One good thing about the USA is that one has the opportunity to live a personal life with little interference and with minimal involvement in politics.  Politics is stupid and boring, so why would anyone get involved in it?  Influencing politics is slow, dirty, difficult work, and voting? … practically a waste of time.  A reasonable person would wake up to politics only when political awareness became absolutely necessary for survival.

An example of when political awareness DID become essential is available in the famous novel (and movie) Doctor Zhivago, when one character says to another: “The personal life is dead”.   Since politicians in Zhivago’s Russia can seize anything they want, the character is saying that everyone’s life is now “on hold”, and no personal life is possible.  This is what the Zhivago story is all about.  As the Bolsheviks took over Russia, personal life was over, and people headed for the exits of Russia if they could.

But, we’re not in Russia, right?  In the USA, people frequently talk about moving to Canada if candidate X were to win the next election.  Most people don’t actually leave, because a “personal life” is still possible here.  Yet, there is still a point where current politics would seem so threatening that we would “wake up” to politics.

For myself, I stirred from slumber in 2010, reaching a “wake up” point in 2020.  For years, I had noticed vaguely threatening events, but the COVID pandemic brought a regime of escalating threats to my personal freedom.  With the pandemic approaching, Fauci and public health leaders discussed moderate approaches similar to those followed during the 1957 flu epidemic.  Then, suddenly, as the pandemic arrived, mandates appeared to shut everything down “temporarily” to “slow the spread”.   Shutdowns didn’t slow the spread, by still became semi-permanent.

This was an obvious and sudden threat!  Ignorant county officials could close my business (my livelihood) as “non-essential” on a whim.  A shocker!

A reasonable alternative to shutdowns (The Barrington Declaration published by mainstream scientists) was attacked and censored on social media in the USA & EU, and savaged in the UN.  When the very enlightened Sweden adopted moderate pandemic measures, it suddenly became a pariah state (like Florida).  I wondered what was so bad about Barrington, or about Sweden taking a different approach?

About the same time, the reasonable (even obvious) idea surfaced that the COVID pandemic might have originated from a leak at the Chinese virology lab coincidentally located in the city where the pandemic originated!  When the lab leak theory was attacked and censored (and advocates de-platformed on Twitter and Facebook), it seemed clear that some influential people were actually lying and covering up.  I began look around for different news sources that would disclose what was happening. 

Throughout 2020, ridiculous events continued apace.  A criminal suspect died at the hands of Minneapolis police.  Though this event was shown to be statistically rare, allegedly spontaneous riots broke out all over the country promoted by an upstart organization, Black Lives Matter (BLM), featuring violent arson (incredibly characterized by the media as “mostly peaceful”).  Then, pre-printed signs appeared everywhere bearing a slogan “defund the police”.  Very quickly, this crackpot slogan was taken seriously and parroted by the media and left-wing politicians.

Finally, as Portland and Minneapolis burned, I looked in the mirror and said aloud: “Such a sustained sequence of improbable, alarming, and threatening events has to awaken even sleepy me. You must do something”

In a semi-panic mode, I began to avidly follow the new online media (YouTube, etc.) where I learned that important facts were going unreported by mainstream, legacy media.  I learned that independent “content creators” were presenting these inconvenient facts that strongly contradicted the narrative of mainstream, legacy media available on network and cable TV.

The new independent (non-corporate) podcasters convincingly stated that mainstream media (owned by big corporations) were paying employees to ignore big stories, and even to lie, to cover up the catastrophic missteps of big government. 

To me, new media reporting in 2020, which was in profound contrast to mainstream media, made sense and sounded like legitimate news.

Significantly, many new media commentators (e.g., Megyn Kelly, Bari Weiss, Ben Shapiro, Mark Halperin, Bill O’Reilly) had earned their journalistic stripes in legacy media, then went independent.   Below are a sampling of stories reported in independent media on which mainstream media was silent (or very late to the party).

COVID Vaccines Were Oversold

COVID vaccines were less ineffective in preventing contagion, and had more side effects than reported by mainstream media.  Vaccine mandates were never scientifically justified, and were especially harmful to children.

COVID Drug Therapy Option Suppressed

Ivermectin and other drugs were effective in reducing COVID symptoms and deaths, but medical authorities blocked their use, because evidence of effective drug therapy undermined the emergency justification for using COVID vaccines prior to validation.

School Closure Scandal

Since it was known that old people are more vulnerable to COVID, but children remarkably resistant, closing schools was always a catastrophic strategy, promoted by cynical teachers’ unions, that damaged a generation of children in defiance of public welfare.

COVID Lab Leak in Wuhan

The idea that COVID arose from a Chinese lab leak is very viable, and is now seen as the most likely explanation by both FBI, CIA, and many scientists.

Trump not a Russian Asset

FBI had known from the beginning that the so-called Steele dossier (funded by the Clinton campaign and endlessly promoted on TV by Adam Schiff) was a fabrication with no validity.

Hunter Biden Laptop Legit

The laptop that disclosed drug-related behavior and crimes committed by the President’s son had been fully authenticated by the FBI well before the 2020 election.

Twitter Files Documented Cancellation of Independent Thinkers by Government

The so-called “twitter files”, uncovered after Twitter’s acquisition by Musk, proved that government agencies had been directly telling Twitter personnel which public commentators they should censor and de-platform to meet bureaucratic demands.

Epilogue

When these things had been added up, I had become fully “awake” to the belief that our legacy, mainstream media was broadly guilty of serious journalistic malpractice.  This seemed to be a fact.  The obvious big question would be: What Were the Causes?

That will be another story.  Please stay tuned.

Categories: Commentary

Tags: covid-19, health, history, news, Politics