The Lies We Were Told

How long does it take to conclude some authority is lying? We don’t know this answer yet … apparently many years.

Nurse who recently started her own Substack newsletter must feel like a character in this satirical - and maddening - classic novel.

I recently discovered an excellent Substack Newsletter authored by a registered nurse (Dee Dee) who has treated many (alleged) Covid patients. This nurse finally had enough and decided to share her stories and thoughts via her own Substack, which she started May 25th.

From reading a couple of her pithy posts, my take-away is Nurse Dee must feel like the main character in Joseph Heller’s classic novel Catch 22. 

In that novel, the experiences and observations of a fictional WW II bombardier tell readers the guidance and logic used by his superiors is utter madness.

Dee’s observations prompted my own question: When do citizens or employees finally realize that every supposedly-true thing they’ve been told is, in fact, a brazen lie? 

For most people, at least with Covid proclamations, the answer seems to be never. 

In other words, for many people, being lied to over and over doesn’t matter. 

To put it mildly, such a revelation is disconcerting.

One message - and it wasn’t subtle …

Dee Dee’s observations from a June 2nd dispatch might show readers why I thought of Catch-22, where the message to bomber crews was “just do what you are told;” don’t try to figure out the logic.

With Covid, Nurse Dee identifies the goal of all orders. Instead of just “fly the dangerous mission,” the key message is: “Just take the shot.”

“The logic surrounding COVID-19 was circular. Every dictated premise, required blind faith and the goal was always the same; to take the shot.  

“.. You could not question the narrative and remain a good citizen …The mantra erupted, this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

“No argument could be interjected in the logic. It didn’t matter if you had not seen a new illness with unique symptoms … It didn’t matter if the science didn’t make sense.  It didn’t matter if the measures were opposite to all your previous medical training.

 … It didn’t matter that the vaccine did not stop transmission, and it didn’t matter if you had natural immunity.  Essentially, we were told to accept every claim without evidence or reason.  The orders had been given, just take the shot.”

What one nurse was told …

In a recent dispatch, Dee listed about 30 truisms she (and all of us) were told. A few examples:

We were told the vaccine wouldn’t be mandatory. 

We were told there would be two shots. 

We were (then) told a booster was needed.  

We were (then) told another booster was needed.

We were told there had been clinical trails conducted by the pharmaceutical companies that proved safe and effective. 

We were told the vaccine would prevent the COVID-19 illness. 

We were then told the vaccine would prevent serious illness. 

We were told if everyone would just take the shot, it would be over. 

We were (then) told there were breakthrough cases, where the vaccinated person became sick with COVID-19.

We were told even if you weren’t sick, you could give the disease to grandma.

We were told the unvaccinated are spreading the virus and creating mutations.  

We were told, this is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”  

We were told vaccine passports were the new normal and would be required. 

We were told the vaccine was mandatory for employment. 

We were told nurses who refused the shot were stupid …”  

But in our daily lives, a different standard applies

Back to me: Forget the pronouncements of the CDC experts, of Dr. Fauci, or of Nurse Dee’s hospital supervisors  … just think about people you’ve interacted with in your own life.

At some point, when someone has told you one falsehood after another, do you stop believing them?

For most people, three big lies and you’re out. 

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me …”

At some point, villagers did stop listening to the little boy who kept screaming, “A wolf is coming!”

Even politicians can take lying too far. 

Here I recall John Edwards, a former U.S. Senator who was almost elected vice president of the United States.

Edwards lied repeatedly about an affair and then about fathering a baby with his mistress. Even when he “came clean” in a TV interview, his “confession” was replete with more lies.

I don’t know what John Edwards is doing with his life today, but I know he’s not running for political office. If he did, he’d be laughed off the podium. Everyone now gets that they can’t trust John Edwards.

The question I’m grappling with today is how many lies does someone have to tell before people conclude they’re listening to a serial liar? Is there a line of demarcation for one-lie-too-many, or what’s the figure for tolerable numbers of lies?

In every-day normal life, it only takes a couple big whoppers before a friend becomes a “former friend,” a person to be avoided at all costs.

But not with our Covid liars. Apparently, there’s no limit to how many lies “trusted authorities” can tell … and still be considered “trusted” authorities.

In her very fist post, Nurse Dee wrote:

“Thrust upon our population was a labyrinth of lies. There were new daily mandates offering no explanation, making little if any, medical sense.

“… The medical interventions … coupled with preposterous statements from our leading experts, led me to personally, question everything. One question led to many questions until one day, I came to the realization, there were no answers.  

“My questions met a variety of responses that included silence, laughter, and hostility.  This was my first experience of being discouraged from asking questions.” 

Serious question …

How does a person continue to function - as a sane human being - in a world that’s now apparently insane?

Somehow, Nurse Dee (and me and you) … are still here, but we’ve had to adopt a new survival mechanism and are now functioning in a surreal new matrix where we know we have to live with insane notions; where we realize a never-ending cascade of “accepted” lies is our New Normal.

And this question …

After reading Dee’s “Catch-22” anecdotes, I also had this question: How do serial liars keep telling all these lies? How do they get away with it?

This answer seems clear. Except for people like Dee, very few people call them out on their lies. (Thank you, mainstream media “watchdog” journalists).

Once you start lying, you can’t stop …

Also, as I learned from a big story making the rounds today, the lying officials just keep doubling down on their lies.

An organization called the International Coalition of Medicine Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA)  just issued a big “statement” telling everyone that the vaccines are still safe and effective and, like we’ve all been told a million times … everyone  should keep getting their next rounds of shots.

It’s clear the purpose of this document is to counter the growing “spread” of world citizens who might, finally, be starting to question the pronouncements of trusted health authorities.

A few of the “Key Messages” from this group, which “brings together 38 medicine regulatory authorities from every region in the world, with the WHO as an observer” … In other words, a centralized clearinghouse of expert liars:

* “False and misleading information about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines on social media often exaggerates the frequency and severity of side effects. Misinformation also wrongly attributes unrelated medical events to the vaccines.”

* “There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have contributed to excess mortality during the pandemic …”

* Under the header, “Benefits of COVID-19 Vaccination,” the public is told that …

"Millions of lives are estimated to have been saved by COVID-19 vaccination …”

I learned of this document from colleagues at the Brownstone Institute’s writer group. A fellow Substacker added the link with this note: “A meticulous and immaculately supported take-down of this statement is needed. It's been all over MSM today.”

I read the propaganda and immediately posted this reply:

“You could debunk/challenge every sentence …”

Two seconds before I made my post, another colleague posted this:

“Wow. Every single bullet point is a lie.”

There’s now too many lies to easily debunk …

Key take-away: The lies Nurse Dee was told every day are still being told today.

The damn liars have simply worn us down. I could debunk every one of those bullet points, but I’m growing tired of writing the same rebuttals over and over. 

And, as Dee observes, what’s the point? Even if someone does debunk these whoppers, these people are going to keep lying … and keep telling us what to do.

The only conclusion I can make is that - especially regarding topics that might involve  “life and death” - people, for some surreal reason, simply want to keep believing the liars.

Most people in the world must feel “safer” believing lies, lies that have killed and injured millions of their fellow citizens, including family members, friends and neighbors.

In our “Catch-22” world, the bigger the lies and the more often serial liars prevaricate, the better. 

For the liars, the benefits of lying are impressive. For brave skeptics, the costs of calling out liars are quite unpleasant. 

Anyway, the lies aren’t going to stop.