on the ground reporting from the Youngkin victory shows, regardless of what the likes of MSNBC might try to convince you, the average parent was less aware and cared less about CRT or gender ideology than the pundit class would have you believe, but were deeply concerned about the harms inflicted on their own children by school closures and mask wearing.
Excellent summary of exactly how I feel. Even your description of being pro-life. I used to be more pro-choice, but while I still believe there needs to be some allowance for abortion, I am appalled at the disregard for human life among liberals and progressives. With respect to covid, I will not forget or forgive as long as the same people are in power with no consequences and even still threatening to impose restrictions and mandates.
I will not forget or forgive either. I work for a large, public state university and was put through the ringer trying to get an exemption. During the height of this BS, people would turn in the hallway and avoid me at all costs. Run out of the bathroom if I came in. We lost so many to walking out on their jobs of 10-15 years. Others retiring early and taking what they could so they wouldn't be forced into getting the shot. As of yesterday, the staff/faculty mandate has been "lifted". I'm happy I survived this and stuck to my true self but am angry that it even had to happen in the first place. And angry that we lost so many good staff to literally an illegal mandate. My personal life was almost as divisive. Lucky I have a mom and sister who love me unconditionally.
I was a vaccine safety advocate for several years. I stopped sometime last year, realizing that it was too late to save anyone. People had already made their choices. I finally withdrew into my house in the forest and retreated into activities aimed at self-preservation. Within this article, you put words to many of my feelings, and boy does it feel good to read it all laid out like Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you.
Hi Emily, from a fellow Brownstone author. This is a very powerful piece that speaks to me. I'm also a refugee from the left and although a man, have faced many of the same issues as you write about here. The left was my political home for so long but it is unrecognizable now: I have been cancelled, despised, othered, told to "go fuck myself," threatened and even called in at work TWO YEARS into the pandemic for "not wearing my mask correctly." This was partly in retaliation for opposing an effort by the far-left at my workplace to force us to wear or pronouns on our nametags and in our signatures and for my opposition to a vaccine mandate there.
There are parts of the left who will destroy and censor at all opportunities. They are dangerous, and I cannot forgive them for destroying my old political home and for what they have done to my family and my country.
Thank you. I see the responses on Twitter to Oster's Atlantic piece and all I see are utterly heartbreaking--an endless stream of ruined lives, vaccine injury, nursing home death, families destroyed, businesses and workplaces ruined and communities crumbled in the face of the utter madness and arrogance of the health mafia. A heavy price will be paid on Nov 8th and for years after by those who perpetrated this horror on us.
I really believe there are a lot of people who have been biding their time for the last 18 months or more for the chance to finally make their voices heard on this issue. It didn't happen in 2020 because Trump dominated so much of the attention (and not enough people saw through the COVID hysteria yet), but I think there's a lot of people out there who made up their minds a long time ago that they were going to punish the COVID Karens for what they did, and we're going to see that happen next week.
I also think this explains why the "polls" have been so weird this year--I think there's a lot of people who have always intended to vote R in 2022 for the sake of punishing Ds but haven't necessarily said that out loud.
This is a very wise statement. And true. I feel betrayed by my old political home but its more than that. In my blue city I feel like I have been forced to live thru a creepy and totalitarian social experiment, kind of like a quasi fuedal blend of Soviet Collectivization combined with a horrific eugenics experiment being these vaccine mandates. My extended family is destroyed, my 17 yo daughter will never be the same. This is coming from a guy who gave Bernie hundreds of $$ up until Feb of 2020. By Nov of 2020 I voted for an R governor. This time round its 100% Gop, damn the consequences. What is there to lose? The Dems were like a wrecking ball to my life, my family and my community. Pox on them.
Agreed on all points. Thank you for your charitable summary of the pro-life position. The woman who is pro-choice on abortion, vaccines, and masks was never the problem during the height of the covid crazy. It was the women who are pro-choice on abortion but were (are?) pro-mandate on *public health* mandates. Though a smaller contingency, in my area of suburbia, we also had women who are pro-life on abortion but were silent on covid mandates.
I wrote about Emily Oster's anemic faux-pology today too, but one point I didn't emphasize is that she is not at all sorry for the spirit of the positions she took. For example, she advocated vaccine passports at sporting events. The only reason she doesn't push them now is because she finally had to acknowledge the shot doesn’t stop transmission. Given a vaccine that was 100% effective in stopping transmission, she'd have no problem with medical apartheid.
In other words, Emily Oster is sorry she was wrong about Covid, but misses that she was wrong PERIOD.
There is an amazing level of mental gymnastics at play, not only for Oster, but for all ostensible progressives, it seems. When ends justify means, totalitarianism is afoot.
Correct. Make no mistake: If & when Emily Oster finally gets it and says, "I was wrong when I said and did the following things.....I acknowledge I contributed to the harm in the following ways...I have no excuse...I'm sorry....please forgive me," I will be the first in line to say, "I forgive you," with a hug.
I may be getting a reputation for being pessimistic on these issues, but all I can say is, "Don't hold your breath." Several of us have had thoughtful Twitter conversations on the "why's" of this, but the book, "Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me" offers some fascinating thoughts. OTOH, @jamessmithPT_ is the only "blue check mark" I have seen make a heartfelt, genuine apology about this stuff.
It should be noted that Oster was solidly on the "open the schools" side. So, to clarify, do you think that she was wrong about this and that we should have taken more precautions?
If so I agree with you, but it doesn't sound like Burns would.
No, she wasn't. she was solidly on the "mitigations can help us to open schools" side--which provided the cover for the teachers unions to close schools. The other Emily temporized constantly, and contradicted her own data. Her study which showed masks made no difference, still had a line at the end saying "but masks are still a useful precaution." That line from that study, was used by my own school to keep my kids masked in 2021. I have spent copious amounts of time showing that these mitigations did nothing to keep schools open (look earlier in this substack, and on Twitter), and in fact were inversely correlated. Emily Oster knows the same, b/c she and I purchased the same data set. I am not a fan of Oster because her cowardice perpetuated this. And I have never been supportive of schools being closed. The way to handle the risk was by offering people choice, and then encouraging others based on the results. Our leaders did the opposite.
I should just let this go, since Emma and Emily already provide insight and facts I would struggle to communicate. Still... The thing about masks that frustrates me now, and frankly always has, is that the data is not now, nor was it ever, disputed, sparce, contradictory, or any of that. Dating back to before 2020, the WHO collected a veritable crap-ton of masking data and developed a grid of various NPIs for responding to a respiratory epidemic. (I have cited it on Twitter, as has the Bad Cat. No desire to dig it back up at this point, honestly.) That grid said, "there is no data showing that masks provide any benefit" or words to that effect. Note: NO DATA. In typical politically motivated ass-covering, they go on to say, "use them if it makes you feel better." (Again, or words to that effect.) Despite taking that grid down in 2021, in support of The Narrative™, when the WHO put it back up, it still said the same thing! Masks are worthless and have always been worthless theatre for protecting, mitigating, slowing, or any of that, for covid. I actually believe they provide negative efficacy, but maybe that is for another rant.
Regardless of their efficacy (or lack there of) masks were never about health. They were simultaneously a psychological tool and an identification system.
1) IDENTIFICTAION- Masks identified to the system those citizens most likely to be compliant with government edicts. I say edicts because as far as I know there was no legislative action at Federal or state level about masks. They were demands (aka edicts) by elected leaders and dangerous ones at that because of precedence; that which government uses to do a run-a-round to law and constitutional rights. Both Civil Asset Forfeiture and Qualified immunity were created from precedence; one enables law enforcement to legal steal form citizens (as long as they split the take with the Feds, give the Feds their cut like any organized crime syndicate ) and the other allows government employees and elected leaders to escape almost all/any accountability for what they do.
2) PSYCHLOGICAL TOOL - The masks helped subconsciously reinforce teh idea that there was a deadly pandemic taking place. Imagine that there had been no masking requirements, no social distancing and no lock-downs. It would have been solely up to the news media's marketing efforts to keep the idea of a deadly pandemic alive because there would be no visible actions to remind people; no dead bodies packed up on street corners or even around Hospitals.
Masks were never about health. That's not to say many further down teh regulatory chain didn't honestly believe it was about the public health but those at the top who started it didn't implement these measures for the purposes given. Social Distancing helped destroy healthy relationships and lock-downs were highly effective at destroying a sizeable number of small/independent businesses, those not owned by giant corporations.
Show me when and where Dr. Oster was solidly on the "open the schools" side.
I have a very long memory of this debate in Twitterdom, including of what I and others said to her.
Emily Burns is my friend, and while I don't speak FOR her, I believe we are and always have been on the same side with regard to schools.
They never should have closed, based on what we actually knew at the time. Certainly for no more than two weeks. There was ZERO excuse for ANY closed schools in Fall 2020.
Emma is right. See response above.
We citizens know that the government will absolutely lie to us. They know that qualified immunity will prevent them from any accountability so lying to us is no brainer. Once the 14 days to curb teh spread was over and they kept it going red flags should have gone off in everyone's head. At the very least all should have been saying if they were wrong or lying about the 14 days then why should I believe what they're telling me now. Most are unaware of teh appeal to authority logical fallacy, a fallacy which was effectively used by our government during the pandemic.
Day 15 should have been the WTF wake-up call for most but it was for only a few. Over time more began to ask but too few did on day 15. Day 15 is when I first suspected this was a scam. I recalled Ram Emanuel, Obamas chief of staff, saying never let a crisis go to waste and saw this as exactly that. They were using a virus outbreak as an excuse for a power grab and money which could come from the vaccine. They also could offer up political favors to large corporations by heling permanently shut down competition from small independently owned business via the lock down. I don't doubt for a second someone in the US Federal Government got paid in some way by one or more Walmart types to extend the lock down long enough too kill small businesses. And even if they get court later on, qualified immunity is their "Get out of accountability free" card.
Keep in mind that when you've spent years, possibly a life time practicing mental gymnastics it becomes relatively easy to maintain multiple confliting ideas simultaneously without any indication of problems and most of these people have been practicing for many years. It's necessary to maintain their ideological belief system otherwise it would collapse, maybe even implode.
"My body my choice!"
"Right on!"
"I mean about the Jab!"
"TO THE GULAGS!"
Yes, the degree of hypocrisy was staggering. My body, my choice apparently only applies to the uterus.
Agreed. I stand corrected.
Who do you think you’re helping with this hyperbolic nonsense? Viral pandemics have nothing in common with pregnancy nor has anyone suggested the people who don’t want to get vaccines should go to some Gulag. No one has been forced to get a vaccine. That said, society has a right to exclude from its public spaces those who refuse to take precautions that would protect the rest of us. You yourself were vaccinated before you entered school. And look! Here you are today alive and well to spout nonsense on the Internet.
No one has been forced to get a vaccine:
* if they didn't care about keeping their job.
* if they didn't want to go to school.
* if they didn't want to go to college. (My son, a freshman THIS YEAR, had to provide proof of COVID vaccination to be allowed to register for classes.)
* if they didn't want to fly out of the country (where proof of vaccination was for a time required for reentry).
* if they didn't care about being a Blue Check.
The fact that actual, physical gulags were not put into place does not mean:
* that they weren't being openly contemplated, and
* that a virtual gulag that deprived offenders of livelihood, society, and freedom of movement was not clearly in evidence.
Your mom didn't abort you. And look! Here you are today alive and well to spout nonsense on the Internet.
"No one has been forced to get a vaccine." Who are you POSSIBLY kidding? Go talk to the millions who were unable to travel, attend school, work, eat out, go to their church without being forced to get a vaccine!
And then you offer us this gem: "society has a right to exclude from its public spaces those who refuse to take precautions that would protect the rest of us." When Joe Biden declares he is leading the institution of "precautions" that will ban you from commenting "to protect the rest of us", who are you going to call?
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
The struggle for women's bodily autonomy has nothing in common with vaccine science. Nothing. Take your nonsense elsewhere, I'm not buying it. The harm done is the million plus dead thanks to anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Trust a man to insist that women's bodies be governed by men.
How can anyone take you seriously, you are ignorant of the basic facts and are simply a fear monger. You stated "millions died" of Covid which is an false, it's not even debatable, it's just wrong.
Even the CDC now admits vaccines did nothing to stop transmissions so there was ZERO public benefit to vaccines.. other than making Big Pharma billions.
At least Ms Oster and 99% of the reading public, now realizes everything they did and said was wrong and is begging for forgivness. Not you though, you remain with your head fully buried in the sand believing the world is flat. Stay uninformed, the Dems need you.
DP your answers are those of a typical liberal know-nothing. You insist, INSIST, that you need to control what can and cannot be discussed, regardless that the entire known world of politics, logic, and science stand in opposition to you.
We are all used to such foolishness. Look for our response on Nov. 8, 2022.
You will notice, Mark, that I do not recur to personal insults to make my points while you do. I have offered you well-respected sources of good data to continue this discussion in a civilized manner; your only response is an ad hominem attack. You are either a Russian disinformation guy or just some sad, angry man with whom there is no point engaging. You have given me no reason to care what you have to say so I will not be reading your outbursts in the future.
The struggle for women's bodily autonomy HAS BEEN WON. No one in this country has a legal right to force any woman to have a baby. No one has any legal right too force her to have sex against her will. No one has a legal right to keep her barefoot and in the kitchen. No one has a legal right to keep her out of any career she wishes, provided that she can fulfill the physical and/or mental requirements of that career.
WE WON. Move on.
What struggle? What are you talking about? Abortion remains perfectly legal for the vast majority of the US population, and as for those who live in states with more restrictive policy, well, they're always free to move if that bothers them so much. Heck. That is what I was told when I was terrified that my 7 year old will not be able to attend school in CA (any school, including private schools) unless I agree to give her the pfizer covid vaccine. Freedom for me but not for thee. I honestly don't care about abortions at this point, and all the virtue signalers out there who deeply deeply care about bodily autonomy- where the heck were you over the past 2 years? Do you know what I care about, though? Let me tell you. I care about my governor wanting to prevent my child from attending school and literally extorting families to forcefully vaccinate kids with a vaccine that did not have the full FDA approval (nor does it have it now BTW, it's still on emergency authorization) and was by large unnecessary (to say the least) for their age groups. Oh! And also increased their risk of minor things, like myocarditis. So please. Go repeat those slogans somewhere else. We're not buying.
is the a real person?? If so you must be a troll. I find it impossible for someone to be this ignorant to reality. I can only assume you get a rise out of riling people up. If you actually believe the nonsense you are spewing, I feel sorry for you, because it means you have severe mental illness.
True. Abortion is about a woman being legally allowed to terminate (aka kill) the the life within her body where as the vaccine mandate is about violating the Nuremberg code like the Nazi's did forcing people to take one or more drugs but instead of doing it to a particular ethic group the covid vaccine is being pushed onto all so at least the covid vaccine push is being diverse, equitable and inclusive.
Lol "diverse, equitable and inclusive" that's hilarious! The CDC and FDA are equal opportunity corruption providers. See, this now is called progress!
dear god GET THIS MORON ALL THE BOOSTERS
how can U possibly blame Covid deaths on the people who didn’t take a vaccine (that doesn’t work) and who didn’t wear masks (that also didn’t work)???
how does that make any rational sense?
can’t U just admit U were wrong in following THE NARRATIVE and THE SCIENCE?
it’s over.
U lost.
take the L and move on...
Right. Except... you know... "bodily autonomy".
The COVID vaccine has a mortality that is greater than all other vaccines together over the last 30 years. I studied virology and worked in a lab at a respectable university. I am very much pro vaccine, if the vaccine is safe, reliable, and effective. I had my first COVID shot within 6 weeks of its release. As soon as we found out this vaccine was not only ineffective, but also harmful (especially to young men), any and all mandates should have been dropped, and all unvaccinated workers welcomed back to their employment with open arms and apologies. No excuses.
It didn't work because it wasn't a vaccine but a new type of mRNA based drug that they marketed as if it were a vaccine and they did that for both legal reasons and sales/marketing. You said teh word vaccine and its automatically trusted by most because until recent vaccines had a good history. We have too many of them on teh childhood vaccine schedule but you can thank greed for that. Once the US Government gave the industry a "get out of liability free" card for any vaccine for kids that makes the schedule naturally the industry is goin to try and create as many vaccines as they can whether they make sense or not.
Where to start....
1) Conflation is the act of trying to alter the appearance of one thing by mixing it up with others it does not belong to like conflating the gene therapy based covid vaccine with traditional sterilizing vaccines that do provide immunity form teh virus the vaccine is targeting. Aside from teh word "vaccine" the covid vaccine has nothing in common with other vaccines like those on teh childhood vaccination chart. You might as well say a musket from the 1800s is the same as a nuclear warhead because both are "weapons".
2) People were being forced to take it via coercion. Just because they weren't being arrested and imprisoned that doesn't mean they weren't being forced to take it. Having to pick between having a career or being jobless is effectively forcing someone and that's exactly what some like those in the medical field who were licensed were facing; loss of license top practice med or take the shot. In some nations like Australia they were rounding up people and detaining them.
"Loss of license to practice med or take the shot" is especially interesting because more recently we found out that high level doctors, CEOs and other powerful people in hospitals who were hesitant, or refusing, to take the shot were given fake vaccine cards.
I would not be surprised if 99% of politicians and others pushing the drug/gene-therapy have not taken the shot and never planned to. Even Biden and other politicians getting the injection on national television... it could very easily have been water or some other innocent substance.
I would guess that its a mix. You have some at not just the top but various levels who are in on it and know some or all of the plan and they are on board with it to make money or obtain power. Then you have those not participating who are being threatened for refusing to tow teh lien. In California they've p[assed a bill where a doctor can loose his license in CA if he/she says something about covid to a patient the government considers misinformation about covid and or teh vaccine. And you know those fukcers in the California government WILL absolutely be sending in spies to doctors to try and catch them saying something so that teh CA government can purge the California medical system of anyone who doesn't tow the line.
What.
Darling are you delusional?
We’re not here now because we were vaccinated as children. Talk about drinking the kook aid.
this RN (for 54 years) says "you are dead wrong "
#HopeYouGotALLTheBoosts
this RN (for 54 years) says "you are dead "
Fixed it for you.
The problem isn't being wrong. Everyone is, sometimes often, sometimes occasionally. The problem is the blindness to being wrong and not even noticing, much less apologizing or making amends for it.
It's obvious that real problem -- the technocratic class's lust for power and spreading of Platonic "noble lies" to get and keep power -- hasn't been addressed. As Plato himself wrote, it's precisely these people who lust for power the most, who most need to be kept away from it.
Emma I just want to thank you for your voice during all this. In the darkest days of 2020 I would read your Twitter and feel more empowered and less alone. You made a difference. Thank you.
That’s very kind and so encouraging. Thank you.
Any difference I’ve made is by the Grace of God alone. There have been some dark days, indeed. He is faithful and good, through it all.
Spot on. There is no moral nor legal argument for it and there never was
Amnesty = Amnesia. Yet, we need punishment to prevent it from ever happening again and to start reparations: they should lose all their assets to pay for treatments.
How many lives can still be spared? few are still suicide vaxxing!
How many teen lives have been ruined with myocarditis when they knew in advance it would be widespread?
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-myocarditis-mammoth-in-the-er
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-plan-revealed
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/satattack
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/water-poisoning-they-drink-perrier
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-2020-american-coup
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/will-tedros-ever-go-to-jail
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-threat-of-the-international-plandemic
Abortion and COVID could not be more different. A communicable virus and procreation have nothing in common from a public health perspective. Nothing. "Medical apartheid"? Are you nuts?
The question of "who has authority over whose body, and when?" underlies both.
Exactly. Either I "own" my body, or you do. If I own it, you cannot pick and choose when you can force your views upon it, period.
Right.
Where anti-covid mandate pro-life and pro-choice people diverge re: abortion is issues about what a body is, when it "begins", and who has authority over it, both in general and given certain circumstances/parameters.
Post-Dobbs, as someone with a pro-life stance, I've been able to have respectful, mutually-enriching conversations with pro-choice folks who were/are anti-mandate on covid issue. Emily Burns (whom I now know IRL & have spoken f2f with on this topic ) is one example.
No. Are you just being deliberately dim? Pregnancy is not contagious, COVID is. When it comes to pandemics, you don't get to indulge in your individual "beliefs" about science and the public welfare.
I get to be afforded my God-given, inalienable rights and Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties. My kids do too.
Neither the government nor fellow citizens get the right to make me pretend I'm sick when I'm not, or to pretend that not-sick is sick. They also don't get the right to force people to cover their faces with cloth or submit to medical treatments they don't want (or need, in most cases).
The past two+ years happened because Emily Oster & others promoted a myopic view and unattainable goal. I'm sorry to see you were misled by it.
Ahhh...but my "individual beliefs" on COVID science included the 14 random controlled studies completed prior to January of 2020 of which none concluded that masks were particularly effective in preventing the transmission of viruses in non-health care environments. But apparently public health policy embraced YOUR "individual beliefs" that was pulled from lesser quality science. Your solution to this conundrum is authoritarianism. Mine is individual liberty. And in hindsight it is becoming more obvious everyday that liberty had the better public welfare outcome.
Thousand thumbs-up.....
I was forced to be masked by my employer, when 'vaxxed' were allowed to go unmasked.
No forgiveness without accountability
You. Were. Wrong.
About everything. And you knew it, too, which is why you so harshly suppressed dissent.
What you deserve is not amnesty, but Nuremburg.
That sounds like a death threat.
No, that sounds like a trial, Karen: a rejection of government under farcical state of emergency and restoration of rule of law. True, a dozen baddies were condemned, ten were hanged, then cremated, and their remains dumped in a river. You can pick the river, if it makes you feel better.
It's you who are ignoring science. My God, even the CDC admits the vax did nothing to stop transmissions. Both the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins studies concluded everything the Nazi's did during the Scamdemic did NOTHING to prevent any deaths.
You are clearly living in Zucherberg's Metaverse because not too many of you, even among liberals, still think anything during the Scamdemic was correct or useful
Can't give up the power over others, can you? The COVID-19 was a problem a few years ago, COVID-22, not so much, yet vaccines continue to be pushed on the public. Likewise ineffective masking. Your body, your choice, my body, your mandate? I think not.
The one good thing about the COVID charade was that it revealed that every position taken by the Democrat Party and their Press Catamites ("my body, my choice" and "no government between a patient and her doctor," to name but two) was as disposable as a used condom if it got in the way of them acquiring more power. And, like a condom, they are always happy to pick up another one when they need to fuck us again.
Oh, "Y'all" don't get it (I love how Soros-trained trolls use "y'all" to sound down-homey). Your choices affect my life. - if y'all don't vax-and-mask-up, I might catch a sniffle. Can't have that.
Oh look, a used condom...where's that recycling bin?
we know, we were stuck with the unscientific beliefs of people like you instead. Some of the worst beliefs out there I might add.
And the COVID vaccine is no more effective at preventing transmission than pregnancy.
I understand from stats I have seen, it might be good at causing miscarriages, So, there's that.
An unexpected bonus for the ultra vaxxers...
And you are saying the vax prevented COVID transmission? Really? Ask Rochelle Walensky how that worked for her....
In fact, we do in America.
Actually, it's true- they have nothing in common. Medical coercion to agree to a novel treatment without sufficient data on efficacy and safety is not legitimate. It is especially not legitimate to fire people, threaten their livelihoods and threaten their children's ability to go to school unless they agree. In this issue, every single liberal person should have defended one's right to decline and protect the sovereignty of their own body. To coerce someone by holding their livelihood and their children's education hostage would have required a hefty pile of evidence for benefit to others and to public health. No such pile of data ever existed. In fact, the more time passed, the more it became evident that whether someone got vaccinated for covid had no effect over others in the community, since the vaccine did not do what normal vaccines do- which is to prevent spread. At this point all mandates became completely illegitimate. I find it especially problematic that our government instead of apologizing at that point doubled down on the insanity. The only way I can explain this to myself is deep, deep corruption. The FDA, CDC- they are all defunct and corrupt and in bed with big pharma. We should defund and abolish them completely. I personally want to see Dr. Fauci and the rest of the technocrats and corrupt government minions- who pushed for mandates and deprived the people of this country of their constitutional freedom (literally freedom to work and send their kids to school!)- prosecuted for corruption, bribery, and for endangering the health of the public by pushing and forcing a potentially dangerous drug without sufficient data. They all belong in jail.
With abortion to be honest with you that does actually affect the life of someone else- that of the foetus, especially beyond a certain week of gestation. And to be honest, since there are so many safe and effective (yes, I will use that term) methods of contraception, not meaning to become pregnant is a poor excuse. And phrasing that as being "pro choice". Seriously? Unless you were raped or a minor, lots of choices led to that situation, don't you think? And I say this as a woman, as a mother, and as someone who for a very long time relied on contraception when I did not want to become pregnant (l will let you in on a secret- it kind of works!).Abortion for medical reasons is a different thing and that should be a separate discussion. At any case, my body my choice is a poor argument for abortion, because it's not only your body, it is also the body of another human being, who has done nothing to deserve being deprived of the right to be born and live. (There are other arguments pro abortion, abortions are a convenience, often at a terrible cost, but they are definitely not a right or always a legitimate choice as the current 3rd wave feminist movement is trying to portray them. Heck, they are not even a legitimate feminist cause imo, and they are a red herring).
OMG. I kept trying to hit EDIT to correct a misspelled word and it took several times to realize this was not post, it just read so much like my own. LOL
Great piece. Oster has penned the straw that should break the remaining camels’ backs. The rage generated by this article is real heartfelt rage - not the lefty virtue-signaling pseudo rage. Lest anyone still doubted where these people stand, here you have it. They will stop at nothing. They are incapable of introspection, of accepting culpability. They will just move on to the next excuse to uncork more authoritarian control. They must be banished from all positions of authority.
Exactly. Even if covid were a virus that killed 5-10% of the populace, everything they promoted was immoral (and largely illegal, at least in the U.S.).
"Oster has penned the straw that should break the remaining camels’ backs."
Concur. Its publication was a mistake. But what do you expect from a person (or publisher) who lives in an echo chamber?
real heartfelt rage accompanied by tears.
I miss The Actual Atlantic. The one with the comment section. Not the current high function NPC download version ("Here is what to think and say, high level Non-Player Characters.")
The one where FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND comments would have utterly destroyed Emily Ostler's [corrected, thanks] self-serving--and Democratic National Committee-serving--fluff job. My guess: most comments on an article ever. 97% negative. Top ones either devastatingly witty or devastatingly heartfelt.
Yes, there's a REASON Steve Jobs' wife bought The Atlantic & killed the comments. In a few important cases The Narrative would get a SHARP rap on the knuckles in that comment section (Ta-Nehisi Coates being a nauseating racist for example.)
Did that happen? Commenters shredding Ta-Nehisi Coates? Any chance you could provide a link? I would love to see that
I can't Johnny. The comment section is GONE DADDY GONE.
It's gone because it was one of the best on the web. Unspeakable and unBEARable for the Narrative crowd. Had to die. Good counterpoint got voted up, thus it was absolute anathema to the Narrative.
You'll just have to trust me that there was a counterpoint for every article that needed one & if there wasn't you could post it. If you want conceptual proof, consider that I got 2000 upvotes or more on a heartfelt *anti-feminist* comment there. 10 years ago.
A concise rundown of how men actually live & (especially) die, stats on why the "wage gap" is a well-merited earnings gap plus notation on the ingroup bias in both women & men for women. Nothing fancy but clearly written & hard to argue with.
It was liter(ar)ily the embodiment of why comment sections should exist. Duo & more partisan, plenty of good stuff along with the inevitable dreck. Thus it had to DIE. Too many PC's with agency threatens the thinking orders. to the NPC's. One might become sentient. Many did in fact.
Emily Oster - not Burns! But yes...
Corrected!
I have never understood, or to be honest, respected, the one-issue voter. And I have rarely voted for a Republican. But this Nov 8 I will be a one issue voter. That issue: Vote the Democrats out of office.
Nice articulation of your journey- well written and enjoyable to read.
Those of us who have always felt this way - and gently said- warned 'you' of the dangers of the authoritarian leftist for years before the 'reset' welcome you. We will NOT always agree on everything- but we can ALWAYS agree on the F word as you put it so pithily- the centralized state run by 'expert' is the natural enemy of the free citizen and their interactions with others of like mind by CHOICE and common interest.
The founders of this country knew this, many of us knew this and have for years been trying to reach you. We are happy to see you -while exceedingly saddened at the cost we all paid- arrive at the awakening that is happening seemingly everywhere as you so articulately demonstrate herein.
Welcome back to the free thinking AMERICAN citizenship that is your birthright, and the reclamation of everything that means back to your own hands, free of rule by authoritarians and their minions that operate the dictatorial 'rule by "expert"' that is embodied by the democrat (and weak republican fakes) automatons.
Do not allow them to take it from you ever again. We must agree to band together to limit the F word as it is far far afield from where it is allowed to be, and work to find agreement where we disagree.
Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Well said.
Absolutely brilliant. I'm a 50 year old australian male married parent of 2 kids and all your points are perfectly articulated. I have a new f word too. Local and decentralised is the only way back to any sort of trust in my community and it starts with outing the bullshit which, my friend you just did perfectly. Bravo.
Compared to the abuse you Australians suffered, our tribulations were mild (we ONLY ruined our economy & children's education. No camps.)
I mean this in all seriousness: you should have never ever given up your guns. The price we pay in murders is well worth it (secret fact: most of it is black on black city crime. We have Canadian levels of murder elsewhere. + The guns of consequence politically are rifles. Very little rifle crime.)
"I have come to believe that the horror of abortion that characterizes conservative politics does honestly come from reverence for creation, and a deep-seated respect for individuals and the families that nourish them. I have no doubt that these things are at the heart of why more conservative states were more likely to keep school open. They value their children.
The narrative that conservatives seek to limit access to abortion in order to keep women down is a just that—a story. In order to prop it up, fetuses had to be literally dehumanized, and the narrative bolstered with overtly anti-natal supporting philosophies, philosophies which, in their anti-natalism rob life of most of its meaning for most people. For women, this anti-natalism is expressly anti-mother, hence, anti-feminine, transforming motherhood—one of the few truly transcendent human experiences—into a dupe’s prison."
Thank you for this. We can disagree on when 'life' begins, but for me and for everyone else I know my belief in life at conception has never had anything to do with 'keeping women down'. While in a perfect world every child would be received into a loving family, I realize that we'll have to compromise on when abortion is appropriate.
But it helps move the conversation forward when one side isn't being called baby killers and the other side isn't being compared to the Handmaiden's Tale.
The "keeping women down" narrative must by necessity assign "false consciousness" to the tens of millions of women who are anti-abortion, and false consciousness has been BS ever since Engels invented the term.
Absolutely brilliant piece Emily. I wish I were half as articulate as you. ❤️
Personal story here. I lost my granddaughter two years ago - not to COVID, but to the panic reaction to COVID. She died alone, the result of several mistakes by the hospital - which may have been prevented except that we were not allowed to be with her when it mattered. Those of you who have ever been through this know that MANY mistakes have been prevented because someone who is visiting catches it and schools the nurse or attendant. Didn't happen here.
So No, I'm not in a forgiving mood. It's more like a keen sense of loss, with a heavy dash of cold rage. And yes, I'm going to respond in the only civilized way I can - by voting ALL of them OUT.
The Democratic Party has optimized the destruction of the poor but especially poor blacks. They did this by pushing abortions, abysmal public schools, pampered teachers unions, defund the police, nearly no arrests or prosecutions of urban violence, and a disingenuous media.
You missed the worst one: kicking the father from the home for welfare eligibility.
Go look up Lyndon Johnson's quote on how they've trapped black women forever with The Great Society. I'm not sure you can quote that one even on Substack. Not sure I would even if I knew I could.
Very good point. I will remember to include that next time someone asks me to vote Dem.
Now here we have a precision rhetorical missile strike: Two thumbs up. I would just add that people who really care about “ our democracy” should be demanding accountability for the mistakes, malpractice and mendacity of the pandemic crisis, not pleading for forgiveness. If there’s no democratic accountability, there’s no democratic government. That’s the bottom line.
It's a bit pedantic but nonetheless important: no Democracy has lasted beyond 2 generations. This is a Republic. Every time you hear "it threatens 'our Democracy'" what you're really hearing = "it threatens our eternal quest for power."
No Founding Father ever said "A Democracy, if you can keep it." 'Cause you can't keep it. The Demos always votes for it's own subjugation. Or just slurps up the subjugation as per the Wuhan Corona 'crisis.'
A republic with democratic features, one of which is or should be democratic accountability, would be my definition. Otherwise I agree with you. The envisioned "democracy" of the illiberal Left is a people's democracy, with a governing elite interpreting and enacting the "will of the people" by the crudest mesasure: 50% + 1.
Great essay. As a Brit, one of things which fascinated me was the wilful blindness of politicians across the West and beyond. The forget the political axiom that it matters less about what the majority thinks on a specific issue, and far more HOW MUCH they care. Generally, the apathetic middle have undertaken a collective amnesia, even though the 'science' now shows that the institutions were wrong on any number of issues- from masks to school closures, from vaccinations for the healthy under 30s to lockdowns themselves.
But consider this- once firmly entrenched in the Democrat camp are a significant number of Black Americans who were the most vehemently opposed to vaccines and refused them, despite the restrictions to liberty and work which this entailed- and many in this group will likely switch party or stay home because of this specific issue. The Latino community was one of the worst hit by lockdowns, with their constituency consisting of a solid blue collar base and a thriving small business community. Many will have family members or close friends who lost businesses or whose businesses were permanently harmed.
Worst hit were the kids. An early study on childhood development shows that younger children lost the equivalent of 22 points worth of developmental IQ, and nobody knows just how much of this is permanent, because some windows in development are finite- potential, once lost, can be lost forever. So whilst those who were for the restrictions and violations of personal autonomy have become forgetful of past tyrannies imposed, harms inflicted, those who were victims of the COVID regimes will have far longer memories. They will not forget. They will not forgive.
Besides, most of the support for abortion entails the hypothetical protection of the rights of other women. Most women who support abortion support access for the less fortunate, but would not willingly choose it for themselves. Those of us who are all too familiar with the Culture War often forget the basic concerns of ordinary people- on the ground reporting from the Youngkin victory shows, regardless of what the likes of MSNBC might try to convince you, the average parent was less aware and cared less about CRT or gender ideology than the pundit class would have you believe, but were deeply concerned about the harms inflicted on their own children by school closures and mask wearing.
Again, great essay.
the covid apologists can go get fucked.
Not possible - remember, social distancing. Perhaps a Zoom, um....call?
Ok, this made my laugh out loud. !!!
Brevity is the muse of wit.
Excellent summary of exactly how I feel. Even your description of being pro-life. I used to be more pro-choice, but while I still believe there needs to be some allowance for abortion, I am appalled at the disregard for human life among liberals and progressives. With respect to covid, I will not forget or forgive as long as the same people are in power with no consequences and even still threatening to impose restrictions and mandates.
I will not forget or forgive either. I work for a large, public state university and was put through the ringer trying to get an exemption. During the height of this BS, people would turn in the hallway and avoid me at all costs. Run out of the bathroom if I came in. We lost so many to walking out on their jobs of 10-15 years. Others retiring early and taking what they could so they wouldn't be forced into getting the shot. As of yesterday, the staff/faculty mandate has been "lifted". I'm happy I survived this and stuck to my true self but am angry that it even had to happen in the first place. And angry that we lost so many good staff to literally an illegal mandate. My personal life was almost as divisive. Lucky I have a mom and sister who love me unconditionally.
Emily Oster understands that far-left COVID policy is aging poorly, so she's proposing a typical form of left-wing truce: one-sided.
She should not merely be laughed at. Her article should be treated as yet another grievous sin.
I was a vaccine safety advocate for several years. I stopped sometime last year, realizing that it was too late to save anyone. People had already made their choices. I finally withdrew into my house in the forest and retreated into activities aimed at self-preservation. Within this article, you put words to many of my feelings, and boy does it feel good to read it all laid out like Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you.
Hi Emily, from a fellow Brownstone author. This is a very powerful piece that speaks to me. I'm also a refugee from the left and although a man, have faced many of the same issues as you write about here. The left was my political home for so long but it is unrecognizable now: I have been cancelled, despised, othered, told to "go fuck myself," threatened and even called in at work TWO YEARS into the pandemic for "not wearing my mask correctly." This was partly in retaliation for opposing an effort by the far-left at my workplace to force us to wear or pronouns on our nametags and in our signatures and for my opposition to a vaccine mandate there.
There are parts of the left who will destroy and censor at all opportunities. They are dangerous, and I cannot forgive them for destroying my old political home and for what they have done to my family and my country.
Hang in there, Smith. You are on the right side of history and the winds they are a changing.
Thank you. I see the responses on Twitter to Oster's Atlantic piece and all I see are utterly heartbreaking--an endless stream of ruined lives, vaccine injury, nursing home death, families destroyed, businesses and workplaces ruined and communities crumbled in the face of the utter madness and arrogance of the health mafia. A heavy price will be paid on Nov 8th and for years after by those who perpetrated this horror on us.
I really believe there are a lot of people who have been biding their time for the last 18 months or more for the chance to finally make their voices heard on this issue. It didn't happen in 2020 because Trump dominated so much of the attention (and not enough people saw through the COVID hysteria yet), but I think there's a lot of people out there who made up their minds a long time ago that they were going to punish the COVID Karens for what they did, and we're going to see that happen next week.
I also think this explains why the "polls" have been so weird this year--I think there's a lot of people who have always intended to vote R in 2022 for the sake of punishing Ds but haven't necessarily said that out loud.
This is a very wise statement. And true. I feel betrayed by my old political home but its more than that. In my blue city I feel like I have been forced to live thru a creepy and totalitarian social experiment, kind of like a quasi fuedal blend of Soviet Collectivization combined with a horrific eugenics experiment being these vaccine mandates. My extended family is destroyed, my 17 yo daughter will never be the same. This is coming from a guy who gave Bernie hundreds of $$ up until Feb of 2020. By Nov of 2020 I voted for an R governor. This time round its 100% Gop, damn the consequences. What is there to lose? The Dems were like a wrecking ball to my life, my family and my community. Pox on them.
We were silenced. Any dissent from the approved narrative, even from someone with firsthand experience, was met with scorn and derision.