Hi Mathew! One of my readers linked me to your post. I wrote on this topic too taking a slightly different approach (I had no idea who this Oster was until today) which seemed to have taken off. Take a look at it if you can! Also I copied the twitter post montage you had here. It was much better than the one I put together.
I believe Tim Robbins is genuine in his remorse and is gradually emerging from the fog of having being politically and psychologically manipulated. He has been calling out the Screen Actors Guild and defending actors like Clifton Duncan, who lost his acting career over this (see his brilliant Mises Institute talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCH_8KtLeVQ), for months now.
I reached out to Tim to commend him for the humility he displayed in pausing to reflect on his beliefs and behaviors and recalibrating accordingly, recognizing that it was wrong to comply with authoritarianism. This takes bravery, especially in an ideologically conformist industry that has the power to crush him for wrongthink.
He followed me on Twitter, which I take as a sign of his authentic change of heart, and I have extended an invitation to participate in a new interview series focused on the newly awakened. I hope he’ll take me up on the offer as I intend to delve *much* deeper in my attempt to understand the burning question at the heart of all my work: namely, how are ordinary, good-hearted, intelligent people manipulated by propaganda into becoming hateful, hurtful, even genocidal beings?
I’m sorry but common sense alone should have told us covid was a fear mongering political tool based on greed and power. There was no science because there wasn’t enough time to dictate truly safe results. The rules and mandates made no sense. Wear a mask inside a restaurant but okey to remove once sitting down? Good grief. BLM riots okey but church services banned. George Floyd gets 3 funerals but our loved ones don’t even get a small family gathering. Illegals fluid the border but not required to be vaccinated. Oh the list goes on and on. Hospital nurses dancing on social media but we’re told how brave they are. Utter nonsense. Medical procedures put on hold so only covid patients allowed, where they were then intubated and given meds that killed them all while no family allowed to visit or question. If these covid die-hard manipulators calling for the unvax to be punished now want to apologize ‘because they didn’t know,’ they can beg all they want. Won’t get forgiveness from me that quickly, if ever.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 2, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
Thank you, again, Mathew. Nice examination. I don't think you have mis-characterised this. And you have sparked a great discussion in the comments. Thank you everyone.
The issue of a 'true' apology has an inherent requirement for atonement, imo. Emily is a flat out flake fake, looking for an AH to lick as if that is atonement. (Hope not too blunt.) Tim, I am skeptical about. Genuine sentiment, perhaps, only so far as he doesn't need to atone.
This discussion brings to mine Oedipus Rex. Freud did a slight of hand, and so we think of Oedipus as having sex with his mother. Perhaps a few think of him as having killed his father. The 'real' story of Oedipus is that, despite doing these abhorrent acts in COMPLETE ignorance, he plucked out his eyes in an EFFORT to atone for his evil.
Where is this genuine atonement with these people? Dr. Fraiman moved towards that with an honesty that was likely going to cost him his job. OTH, what I see in Emily is woke virtue signally as clear as day. And at this point, I am hard pressed to not see that with Tim too.
Margaret, when/if you get the chance, please ask Tim how he will atone for blindly obeying authority no differently than Goebbels and his ilk did; for having been blind to 'we will never do that again' purpose of Nuremberg, on top of being blind to what so many people saw and expressed.
I am also puzzled how it is, when convenient, that we collectively ignore the rule of law that 'ignorance is no excuse from the law.' Oedipus killed his father, had sex with his mother and blinded himself willingly because he knew in his core that his ignorance was not an excuse from what he did.
The ignorance of Emily and Tim was not in the same league as Oedipus. Mathew wrote here, and many others have pointed out elsewhere, that the 'errors' of EVERYTHING covid were not hidden! The blindness to it all was wilful, not ignorance. What the supporters of covid did is ... incomparably worse, with killing and injuring 10s of millions, including children, while denying that evidence, as well as ethical behaviour, as if they didn't exist.
Apologies without atonement are, under the circumstances, hollow at best and a puke fest at worst.
Addendum: It is important that the atonement be voluntary for the apology to be considered 'true'. Involuntary atonement is simply punishment, and of far lesser value to both the society and the individual, even when desired and/or required.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
The money ran out. All the subhuman grifters who were being paid to push the vaccine aren’t being paid anymore. Now they’re going to come out and apologize.
Emily's apology was a non-apology apology. She wants to be let off easy, and she hasn't changed her heart nor her behavior. She will adjust it somewhat, but not CHANGE.
I'm not singing Kumbaya with most of these people. I don't treat them badly, but too many are not healed from their darkness, and they are not going to do "reparations" so to speak. They are not going to stand up for those they harmed, they want to get back to "old" life and have everything "be okay." They have to die in and participate actively with making sure it doesn't happen again and helping with things like removing school and health board members. Those persons in positions of effect cannot remain, they have not changed, they have not changed enough, we need based people who will keep their heads in those positions. The people who harmed us cannot be rewarded with same-old same-old. they have to start over. Too bad if they invested a lot of years and their retirement or whatever will be less. THEY were not the victims. Deeds, behavior, and time not words.
Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
Thank you Matthew, that J.Goebbels meme...so fitting... Your essay is balanced, you let their own words speak and, let us think about how we want to receive it.
On a private level as in regards to friends and family alike, I will be excersising
personal and individual judgement in proceeding - or not - with relationships.
As for the professionals in medical field (who failed in their duty of care) and
all those in media who failed to educate themselves or have been corrupted well, I think they should be accountable for all the harm they've caused.
And what about those who were most militant but didn't take the procedures
I just saw this phenomenal apology video from Graham Linehan to Count Dankula today, and *this* is a sincere, heartfelt, and honest apology that is worthy of appreciation:
In reviewing the referenced Darkhorse video, Bret says amnesty for honesty is a good trade. That kind of resonates with me. This cretin Emily Oster is still being incredibly dishonest. She didn't just try to insinuate that "we couldn't have known," she explicitly said so. This is a lie, because many of us knew and have been saying so from the start. She was a vocal proponent of using nudge architecture to silence and force us to comply with what she believed was correct secondary to her scientific and moral incompetence. This incompetence is what disqualifies her as a credible contributor to productive conversation until she can fully articulate how and why she got it so wrong in a manner that reflects that her own incompetence was central to her error.
i've been reading vinay prasad's substack and watching some of his videos for maybe 6 months now. i've seen him get increasingly radicalized as he's become more disillusioned with his profession. even Paul Offit is now, according to the new dictionary definition of the word, an anti-vaxxer! bet you never thought you'd see that!!
prasad doesn't really need to apologize. he's never advocated forced vaccination, internment camps, denying care to the unvaxxed, firing people or anything like that. he has always been very measured. as he's seen more unethical insanity, he's gone closer to the edge, calling for fauci et al to be fired, saying that the Biden administration needs to dump all it's truly terrible covid "experts.
the thing to remember is that no one who needs to hear this stuff is going to listen to Bret Weinstein, Del Bigree or RFKjr. as courageous and honorable as those men are, they are too easily written off as kooks and quacks.
guys like Prasad, V-dogg and Marty Makary have the ear of the mainstream and they are fairly bulletproof in terms of losing their jobs because they speak out against mandates, etc. their positions may not be perfect, but they are evolving as they see clearly that something is very wrong. Makary calls it "the pandemic of lunacy."
They’re so afraid of Elon musk taking over twitter, and the truth getting out, that the ones who know how gamed the system is, are coming out now to apologize ahead of time.
In my heart, I want to believe that people can be good and experience awakenings and find truth. I want to believe that human beings can be good and make reparations.
BUT, the onus is on the people that shamed others, forced others, cultivated a mob mentality that was as cruel as it was mendacious.
Some people like Fauci and Maddow are not welcome at my table, EVER.
People like Robbins and Oster I have zero sympathy for. They are highly educated and had access to the information if they sought it. For all their self-claimed morality on other subjects, they failed miserably and participated in cultivating the climate that enabled this nightmare. No simple apology will suffice. They need to make a real sacrifice to balance their scales, if that is even possible.
If they mean it, they will go out on that gangplank and take ALL the slings and arrows and not flinch. Why? Because if they believe it is right, then their compass should guide them, not their ambitions or their careers. Until then, I don’t believe it because it is too facile and convenient.
As well as getting things wrong, there are the "sins of silence"... and these people are still being silent or downplaying things that are happening right now... this doesn't demonstrate they have learned much... in a years time, will they also be asking for amnesty on having not spoken out now. e.g. silence on question why are governments and scientists not working on getting to the bottom of, and stopping, all the ongoing excess deaths and decreased birth rates we are seeing all over the western world, and why is the media silent on this, when during the peak fear mongering period, they were reporting every single death within 28 days of a positive test every single day as a tragedy that needed draconian measures? Why, suddenly, don't lives matter?
Hi Mathew! One of my readers linked me to your post. I wrote on this topic too taking a slightly different approach (I had no idea who this Oster was until today) which seemed to have taken off. Take a look at it if you can! Also I copied the twitter post montage you had here. It was much better than the one I put together.
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/dissecting-the-deceptive-plea-for
I believe Tim Robbins is genuine in his remorse and is gradually emerging from the fog of having being politically and psychologically manipulated. He has been calling out the Screen Actors Guild and defending actors like Clifton Duncan, who lost his acting career over this (see his brilliant Mises Institute talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCH_8KtLeVQ), for months now.
I reached out to Tim to commend him for the humility he displayed in pausing to reflect on his beliefs and behaviors and recalibrating accordingly, recognizing that it was wrong to comply with authoritarianism. This takes bravery, especially in an ideologically conformist industry that has the power to crush him for wrongthink.
He followed me on Twitter, which I take as a sign of his authentic change of heart, and I have extended an invitation to participate in a new interview series focused on the newly awakened. I hope he’ll take me up on the offer as I intend to delve *much* deeper in my attempt to understand the burning question at the heart of all my work: namely, how are ordinary, good-hearted, intelligent people manipulated by propaganda into becoming hateful, hurtful, even genocidal beings?
I’m sorry but common sense alone should have told us covid was a fear mongering political tool based on greed and power. There was no science because there wasn’t enough time to dictate truly safe results. The rules and mandates made no sense. Wear a mask inside a restaurant but okey to remove once sitting down? Good grief. BLM riots okey but church services banned. George Floyd gets 3 funerals but our loved ones don’t even get a small family gathering. Illegals fluid the border but not required to be vaccinated. Oh the list goes on and on. Hospital nurses dancing on social media but we’re told how brave they are. Utter nonsense. Medical procedures put on hold so only covid patients allowed, where they were then intubated and given meds that killed them all while no family allowed to visit or question. If these covid die-hard manipulators calling for the unvax to be punished now want to apologize ‘because they didn’t know,’ they can beg all they want. Won’t get forgiveness from me that quickly, if ever.
Thank you, again, Mathew. Nice examination. I don't think you have mis-characterised this. And you have sparked a great discussion in the comments. Thank you everyone.
The issue of a 'true' apology has an inherent requirement for atonement, imo. Emily is a flat out flake fake, looking for an AH to lick as if that is atonement. (Hope not too blunt.) Tim, I am skeptical about. Genuine sentiment, perhaps, only so far as he doesn't need to atone.
This discussion brings to mine Oedipus Rex. Freud did a slight of hand, and so we think of Oedipus as having sex with his mother. Perhaps a few think of him as having killed his father. The 'real' story of Oedipus is that, despite doing these abhorrent acts in COMPLETE ignorance, he plucked out his eyes in an EFFORT to atone for his evil.
Where is this genuine atonement with these people? Dr. Fraiman moved towards that with an honesty that was likely going to cost him his job. OTH, what I see in Emily is woke virtue signally as clear as day. And at this point, I am hard pressed to not see that with Tim too.
Margaret, when/if you get the chance, please ask Tim how he will atone for blindly obeying authority no differently than Goebbels and his ilk did; for having been blind to 'we will never do that again' purpose of Nuremberg, on top of being blind to what so many people saw and expressed.
I am also puzzled how it is, when convenient, that we collectively ignore the rule of law that 'ignorance is no excuse from the law.' Oedipus killed his father, had sex with his mother and blinded himself willingly because he knew in his core that his ignorance was not an excuse from what he did.
The ignorance of Emily and Tim was not in the same league as Oedipus. Mathew wrote here, and many others have pointed out elsewhere, that the 'errors' of EVERYTHING covid were not hidden! The blindness to it all was wilful, not ignorance. What the supporters of covid did is ... incomparably worse, with killing and injuring 10s of millions, including children, while denying that evidence, as well as ethical behaviour, as if they didn't exist.
Apologies without atonement are, under the circumstances, hollow at best and a puke fest at worst.
Addendum: It is important that the atonement be voluntary for the apology to be considered 'true'. Involuntary atonement is simply punishment, and of far lesser value to both the society and the individual, even when desired and/or required.
The money ran out. All the subhuman grifters who were being paid to push the vaccine aren’t being paid anymore. Now they’re going to come out and apologize.
Save your apologies for the dead.
Long before I'd believe "plausible ignorance" - I'd believe "complete and utter moral turpitude."
Every DeepState/Globalist Operation has a plan for blame & deflection....I call this the Deep State "blame & deflection narrative."
Emily's apology was a non-apology apology. She wants to be let off easy, and she hasn't changed her heart nor her behavior. She will adjust it somewhat, but not CHANGE.
I'm not singing Kumbaya with most of these people. I don't treat them badly, but too many are not healed from their darkness, and they are not going to do "reparations" so to speak. They are not going to stand up for those they harmed, they want to get back to "old" life and have everything "be okay." They have to die in and participate actively with making sure it doesn't happen again and helping with things like removing school and health board members. Those persons in positions of effect cannot remain, they have not changed, they have not changed enough, we need based people who will keep their heads in those positions. The people who harmed us cannot be rewarded with same-old same-old. they have to start over. Too bad if they invested a lot of years and their retirement or whatever will be less. THEY were not the victims. Deeds, behavior, and time not words.
Thank you Matthew, that J.Goebbels meme...so fitting... Your essay is balanced, you let their own words speak and, let us think about how we want to receive it.
On a private level as in regards to friends and family alike, I will be excersising
personal and individual judgement in proceeding - or not - with relationships.
As for the professionals in medical field (who failed in their duty of care) and
all those in media who failed to educate themselves or have been corrupted well, I think they should be accountable for all the harm they've caused.
And what about those who were most militant but didn't take the procedures
themselves?
I just saw this phenomenal apology video from Graham Linehan to Count Dankula today, and *this* is a sincere, heartfelt, and honest apology that is worthy of appreciation:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLBAhokxiQ
In reviewing the referenced Darkhorse video, Bret says amnesty for honesty is a good trade. That kind of resonates with me. This cretin Emily Oster is still being incredibly dishonest. She didn't just try to insinuate that "we couldn't have known," she explicitly said so. This is a lie, because many of us knew and have been saying so from the start. She was a vocal proponent of using nudge architecture to silence and force us to comply with what she believed was correct secondary to her scientific and moral incompetence. This incompetence is what disqualifies her as a credible contributor to productive conversation until she can fully articulate how and why she got it so wrong in a manner that reflects that her own incompetence was central to her error.
i've been reading vinay prasad's substack and watching some of his videos for maybe 6 months now. i've seen him get increasingly radicalized as he's become more disillusioned with his profession. even Paul Offit is now, according to the new dictionary definition of the word, an anti-vaxxer! bet you never thought you'd see that!!
prasad doesn't really need to apologize. he's never advocated forced vaccination, internment camps, denying care to the unvaxxed, firing people or anything like that. he has always been very measured. as he's seen more unethical insanity, he's gone closer to the edge, calling for fauci et al to be fired, saying that the Biden administration needs to dump all it's truly terrible covid "experts.
the thing to remember is that no one who needs to hear this stuff is going to listen to Bret Weinstein, Del Bigree or RFKjr. as courageous and honorable as those men are, they are too easily written off as kooks and quacks.
guys like Prasad, V-dogg and Marty Makary have the ear of the mainstream and they are fairly bulletproof in terms of losing their jobs because they speak out against mandates, etc. their positions may not be perfect, but they are evolving as they see clearly that something is very wrong. Makary calls it "the pandemic of lunacy."
don't sell them short. they are allies
Heard a new theory…
They’re so afraid of Elon musk taking over twitter, and the truth getting out, that the ones who know how gamed the system is, are coming out now to apologize ahead of time.
In my heart, I want to believe that people can be good and experience awakenings and find truth. I want to believe that human beings can be good and make reparations.
BUT, the onus is on the people that shamed others, forced others, cultivated a mob mentality that was as cruel as it was mendacious.
Some people like Fauci and Maddow are not welcome at my table, EVER.
People like Robbins and Oster I have zero sympathy for. They are highly educated and had access to the information if they sought it. For all their self-claimed morality on other subjects, they failed miserably and participated in cultivating the climate that enabled this nightmare. No simple apology will suffice. They need to make a real sacrifice to balance their scales, if that is even possible.
If they mean it, they will go out on that gangplank and take ALL the slings and arrows and not flinch. Why? Because if they believe it is right, then their compass should guide them, not their ambitions or their careers. Until then, I don’t believe it because it is too facile and convenient.
No more bullshit.
As well as getting things wrong, there are the "sins of silence"... and these people are still being silent or downplaying things that are happening right now... this doesn't demonstrate they have learned much... in a years time, will they also be asking for amnesty on having not spoken out now. e.g. silence on question why are governments and scientists not working on getting to the bottom of, and stopping, all the ongoing excess deaths and decreased birth rates we are seeing all over the western world, and why is the media silent on this, when during the peak fear mongering period, they were reporting every single death within 28 days of a positive test every single day as a tragedy that needed draconian measures? Why, suddenly, don't lives matter?
Right on! Keep kicking over the money-lending tables.