Actually, Ellis, I consider you to be part of the problem here.
Actually Eric, I consider you to be equally part of the ‘problem’. It’s no big deal, I enjoy reading many of your posts, and I agree with you on a lot of things, you‘re interesting and unusual. I haven't posted here for over a year, had no wish to until today, when I saw that Alex is effectively going to shut the forum down. I left when the others did, to set up PQ. Your character with such strong unbending opinions about certain topics pissed me off, talking to you was sometimes like attempting to break through a steel wall. Totally inflexible. You called Hurmanetar a “F’king Idiot” on another thread earlier, That’s the type of thing that put me off, but I’ve no hard feelings. Hurm is anything but an idiot, he simply has a different opinion about 9/11, as I do. You‘re a very intelligent man, but that doesn’t mean you get everything right. I’ve seen highly intelligent men talk utter shit about the Covid event this past eighteen months, no-one has exclusivity on ’truth’, whatever that turns out to be.
Until recently I’ve been fighting a lone battle on PQ, trying to persuade the people there that the Covid event was something big, something unusual, something they ought to be paying attention to. I still think that if nobody had said anything about Covid, the overwhelming majority of us would be none the wiser. Sure, some would have been unlucky and lost a parent or brother or sister, or more, but the facts are, people everyday lose others close to them. The overall excess deaths would not have been noticed by the average person. I would really like to see the overall death toll(s) if things had been approached differently. For example if nothing had been done, with and without lockdowns, the same with masks, social distancing (the one thing I think useful). What might the numbers have been if there had been no shutdown on early treatment by ivermectin, hydrochloroquine and other drugs.
The vaccines have been at best questionable imo. Maybe they lessen effects from the worst of the disease for a few months, but I think they have been far less effective and far more dangerous, especially to elderly people than is being made out. How many have really died within fourteen days of their second shot? They are recorded as unvaccinated!!!
I just think there are so many valid questions that are being ignored by the mainstream press, very similar to the questions that remain unanswered about 9/11. I don’t have many answers, but I know the questions that are important. Yes, I agree that probably jihadists were at the controls of the 75/6s that fateful day, but does that mean that other, closer to home groups weren‘t pulling the strings? Are people like Cheney and Rumsfeld capable of such duplicity? I leave it for others to make up their minds, as I have. Three thousand lives in return for changing the world‘s perception?
I have learned such a lot about about how our perceptions and thoughts influence our behaviour in the last five years, but this message has been slammed home in the last eighteen months. Just a casual throw away line that is interpreted as me supporting Trump can change everything. I don’t like Trump, but if forced, I would choose him over both Clinton & Biden. And many of my friends thought I was a rabid lefty until a few short years ago. I have not changed. I like to think I am far less tribal than most.
My wife & I remain unvaccinated, to the confusion of many of our well educated friends. In my case, its more about principle than anything else i think, I am pushing back against the stupidity as I see it. If I am one of the very unlucky people who get Covid and die, you might say I backed the wrong horse, but I think the principle will have been worth the sacrifice. My 20 year old daughter has a big needle phobia, which I think has been all that has prevented her from having the jabs. In her heart I think she feels that there is no need to have it, but still will fall to the propaganda. I really feel scared for her, without the pressure from the media and her silly tik-toc loving peers, none of us would feel scared, we’d be getting on with our lives.
I believe in God, I doubt that It will turn out to be anything like my pre conceived ideas. Maybe It will, who knows? I am turning more and more that direction to save my sanity. Voicing that alone, will bring its own judgements and perceptions. It’s amazing how close minded we actually can be. My own independent thinking has lost me many forum ‘pals’, and I am far less popular on PQ than I used to be. Voicing such unpopular opinions as those above brings the supposed easy going lefties to act like people that are the opposite of easy going, while all the time thinking that they are on the ‘right’ side. I’ve come to think that maybe there is no right side, only actions by individuals. So perhaps Eric, you and I have a bit more in common than we think.
In some ways Alex doesn’t really give a shit about the ‘community’ here, I doubt he ever has. It is what it is, but I will always be grateful to him for providing a vehicle for learning certain important lessons, it has been invaluable. Skeptiko has only been of limited interest to me for a few years now, but it will remain as a bright light in my memory.
And maybe if Alex goes through with his word, this too might be a lesson learned by Diverdown & others. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, next time someone asks you to ignore something. Try doing it!
And finally to Wesley, start your own site. ;)
I am 99.9% sure your ideas about flat Earth are crazy, but maybe the reason you are here has has more to do with teaching lessons to people’s acceptance of ideas they think are ‘crazy’, certainty and total closing of minds. Who knows? I certainly don’t!