How False Narratives Are Protected

The experts and journalists tell us we are ‘dopes’ and should remain silent.

If you’re going to go against the narrative, it might be best to remain anonymous.

In my research into “early spread,” one oddity that’s jumped out at me is how some people with antibody evidence of early infection seem to intuitively know this information is taboo or controversial. Some people clearly sense when they’re saying something that “goes against the narrative” … and this makes them very nervous.

On one level, this has always bothered me. What’s wrong with simply telling the truth? For an investigative journalist, it’s frustrating that some people with important information won’t go on the record and provide such information.

On the other hand, I get why some people would prefer to remain anonymous or not be mentioned in any story at all. Fear rules the thinking of just-about everyone (a maxim that also explains how those who create said fear effectively rule the world).

Many people with important information clearly fear some type of reprisals even if they are simply telling the truth. The disturbing point is that many of these people aren’t being paranoid. They probably would suffer some kind of negative blowback if they told the truth. This could be as extreme as losing a job or as prosaic as having friends or family members treat them differently because they said something others don’t agree with.

The story of ‘Jean’ from Washington state ….

I started thinking about this topic when I went back and re-read a couple of stories published by The Seattle Times that document two residents of Snohomish County who almost certainly had Covid in December 2019.

One of these two residents was not named. However, the other resident did exhibit some level of courage by allowing a reporter to interview her. But the lady was only identified in the story by her middle name. So “Jean,” a 64-year-old retired nurse from a rural area of Washington state, thinks she had Covid.

My hunch is Jean intuitively knew her story might upset some powerful people - people who did not want to “confirm” any evidence that Americans were coming down with this illness before the Wuhan Outbreak in China.

Or maybe Jean thought her claims might bother some of her friends and neighbors, friends who always trust the experts and authorities and don’t like it when anyone goes against, say, the pronouncements of Anthony Fauci … or CNN.

For whatever reason, Jean settled on a compromise. She’d share her story, but she wouldn’t use her full name.

And the example of Mayor Michael Melham ….

After researching the case of another “early spread” candidate, I understand why Jean might have wanted to be identified only by her middle name.

Michael Melham happens to be the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey. Along with Jean and the other unknown person from Washington, Melham is among the 17 Americans I’ve identified in previous articles as Americans who almost certainly had Covid weeks or months before the virus was supposed to be circulating in our country.

Michael Melham did go public with his story. Among the news organizations covering his claim was NJ.com.

The headline from the “straight news” piece makes this news organization’s point, as well as my point:

“N.J. mayor makes unfounded claim that he had coronavirus in November.”

One piece of yellow journalism apparently wasn’t enough so the news organization also published a scathing opinion column the next day.

Wrote columnist Jeremy Schneider:

“It needs to be said. Again. This is not the time for voluntary stupidity. If you have something to say about the coronavirus that is not supported by proven truths presented by experts, you should really, really just keep it to yourself. People are dying and you are almost certainly not an epidemiologist. Be quiet and listen.”

Schneider also called the people who suspect they may have had Covid before the experts said was possible, “a sub-sect of well-meaning dopes on social media.”

And although readers had already gotten the author’s unsubtle point - our official guidance -  the writer made it again in the smear piece he was happy to pen: “Stay safe, listen to the experts.”

Basically, Schneider is calling Mayor Melham, and anyone else who believes they had Covid before mid-January 2020, idiots. It never occurs to the author he might be the real idiot. Nor does it occur to him that the experts he thinks are infallible may be using people like himself to advance their misery-producing agendas.

Why don’t more people come forward? Well …

Why don’t more people come forward as whistleblowers? Here we probably have part of our answer.

But the sociology and psychology component that really fascinates me is how so many people quickly accept the authorized “narrative” and then have a visceral reaction to people who do not happen to subscribe to this thinking.

This evidence of mass “groupthink” can also be seen from reading the 1,600 reader comments that followed a Fox News story on Michael Melham’s claim.

As I was doing my “due diligence” on early spread, I think I read every one of these comments. I would say that 95 percent of commenters thought Melham was simply wrong in thinking he had Covid or, like the NJ.com columnist, were angered the mayor had the temerity to share his own story and personal opinions.

What I’m really trying to understand is why so many people are so quick to share their disgust with individuals who don’t think like they do.

People with important information like Jean who are afraid to use their full name (or those who won’t come forward at all) must conclude that the potential wrath of their peers is not worth the benefits … and/or that there are no benefits from going against the narrative.

Due to this dynamic, the public is unlikely to learn important, narrative-changing information. The only thing that might change some harmful and false narratives is if people did come forward and expose this. However, in the “home of the brave” very few people are bold enough to do this.

And as we saw above, even when people like Mayor Melham do come forward, their revelations are dismissed or ridiculed by the people who matter - the watchdog press and authorities. That is, everything works to “protect the narrative.”

The real villain remains the AWOL ‘watchdog’ press

Which leads me to my final depressing point: If 99 percent of the people posting in Reader Comments sections happen to be dead wrong, this wouldn’t matter if, say, 10 percent of the country’s journalists were real skeptics and did the job of real journalists.

If this was the case, truth-seeking journalists would write important stories that might influence the 90 percent of the population who’ve been sold a bill of goods. That is, journalists - if they did their most important job - could maybe change a few bogus or dubious narratives.

But this isn’t going to happen because, at least regarding Covid narratives, the group think is 100 percent.

So what we have is some kind of “Catch-22” self-protecting loop of WrongThink. In such a world, the probability any taboo truths could break through the barricades erected by our  “gatekeepers of the news” is probably zero.  No false narratives will ever be de-bunked.

The journalists who are supposed to challenge narratives won’t do it because they always believe authorities and experts. As most people get their information from mainstream journalists, it’s a case of the dumb leading the …. ah, non-critical thinkers.

Anyway, all of this probably explains, at least in part, why so many would-be whistleblowers are afraid to blow any whistles.

In summary, many people intuitively sense when they posses information that contradicts the official narrative. This Sixth Sense makes many people leery of coming forward or attaching their name to revelations that go against conventional wisdom .

While this is a small observation, the implications which flow from it are probably large. For example, the quality of life of our children and grandchildren will be lower because important truths were not previously acknowledged, because rotten leaders were not previously exposed.

It might be counter-intuitive, but it’s not the false opinions of the masses that matter. It’s the views of a very small minority of truth-revealing contrarians, a group that’s too often afraid to come forward and reveal what they know.

Those who smear, bully or dismiss such people know not what they do … nor the harm they are really causing.