How I Came to Need Imaginary Friends After Two Long Years of This Dystopian Nightmare of Masks, Tests and Distancing
It has been such a long two years. I have been swimming against the tide for most of that time, searching for alternatives to the oppression I have felt and witnessed, raging and grieving over the damage done to so many lives, especially the young. I rage against being part of a huge worldwide experiment. I rage against the crazy rules, the propaganda, and most of all the masks.
We are now perhaps emerging blinking into a life without Covid rules and yet the masks and their wearers are still everywhere. The natural world is unchanged, but the human world is still dystopian. An invitation to a singing workshop involves a lateral flow test before you go, social distancing of one metre, and masks when not singing. Two friends required a lateral flow test before a visit.
I no longer support any political party, any campaign group, newspaper or magazine. The Left has left me. I am appalled by the role trade unions have played. My principles have not altered, but I have lost my place in the wider world.
My small world has changed too. Around me are my partner, my sister and her partner and four friends who have rejected some or all of the orthodoxy of Covid in our lives. And there is another close friend who doesn’t know what she thinks. These people have been warm support and good company.
The rest of my friends and family have been ‘conformist’ and one has rejected me altogether. These relationships have lost in trust and intimacy. My disappointment runs deep. Talking about what we have lived through seems very hard to do and nothing feels as it used to because I am so changed and we are all changed. I cannot see how we heal ourselves and relationships unless there is dialogue. There is an elephant in the room.
There are people out there that I feel in some way connected to: scientists like Carl Heneghan, the Great Barrington authors Sunetra Gupta, Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, psychologist Gary Sidley, writers and philosophers like Charles Eisenstein, Paul Kingsnorth and Lionel Shriver, A State of Fear author Laura Dodsworth, and many more. These are my imaginary friends who are out there questioning and campaigning. Their writing helps me at least feel not entirely mad. I can’t find a way at the moment to be part of anything I really believe in except for helping the Smile Free campaign from my computer.
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There’s a new social network launching, called Pub, where you’re likely to run into the odd like minded sole and you can say what you like, without it being copied and pasted years later..
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/offline-social-networking-service-called-pub-launched-2015062499538
Good tip, but SOUL, please, not SOLE. I’m sure Jill doesn’t want to meet a fish………..
You’re not mad Jill, you’re one of the sane people. I think all of us here know exactly how you feel.
Ditto
Me too.
I have not been rejected – yet. Most members of my family, all of whom I love, have (I think) decided to tolerate my strange eccentricity, and so talk cheerfully about anything else. I do the same. We ignore the elephant.
Two, thank God, are ardent allies; two more have told me that they agree with me. A few friends are like-minded, but I suspect one is just being amiable (literally).
Every night I catch up with my friends at Daily Sceptic, Conservative Woman and Offguardian: none of whom I am likely to meet.
Strange Days.
Us too. My immediate close family are with me, and a tiny number of friends, the rest are lost to us
How does one quantify the polarization of the whole world or tens of millions of families and friends who are now estranged, or no longer as close as they used to be?
This might turn out to be the biggest wound to society. More than ever, we live in an “Us against Them” world..
Personally, I think it’s going to end in many states seceding from the union in the USA, which I hope does not become a civil war.
It also might lead to WWIII as politicians sometimes start wars to distract from other fissures in society.
This is WWIII, except this time the war is against all of us.
none of whom I am likely to meet.
Well, you never know. There’s a whole gang of us on the Reddit site, scattered all over the country, yet have managed to meet up regularly; not just on the protests but socially too.
I’m in Oz – and not permitted to leave the country because I am rebellious and disobedient. You’d think they’d want to see the back of me.
I’m a big fan of Ron Paul. He made an intriguing point in one presidential debate. The topic was building a border wall between America and Mexico.
Paul added this point: “YOU know walls don’t only keep people from coming into your country, they also prevent people in your country from ever being able to leave.”
East Germany’s wall comes to mind.
I actually don’t think the Powers that Be care anything about Americans leaving their birth country. What bothers them is these people could take their money. They wouldn’t be able to tax them anymore.
Anyway, with these border walls …. be careful what you wish for.
They don’t want to see the back of you, they want you punished for your misdemeanours. I sincerely hope you manage to be free of your restraints.
Coo, imagine how ghastly this would’ve been before the internet. Come to think of it, it might not have been possible.
Try UK Column they’re brilliant and I mean brilliant. Every Monday Wednesday and Friday 1pm. Enjoy!
We have experienced the same. After first ‘sucking it up’ we had our eyes opened when Prof Carl Henegan (Apr 2020) said he couldn’t see a ‘pandemic’ in the data structure, From then on, having had our eyes opened, everything became clear.
We followed Sherlock Holmes investigative technique as spoken to Watson as I recall……:
‘If you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth’.
I emailed my Tory MP a couple o days after lockdown in March 2020 with a very long email with figures going back to 1950 and detailing averages of deaths and saying that we should protect the vulnearable and let everyone else catch the virus or not as we would normally do and therby build a natural immunity. I then continued to email every week for a year showing results from all over the world and why this lockdown policy is wrong and I had a wager that the July 20 to July 21 weekly death rate would be lower than the 20 year avaerage when adjusted for age and population. I won. I am not a medical person but a retired dairy farmer who likes figures and stats and my experience of Neil Ferguson after he dessimated the dairy industry with his predictions on BSE and Foot and Mouth outcomes and then on Swine Fever were so wrong as to be laughable and yet Boris et al believed him. You could not make it up! It gives no pleasure whatsoever when my wife goes around telling people that I got it right from the start and but for the… Read more »
Yep a tip top man. Likewise he kept me sane. Well worth the money I send monthly. London’s Calling is brilliant too!
I totally agree Jo. I find that if you mention this to the Covid nutters, their eyes glaze over and they sort of reject it without actually offering any rational counter arguments. Such is the level of brainwashing that has gone on. Inconvenient truths, or even just reasonable questions, are pushed aside.
When we were locked down in March 2020, I spent the next days frantically calling everyone I knew, assuming they would be as horrified as I was.
That was when I realised we were in trouble. With a couple of notable exceptions, everyone I know thought we were doing what needed to be done. No one seemed to understand that if we accepted being put arbitrarily under house arrest, we would accept almost anything. And of course we did. Masks, tests, jabs, vax passports.
I will always be grateful for the voice of Peter Hitchens. It was the first glimmer of hope I got that not all was lost and that there was at least one voice out there. And soon after I found Lockdown Sceptics.
If not for them, I might have lost my mind. (Maybe exaggerating, but it would have been so much harder.)
I thought I was the only person in the world against this in the first couple of weeks.
The “Narrative” was a lie from the very beginning. I think I’m almost the only person (an obscure independent journalist) who has compiled evidence that this virus was actually spreading widely months before the lockdowns. And at least some authorities MUST have known this. If they didn’t, they were guilty of incompetence. Anyway, none of the “lockdowns” and NPIs were ever going to “stop” the spread of a virus that had already spread to virtually every hamlet in the world by December 2019. All of the lockdowns were non-sensical as, from about week 3 of the official pandemic, everyone should have know that the only people who really faced any real risk were the very old and those with serious co-morbidities. Still, sports involving the young and healthy in many places were cancelled. Attendance at sporting venues – all venues – was disallowed. School was cancelled. People (who could) had to work at home. Almost everyone was tested – repeatedly – when only a very few – those with obvious symptoms – should have been tested. The Establishment says that the “science has changed” and that they couldn’t have known then what they now know. The problem with this spin/revisionist… Read more »
So what happened with New Zealand? I have assumed that because of their geographical isolation, trying to keep it out initially (though seemingly no longer) might have had some effect.
One place I would like to hear more about (if the information becomes available) is Belarus, for me the most interesting case.
I am certain that I had it in December 2019. It was the worst flu I’ve had for decades but I survived. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve felt largely detached and unconcerned throughout.
I hope you recovered well. I had something along those lines then as well, and being suspicious as to what it might have been, I shelled out for a proper private blood sample test, much later on – about 2 years after, in fact. That did not prove that it was a SARS-Cov-2 cause, though, so not quite the answer I hoped for; probably just one of many, normal bugs.
Me too. Thankfully my brother guided me to this site.
me too.and most of my old friends and family i still can’t talk about ‘ the subject ‘ with. a few said will never see me in person again
Absolutely! And the Swiss Doctor at Swiss Policy Research.
Peter Hitchens had both the experimental gene therapy clot shots, despite his protestations about the Scamdemic!
No-one is perfect. He’s done more for the sceptic cause than most of us here I would venture.
Indeed. Peter Hitchens was one of the very few that bravely spoke out at the time. It gave a lot us some relief that we weren’t alone!
The jabs were not even on the agenda for most of 2020, but Hitchens stuck his neck out on lockdowns etc when it was heresy to do so.
For that he should be respected.
That is because he wanted to see his children who I believe live in different countries to the UK.
Having said that I have not been jabbed and still made(a very expensive) visit to the UK last year. But, then again I am single so the cost was reduced from that of a couple.
Likewise.
I couldn’t understand them; and they couldn’t understand me.
Peter Hitchens was heroic in those early days, and Lockdown Sceptics was a godsend.
A former BlackRock fund manager named Ed Dowd, who is making a big deal out of published reports of life insurance companies and publicly-traded funeral homes, might be the man who single-handedly turns the narrative.
This interview with Mr. Dowd is 45 minutes, but it’s worth a view if you have time. His premise is that at some point Wall Street will connect the dots and start to “short’ all the fraudulent companies’ stocks. He also thinks the financial press can’t continue its news blackout of vaccine adverse effects forever.
I agree with him that Phizer and Moderna are probably going to be defunct as companies in a few years.
https://rumble.com/vv12ca-february-15-2022.html
https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/former-blackrock-portfolio-manager?utm_source=url
A must see video this one. Tells it exactly like it is especially regarding the upcoming financial crash on a scale like nothing before!
Thank you for posting BillRiceJr. 👍
What else accounts for the apparent ‘suicides’ and deaths of scores and scores of bankers?
List below is now updated to January 2020.
https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/list-of-dead-bankers-2015-conspiracy-update/
Yes! We did too! I really thought that my sensible and rational friends and family would too…but they didnt! I realised this very quickly. I spent most of April 2020 in a state of shock, realising the world had changed forever. Everything had shifted. It helped that both Mr H and I were already aware, by a number of years, that a globalist agenda was about to be released, only we didn’t know how they were going to convince people to accept it. Now we knew. It was then we started our own pushback, gaining as much knowledge as we could, finding like-minded souls online and later in person, doing everything to reject the “New Normal”. It was…still is a great awakening. Along this journey I have discovered so much that is lies and deception and propaganda. But I have also discovered new strengths within myself, to stand up and speak what I believe to be my truth. A family member, frustrated that we still refuse to roll over obediently, told us that we’d changed! Well, they’re the ones living a new life of following mandates and rules but he’s right. We have changed. We became awake, thank goodness!
Ditto. I’ve been deeply disappointed by people I never imagined would have taken the bedwetting stance.
“When we were locked down in March 2020, I spent the next days frantically calling everyone I knew, assuming they would be as horrified as I was.”
My story is very similar. There is an awful lot of emotional pain on this side of fence, and I appreciate Jill articulating some of it.
Perhaps the inevitable result of people making a religion of their own safety (and “the science”).
One of my main concerns right from the start was the closure of the churches. Community, and freedom of worship, is so important.
// If not for them, I might have lost my mind. (Maybe exaggerating, but it would have been so much harder.) //
I, too, stewart. And I still don’t know a single person in the flesh (except, come to think of it, the dishwasher repairman and the lady who cleans the house twice a month) who’s not bought into the party line.
Thank you, Toby Young.
My wife and I are in our mid-seventies, but in good general health. Right from the beginning we’ve managed to keep an open mind about Covid. Certainly, the nonsense of clapping for the NHS made us suspect something seriously wrong in the Government’s messaging, but we found that the right-wing Press (particularly the Spectator) offered the only real opposition, and immediately put it (and the Telegraph and Mail) on our phones and tablet. Then came the Sceptic, and its morning dose of questioning everything has kept us sane. Although we’ve reluctantly taken our 3 jabs, we remain unmasked except in hospital settings and wear our mask-exempt lanyards proudly. Our children are – thank God-of like mind and have not pushed us under the kitchen table! The most alarming thing now is the reluctance of folk to accept that Covid is retreating, and in Sainsbury’s (but not in Aldi) the mask-wearing virtue-signallers are still out. In force!
For us Julia Hartley-Brewer has been the stand out reporter – challenging all to “show us the evidence” for their balmy claims. She’s so good in challenging false info that the Govt were unwilling on lots of occasions to go on her show. She’s provided sanity in a world of madness.
Stay sane. Stay sceptical. Hold onto the truth.
I could’ve wrote that.
Me too, Paul. It describes my feelings exactly.
You also have many friends here and kindred spirits.
A photo from the Canadian Truckers protest that (so far) has not gone viral …. but should.
That “boot” stepping on people is also a horse shoe.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10160988254057195&set=a.10150348938037195
Also worth viewing – female reporter beaten and maced by a Canadian cop.
RebelNews reporter Alexa Lavoie injured.
https://nitter.net/ezralevant/status/1495062352735186944
It wasn’t just Mace, but a teargas canister at ‘point blank range’.
Weak progressives are some of the nastiest people there are.
Totally agree with this! I have discovered to my shock that many people are happy to imprison, torture and punish others just so they feel “safe”. All the while dressing up their immoral behaviour with a covering of fake virtue.
And they are capable of ignoring inconvenient facts that contradict the prevailing view.
I think it likely I will never vote again, nor engage in groups or activities as I have in the past, and professionally I frequently have to bite my tongue.
I am certainly less trusting of various professions, government, police and now, given the Canadian experience, banks too.
All in all I feel a very different person to who I was before.
That certainly mirrors my experience in large measure (other than I will vote, spoiling my ballot paper) and probably a lot of the rest of us
I am certainly less trusting of various professions, government, police and now, given the Canadian experience, banks too.
Ditto – and I wasn’t exactly trusting before! The medical profession has plummeted in my estimation (with outstanding and honorable exceptions).
I don’t see that I’ve changed – only that I’ve realised that there are a few things I think about what’s important in life, that I assumed other people did too. But they don’t.
I haven’t changed my appearance by hiding half of my face
I don’t behave any differently from 2 years ago.
It’s the world and the people around us who have changed I think. Or maybe they haven’t changed either – it’s just more obvious that we were never the same.
I suppose the only thing that’s changed is that I know what the hills are that I am prepared to die on, and I didn’t know I had any hills before.
I feel very much the same. Reeling, shocked, but awake.
Completely agree, I will do my best to avoid ever dealing with the medical profession again and most definitely will choose never to go into a ‘care’ home.
In my view, voting is still important.
As there is nobody to vote from, I spoil my ballot paper with ‘None of the above represents me’ – spoilt ballot papers are counted (and spoiit ballots came second in the recent uncontested Southend by-election, ahead of all the fringe candidates),
Last year, in the local elections, I voted for a fringe candidate with no chance at all, but the other point of view is to note that for many Councils, the real majority is those who do not vote at all, with turnouts being 30 – 40% at best.
Off topic but I understand a women has been tramped to death by police horses in Canada.
I wouldn’t doubt this. See the photo I linked below. I also note that citizen or alternative media journalists are being arrested for trying to film and cover these protests, so who knows what’s really happening? We do know the MSM stenographers will only print the Big Brother version of events.
This weekend might be the “last stand” of the Canadian trucker protest, which actually might be the last stand for real protest against tyranny at least in North America.
The Big Brother elites don’t fight fair and they have a few more “tools” in their arsenal.
Thanks for posting. Maybe we can make this photo go viral?
It’s been all over gettr all day.
You can see the “bicycle” that was “thrown” at the fascists. It seems from the photo that it was actually a mobility scooter or some kind of medical trolley that they trampled along with its owner.
When I was a kid, the words were “O Canada, Our home and native land. True Patriot love in all thy sons command”
According to one of my friends, the lady didn’t die. Word is she’s a First Nations Elder and she got checked out to be sure she was ok, then turned round and went straight back to the protest. I hope that’s true.
Here’s another series of photos that should go viral. A female reporter was beat by a cop with a club and maced for the crime of trying to take pictures or videos. Look at her evidence yourself.
RebelNews reporter Alexa Lavoie injured.
https://nitter.net/ezralevant/status/1495062352735186944
I’ve seen posts that say she’s fine and in hospital with a sore shoulder. Not sure how we find the truth. Let’s just hope she pops up somewhere to say she’s ok.
Reports are looking as though the police lied about the bicycle (it actually being a mobility device) and are deliberately conflating reports of the injury to its owner with the other person who was trampled and may have died. You cannot trust anything Ottawa police say with all the dirty tricks they have been up to.
It amused and frustrated me that in March/April 2020 I was saying to people “this is the scariest thing that i’ve ever known in my life” and, of course, they naturally assumed I was referring to the Covid 19 virus.
They were then baffled when I corrected them and said it was the unsustainable, irrational and totalitarian response to Covid 19 that I was actually referring to.
I kept making the same point. It’s the censorship that is the scandalous story, ensuring dire outcomes for the world for decades to come. Really, the biggest most significant story IMO is the abdication of the Fourth Estate’s “watchdog” journalism role.
Those with absolute power – alleged authorities in government – cannot be challenged anymore in our New Normal. The colossal negative effect of this goes far beyond “Covid” stories.
Absolutely. That’s how I felt too. I analysed the statistics and read the local paper reports of people who had died and I could see, even then, that they were all old, ill or morbidly obese or worked in hospitals and care homes. How was closing schools and small shops going to make a difference?
Children and teenagers were my main concern. I grew up with a mentally ill mother who was often violent and always unpredictable; school was my happy place and my route out. Children were being locked up with abusive or feckless parents with no escape and no one to help them. I knew there would be murders and suicides and there have been. I’m not happy to have been proved right.
This for me too100%….
only thanks to sites like the Lockdown sceptics and a handful of twitter accounts, plus GB news and talk radio most of the time; otherwise I would be murdering people I’m sure!
I vividly remember the early days of GB News and thinking to myself “this will fold – it’ll never catch on”.
And then it did catch on and for me, sad as I know this sounds, to actually see and hear real people say in my living room [via the medium of TV] the things that I think and read from research was literally a life saver for me.
Every single person I know – bar 2 who I only see very infrequently – has been totally captured and happily made themselves into government slaves.
I found a local ‘stand in the park’ met a group of good like minded people who have become friends.
https://www.astandinthepark.org/
Might be worth a look to see if there is one near you
I know and sympathise with how you feel, as I feel the same. My general response to everything is anger and I really have to bite my tongue sometimes (like the other day when I was told, on entering a shop, to wait outside as only one person was allowed in at a time – well, nuts to that I say. I used to be a polite person. In this case, as in many others, I just swore under my breath and left). I am angry because people just accept these petty made up regulations which have nothing to do with helping to reduce infection and everything to do with power seeking by brainless idiots. It’s getting very tiring because my anger is coming up to its 2nd birthday. It’s a long time to be angry for.
I rage in complete private.
It’s not nice – full of profanity and abuse – and it contains all the things I want to say to friends, family members and colleagues, who just don’t fucking get it!
I say a lot with my eyes. I’ve perfected an eye-roll with a raised eyebrow and gentle head shake that belittles the target for their stupidity in a way that exceeds anything I could dish out verbally. The best response I got was walking past someone trying to give out free LFTs at a train station. The blow was so effective that he actually pursued me to the exit (he was too slow to catch up and didn’t get close). I couldn’t hear what he was shouting as I had my earphones in and totally ignored him. Other passengers must have been utterly bemused by his maniacal behaviour.
It’s an unfortunate thing for me that whatever I think is written all over my face anyway. Speaking is barely necessary if I am listening to someone talking rubbish. It has been said (not by me) that I don’t suffer fools gladly. There are so many of them!!!
Yes, I, too, have found, after experimentation with a variety of reactions, that staying mum and just giving them the old eye-roll is the most effective at shutting them up.
I was accosted for being maskless by a fellow customer at an organic food shop once, gave him the eye-roll which provoked a hostile comment that I must be “one of those anti-vaxxers, too” which earned my tormenter a second eye-roll after which he backed off in confusion, lost for further words.
With ‘friends’, however, it is trickier. I usually say something about their recitation of the propaganda like “it’s all white noise to me” and that seems to mute their fervor from a sonic assault to a dull roar.
Better to be angry than defeated.
Too true!
Anger is my issue too. I don’t know how it hasn’t resulted in some physical health issue by now. I don’t know how not to be angry any more. I sympathise – it’s exhausting and wearying isn’t it.
Maybe the anger (unless it’s simmering inside without an outlet) is helping to keep you healthy. During my first pregnancy I had amazingly low blood pressure. I wondered why, since I was a creature of angry, raging hormones throughout most of it. The doctor reckoned the bawling and shouting was keeping the pressure low 🙂
There may be something in that yes
A downtick for that? Do you get paid for each one? It’s hilarious the things some people will call a job.
The phantomdownticker [of Old London Town – it’s a riff on the Two Ronnies sketch] is downticking absolutely everyone today!!!
S/He is going to end up with a nasty case of RSI if they aren’t careful, and you know how hard it is to get to see a GP in person these days…
Thanks for the tip! I’ll give it a try.
Me too, TOB. My language is shocking. And when some moronic message comes over the supermarket tannoy, urging us to “respect” their staff and wear a face mask “if you can”, I’m no longer thinking “Oh, eff off you idiot”, I’m saying it aloud…..along with FFS and “for God’s sake, get a grip!”
I have next to no patience when out and about, so only go about what I have to.
Likewise.
I’ve managed not to make really sarcastic comments very often – although the local chippy did provoke such comments twice by some of the most obnoxious jobsworth Covidian pettiness I’ve seen anywhere. They later put a notice up about respecting their staff – clearly it had completely passed them by that if you treat customers with utter contempt and shout and bark ‘rules’ at them, and loudly berate them for standing in the ‘wrong’ place, some are likely to respond with less than politeness.
You would appreciate a friend of mine who goes round the supermarket wearing a T-shirt that says F*** the Sheeple (without the asterisks of course)
i have learned 3 new words the past two years , sheeple , maskoid, and face nappy . i mutter the first 2 a lot when out and about and a little louder now too, not sure if any of the targets hear me[ probably not ] butat least it makes me feel a little better to use my new vocabulary skills .
Et moi aussi!
You should change your policy and go out and do it more often – might make people wake up a bit.
Was like me in convenience shop the other day, the only bareface surrounded by maskoids, saying sort of under breath but sort of audibly “why are they all wearing masks?”
Look up PTSD. I’m certainly suffering of all the symptoms.
Jill, we are many, and we are growing! We will all find each other eventually.
You are in good company here, Jill.
Try the r/LockdownSceptics group at Reddit too. Lots of us have found each other there and meet regularly.
Is that Lockdown Sceptism by any chance? I can’t seem to find a group called Lockdown Sceptics but it’s only my first go at Reddit so could be wrong.
The Daily Sceptic used to be called Lockdown Sceptics until very recently. Try searching using no spaces. As above – r/LockdownSceptics
I’m actually amazed any scepticism is tolerated on that lefty s hole.
LockdownSceptics (reddit.com)
Hope this works. Reddit can be a bit awkward to navigate at first.
It’s here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics/
and a good place to join. Started by people who used to comment on this site.
In my little neck of the world in small town Tennessee people here go to church by larger percentages than other parts of the world. We closed down only 2 months back in March of 2020 and reopened in May of 2020. Lots of members wore masks but was not required others got vaccinated and some didn’t but the main thing is we all got along well , loving each other and God foremost so the other things just don’t matter. I consider us to be extremely blessed to go through this whole thing living in this state and the love of the body of Christ. I could see how horrible it could have been for some in this world.
Any of us could have written those words – they are so true for so many.
Those of us who found Lockdownsceptics and particularly the commenting community BTL early on (around July 2020 for me) were so relieved to have found people who were thinking the same ideas and rational thoughts and asking the same questions.
Massive relief that there were people out there somewhere who they could talk sense to (or have a rant) and realise they weren’t alone, even if the communication wasn’t in person.
As Nymeria mentioned – the reddit group is growing, but a lot of those long time commenters still going strong.
They have all kept me sane for nearly 2 years now. I am so glad of every single one of them.
And for all those sceptics I’ve now met in person in Freedom Network groups, Stand in the Parks, marches (never before contemplated!!!), and lately a Libertarian Drinks group.
Wonderful, thoughtful, kind and considerate people.
This is so true. I was slower to have scales fall from my eyes, but once they started talking of the vaxx I started to feel a bewildered disjuncture between myself and all my friends. The first one was “they fit 10 years of testing into 6 months by OVERLAPPING studies” – I couldn’t (and still can’t) understand how otherwise intelligent folks could possibly make that work in their heads.
I remember scoffing at Hancock pre-lockdown when he was talking about the need for over 70s like me to stay indoors for a few months. A quick Google search revealed nearly 12 million over 65s in the UK. “They’ll never get that many folk to stay indoors,” sez me. “Bloody impossible!” What did I know? They got BILLIONS of folk around the world to comply!! And the crap goes on… I lived through the 1968 Hong Kong flu epidemic but can’t remember any of it. Neither can any of my contemporaries although, depending on where you look, between 40,000 & 80,000 UK citizens died. Big numbers given a population of 55M. I surmise that the reason for our lack of memory is that everyday life went on as usual. We all went to work. Crucially, there were only three TV channels and they finished before midnight. TV news, usually about a half hour nightly, was taken up with the Vietnam war, the space race, and the usual politics. Woodstock & the Isle of Wight Festival happened. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated. I remember all that. But flu? Nah! Whatever happened to ‘Keep calm and carry on’? The… Read more »
Me too, Jill. Luckily I’ve had my husband and daughter ‘with me’, but son and 95% of friends/acquaintances – ‘lost’! You try to test people out a little, you make a comment, they make one, you think you might possibly have found a kindred spirit, but almost inevitably hopes will be dashed…I have become quite attached to Toby, James, Will Jones (HERO!), Hugh, Julian, Mark, Annie, ‘crisisgarden’ and many others.
We are not imaginary. Try us.
The world can get crazy sometimes, but whether or not you let it get to you is, in my opinion, a personal choice.
If you want to retain your sanity, I reckon it helps to be like water. If there’s a brick in front, it just flows around it; it doesn’t try to go over it.
I went to Sainsbury’s the other day. A sign at the entrance said ‘Please wear a mask if you can’. I couldn’t, because I didn’t have one with me so I continued. And when I got inside, lots of others had taken a similar approach.
The alternative was to get all hot under the collar about companies requiring masks to be worn when the data and evidence don’t support it.
It’s just not worth beating yourself up over all the madness in the world.
The Vertas DataCentre in Enfield is worse now than ever, ‘exempt’ = face shield, barking security guards, they basically follow you around wiping the hand rails down as you pass through… Although you can sit happily in the canteen and drink a coffee in peace (barring the 15 min wipe downs), small mercies I guess.
Absolutely. I’ve learnt now to be patient and simply not engage with any of it. I went to get my ear syringed the other day at a private clinic, and on entering reception I was asked “could you just pop your mask on whilst you are here?” in a very nice tone by the receptionist. To which I beamed brightly and said “I don’t have one.” “Oh . . . would you like one of ours from this box?”. Box of useless paper masks offered to me. “No thank you.”. Bright beam from me. Subject was dropped and I got my ear seen to! Honestly, it’s best to stay calm, not get angry, and just be friendly and smiling.
You’re right. Last month I went to a private clinic for some blood sample tests, and neither the clinician or myself wore any such thing, and nothing was said about it. Quite reassuring at the time. At my local dentists, the reception staff seemed to have stopped using them as well, as did all the other patients in the waiting room, a couple of weeks ago.
Even my imaginary friends don’t talk to me.
Lockdown is, at root, an assault on the mind.
IF. By Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, … Read more »
I remember the opening lines of a version of ‘If’ on ‘Weekending’ in the Eighties, in the voice of Michael Heseltine ‘If you can keep your head while all around you want it served up on a plate..’ Might be appropriate for the PM.
Visited the opticians at a well known High Street chemist this afternoon, only to be met by 5 or 6 faces masked up. The lead face nappy asked if I was exempt. Yes, indeed! One wonders how these cretins aren’t fussed about shoppers in the rest of the store NOT wearing face nappies. I felt uncomfortable being surrounded by them!
If they carry on like that, they will lose trade. I won’t deal with them for the time being; limited confidence in their competence for that reason.
I’m with you Jill – I had no idea I was such an outlier, just assumed everyone would value freedom and have a commonsense ability to assess and balance risks. I had no idea I was surrounded by people who would trust pharmaceutical companies (hysterical laughter) and politicians (you’ve got to be kidding me) to have their best interests at heart. I guess what it revealed to me is that at heart most people are really really afraid of dying and scaring them witless is a highly effective way of getting their compliance. If more people could come to terms in whatever way they can (religion, spirituality, existential therapy or just plain old everyone dies, get over it) then we’d all be a lot more robust.
I think you have hit on a central truth there. People cannot accept that one day they, and everyone they know, will cease to be. I’m sure that they were convinced that the government could “save” them and make them immortal, if they just did as they were told.
Death is part of life, we come into the stream of life and leave it again. But most people don’t want to talk or think about it….not even acknowledge it, so they are easy prey for the relentless fear p0rn propaganda.
Hey, I’ve joined the Phantom Downticker Gang!
Obviously someone who cannot contemplate their own mortality.
The evening shift has started at the 77th!
What’s so odd is that prior to early 2020 a lot of people regarded pharmaeutical companies with varying levels of suspicion. Suddenly all that went away and they became sainted saviours!
Carlos Castaneda writes about Living with Death at your Shoulder as, only when you accept the fact that you are going to die, can you truly live. We also need to accept that the only people we can change are ourselves and merely by behaving confidently in relation to the virus – I have never worn a mask, taken a test or a jab – can we demonstrate to the fearful that there is nothing to fear except fear itself. I don’t take Big Pharma products and have shunned them for the past 50 years – a fact that seems to astound the medical profession – and, as a result, at 72, I have a strong immune system that shrugged off the virus in January 2020. I have found myself swimming against the tide all of my life and had to question everything from early childhood as my mother had undiagnosed mental health issues so I’ve had a lot of practice at this. Thank God for the lifeline of Toby Young and DS. All any of us can do is be an example to the Covidians who have been terrified by propaganda into accepting the ‘rules.’ I also realised that… Read more »
Hi downticker. Just to help you keep track, there have been nine posts since you had your tea. (Marmite soldiers?) The last one you downticked was ‘Pendolino’s. The next post was mine, so you can start there.
Could be shift changeover time in the 77th office?
Totally agree. You are most definitely not alone. Singing has been the thing that I have grieved for the most. Last summer I was asked to join a prestigious local choir that sings with a professional orchestra. I said yes, but then received the rehearsal instructions; masks, lateral flow tests (with proof!) and ‘social distancing’. I declined, stating why and saying that I believed the testing requirements and associated record-keeping to be illegal under GDPR, and the mask requirement illegal without a risk assessment. I did not receive a reply and I have not yet sung with that choir; I probably never will. Thank goodness for our wonderful sceptical, pragmatic parish church Director of Music; he has my loyalty instead. I too have lost friends; not just over this issue but the ‘gender’ nonsense; I refuse to pretend that mammals can change sex when, having worked in agriculture for 40 years, I know that they can’t. I can also see the danger to the women’s rights that I fought for in the 70s and 80s. Interestingly, the ‘friends’ that I have lost over these two issues have been the same people. I realised that they don’t possess the ability to… Read more »
I also sing – so I understand what you have lost.
And I have probably lost a friend of many years, after receiving a phone call explaining to me ever so politely why I was dangerous (as an unjabbed) to be seen – “for a time”. I was also polite, explaining that it was perhaps a good idea, as a lot of people who consider themselves “fully vaccinated” don’t realise that they can infect others. I advised that I though I might stay away from the “vaccinated” for a while, so that I wasn’t automatically blamed if the “vaccinated” became infected. It was hideous.
What have we gained? Better long-term health prospects – but, more importantly (for me), self-respect. I had no idea how deeply committed I was to studying actual evidence, rather than what I was told (by anyone); and no idea how much oppressive shit I could endure and not be broken.
At our regular demonstrations here in Oz, we smile at all the others. We are still here, and we still won’t comply.
Yes, here in my neck of old Oz (Adelaide), it is the maskless smiling, and occasional hugging, of complete strangers on the freedom protest marches, that makes me well up sometimes and give me strength to carry on.
And the Daily Sceptic, of course.
Also what i miss most. My singing was at a much lower level, just volunteering in a group which visited local care homes to sing with the residents and encourage them to join in, Obviously that stopped when the care homes were shut to everyone and the Xmas 2020 we went and sang carols outside in the gardens so at least we could wave at our friends inside. But then the jabs came and they assumed that all volunteers would get jabbed so ‘that was okay then’ and when i said i wasn’t, they asked me to do flow test just to sing in the flipping garden ‘to keep the other volunteers comfortable’. I just told them i wasn’t playing government’s games and stayed away. Which saddens me as some of the residents had become good friends. Maybe one day they’ll accept me back, who knows?
They’d be lucky to have you Maggie May – it is their loss [altho I know it is yours too for the time being]
I am not in your calibre but used to sing with Rock Choir. I loved it more than I ever could have thought possible. I sang in every performance I possibly could and never missed a rehearsal in 4 years.
Our leader left and started their own choir but I can’t go back. An email at the end of last month said that although the gov is removing restrictions, they’re carrying on with muzzles on arrival and departure and and LFT test. It does state that this isn’t mandatory and there wouldn’t be any checks. But I just can’t be around these people any more.
It’s completely ruined.
And I have grieved for it. Looking back on all those amazing times I just feel sadness.
I was just about to join Rock choir before all this madness began. I had to put it “on hold”. Based on your description it might never come off now. And I might have to stick to singing in my living room.
Well as I said our leader is not an RC leader now. I don’t know what the RC policies are, so it might be worth a go to see – and not all choirs may be full of the wokesters and bedwetters we have in our parts. We do seem to be in a very bad Covidian area. Also, our one had teachers in it – primary school – and they can be some of the worst Covidians of the lot! Honestly it was the best thing I ever did for myself – I loved it so much and am just terminally sad that it’s all ruined.
Likewise I feel alienated from most “friends and family” but take consolation in all the sceptics on this site and in the many alternative commentators that manage to escape the censors. One benefit is I’ve become much more interested in debating alternative views of the fundamental question: why are they doing this? Being different doesn’t have to be a lonely existence.