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.
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.
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.
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.
I write a friendly note of clarification about why Christians oppose abortion, just to clear the air. We value unborn children without regard for race, sex, or disability. Most victims of abortion are minorities. We value them as if they were our own. If we were made in the image of God, then so are they. Truly there is nothing political involved. Abortion will end only if hearts are changed.
We also see an inherent conflict between the rights of prospective mothers and their nascent children. In that contest we side with the child.
We oppose abortion because it is the termination of a human life regardless of what stage of deployment that life is in. The pro-abortionists need to see that which is inside of teh women as not a human being bit a clump of cells. There are some who don't and openly support even like teh idea of killing an unbeard child, but most need to believe that it's not an actual child until delivered and yo can bet most of them avoid looking into exactly what abortion is because they don't want to be aware of the horror that it entails; ignorance is their bliss for abortion.
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.
"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.
I write a friendly note of clarification about why Christians oppose abortion, just to clear the air. We value unborn children without regard for race, sex, or disability. Most victims of abortion are minorities. We value them as if they were our own. If we were made in the image of God, then so are they. Truly there is nothing political involved. Abortion will end only if hearts are changed.
We also see an inherent conflict between the rights of prospective mothers and their nascent children. In that contest we side with the child.
We oppose abortion because it is the termination of a human life regardless of what stage of deployment that life is in. The pro-abortionists need to see that which is inside of teh women as not a human being bit a clump of cells. There are some who don't and openly support even like teh idea of killing an unbeard child, but most need to believe that it's not an actual child until delivered and yo can bet most of them avoid looking into exactly what abortion is because they don't want to be aware of the horror that it entails; ignorance is their bliss for abortion.