Why should we forgive those who, through stupidity, fear, and malfeasance, spent so much energy denying years of evidence-based science in a sustained attack on our lives and livelihoods?
They were “just following orders”?
They were just doing what the authorities said?
Hmmm…
I remember many excuses that sounded similar back in the late 40s. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Neither is ignorance of ethics or epidemiology or hundreds of years of biology.
Ultimately, we all stand guilty for what we choose to do based on whatever information we have. Those with little information should refrain from doing radical and dramatic things.
I’ve written many essays since May 2020, and I stand by every word I wrote about “covid.” Looking back, I knew I was on the right side of history. I’m still fighting to end every nonsensical covid restriction – restrictions that still exist in New York City today.
Many places still require “proof of vaccination” to enter buildings; others require boosters. Some require boosters and tests and still demand MASKS to be worn! It’s absurd, and I’m not afraid to confront this madness because it must end —forever. We cannot repeat, in any way, what happened over the past three years.
And no, I’m not forgiving anyone who doesn’t ask for forgiveness. Life doesn’t work that way.
I want accountability.
I want to vote anyone out of office who supported any pandemic restrictions past June of 2020.
How can there be amnesty when there is no acknowledgment of wrongdoing? Who thinks we can move on without investigating where we went wrong and ensuring we never make the same mistakes again? Policies in 2020/2021 were ineffective and harmful to the population’s overall health. Pandemic protocols were dangerous because they set a precedent for future medical authoritarianism and abuse of emergency powers.
There cannot be yet another trend of gaslighting and pulling a Jedi mind trick on the public. Too many of us have memories that can recall things that happened past last week. I remember too many events of the past three years, and I will have difficulty forgetting how nasty people were to me on the street, in elevators, in parks, online, and at work.
No, you can’t declare “amnesty” and be done with it. I am okay with acknowledging that you were wrong, accepting that you made serious mistakes, and publicly stating that this will never happen again. The author does none of this in this piece written for the Atlantic. She was all for vaccine mandates:
If she or anyone else had looked into these so-called ‘vaccines,’ they would have known they were never designed to stop the spread of covid, nor the transmission. Vaccine mandates never made sense. They made even less sense when my jabbed friends, who did all they could to avoid covid, caught the bug in 2020/2021. They got covid after doing everything right. They figured out there was nothing they could do to stop it.
After months of not working, many of these people supported the firing of employees who were hesitant to get this brand new vaccine. They were the ones yelling at people on the street to ‘mask up.’ They were the ones ok with not allowing family members to see loved ones dying in hospitals, happy with the closing of schools, cheered on travel restrictions in and out of the country and even to other states, and were often the loudest voices online when it came to not allowing people to work unless they got three jabs. Those people…in the end, they STILL got covid.
No, it wasn’t worth it, and I’m not letting these cruel people off the hook this easy. I know who my allies are and who my adversaries are.
If you were one of the millions coerced into getting the covid jab—got shots you did not want, and suffered as many did—as long as you did not advocate forcing the shots on others, you have my forgiveness. You were a victim like so many others were of this SCAM. If you wanted to get the covid vaccine for your own personal health, I’m fine with that decision. Certain segments of the population SHOULD get the covid vaccine. I don’t think five shots makes much sense, but hey, it’s your body, your choice.
READ: CDC Director Tests Positive for COVID-19 Again
If you were one of the many who crossed the line into advocating for coercive policies or participated in arbitrary data and information suppression, that’s different. Being wrong is no crime, nor is being bullied into acquiescence, but when you start forcing or coercing others into submission, that’s a severe problem.
Why should those of us who saw through all this grant amnesty to the many who now find themselves on the wrong side of many issues today? Maybe we should withhold amnesty to covid crusaders who wielded the whip hand of the media and government officials. I despised the people I saw who attempted to shame people who questioned the rush to get a vaccine that MOST OF US KNEW WOULD NOT STOP COVID and did terrible things over the past two years because of a dark desire to act like a keyboard demagogue and assumed a faux moral mantle to vilify and attack others. These people are a societal hazard and are the people who should be penalized, not accommodated.
Society must develop an immune system to these types of viral humans.
Granting amnesty would enable them to ennoble anti-social action and technocratic science perversion in perpetuity. It’s a world I do not want to live in.
The man now known as Ye (formerly Kanye West) is quickly learning that words and actions have consequences. Forgiveness for such acts must be earned, not hand-waved into being. Forgiveness is the final stage, which begins with self-reflection and moves through stages of reevaluation, repentance, and the extension of a sincere apology—sort of like the stages of grieving.
Emily Oster’s claptrap in her Atlantic piece offers none of the elements of redemption, only a path towards the memory hole.
Clayton is the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and the host of the Think Things Through Podcast.
Twitter: @claytoncraddock