link to original reddit post by /u/BananaRex4000
With the current climate of covid and vaccines it's sure been a tough time for independent thought and liberty...
I consider myself a logical, civil, and open minded individual; and I adore the innovations modern medicine has given us, and thoroughly enjoy the benefits of the free market for allowing incentives for new medicines and vaccines to be made all the time. And I love that people can choose to take the current vaccines, but I absolutely abhor the social herding and bullying surrounding these particular vaccines. I have absolutely zero problem disagreeing with a person and admitting we both think differently, but anymore that can't be done civilly. All I see and feel are personal attack after attack for simply reading the situation differently than someone else. It's as if the general public has accepted that hate, closed mindedness, and control are necessary for our society to function anymore. Out of all the authoritarian policies and actions I've seen in my life, this social control is the most terrifying of them all. To me it really does feel like something is different, that we've crossed a threshold. Where as before I could disagree on policy with someone, now there can be no disagreement, I am simply branded one of the "bad people" and am now looked at as a lower thing, less than a "good citizen." To be fair I know people who aren't infected with this hateful social bullying mentality too, but I have never seen it so active and pervasive. Sure people hated Trump with fervor, but this is now beyond politics; this has become about who gets to control our own perosnal lives and bodies. I left Facebook due to the blatant censorship and hate, and now that I'm on Reddit I see much of the community here isn't much different.
I'm writing this partially to vent after facing such blind ignorance, and partially because I am new to this group and want to see what the mentality here is. How do you deal with this hateful collectivism taking over society? I tried to simply stay quiet, but its hardly fair that logical opinions and statements of fact have to be hidden while the political tribes get to state their propaganda as the truth. Everytime I don't speak up against falsehoods I feel like I'm letting people down, I feel like I'm partially culpable for the current trends if I choose to say nothing. So in an age of "fact checkers," censors, and downvotes, how do you simply speak your mind truthfully? Where can the truth thrive and not be shut down and silenced for being against the narrative? Is there anywhere that isn't an echo chamber where actual science and reality is safe to discuss openly???