Hilariously, in the run-up to my arrival at Connecticut College on Monday afternoon, I received a flurry of messages from supportive students notifying me that College Administrators had activated their own little version of DEFCON mode — so desperate as they evidently were to prevent me from getting onto the campus.
After watching the entire video I am thrilled you did this as a true journalistic endeavor (uncommon these days). However, I was quite sad to see the number of young adults seemingly understanding nothing about civil liberties and why they should value them--a product of the "news/entertainment/social media culture"" that likely is their major source of news. They seem to understand nothing about critical thinking or relative risk assessment as it relates to their everyday lives. In their age group they are 50-100x more likely to die of other causes than from Covid (even before vaccination was available). And somehow even the health authorities and politicians at the highest level have adopted the claim that the "unvaccinated are of great danger to the vaccinated" which is not remotely supported by science or common sense. BTW I am not antivaccine and not even against mandates in certain situations. However, the science would say that there needs to be allowance for natural immunity as a substitute for mandatory vaccination, and the focus should be on convincing the most at risk groups, age 50 and over and those with underlying health conditions that it is in their interests, and the interests of healthcare workers who might have to care for them, to get vaccinated.
Thank you again for your stepping forward. I fear for the country's future if this kind of group think persists and is widespread.
Not only that, but data coming out of Israel this week suggest the entire vaccination endeavor is a farce requiring endless boosters that may utterly backfire. Every non symptomatic case at a college should be celebrated as a new acquisition of durable immunity, not greeted with panic as a new manifestation of witchcraft.
IF you think about it, from time they were tiny this generation has been used to *somebody* monitoring every comment, like, post, purchase, store visit, etc with cookies, trackers, and so on. It always bothered me that so many seemed to have no sense at all of why privacy mattered
Zoomers had no interest in the 9-11 anniversary because it wasn't about MEMEMEMEMEME and yet it actually was all about them. After 9-11, parents took cocooning their children and mediating and supervising their every interaction with reality to insane levels. These useless adult infants are the result.
Certainly is a generational effect, and the overly protective nature of parents and schools trying to shield them from any risks helped shape their outlook. Setup a perfect storm of exchanging freedom for safety during Covid. Hopefully adverse world events which are bound to occur during their lifetime won't overwhelm them and will force them to grow up quickly so they don't become official slaves to tyrannical overlords.
Quick follow up. I apologize for generalization. Not everyone in a given age range has the same viewpoint and blessings on those young people who value true freedom of thought and expression.
And I just want to add that your ability to maintain composure amidst the sort of hyperventilating, irrational dogmatists who love nothing so much as the opportunity to indulge in performative denunciation, demonizing and condemning anyone who dares to step outside the accepted discourse or whose risk tolerance differs from their own - I just want to say that I think it's both commendable and impressive.
Like I mentioned in the article, I didn't go there with any expectation that I'd be universally adulated, because I knew ahead of time that there was a vocal contingent of students who'd be antagonistic. And I embrace that! I wanted to help spur debate, which had previously been suppressed by social pressure and administrative intervention.
Grateful you are taking action. If this were a true democracy everyone should feel free to speak their mind in a thoughtful way without fearing personal attack. More people acting with courage and speaking up is the only way out this attempt at totalitarian control.
The specifics of the Connecticut College lockdown sound an awful lot like the punishments typically meted out to American prison inmates for, for example, assaulting other inmates in the yard. Where the hell are the parents?
So Georgetown is not letting their students drink water. In DC. Where the forecast is for 80+ degrees and 80+% humidity. Tell me again how this is all about health? And thank you for standing up for the voiceless. It is what journalists used to do.
Michael, that was painful to watch. The Karen culture is alive and well on that campus. OMG do these self-righteous snowflakes have any idea what the risk of death is for 18-24 year-olds? Even unvaccinated? After hearing the shrill, mind-numbing shrieking of these spoiled brats, I fear for our future more than ever.
Having said that, you are brave for doing this. Those that disagree with you love to shout you down, resort to verbal insults, because they don't know how to listen to a different viewpoint. "Put your mask on!!" While outside? 10 feet away from you? Hilarious and sad all at once.
Excellent. It's nice to know that in a somewhat limited social environment (a smaller school) free speech still works the way it's supposed to, despite the best efforts of the present day powerful
This is exquisite - excellent work. Great effort, fantastic journalism. This is what it's all about.
They have also, by the way, changed not only the definition of Herd Immunity (that was late summer 2020), but they changed the definition of 'vaccine' and 'vaccination'. This is your CDC.
We all grew up with the image of journalists being too-focused-on-a-bigger-mission-to-be-perma-kempt, principle-driven, and tenacious truth-seekers. How did we go from that, to deriding that very image and reputation in favor of hyper-coiffed, Armani-suit wearing teleprompter readers paid lavishly to distort the truth? I can't shake the feeling we're living through They Live. There's a veneer of surrealism on even our important institutions, and not enough people see it.
Thank you for what you do, Michael. You are critical to our collective sanity.
After watching the entire video I am thrilled you did this as a true journalistic endeavor (uncommon these days). However, I was quite sad to see the number of young adults seemingly understanding nothing about civil liberties and why they should value them--a product of the "news/entertainment/social media culture"" that likely is their major source of news. They seem to understand nothing about critical thinking or relative risk assessment as it relates to their everyday lives. In their age group they are 50-100x more likely to die of other causes than from Covid (even before vaccination was available). And somehow even the health authorities and politicians at the highest level have adopted the claim that the "unvaccinated are of great danger to the vaccinated" which is not remotely supported by science or common sense. BTW I am not antivaccine and not even against mandates in certain situations. However, the science would say that there needs to be allowance for natural immunity as a substitute for mandatory vaccination, and the focus should be on convincing the most at risk groups, age 50 and over and those with underlying health conditions that it is in their interests, and the interests of healthcare workers who might have to care for them, to get vaccinated.
Thank you again for your stepping forward. I fear for the country's future if this kind of group think persists and is widespread.
Not only that, but data coming out of Israel this week suggest the entire vaccination endeavor is a farce requiring endless boosters that may utterly backfire. Every non symptomatic case at a college should be celebrated as a new acquisition of durable immunity, not greeted with panic as a new manifestation of witchcraft.
IF you think about it, from time they were tiny this generation has been used to *somebody* monitoring every comment, like, post, purchase, store visit, etc with cookies, trackers, and so on. It always bothered me that so many seemed to have no sense at all of why privacy mattered
Zoomers had no interest in the 9-11 anniversary because it wasn't about MEMEMEMEMEME and yet it actually was all about them. After 9-11, parents took cocooning their children and mediating and supervising their every interaction with reality to insane levels. These useless adult infants are the result.
Certainly is a generational effect, and the overly protective nature of parents and schools trying to shield them from any risks helped shape their outlook. Setup a perfect storm of exchanging freedom for safety during Covid. Hopefully adverse world events which are bound to occur during their lifetime won't overwhelm them and will force them to grow up quickly so they don't become official slaves to tyrannical overlords.
Quick follow up. I apologize for generalization. Not everyone in a given age range has the same viewpoint and blessings on those young people who value true freedom of thought and expression.
This is epic. So satisfying to finally see someone with the spine to publicly voice dissent. Kudos to you, MT.
And I just want to add that your ability to maintain composure amidst the sort of hyperventilating, irrational dogmatists who love nothing so much as the opportunity to indulge in performative denunciation, demonizing and condemning anyone who dares to step outside the accepted discourse or whose risk tolerance differs from their own - I just want to say that I think it's both commendable and impressive.
Like I mentioned in the article, I didn't go there with any expectation that I'd be universally adulated, because I knew ahead of time that there was a vocal contingent of students who'd be antagonistic. And I embrace that! I wanted to help spur debate, which had previously been suppressed by social pressure and administrative intervention.
Grateful you are taking action. If this were a true democracy everyone should feel free to speak their mind in a thoughtful way without fearing personal attack. More people acting with courage and speaking up is the only way out this attempt at totalitarian control.
Great stuff. Keep fighting the good fight. We need more free speech advocates at every opportunity, every campus, every soapbox.
Yes. Enough is enough.
The specifics of the Connecticut College lockdown sound an awful lot like the punishments typically meted out to American prison inmates for, for example, assaulting other inmates in the yard. Where the hell are the parents?
So Georgetown is not letting their students drink water. In DC. Where the forecast is for 80+ degrees and 80+% humidity. Tell me again how this is all about health? And thank you for standing up for the voiceless. It is what journalists used to do.
Nice job Michael. Wow is Connecticut College bizarre.
Michael, that was painful to watch. The Karen culture is alive and well on that campus. OMG do these self-righteous snowflakes have any idea what the risk of death is for 18-24 year-olds? Even unvaccinated? After hearing the shrill, mind-numbing shrieking of these spoiled brats, I fear for our future more than ever.
Having said that, you are brave for doing this. Those that disagree with you love to shout you down, resort to verbal insults, because they don't know how to listen to a different viewpoint. "Put your mask on!!" While outside? 10 feet away from you? Hilarious and sad all at once.
I support free, accessible, universal abortion of Gen Z
Nice work, Michael.
Excellent. It's nice to know that in a somewhat limited social environment (a smaller school) free speech still works the way it's supposed to, despite the best efforts of the present day powerful
PS I have to laugh at the somewhat subversive nature of rumply clothing. My goodness how effectively we're back in some time warp
At least he doesn’t have long hair like those dirty hippies!
This is exquisite - excellent work. Great effort, fantastic journalism. This is what it's all about.
They have also, by the way, changed not only the definition of Herd Immunity (that was late summer 2020), but they changed the definition of 'vaccine' and 'vaccination'. This is your CDC.
We all grew up with the image of journalists being too-focused-on-a-bigger-mission-to-be-perma-kempt, principle-driven, and tenacious truth-seekers. How did we go from that, to deriding that very image and reputation in favor of hyper-coiffed, Armani-suit wearing teleprompter readers paid lavishly to distort the truth? I can't shake the feeling we're living through They Live. There's a veneer of surrealism on even our important institutions, and not enough people see it.
Thank you for what you do, Michael. You are critical to our collective sanity.
Thank you for this, Michael. If only it didn't involve a threat to your safety.
And - although this isn't supposed to be about you - congratulations on getting the recognition that you truly deserve.
I mean, the recognition of your journalistic integrity. Not the recognition that your shirt isn't tucked in. Ahem.
I just hope I can escape before these people completely take over.
Michael,
You are a hero, and I mean this with all sincerity.