Tim Ordei
Everything in this series of articles is my own opinion. My decisions are my own and not recommendations to anyone else. While at this stage I have chosen not to vaccinate against covid, I have taken a considerable amount of time and effort to help improve my odds, not just against Covid, but all infectious diseases.
11. A Biased Media
In 1455 Johannes Gutenberg changed the world with the invention of the printing press. This allowed for the democratisation of knowledge, which led to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. It also resulted in a considerable amount of political and cultural turmoil, as the traditional gatekeepers of information began to lose their established power base and the printing press played a key role in creating polarising ideas and all sorts of different interpretations of truth.
The internet and social media are creating the same disruption. My view is that the cries of ‘misinformation’ from established media have nothing to do with the reliability of information available from podcasts and alternative media, but more to do with the market share of traditional news outlets being decimated as they struggle to remain relevant.
Many people (including ACC service advocates acting on behalf of their clients) are coming forward with stories of serious injuries from the vaccine. But they are being ignored, mocked, disowned by family and friends or reported as liars by the media.
If I am to take the vaccine and something goes wrong, I want to be sure that I will be looked after, since I took one for the team. Clearly this will not be the case. I have little faith in media that refuse to investigate and make assumptions based on their own biased beliefs. Stop getting your news from Twitter. Use your phone to talk to the original source. Or better yet, go and get the stories from these people – in person.
I am seeing articles where I know the reports are misleading or not true. What was it that Nietzsche said? “The problem is not that you lied to me, it is that I will never believe you again.”
12. Faith, not Science.
I’ve seen numerous stories from those who are fully vaccinated (and who spent a considerable amount of time ridiculing the unvaccinated) that have now been infected with Covid. They describe it as a terrible experience, yet continue to sing the praises of the vaccine and insist vaccination is the best thing you can do to prevent serious illness. They argue that it would have been worse if they hadn’t been vaccinated. This has nothing to do with science, it is an assumption of faith and is a really poor argument coming from people who always tell us to follow the science. Not once have I heard them hypothesise that the vaccine may not work. This reminds me of fundamentalists arguing that it is God’s will, when their prayer for healing fails to heal.
I see people wearing masks in their cars or while walking alone in the park. Waiters and waitresses who are required to wear masks in restaurants and bars, but customers don’t. I’m told that the vaccine will protect us from Covid but it won’t protect us from the unvaccinated. This is making no sense and sounds more like a religious crusade of the righteous, perpetrated by the inquisition, against the sinners and the damned. I keep planning to go down to get my shot but then feel like it’s an initiation into some sort of religious cult and it just puts me off.
The vaccine has become a holy symbol. Those who accept it will be saved, and those that question or reject this salvation are deemed as heretics.