The Freedom Farce
By Cynthia M Sarmiento
This morning I was scrolling through FB and saw an article from the Washington post titled “The pandemic is amplifying the US anti-vaccine movement and globalizing it.” The title caught my eye so I clicked and read on. As I read the article my whole world came full circle and my mind blew up with rage, fear, dread, and hope. I felt rage that I had long ago been blinded to what was right in front of my face. I felt fear that too many others in our nation were also blind to the farce in front of them. I dread what may happen to my son’s future if the masses keep their eyes closed. Alas I feel hope, because I am able to see the truth and capable of effecting change.
As I read this article, I saw the underhanded bias language. It read “American conspiracy theories have spurred anti-vaccine protests…” I could not help but think about how many people read this and immediately accepted the notion that anyone who questions vaccines is a conspiracy theorist. They go on to say that US activists and influencers are working to “undermine” the drug companies as they “race” to develop a safe and effective vaccine. As though the drug companies are benevolently trying to save lives and those who encourage critical analysis of vaccines are subversives aimed to stand in the way of them helping society. Such shame we should lay upon those selfish enough to want the freedom to choose their own medical care. I recall when I was a child, I bought the notion that compliance with vaccines should be a given because I regarded medicine an innately driven by the motive to help others. Age, experience and genuine discernment can only lead you away from the naivety that accompanies such belief. The article condemning critical thinkers overtly refers to their efforts as anti-science as though science is one-dimensional and any question of one aspect of it is a denial of it altogether.
As I continued to read this article, I took myself back to a younger time when I was emerged in the pursuit of a BA in social sciences at Regis University, a Colorado College, then regarded as a rigorous University solidly based in the mission of service learning. Only with the age and experience I have today could I possibly recognize that my younger self would never have seen the fear mongering and monolithic tantrum being played out in this diatribe. To fully understand the attack of diversity, of individualism, and of analytical thought one must be willing to accept that everything they have been told may be a lie. One must realize that the notion that the US is a nation of free-thinking individualism and diversity is a fraud. But, how could that be? How could so many of us fail to see this? Because to admit that our nation is not what we think is to admit we are wrong. Far too many a man have fallen to defeat rather than admit they were wrong.
“Misinformation about potential coronavirus vaccines is flooding hate networks, neighborhood groups, and “wellness” communities focused on food or yoga.” And it was in that paragraph that tears welled into my eyes and my heart raced faster as my anger peaked. Anger because I know that at points in my life, I too dismissed any focus on wellness, that being a focus on eating right, certain types of exercise, and other preventative measures, as being lesser in value to medicine and medical remedies. How, could I have even entertained such a notion, as a Licensed and well-educated Psychologist who clearly studied and understood the mind-body connection. As someone who studied and made my living from “all that touchy-feely crap” I constantly had to defend my science to naysayers. I felt, without knowledge of such feeling, impervious to the insidious indoctrination into singularly focused ways of thinking. I nor the masses, are impervious to it though, and despite our abhorrent regard for collectivist societies and proclamation of individualism as the almighty defining force of American Culture, we the people have been conditioned to despise any one or any thought that deviates from the expected.
As I read this article about vaccine sentiment worldwide, it became very clear that the article is not about vaccine sentiment, but about persuading the reader to embrace fully the notion that non-belief in vaccines, or even contemplation of them, is equivalent to lunacy. They go on to associate anyone who shares anti-vaccine sentiment with radical thinking. What is radical thinking according to this author? The author would say that would be thinking that “President Trump and supporters, are fighting satanic pedophiles embedded in the “deep-state.” As a logical thinker, I tried to imagine how specifically that is related to questioning the healing power of vaccines? Ah, but it is only connected in so far as both ways of thinking are contrary to the stance of the US Socialist movement. A movement now embraced fully by the Democratic party. The democrats? How could that be? When I was 18 I was a democrat, was I not? I wanted freedom of choice, individualism, humanitarian systems in place to protect those less fortunate, I equality among the sexes, racial enlightenment, and above all I wanted to protect the American Dream. I was a democrat, was I not? I was a democrat in name only at that time because I believed the behemoth manifestation of the Democratic party and what they stood for. I was saturated with the propagandized doctrine of what it meant to a good person. Among my fellow students and young people, who accepted, like candy, the notion that goodness and the democratic party were synonymous. This of course could to be no farther from the truth. The democratic party, which was at that time still early on in their 50-year plan to take our nation, played on the innate naivety of the young, the apathy of parents, and the disconnectedness of young women from morality.
As I continued in my career, I saw the full engagement of the Democratic party in the construction of race division and the systemic disenfranchisement of racial minorities and woman, all wrapped up in a fake theoretical perspective that identified them as victims. As a counselor, I was told that minority youth who I counseled, were victims, that they were helpless to affect their futures that only through charity and pity could we help them. I began to see the racism and sadistic disempowerment of this theory. Along side youth of color, women were being indoctrinated into believing that they could only be whole when they denied their God given uniqueness and succumb to male assimilation. Hook line and sinker, two generations have not only bought into these notions, but into the notion that the US as a nation, is evil and its very existence is to oppress people.
The last 50 years of the “US is evil platform” is clearly linked to the article about vaccines in so much as there is a clear message that US global influence could be nothing more than evil. It demonizes individualism, which through the history of this nation, has been the single most prevailing principle attributable to success, happiness, and prosperity. With the theft of the minds of two generations, over the last 5 decades, the Democratic Communist party has been able to demonize that one singular prevailing principle and turn it against all of society. The Democratic Communist party has spent my lifetime indoctrinating Americans, stripping them of their pride, and divisively creating a culture of division, self-loathing, hatred, and fear-mongering. I will spend the rest of my lifetime fighting them, embracing those who are racially different than me, challenging apathy at its core, promoting a God loving and respectful perspective of femininity, promoting the founding principles and constitution of this great nation, and in short standing in front of the tank as it rolls down the road paving it with the evil principles of communism. How will you spend the rest of your lifetime?