COVID has demonstrated the absolute necessity of independent media.
Sure, it seems somewhat morbid to speak of a “silver lining” to the Wuhan Plague and unseemly, perhaps, to use it to blow our own trumpets, but there it is: if it weren’t for sites like The BFD, who would have told the truth and asked the difficult questions about the Wuhan virus?
The legacy media have strictly stuck to the script. While some of the “right-leaning” (Boo! Hiss!) media occasionally raised their heads about the parapet, the mainstream media uniformly parroted the party line. COVID was the deadliest plague in history, hospitals were going to be overflowing with corpses, lockdowns were absolutely necessary, the virus absolutely did not come from a Chinese lab, masks absolutely work, Andrew Cuomo ran the gold standard public health response, Dan Andrews did nothing wrong, Jacinda Ardern singlehandedly saved New Zealand, and so it went.
Who dares question the legacy media? They are our sole source of truth.
Anyone who challenged the party line is a “conspiracy theorist”.
Except that we “conspiracy theorists” have been right about COVID, time and again.
You wouldn’t have heard anything but the narrative from the sole source of truth if it hadn’t been for, not just The BFD, but the derided army of bloggers, YouTubers and other independent media challengers, such as The Good Sauce.
Most often, it is those on the Right who are capable of seeing reality and calling it out for what it really is. Every time we do so, those on the opposite side of the political spectrum start loosely throwing around the terms “conspiracy theorist” and “conspiracy theory”. It is unsurprising, as it is often individuals on their side who are perpetrating nefarious plots. But, as it seems to turn out far too often, we crackpots are right.
But don’t take it from me. Take it from the evidence. Throughout the time of COVID-19, we have made a growing number of claims that were refuted by the opposing side as conspiracy theories. We said the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, not from a Chinese wet market. As it turns out, more evidence continues to come to light that this claim is likely accurate, as much as they want to try to deny it. We claimed the virus was being used by the elite to gain power. They said it was nonsense. Yet politicians, unelected bureaucrats, and various other elites have indeed used COVID-19 as an excuse to consolidate power, taking more than they were gifted by the people of their nations and using it to invoke fear within them and control them.
Bear in mind that The BFD has been reporting these inconvenient “conspiracy theories” for over a year, in some cases. As early as last March, we were reporting on the obviously junk “science” used to justify lockdowns and the first evidence that lockdowns not only do not work, but may make things worse.
We even published the evidence on mask-wearing, for readers to make up their own minds.
We claimed the World Health Organization (WHO) could not be trusted. The usual suspects appeared, telling us that we had to “trust the science”, their typical overused tagline. What they do not seem to realise (or maybe it is simply willful ignorance) is that scientists can lie, and consensus on a matter does not necessarily equate to science. If science cannot be questioned, then it is not science. Despite their blind trust in the WHO, it came to light that the offshoot of the ever-corruptible United Nations assisted China in the cover-up, even going so far as to act as if there was some truth to China’s bizarre and baseless claims that the virus originated from Australian meat products. And, predictably, when they were delayed access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, they expressed mere disappointment, rather than challenging them and going forth to investigate. Their eventual investigation, predictably, turned up nothing. It should come as no surprise given WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was handpicked by President Xi.
One of the more treacherous waters independent media have had to navigate has been COVID vaccines. The BFD has a policy of not passing on obviously nonsensical, genuine conspiracy theories, such as 5G or anti-vaxx. But the fact was and is that it is not unreasonable to ask questions about the COVID vaccine. They may be wrong or right questions, but someone has to ask them: and that someone won’t be the legacy media.
We claimed the vaccines would not be able to be trusted. We were labelled “anti-vaxxers”, thrown in with a crowd we do not align with. The truth is most of us expressing our concerns around the COVID vaccines have in the past received many vaccines. Many of us even get the annual flu vaccines. Our skepticism of this vaccine stems from its rushed creation and production. There is no way of knowing what the long-term side effects of such a vaccine are. It is justified. There have already been a number of circumstances in which perfectly healthy people have died after receiving their vaccine around the world. Many times, the so-called “health experts” put it down to “prior conditions”. Yet when we wanted to discuss prior conditions of patients who apparently succumbed to COVID-19, we were shut down. Co-morbidities only seem to matter when it suits a certain agenda.
Another wicked “conspiracy theory” was the worry that vaccines would be made mandatory. Guess what?
We were told that would not happen, that it would be completely voluntary. The government even promised as much. Yet it would appear we were right yet again, as governments, particularly at State levels, consider options for restricting those who do not take the vaccine. Some Premiers have already given their blessing for businesses to traverse the path of having the vaccine as a condition of entry, and a condition of work. It is likely that, while the government may not explicitly make the vaccine mandatory, they will do all they can to make the lives of those who opt-out a misery.
We claimed that vaccine passports would be brought into existence. This one was laughed off by many, tossed aside as another giant conspiracy theory. Yet the idea has been touted by some politicians in Australia, and only this week in the United States, Joe Biden’s administration have made it known that they will launch vaccine passports that would be required to engage in commerce and track Americans that take the vaccine.
Then there’s the granddaddy of “conspiracy theories”: the Great Reset. The mere mention of this Voldemort of conspiracy theories is enough to drive New Zealand’s deputy prime minister running from the room, sticking his fingers in his ears and screaming, “La-la-la-la…”
Yet, once again, we “conspiratorial” independent media are right.
It should come as no surprise that a group of unelected rich and powerful elites, led by a German, seek to gain as much power and control as they can, likely in another dangerous attempt to utter in a “utopia”. Without doubt, it would be anything but a paradise for those living within it. It would bear a greater resemblance to the political dystopia of Orwell’s 1984. For the last year, they have used the slogan “Build Back Better”, and have told us “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.” It is nefarious, it is utterly frightening, and it should scare the living daylights out of anyone with even an inkling of common sense.
The Good Sauce
Once again, the Great Reset is not a “conspiracy theory”; it is completely, frighteningly real. Its proponents have even been so kind – or so hubristic – as to write a whole book about it.
None of this is to say that The BFD, or any other independent media, should be your sole source of truth, either. We get things wrong sometimes, too, and we certainly can’t know about or report on everything. But the lifeblood of a liberal, democratic society is a diverse media that are not afraid to ask hard questions and challenge conventional wisdom. That’s not the legacy media, which have become a parrot chorus, gatekeeping the narrowest set of allowed opinions imaginable.
But where the legacy media have failed, independent media are stepping up to the plate.
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