America’s Twin Pandemics of Covid and Agency Panic

M. Davout

Agency and autonomy are fundamental to democracy. Panic is fundamental to fear and chaos.  Preserving personal agency while avoiding panicked reactions is one of the great challenges ahead of us. While the Covid pandemic will burn itself out, America’s pandemic of panic–manifested in the rise of wild and often evidence-free conspiracies–continues to accelerate. How much misinformation and mistrust can America tolerate before democracy itself crashes around us? Our very own M. Davout, who teaches political science, introduces the concept of “agency panic” and challenges us to take the red pill of uncomfortable truths.  W.J. Astore

America’s Twin Pandemics of Covid and Agency Panic

M. Davout

America is awash in conspiracy thinking and it is doing terrible damage to the country. However, the solution is not to dismiss conspiracy thinking altogether but to distinguish fake conspiracies from real ones.

Consider the many theories afloat about Covid-19.  Scrolling through the Facebook posts of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers curated on the Herman Cain Award subreddit, one is struck by the sheer quantity of conspiratorial memes circulating among networks of likeminded Facebook friends. The Covid pandemic is variously presented as the product of a nefarious plot enacted by the Chinese government or by the US government or by the Centers for Disease Control or…the list goes on. Public health measures that have been recommended or mandated at the federal, state or local levels such as quarantining, masking, and vaccinating are similarly condemned as elements of the conspiratorial machinations of Anthony Fauci or Bill Gates (or both of them working in cahoots), of profiteering Big Pharma, of collectivizing communists, of Medicare-For-All socialists, and so on.

As Richard Hofstadter demonstrated in his famous essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” the United States has from very early in its history provided fertile ground for the organized circulation of political rhetoric warning in shrill tones about the impending takeover of the political system. Alleged nefarious groups named in these conspiracy theories included the Illuminati, the Freemasons, papists, Jesuits, anarchists, Jews, international financiers, and communists. 

While the anti-mask and anti-vax conspiracies circulating on Facebook today manifest the characteristics of “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” which Hofstadter identified as typical of the paranoid style, the sense of what is at stake has changed. It is no longer just constitutional government that seems to be at risk. When you read the conspiratorial warnings available across the ideological spectrum—from QAnon enthusiasts or Trumpist dead-enders or health purists or anti-corporate populists, among others—you get the sense that people feel their very identities to be under threat. Has a threshold been passed that separates the conspiracy-mongers of today from their anti-papist, anti-Masonic forebearers?   

In his book, Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America (2000), Timothy Melley argued that conspiracy thinking fundamentally changed after World War II with the rise of the “information age.” Consumers of electronic mass media became susceptible to what he characterized as a state of “agency panic,” an “intense anxiety about an apparent loss of autonomy or self-control” in the face of pernicious systems of social control acting with a singular will. Notions of secret plots hatched by bands of conspirators aiming at the conquest of political power were increasingly replaced by visions of “whole populations being openly manipulated without their knowledge” through the effects of advertising, schooling, fluoridation, and so on. The USA was ground zero for this new form of conspiratorial thinking because the American embrace of the idea of rugged individualism was so at odds with the reality of an increasingly interdependent society in which self-sufficient farmers were a dying breed.

Empire of Conspiracy was published at the dawn of the surveillance economy ushered in by Google and Facebook. This economy has at the same time systematically perfected the relentless tracking of individual activities and facilitated the exchange of conspiratorial memes and messages lamenting the threats to individual integrity and freedom. Paranoid messages that are likely to attract eyes are moved algorithmically to the top of search results or share lists. The Covid pandemic has only supercharged these developments by boosting mass dependence on the internet and amplifying mass grievance against infringements on individual freedoms. 

The easy response to this internet-fueled conspiratorial dynamic would be to dismiss conspiracy thinking as the paranoid raving of the uneducated and ignorant if it weren’t for the fact that real conspiracies are continually afoot in our political system. One has only to take note of the ever-accelerating revolving door between public officialdom and the lobbying-industrial complex or to monitor the ever-greater lobbying and campaign expenditures of major industries such as Big Pharma or Big Coal or Big Tech to know that well-paid influencers are working diligently with corrupted politicians to poach the common good.

Yet the rising tide of agency panic-driven conspiratorial thinking continually diverts Americans from the true causes of their collective misery into attacks on those few public measures that are in our collective interest. 

It truly is a choice between taking the red pill or the blue pill, as The Matrix meme circulated by so many of the Covid conspiracy Facebook posters suggests. But, against their expectation, taking the red pill would lead to a clear-eyed understanding of how corporate influence peddling diminishes our lives rather than to a revelation that supposed college roommates Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci hatched a conspiracy against our freedoms fifty years ago.

M. Davout, an occasional contributor to Bracing Views, teaches political science at the collegiate level.

19 thoughts on “America’s Twin Pandemics of Covid and Agency Panic”

  1. Yes, the conspiracies around Covid19 are amazing and troubling to any rational mind.

    The people believing these false conspiracies are on a bell curve ranging from the merely credulous to the paranoid personality. I use that last term in the strict medical meaning, as one who has “a relentless mistrust and suspicion of others without adequate reason to be suspicious.” From the Cleveland Clinic. About 3% of the U.S.A population is believed to have this psychological condition.

    As such, there is hope for educating some of people who indulge in conspiracies; however there seems to also be a zeitgeist of conspiracy susceptibility now. I feel it also.

    My first experience with lies which lay the foundation for conspiracies was in the 1960s when we were told victory in Viet Nam was just around the corner. When the government lies to its own people and the lie is laid bare as the Pentagon Papers showed, trust is destroyed and all that is said is disbelieved, even if some of it is true.

    Since Trump, I have seen that nearly everyone lies, deceives, conflates, and manipulates. The decadence and rot in this society has now spread from the core ( leaders ) to the meat of the apple. When a society reaches this stage of decline, people of like minds will invent their own versions of reality to find some sort of meaning to the chaos of disinformation.

    My antidote to conspiracies is an open mind and constant vigilance for information to prove or disprove any idea. As Epicurus said when asked about something he did not know absolutely: ‘That could be the case, then again it may not’. In other words consider it, keep an open mind and keep collecting information.
    This is why having access to a free internet is vital as is a free press, free access to books, and an unbiased and free educational system.

    “We were runnin’ through the night,
    Never knowin’ if we would see the light.
    Paranoid schizophrenic visions,
    Livin in fear of the wrong decisions.
    We got to wake up,
    We got to keep goin.
    If they follow us
    There’s no way of knowin’.

    From the song Be the Rain, album Greendale, Neil Young.

    I am not sure if this ‘night’ we are living through will end but I keep going, trying to wake up a little more, and trying not to let it bother me if ‘they’ are following me.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I prefer honesty; especially when it involves matters that are being “forced” upon populations. Leadership that holds integrity as it’s foundational principle would assuage conspiratorial wandering. But, when you have leadership that is devoid of dignity, then you open the doors of Pandora’s Box; and welcome the swarms of misinformation, whether intended or unplanned. When leadership traffics in malfeasance and it seems it has been doing so since civilizations dawn; it is hard to “swallow” the “official” narratives being trotted out by our “well intentioned” leadership….
    Some of these false narratives have existed and were deeply entrenched inside the societal psyche long before ones birth. Other connivances are manifested right under ones nose and go undetected and will continue to exist, damaging at will long after ones demise. Without dignity infused with honesty we may never be wholeheartedly free of illusions that appear to be our true experience.
    From my perspective the Covid-19 “conspiracies” are a dime a dozen and both sides have been tossing their coins into the fountain of illusion; and have kept the waters troubled enough that it is most difficult to see clearly through the turbulence to fathom the deeper truths.
    Here’s the truth as I understand according to the knowledge I have exposed my self to and tested it’s efficacy to the best of my abilities. Once again, because knowledge is powerful and people perish from it’s lack; I have taken the time to acquire a decent amount of understanding and knowledge regarding the practices of those who seek out vibrant health. What I discovered…. anyone who wants to know…. can also achieve understanding based on reliable information.
    Over the last 2 years, I have never taken on an ounce of fear when governments decided to inform their public about the Covid-19 virus. Why? Because I had already studied the history of the germ theory and it’s insertion into the public consciousness. I started with the book Bechamp or Pasteur by Ethel Hume. From this point of entry, I have been swimming in the current of Germ Theory vs. Terrain Theory; and would whole heartedly recommend this stream for anyone who wants to be responsible for their own health and well being. Germ theory or Terrain Theory is the battle that needs an open telling; and honesty and dignity will surely be needed in the debate.
    Bechamp was a brilliant technician who loved to follow the attention to detail when inside his laboratory; and approached his investigation into micro biological processes with the passion of an impartial inspector when before his microscope. Pasteur…. well I will let you draw your own conclusions by looking into his past. He certainly has been lauded and was a trusted “ health minister “ in the court of Napoleon and his wife Josephine. So there seems to be an air of credibility; but it is also tinged with plagiarism and fraud. But, one needs to study the debate to draw proper conclusions. What I do find most interesting, upon further inspection, you may also find out that history is repeating itself today in our allopathic medical paradigm regarding the handling of this current health crisis. I find the similarities fascinating and poignant at the same time.

    https://www.readbookpage.com/pdf/bechamp-or-pasteur/
    Study virology and you will come across the postulates of Koch and Rivers… here’s Koch’s postulate and Rivers is most similar.

    Koch’s postulates are as follows:

    The bacteria must be present in every case of the disease.
    The bacteria must be isolated from the host with the disease and grown in pure culture.
    The specific disease must be reproduced when a pure culture of the bacteria is inoculated into a healthy susceptible host.
    The bacteria must be recoverable from the experimentally infected host.

    Most people are not aware that the virus associated with our current crisis has never been isolated, purified, then genetically sequenced and identified; based on the way these postulates state. You cannot find one case of a lab satisfying Koch’s or Rivers’ postulates. Go ahead and read the medical studies; nobody has found that these criteria have been righteously met.
    If there’s no virus and no genetic sequence that exists for the C-19 viral particle….
    Then please tell me upon what science they have based their gene therapy. Gain of Function features are new and although it’s cutting edge, it’s nowhere near settled science with predictable safe outcomes. This shot has never been rigorously tested over years of study to determine it’s effects under all circumstances. Generally a therapy needs 7-10 years of honest trials and study to determine whether it is safe before it is given authorization to be used in the public domain. I believe that there are enough statistical adverse effects and deaths attributed to this particular gene therapy over the last year and a half that cries out for it to be halted.
    There’s a set of data that is generally well documented and respected and that is the medical data kept by the military. Well, the early reports that are coming in from these data sets are extremely concerning. In the USA we have a reporting system for injury reports following vaccination shots, VAERS. You can go and get the results and the numbers should be alarming to every medical professional. Every country has similar systems where adverse effects can be reported and the data is saying the same thing as our military and VAERS data. But, there is no mainstream news sources allowed to publish or report these findings because they are financially beholden to power structures that are heavily invested in the Pharma/Vaccine industry. Which, by the way, is rarely ever accountable for their deeds. They are given immunity from prosecution; which by the way is a great check and balance opportunity for the vaccine damaged that have been swept out of view in our nation of over 60 mandated vaccines for every child. Medical data is riddled with fault lines and chicanery and the editors of the prestigious medical journals even admit their publications are spreading false data and reporting because they are being paid handsomely to look away and publish faulty reporting from laboratories.
    So how can one make an informed decision on how one should proceed when an honest telling isn’t invested in; and truth and honesty is left wanting. Take control begin to study and educate yourself.I stopped believing what the “medical professionals” were selling; and decided to investigate what is the nature behind a healthy system. What I found was a landscape that has been changing pace as medical science discovers more about, What It Does Not Know. New tools that peer into the world of cellular biology, magneto biology, the nature of our chemical make up and the electrical communications that each part of our make up use a for relationships. I believe that science has been captured by well monied interest. Just like our current military complex; it has become big business and it pays to hide the truth and keep people in the dark.
    Over the last 50 years since Nixon declared his war on cancer the state of our nation’s health has deteriorated and no major diseases have been cured. As a matter of fact the numbers point a damning finger at the current medical leadership. Since the incidence of vaccines the health statistics for our younger populations has shown that what used to be considered elderly diseases are now showing up at earlier onset. We are sicker and our immune systems are taxed degraded by our modern lifestyles and the evidence is telling. But, just like we trust our military leaders; we trust the men and women in white coats explicitly. The time to question everything is now.
    Take control of your own well being. Study Terrain Theory and look into the idea that all life is an electro-magnetic exchange between the systems that were established during the foundation of the universe. Modern medicine needs to get the “for profit” out of their reason for being statement. Humble yourselves and admit that the waters you’ve been swimming in is tainted and polluted to the point of ill health for a nation in need of honest assistance. When truth and honesty are coupled with science…. conspiracy cannot stand in the light of their presence.

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      1. the newell post of every scientific investigation, as w/ all research endeavours, mandates maintaining an open-mind, a willingness to have one’s most sacred tropes and biases challenged, judicious ruminations rather than knee-jerk reactions to singularities during the research process, consultations w/ others engaged in similar research, and humble acceptance of one’s being proved in error. the zemblanity is that maintaining impartiality and a receptivity to neoteric methodologies, approaches, and what appear to be alien ideations is nearly as insuperable in scientific research as it is in the political, military, financial, historical, and religious purlieux.

        i listened to the dr. samantha bailey’s covid-virology video that you cited in your comment, utejack, and although she is neither a licensed practicing physician in new zealand, nor is a research virologist, nor is a biochemist, nor a virion geneticist, i tried to ‘hear’ w/ a broad-minded scepticism. nonetheless, ruminations need to follow in the tossing crests of bailey’s elenchus. i dare say, it was a vexatious encumbrance trying to focus on her covid screed rather than on her refulgent smile, collagen lips, and fulgurous, brite–white teeth.

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        1. Newell Post indeed!
          That’s the path.

          Medical Training
          Dr. Sam Bailey completed her medical training at the University of Otago, gaining a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB). As a resident doctor she worked in all areas of medicine, with a particular focus on Emergency Medicine and Cardiology. Following this, she worked in General Practice and Sexual Health before becoming a Clinical Trials Research Physician. Over that decade, she worked as a supervising doctor in phase I-IV clinical trials.

          You want to hear credentialed material from a foundational virologist , you would be well to follow the work of Dr. Stephan Lanka
          Here’s another opportunity to listen to what Dr Bailey was expanding.
          I have come to enjoy Andrew Kauffman. I believe he’s in search of the truth and he’s very meticulous. He has done a lot of sharing online. So his stuff is easy to find. But you may enjoy this presentation.
          He just finished a most excellent film called Terrain….I’m looking for a link and will share it.

          https://odysee.com/@DrAndrewKaufman:f/Virus_Isolation_Is_It_Real_Andrew_Kaufman_Responds_To_Jeremy-Hammond:9

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    2. Dear Sir:

      There are so many errors in your comments that I have difficulty choosing which to correct. The easiest is the historical inaccuracy of Louis Pasteur being “ health minister “ in the court of Napoleon and his wife Josephine. Louis Pasteur was born December 27, 1822. Napoleon died May 5, 1821.

      Another error is this: ” Since the incidence of vaccines the health statistics for our younger populations has shown that what used to be considered elderly diseases are now showing up at earlier onset. ” This is an error of association. Suggesting that vaccines are the cause of “elderly diseases” ” at an earlier onset.” does not prove causation. What elderly diseases? Specific examples and data are required to even begin to make an argument. Define the terms: elderly diseases, showing up at an earlier onset.

      This statement is false: ” If there’s no virus and no genetic sequence that exists for the C-19 viral particle….”

      “In January 2020, when an RNA virus was identified as the etiologic agent of the disease soon to be named COVID-19, scientists immediately sequenced its genome. ”
      from: https://asm.org/Articles/2020/October/SARS-CoV-2-Sequencing-Data-The-Devil-Is-in-the-Gen
      ASM stands for the American Society of Microbiology.
      SARS-CoV-2 is the official name for Covid-19

      I ordered the book Bechamp or Pasteur? and will give it a fair read. I am curious what the alternative is to the germ theory.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. “truth and honesty” are not characteristics endemic to our species, nor any other species for that matter; survival and the need to impress, in order to climb up hierarchal structures, are elemental, particularly for eusocial species like ‘Homo sapiens sapiens’. the moral landscape of the putatively altruistic honourability of science and medicine has been expropriated, commandeered, and maculated by governments, corporate profiteers, and mountebanks for centuries. shamans in traditional cultures were/are gifted charlatans-of-deception. thank you for your detailed exegeses and insights, utejack and wjscott2.

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  5. Dear WJS
    you missed my sarcasm in the quotation marks regarding his title…health minister
    But, when you get into the book Bechamp & Pasteur, maybe that part will lead you to the reason for my mocking tone…
    Regarding the incidence of disease; when you figure out Terrain Theory, you will begin to see that what I call modern life is actually weakening the bodies abilities to remain in a state of equilibrium and robust health. Once you move into the science behind the terrain you will understand how poisons have done their damages. So, I would suggest study the science behind how vaccines are constructed and then you may find/discover that there are an amazing amount of toxic additives inside of a vaccines soup that are dangerous and unnecessary to the health of your system. Do they know through honest research the synergistic effects of each element of their vaccine contents between each possible permutation?…. I believe vaccines/flu shots to be a part of the load of straw on the proverbial immune systems back that assists in weakening it and causing cellular damage that manifests imbalances and destruction in the state of our bodies health. So you may start to find that connection between sickness and health and the onset of mass inoculations given since birth in this and many other nations; and grasp why I am postulating that there’s statistics that seem to track the same when graphed. Now, that’s the difficulty in determining if the connection can be specified; but when Pharma owns the funding; do you believe they are spreading research money to do an honest evaluation.?
    I suggest reading the following book or an analysis of it’s content to understand medical research funding and it’s corporate capture.

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/fauci_info/

    Did they purify and isolate the virus and then look under the electron microscope at their isolated viral particle to see the sequence; or was the sequence created from their genetic database (insilco)?
    These are two different approaches and I’ll let you do the background to find that answer; because it’s important for the public to understand how the medication you accept is created. That is full disclosure and until this happens you have not been given informed consent comprehension and been dealt with in a completely honest fashion. Like the fracking industrial toxic fluid being under proprietary protection clauses; the medical industrial complex uses the same tactics. And therefore they are unapproachable when the damaged want to meet them in court. They are given the legal freedom to operate with no accountability. Ask yourself this question..
    If they could be sued for the vaccine damages… would they be forcing parents to accept so much risk????
    (I have spent my life inside the special needs community and that’s where you meet the vaccine inured and get to know the family stories. They are well kept secrets.)
    I will post a few more titles to help your searches and maybe you will be healthier for it. And live without fear!
    Lastly, I will say the information I brought to you is DIFFERENT. But, I believe it is a stretch for you to say that is not the truth. You haven’t looked deep enough to draw such conclusions yet.

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    1. Dear Sir:

      You mix different propositions into one argument which is not allowed in a logical argument.

      How deep must one go to refute the fact that microbiologists sequenced the Covid19 virus in January of 2020? I was not in the laboratory when they did the sequencing so I can not say with absolute certainty that they did, however that level of certainty is beyond the level of reasonable certainty. At some point skepticism becomes incapacitating doubt or belief in conspiracies. This is why I have taken issue with your claims, because mis-information becomes dis-information which becomes rumor then conspiracy.

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      1. hold your hispid invectives boys, that pit one football uniform against another football uniform, till everyone is bloodied and battle-scarred… tho’ actually, utejack and scott, you have been remarkably civilized in your refutations and disputations!

        endeavouring to change each other’s biases is an exercise in futility… feckly, as futile as trying to transform my LDS-er sister’s kookoo, boiler-plate rants about her born-again-virgin religiosity, the sacrosanct ideologies of mor’o’nism, and the idiot ideations of her beloved conmen, joseph smith and T3 [the tangerine turd]. no one will convince her, as an anti-vacc-ser, that her salubrity would be better served by having the tooth fairy, tinkerball, and jiminy cricket tucked into her bulging pockets.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. No need to worry about any tension occurring from the responses to my perspective. Actually I avoid giving those sensations cover in this bodily temple. There’s an interesting Tennant that Paul encourages humanity to apply….
          Take every thought captive by the force of divine love.
          Negative impressions are detrimental to your Terrain; but is a characteristic of these times. Tension creates frequency waves that disrupt your mitochondrial function. ( They’ve done the science on the electro-magnetic nature of thought formations and show the detrimental effect of the systems negative emotional content… and the benefits of positive thought framework…very interesting research). It backs up Paul’s understanding of how to remain balanced in a crumbling mental framework and it is visibly demonstrated by the neural framework when tested.
          In all of my droppings, I’m just trying to add an awareness that I have found regarding the science of allopathic medicine. When you do honest research, and read their research papers used to file their chemical patents, you can find that there exist many inconsistencies and assumptions. These supposed settled medical pronouncements and claims are being proven inaccurate through experimental processes; which are the ultimate fact checkers that move our awareness further into the openness of clarity.
          I do not want to try and get anybody to “ believe like I do!”. That’s an affront to freedom. But, I find it dangerous when open debate on any topic gets marginalized and kept out of the public’s eyes. You can listen to reasoned explanations about the way I perceive health and either choose to accept or deny it. I do believe that the evidence is compelling and many have embraced it, I did decades ago at a young age after being severely poisoned by allopathic pharmacology and their procedures. Now, the treatments they used back in the 60’s are outlawed for public consumption. But, only after reasonable scientific pushback and many legal battles pointing towards the treatment’s detrimental effects. Medical Hightower’s are difficult to mount; because they battle against a fair assessment of their most financially precious concoctions.
          Research the Flexner brothers and Rockefeller’s creation of modern medical educational training for certification. (He had to find a use for all the synthetic substances that his lab rats were dabbling and dickering about!) He created the schooling, curriculum, and certification avenue for all that’s medical in America. Ask you physician how many hours they took at med school on nutrition. It is extremely disproportionate. Very interesting story as to why we now use the synthetic laboratory creations of pharmacology to keep us healthy. I find it ironic that the American population is extremely unhealthy since the inception of the AMA… there’s no money in nutrition because it doesn’t lead to the volume of increased need for medical intervention.
          So I questioned it back then and have been fascinated what I have learned over my lifetime; and there’s been plenty of breakthrough understanding discovered that has sharpened our awareness in cellular biology. I believe the science stars of the future will come from the ranks of the magneto-biologists. They will finally get their day.
          Do you remember me describing what the Vedas call Kali Yuga. The main characteristics during this time are an extremely dense and synthetic living arrangement. We are in those times according to those ancient calculators of days.
          The folks that have informed my understanding are depending on the natural creation to be kept pure so that it sustains the organisms within it’s domain.
          Modern medicine is waging a war against an enemy from outside that is invading you. They have a synthetic approach to keeping you constantly primed to attack.
          There are many of us who do not want to be forced into medical tyranny. We are just trying to show you through reasoned science that we have a verifiable way toward vibrant living that only requires one’s own personal commitment.
          Please let all evidence to be offered up. That is what I’m presenting.
          So here’s an article I found this morning on the future of medical treatments.
          “Does this not sound like the Kali Yuga Medical Plan?” I asked myself.
          This science is in it’s infancy and is making
          “extraordinary” claims! We’ll see! It’s foundation is the germ theory and that is now, more than ever, a scientific theory standing on shaky ground. In my world it is already a fairytale myth that lies exploded in the dust of proper discovery.

          https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/how-covid-created-a-vision-for-treating-disease?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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      2. HEY WJS,
        I’m gonna apologize for my lack of writing skills. Don’t let it deter from the science your bodies health could benefit from. I’m only interested in posing a way that has been lived for decades and I want that for everyone.
        I told you I would send you some information
        Here’s a film on Terrain Theory by Dr. Andrew Kauffman … the people within this film do a wonderful job of educating. I believe they are after truth and honesty. I have learned much from these folks, but this isn’t for the meek. You will be challenged understanding what they are asking you to follow. I have always found the science they bring difficult to challenge.
        https://odysee.com/@HumanitysVault:a/Terrain-The-Film–Covid-:d?&sunset=lbrytv

        If you like to read, then I would suggest
        2 books by Janine Roberts….
        Fear of the Invisible
        The Vaccine Papers
        She’s a brilliant investigative journalist; I say this because her strength lies in the questions she asks. These will help you see a bit better what the germ theories weaknesses are exposed.

        Stefan Lanka is a brilliant mind on this subject.
        Dr. Tom Cowan has written excellent books and has very well presented talks on the myths of virology and contagion.

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        1. OK UTEJACK, I will check the items you list.

          I agree with Jeanie that we are getting into an online brawl that neither of us wants. I appreciate your courtesy in addressing me in your responses.

          I thought long and hard about making the comments I did because I do not like confrontations; however as a retired physician and one who has treated thousands of patients with infectious diseases, I felt obligated to speak up. Also the theme of this thread is conspiracy thinking which starts with mis-information or out right lies by someone or organization. Too much to say about that but I believe the truth no matter how difficult it may be, has great value. Too much to say about how one determines what is true, that is a branch of philosophy called Epistemology.

          To you and Jeanie I will give the Spock benediction: “May you live long and prosper”.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. tnx for the spock-sourced beatitudes, scott2. however, this ragbag has already lived well past her sell-by date. soon i’ll be older than the H2O molecule. at this nexus in life, too much controversy, bellicosity, conspiracy rants, pugnacious interlocutions… even wja’s anti-war perpendings… have left me in a state of enervation and defeasance. time to sign out and have a wee tipple.

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  6. I was hoping that the link provided to Terrain the Film would be something I could learn from, instead it is propaganda.

    The film is four hours long! This is a technique called exhausting the critique’s time and energy. I skipped through the film which is very wordy and vague to a part about 2 hours and 36 minutes where the film maker, Dr. Kauffman, is discrediting the sequencing technique used to do the RNA of Covid19. He claims that using pieces of the RNA rather than the whole strand is not a reliable way to do the sequencing. This gets very technical but I know from my readings in genetics that the techniques used today are very fast and accurate. Here is an example:
    Sequencing the first human genome cost about $1 billion and took 13 years to complete; today it costs about $3,000 to $5000 and takes just one to two days. Apr 14, 2013
    This was in 2013, today it would take even less time and money.

    Dr. Kaufman is a psychiatrist. He has no training in genetics, microbiology, immunology, or epidemiology. He is not qualified to make judgements about a highly complex technique in a field he knows almost nothing about.

    I have spent about an hour debunking only a small part of this film and that is part of their strategy; put out a lot of mis-information which takes them almost no time at all, but takes a critic a hundred times or more to refute.

    In science, anyone who wants to deny a well established theory, must provide sound, impartial evidence that they have found a major flaw in the theory. That evidence or study then undergoes examination by specialists in that field to evaluate the evidence. If need be they will replicate the study and determine if the results do or do not overturn the established theory. This film does not do this.

    I really do not want to put any more time into this as I have a life to live, and refuting junk like this can go on forever!

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