Yes, it goes almost without saying that vaccine mandates are undesirable – they infringe on personal freedom and body autonomy principles.
As the ultimate symbol of independence, acting in defence of liberty at the beginning of time, I reject the idea of a government telling individuals what to do with their bodies.
And liberty is a complicated concept. Perhaps more complex and complicated than some humans give it credit for. The idea of liberty is confusing at an emotional level.
comparing Vaccine mandates to…
A small subset of humans are currently up in arms about the vaccine mandates the world’s governments attempt to enforce now. And their tantrums are not wholly without merit.
The reasons for those tantrums, however, are terribly misinformed. At the very least, they are misguided by that emotional confusion the mere mention of liberty can cause the human psyche.
The assumption is more often than not that the COVID-19 pandemic is fake. In some instances of this argument, the pandemic is a deliberate attempt to establish a communist authority throughout the planet. It is an overt plan to take away your rights.
In other versions of it, and may I submit the more sophisticated ones, it is an opportunistic approach to a real crisis that also aims to impose totalitarian regimes in the world.
The fear of this loss of control pushes even seemingly intelligent people towards flawed thinking, with the likes of Joe Rogan joining those comparing the current state of North America to the plight of Jewish people during World War II.
Let that thought detonate in your head as you head out to run your daily errands this morning. Continue to think about what a disrespectful analogy this is to the millions who perished during that time when you’re free to continue moving through whatever city your foul stench adorns.
I want you, furthermore, to think about the critical differences between rights and privileges when your lack of a vaccine passport doesn’t land you in a ghetto or a concentration camp.
Going into a pub for your 10:00 am gin and tonic isn’t an inalienable right of yours, regardless of how much you love your gin. I take it neat myself to preserve the strong juniper notes, which are pleasing to the palate in the early morning.
Lastly, even if for now, I want you to realize the insufficient nature of such a claim when you continue to have everything you need and thrive, when your very existence isn’t a concern that overshadows your desire for cheap booze for breakfast.
And yes, I also want you to remember the magnitude of your bitchiness when you see the offence that comparing your circumstances to a victim of the holocaust is.
Do not forget that the Jewish people were accused of being part of a massive conspiracy to control the world financially, and that understanding puts you in the bad guys’ shoes.
Let’s move on.
Another part of the problem
I can see how these measures appear draconian on the surface. Understandably, simple analysis coupled with the assumption of a fake pandemic presents tyrannical government overreach. I can also see why that scares you.
What deserves no respect is your willingness to stop thinking about your concerns in the face of intellectual challenges. What makes you a deplorable asshole is your ability to commit to that scary surface analysis in the presence of better evidence and argument.
Staggering amounts of evidence show the truth, and may I say, the inherent dangers of the Novel Coronavirus and its variants of concern. Current and historical data show that this could be much worse without the public health protocols we’ve endured these last twenty months. Still, this information is either missed or wilfully disregarded by the factions choosing Ivermectin over proper medicine.
And let’s think about how they parse information. Some people rejecting the vaccine because of insufficient research are taking horse medicine without any research in treating COVID-19 behind it.
Could their complaints be not about the truth as much as they are about an emotional narrative? I’ll let you think about this as you move freely through your day.
But Joe has made several exaggerated claims before. One that sticks out as a lie is that people were arrested in the streets of Toronto for breaking lockdown rules in the spring of 2021.
They weren’t.
And while some silly humans received fines for violating specific rules, the enforcement was minimal. There were no random traffic stops, and police did not breach any houses to check for rule-breaking mayhem.
Ask me how I know this. I’m more than willing to have the conversation.
Exaggeration is, after all, part of the conspiracist and the alarmist’s modus operandi. Jordan Peterson, another fear-mongering extraordinaire, rose to prominence in Canada by claiming that Bill C-16 (which aimed to include gender identity in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) attempted to control speech. He lied because it didn’t, and it doesn’t.
I’ll say this again: The use of hyperbole lowers the speaker to the level of demagogues and snake oil salesmen. In context, all exaggerations are lies.
What I find excruciatingly funny – and telling of how lousy humans are at thinking – is that those claiming the world’s governments are out to enslave or kill most people accuse their detractors of living in fear.
The audacity is dizzying.
Rogan explains in one of his videos that doctors have sent him articles about imperfect vaccination allowing for the transmission of virulent strains, and this is true. He says in that same segment that vaccines that don’t kill the virus contribute to infection.
Joe ignores that no vaccine kills the virus; the best they can do is teach the recipient body to fight the infection. Science has told us this for decades.
But the worrying underlying assumption here, and one that all conspiracy nuts take seriously, is that because vaccines are not perfect, people shouldn’t take them at all.
Think about vaccines as a bulletproof vest. The best body armour can only protect the body wearing it from injury, and it cannot stop the gun from firing. Stopping the gun requires a different solution.
I mean, if the bulletproof vest is imperfect and getting shot will hurt anyway, perhaps you shouldn’t wear it in combat situations. Said no soldier ever.
Seatbelts can’t stop car accidents; therefore, they’re useless.
You get the logic, or lack of it in this case.
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My CONCLUSION
I’ll leave you with this because I can write hundreds of pages on this topic.
The answer to bad science, in this case, imperfect vaccination, is always better science and not a deviation from it.
Yes, passports and vaccine mandates suck, and they only make sense when you understand that this nasty little virus is real with the potential to wipe us out. It matters not at this point if it is a natural pathogen or engineered in a lab. And I have concerns about the second option. It’s out there doing what viruses love to do – mutating and learning how to kill their host more efficiently.
Like the Buddha advises in the parable of the man and the poison arrow, ensuring the man survives is the first order of business. Similarly, humanity needs to protect itself from this vulgar little jerk or face bigger problems with more dire consequences.
Remember that liberty demands that you respect everyone else’s freedoms to be of any value to society.
Do you know what they call those who only care about their freedoms without regard for others?
Tyrants. And that is not a label you want on you.
–The Devil Unbound.
