My podcast today (listen above) gets into the bizarre media narratives that seem to be trying to paint anti-vaxxers as all Trump supporters…or as in Canada, “racists, misogynists, and Nazis”…in direct conflict with the drive to increase vaccination in black communities where vaccine uptake is low. (See this article in MedicalNewsToday as just one example.)
Below is a very rough transcript of the audio above. Here’s a link to the Business Insider article I reference. Please also see my article from yesterday for more on Pepe the Clown and Honk Honk.
Hello and welcome to the holistic with the W podcast. As distinguished from our longer Holistic Health podcast that involves video, this is just me yapping into the microphone a bit informally. It's when I want to say some things, and it's easier to just speak it out and spitball than to try to write a coherent article.
Now today I’m going to be getting onto that third rail of politics, which I've been trying to avoid. I really want my blog to be welcoming to people of any sort of political persuasion within reason, and I don't want people to feel like they're not welcome here because of whatever politic politics…that said. And I also don't want people angry at me because I don't share their politics. But that said, I have to be honest.
And I have noticed in the past that when I'm not being fully honest, it's not so great for my health and my well-being and there was a time where I was working at the largest yoga studio in Austin, TX. And that was nice to work there and I enjoyed it, but I felt like I had to censor myself. And I couldn't really be myself. And so I I can relate to people who feel like they want to be able to be themselves without people judging them because it can be not so great when you are feeling stifled.
And I I actually believe that part of the reason I got really sick in 2017 was that I was feeling really stifled. So I want to UN stifle myself, but unfortunately in doing so I'm going to turn some people off and I'm sure I've probably already turn people off simply by writing this blog.
So I guess it's a, you know, no big surprise there. And if you're still hanging around, thank you so much. I'm really gonna get into the the land mines of the current body politic right now in landmines. We, I mean we have so many land mines right now and and I think that's also not very healthy and I'm sick of the land mines, but I'm also tired of trying to avoid the landmines and tippy toeing around it, trying to stay off the landmines.
So I'm just going to go just drive right in and just. Jump into the landmine right here because. Uh, it just what's the point of not doing it at this point? I'm probably on a whole bunch of lists being told. You know, being somebody who's claiming somewhere that I'm a I'm a horrible anti VAX or misinformation disinfo, whatever, blah blah blah. So so how's this gonna make things any different anyway? Excuse me.
So I read a story yesterday from Business Insider. And it just made me like multiple eyerolls going on here. And I'm gonna read part of it to you and give you a little bit of analysis and also kind of relate this to the big problem that those of us who are part of the health freedom movement are going to come up against, particularly if you're in America. And it's 2022 and we've got midterms coming up. And once again, like I said, I don't wanna make this right versus left. Unfortunately, it has become that even though it's not right versus left. So I'm going to get into that and that's really a good portion of what I want to talk about today.
OK. So here's the headline. Trump says everybody wanted COVID-19 vaccines when he was president, despite the fact that millions of his supporters rejected them. Let me read that again, Trump says. Everybody wanted COVID-19 vaccines when he was president, despite the fact that millions of his supporters rejected them. OK, now this is one of the stupidest headlines I have ever read for a number of reasons.
First of all. Trump love or hate Trump, Trump is dead wrong. Everybody didn't want the COVID-19 vaccines when he was president. In fact, it was the opposite. It was the Democrats who were saying they didn't want Trump rushed vaccines. Remember that, I mean, Biden said it, Kamala Harris said it. So they were all like, oh, I don't know if we want to take these vaccines. They're rushed. OK, so so they they completely flip flopped once Trump is out of office. Alright.
So then uh, the headline says the fact that millions of his reporters, supporters rejected them. Now I don't think this is really proven or is it necessarily objectively true, is it? Possibly. Or probably true that millions of Trump supporters have rejected the vaccines, yes, but also millions of Biden’s supporters have also rejected the the vaccines. And I know that people on the I mean, wanna call them Biden supporters 'cause I know quite a few people voted for Biden and they didn't really like him. So Biden voters is probably a better term.
There's quite a few people who have commented on this blog. That they are not on the right and they are not taking the vaccines. So this is just silly on its face. But this is the problem that we are going to be having, particularly in the next 6 to 8 months or so here in the United States because I'm pretty much sure I could be wrong that the Democrats are going to make this a big thing and the media. Let's face it, if you are being any halfway objective. And I know a lot of people don't see it, but once you see it, you can't unsee it.
If you're, if you really step back the majority of the mainstream media is Democrat, and they push Democratic policies, Democratic politicians, and they are particularly critical of Republicans and it's…the bias is obvious once you see it, you cannot see. It doesn't mean that you have to like Republicans, that if you're going to be fair, you, you just have to acknowledge it. And that's why there's all this conservative media that's popped up.
I'm annoyed because I just want an impartial media. I don't want conservative media. I don't want liberal media. I want what we I think we used to have, maybe we didn't. Maybe it was always partial and I just didn't see it when I was a kid. I want an impartial media so I can make my own choice. That's not what we have here. This article is very partisan, and it's not even that subtle.
Here's the the first bullet point says. Former President Trump falsely said everybody wanted the vaccine when he was in office. Why put falsely in there? That's ridiculous. Just report what he said and keep your damn opinion out of it. This is supposed to be a news article, not an opinion article. Now on my blog, I am not writing straight news articles. Mine are more like a combo of news and opinion, and it's clear that it's my opinion and you know that I have a bias. This is a biased opinion piece masquerading as a neutral news report, and I have a problem with this because this is kind of assuming that like you think, President Joe Biden doesn't lie. He's lied a ton over his career. In fact, he was shamed out of the first time he ran for president because he was caught plagiarizing and lying about his background. And most people have forgotten about that. But I haven't.
I couldn't believe it when Obama chose him as his running mate. I was like Biden, the plagiarizer, the guy that lied. That was the first thing that was in my mind. That was back when we had an impartial press. And you can go look up the old news reports about Biden and they covered it. And they weren't saying, oh, he wasn't. You know, they didn't say, oh, it was the Russians who were trying to make Biden look bad. They were like, well, Biden was caught lying.
So anyway. Former President Trump falsely said everybody wanted the vaccine was, oh, God, that just like that stuff drives me nuts. And the thing for me is like, it makes me more inclined to try to defend somebody like Trump because it's like you're not being fair to him. You might think he's the most horrible person in the world, but like, anyway, OK.
All right, next bullet point Trump supporters refusing to get vaccinated has driven partisan gaps in vaccination. OK, so I this article doesn't actually show the data that is supporting this, and I'm wondering how exactly have they gotten this data? Because as far as I know. When you go get vaccinated, they don't ask you if you Republican or a Democrat. They don't.
So I know that there's some information out there that maybe more red states or Trump counties in general might have lower vaccination rates, but what this is also not saying is that there are lower vaccination rates among urban. Hispanics and blacks. Now some of them actually are Trump supporters. I know some of them. Some of them are friends of mine, black and Hispanic Trump supporters. They do exist. I know them. They're good friends of mine, guys that I've known for like 20-30 years.
They had to come out of the closet to me because in the area that they live in, it's assumed that you're a Democrat. And Los Angeles, I used to live there. It's basically everybody assumed you’re Democrat. And so they they add, it's like they were had it coming out you know because it's if like they tell some people they would you know maybe have some very not so nice reactions so so this idea that it's just Trump supporters not getting vaccinated as a big load of BS.
But this is what they're pushing and I'm I pretty much guarantee they're going to be pushing this more and more and more as the midterms get close. Because right now the Democrats are down overall, like there have been more people switching over to the Republicans than vice versa. People are not happy with the Democrats for a variety of reasons and. And so that's what's going on.
So this is something we need to deal with if we are trying to get the news out about vaccinations and trying to get an idea out there that maybe we shouldn't be forcing them on people. We're now battling a big, massive media complex that has not only decided to shove the vaccines down everybody throat, everybody's throats, but they're actively lying. And trying to make it out like it's only the evil Trump supporters that are digging their heels in.
This is very problematic and it's why I wanted to talk about it today. OK. So then they quote Trump in this next bullet point. And he says, and once I was out, all of a sudden people didn't want it, Trump said, blaming mandates for low uptake. OK, Trump, you're being…you're being…bless you, but you're being a bit of a dense whatever.
Here. The reason why people didn't want to take them after you were out of office is because all of these side effects came out, had nothing to do with you. Everything to do with the side effects.
OK, so let's see. Uhm, I'll read the first two paragraphs here of the article, former President Donald Trump said. Quote, everybody wanted unquote to get a COVID-19 vaccine when he was president and blamed vaccine mandate mandates for low vaccine uptake among some segments of the population, even though millions of his supporters have refused to get vaccinated Trump, who falsely claimed there that it that phrase is again falsely claimed they use that so much turn just drives me nuts.
Just say what he said and just keep keep the whatever, let us choose. We're not…well…some of us are complete morons, but I'd like to think I'm not OK Trump, who falsely claimed vaccines cause autism in children. As a presidential candidate touted to the development of COVID-19 vaccines while he was president, which is this is a badly written sentence.
But OK, here's the thing. You go look on Cheryl Attkisson's website and they actually, the guy people at the CDC actually hid some of the data that showed that there was a correlation between. The I believe it was the MMR vaccines and autism, I think actually in young black boys. I might not have that story completely right because I'm doing this from memory, so you need to look it up.
But this article is wrong. Actually in saying this was a false claim. It's a disputed claim, but it is not false. And. This is also something that is concerning to me about Trump. That he actually was much more critical of vaccines. Even when he was president prior to COVID and then all of a sudden he got on this massive vaccine campaign and then ever since he's just been promoting it like crazy and and making it out like, well, why aren't? Why aren't you all giving me credit for this? Because I'm the father of the vaccine.
Like, I'm like, dude, you don't wanna take credit for this, OK and I know some of his supporters are like trying to do like six, saying he's doing like, you know, six degree chess strategy or something that somehow he's trying to trick people into this. I don't think that's what it is. I, you know, he might just be like, believing that they're great and. He does have a big ego, so he's wanting to get credit for it. I don't know.
I will say I am actually happy to hear him say that the mandates are causing low up, low uptake because that does change the narrative a little bit. That's him basically saying, look, if you keep trying to force it on people, they're going to dig their heels and then they're not going to want to take it. So stop forcing people and since I'm against the mandates, I'm actually, I actually think that's not a bad strategy or something for him to say.
But be that as it may, we are at this problem now where…and we've seen this with the Canadian convoy, which I spent the last week covering quite a bit and I spent hours and hours and hours watching convoy coverage. Now I wasn't glued to the television. I was often doing work and I'd have it on in a separate window. So it wasn't like I was like actively looking at every single frame, but I did not see one Nazi flag on those live streams other than that clearly overly advertised one that a lot of people think was a plant. I don't know what was going on with that, but even if there was one there, that doesn't mean everybody else is a Nazi.
This just goes back to this like like second grade level of logic that is being pushed now like well if one Nazi flag is there, it's it's like one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. No, it doesn't. We don't. We shouldn't have guilt by association if one moron with the Nazi flag shows up somewhere, it doesn't mean everybody else is or that they condone that or approve of it.
And I I really think at some point some, some person probably on 4chan is going to get the brilliant idea to start showing up at left wing protests with Nazi gear and mixing up Nazi symbolism with whatever that causes. Like here's a Nazi flag and a pro choice sign because…that they are now overly amplifying this stuff in the media when it comes to causes that they don't like and the media does not like the anti mandate cause. So they're more than happy to cherry pick and try to make it look like the anti-vaxxers are Nazis which is ridiculous because there's nothing more anti-Nazi then saying we don't wanna force inject people with something. Right.
However, logic doesn't apply here, so I've watched a lot of these live streams. I did not see any racism, any racist sign didn't see a Confederate. I did not see a Confederate flag. I did not see a Nazi flag. I saw lots of Canadian flags. Pretty much, that's all I saw. I saw Canadian flags and F Trudeau flags. That was it. And lots of people dancing and having a good time.
And being polite, I mean Canadians are very polite, so they would, you know, the live streamer would run into somebody, they'd have this very polite conversation, and it was, it was. It was very, very inspiring, I think.
And I think it's sad that so many people I get caught up in the media and they become afraid. So this is the problem that we're dealing with. And I actually don't know how to solve it, but we need to start to strategize because. If we can't figure out how to get around this, basically the bad guys are going to win and they're going to win because they're really good at mastering, manipulating people's emotions. There they excel at it.
Now once you wake up from it, you're immune. And I think certain people may be more inclined to be immune from it. Uh, but I I fell for it in the past too, but. What makes people immune and how can we wake people up from it? Because this is the big problem. And they are going overdrive trying to paint trying to conflate anti mandate people with racist, misogynist and Nazis. This is their playbook. They do this all the time with other causes, but now it this has come to this cause. So what are we going to do now?
I wanna share some personal stuff about how I've had to. Well, I'm just gonna get right into it. This is where I'm going to step on some landmines here. But at this point, I don't care. I'm like, I'm all in. Alright. So I mentioned in. Other articles and podcasts that I have been a a walk away, a former Democrat, I walked away 2008 and I walked away because I had been a massive Hillary Clinton supporter. Actually, I was blogging for Hillary at some point. Maybe I will drudge up some of my old pro Hillary articles that I was writing.
I did a ton of research and at the time because I had just made us an assumption that Hillary was all love light and you know, cookies, I did a whole ton of research into Obama. And what I found out about Obama was that he was not all love, light and cookies and and he actually has. Uh, you know, very in some ways a very sordid past and in the least wasn't the savior that everybody made him out to be. And I became very, very alarmed.
I was in Los Angeles at the time. And the cult like atmosphere around Obama was super scary. I mean, people were just swooning over him and we had Obama everywhere. We had yoga studios doing Obama yoga classes and and it was, and people would also get hostile towards Hillary Clinton, Clinton supporters if they were Obama supporters. So there was this weird dynamic going on where.
There was these kind of inter intra whatever you call them. Interparty battles going on and and so am I couldn't understand why they wouldn't just like have Hillary be the nominee and have Obama be the vice president. But the the DNC decided, for whatever the reason, that they were going to put Obama in. And Sso what they did or what the grant grassroots people did, or maybe a collusion of the DNC and the grassroots people is that. They basically cheated on the caucuses, and there was a lot of evidence to this.
It's probably hard to find now, but I've tracked this, there's no doubt in my mind that they basically cheated to get Obama in. And I know now you say, well, if you say that there's any sort of election fraud and you're undermining democracy, that's BS. It's just such BS. So.
Once I saw that and I saw what they did, they actually took super delegates from Hillary and gave them to Obama, too. I was furious, as was a lot of other Hillary Clinton supporters, and we became what were known then as Pumas, which was an acronym for Party Unity My Ass, Party Unity My Ass - Pumas. So we were we were trying to fight this and we wanted to have more election integrity and basically they treated us kind of not dissimilarly to what you're seeing now today.
So I was like well screw the Democrats, they don't even believe in democracy. They don't even, you know, have fair and safe. Elections, internal elections and I don't trust them anymore and basically got extremely disillusioned by it and it basically just in some ways destroyed my life because I had so identified with being a Democrat and being a progressive.
And when you have that identity on you, it is it. It's your identity. You feel good because you're a progressive. It makes you feel like you're important and special, and that you're making the world a better place. So it is very wrapped up in people's egos. And this is what we are dealing with with the people who are pro vaccine. I understand the mindset and the emotions because I've been there and it takes a lot to breakthrough that.
So I have mentioned before I think in another podcast that I had a friend, a male friend. He was a white male and we had been best buds. I mean, not like best, best buds, but good buds for like 10 years or something. And that summer I had spent quite a bit of extra time with him because he was struggling. And he was depressed, and he was possibly having a drinking problem. While I can't say that for sure.
And I was really trying to be there and help him because I felt bad for him. And so I was trying to encourage him to get out and meet people. He was upset that he didn't have a girlfriend, that this was one of those guys where it was like if we can't ever. Find somebody else. 'cause. We were both single. Well, maybe we'll marry each other someday. This was that kind of friend.
And so I remember I took him to a meeting at a an environmental organization called Heal the Bay 'cause. I was also an active environmentalist. I was active in Heal the Bay as a volunteer. I was also a member of the Surfrider organization, and I had a big commitment to clean oceans. I still have a commitment to clean oceans. I'm still. An environmentalist in that respect, but I'm not a big fan of the whole climate change narrative, which is a whole other story. This is why you can't stereotype me
Anyway, so when McCain nominated Sarah Palin, I was super excited. 'cause I was like, wow, Republicans are now, you know, being more inclusive and they have a woman VP. I'm. I was super excited and he left me this message. That was kind of sexist and dismissive of her. And I was really shocked. And I I think I called him back probably. Maybe I emailed him, but I think I called and I was like, I was like, hey, I'm really excited. It's so great to see a woman nominated for the Republicans and then he disowned me. He did. He disowned me. That was it. That was last time I talked to him.
He sent me an email saying I'm not friends with Republicans. I only talked to my cousin, who's a Republican because he's a family member and I'm never gonna speak to you again. And I was like, what? And I emailed him back. And I'm like, dude, I didn't become a Republican and he never emailed me back. I've never spoken to him since. I I didn't even know he was political. So this was a defining moment in my life. Thank you, Scott, for waking me up.
I've to to this day I'm still shocked and stunned by it. I and and it's saddens me because I was trying to be there for him and he wasn't there for me in return. And so I found this out about people who have identified so much with being a Democrat. That they're willing to destroy a 10 year friendship over over over nothing.
This is what we're dealing with. It is like a cult and once that happened to me, I became much more open and sympathetic to conservatives. And I used to hate conservatives. So I ended up moving to Austin, TX at some point and I actually joined a Toastmasters group called Speaking of Liberty. Which is open to everybody, but there was definitely more libertarian and Republican bent and I kind of became more of a libertarian. And I'm not really like a formal libertarian. There's a lot of craziness and libertarian side that I'm not on board with, and then I'm not fan of Republican Party. I'm basically politically homeless.
But that was actually a diverse group like our Treasurer was a black guy who was a libertarian. So. Please don't tell me that like only white people are on the so-called right. I don't even consider libertarian to be right. There's left leaning libertarians, there's right leaning libertarians. So yeah, I had a I had a really good time with that, but then I also went and got a job at the biggest yoga studio in Austin.
So here I am. I'm a yoga teacher. In Austin, which is very, very progressive and there's an expectation that if you're in the yoga studio, everybody is progressive. So I had to be kind of like living this weird double life where I was like, hanging out with the bad libertarians and conservatives. And I'm also going to the yoga classes and making friends at the yoga studio. And so it was like. It was kind of weird and there was a I I had to in some ways stop expressing myself freely, particularly on Facebook, because I was at the yoga studio and I felt very, very suppressed by this in a way.
And I think that was actually bad for my health. I think it contributed at least a small part to my getting sick in 2017. Because I felt so stifled in so many respects and because of that experience I had with my friend Scott, I became terrified that if I was honest with people that I they would disown me or or be mean to me. And I've certainly had that happen in direct and indirect ways over the years.
And the thing with I've I found with it is that. In my time spent hanging out with people who are, quote unquote right wingers, they are far more tolerant, loving and kind in general than a lot of people on the left these days, and I don't know why that is. And I'm not saying all people on the right are loving and kind. There are still assholes out there too. Most of them I just see online though in person. I haven't experienced that at all.
But with with people on the left, they've gotten very like nasty. Very mean and very nasty, and they'll disown you. And so they frankly in some ways, I don't want to say they terrify me, but they have terrified me. They scare me because I don't know what I might say that might trigger them.
So here's a little another anecdote I want to share because it completely expresses this. And I had also mentioned in a footnote in my article yesterday that I was in a Sufi school that I ended up leaving. This was the it's the University of Sufism slash. What's the there's another name for it? There's actually two schools and one Institute of Spiritual Healing. And so I was in level one, and we were in a we have small group classes where I think that small group was like 20 people. And then there's like the entire school, which is like, you know, could be hundreds of people.
And I'm in the small group class. And the topic was what triggers you. And so we were supposed to be honest. And, you know, if you're doing Sufi stuff, you're supposed to be honest. So. This was like after the George Floyd thing. Now I'm going to here, let me step even further into the deep doo doo and say. When that video came out, I was shocked just like everybody else. And horrified. But then I read somebody saying somewhere online, they said let's just wait. More information is going to come out before you make a final judgement.
I was like, alright, I'm an INTP, by the way, and Myers, Briggs and INTP is. Someone who thinks more than they feels like we we we still feel, but we are more of thinkers and I think this also explains why people act the way that they do. Or maybe they more maybe more immune because I'm a thinker over a feeler, I will react differently things so I'm like, OK, I want to get more information.
I'm not going to immediately assume that this was motivated by racism. Like everybody else did. I think that I personally think it is racist to assume racism because somebody has a is white or any other skin color. Now I know there's this idea out there that you can't be racist against white people. And I think that is actually racist. So you you wanna get mad at me about it? I'm. I'm just gonna say I think it's racist. I do. Uh, so?
Anyway, I I did this was like complete total landmine time, right? Everybody is really emotional and upset and I'm waiting, waiting for the for the for that other information to come out. And then it does come out. The other shoe drops and it turns out that there wasn't just a white cop with his knee on George Floyd's back. There was two other cops, one of which was white and another was was actually black.
Yep, there was a black cop with a knee on George Floyd's back. You couldn't see it in the original video because they were behind the car. But then these pictures came out. Of the backside of the event and there was these three cops. One of them was a black cop that all had their knee on George Floyd's neck. And…there was an Asian cop who was there to telling the people her video taping to hey, please, you know. Calm down or whatever.
So the minute I saw that there was a black guy involved, I was like, well, I don't think this is a clearcut case of racism. But that didn't stop people from claiming that it was racism. I actually had a couple of conversations with people online where I said, hey, there was a black guy, a black cop who was also involved in subduing George Floyd. And they were like, well, he was just expressing his internalized racism. Yeah.
So and I've had conversations with one of my black friends about this. And boy, that kind of thing… actually, that's let me just say his opinion is that it's actually the liberals that tend to be more racist. So I'm just sharing with you what he said. This is just I'm reporting.
Anyway, so it's this is the context and I'm in the Sufi class and it's a small group and I only there were maybe like 15 to 20 people max in the class. And so I said I've, I have to be honest. With all this stuff going on with George Floyd and everybody so emotional. I don't. I didn't say it exactly like this, but it was along these lines. I said I'm afraid to say what I really think because people are going to flip out at me. And I think we need to have a more nuanced look at this, but I just feel like I can't communicate it and express it without people getting really upset. That was kind of the bulk of what I said. And.
Well. I don't think some of you would be surprised. Maybe some of you will be that one of the women in the class, a white woman, got super triggered by what I said. And rather than saying something there or sending me an email or talking to the teacher, she talked to the marketing person I believe over at the Institute of Spiritual Healing. Who, 15 minutes before a school wide zoom call told the guy who runs the Institute of Spiritual Healing. His name is Doctor Jaffe. That there was a problem in Group F. And so Doctor Jaffe gets on the call and says, whoa, I hear that, you know, there's a problem with group F I didn't know we were going to be talking about it in front of the school. He just decided last minute to, like, bring it up in front of the school. I don't think he even knew what it was.
And so this woman gets on the call in front of 100 Zoom people and basically accuses me of being an emotionally violent white supremacist and a racist who's a sad, sad woman who clearly doesn't know any people of color.
Like I was furious. I was super shocked. I was like, what? Are you kidding me? Like, I didn't even know there was a problem with what I said like. And the irony is that one of my best friends is actually a Muslim woman from Pakistan. And she had been on the original small group call. She didn't wasn't bothered by what I said. And she was on this call with the entire school and she's there in the chat going. This is crazy. I was there. Stephanie didn't do anything wrong. What are you talking about?
So I literally have, like, a Muslim Pakistani woman who is there in the chat saying Stephanie is not a racist because she knows I'm one of her best friends. And and I couldn't believe it. And the woman and this young woman. She's very nice. I actually like her very much, so I don't even blame her so much as the environment in which she's been trained.
She was making all sorts of assumptions about me, like I don't have any friends of color. Well, the irony is that I actually do have lots of friends of color, and I have probably dated more nonwhite guys than white guys. And I lived in Los Angeles for years, so I was like, I was always surrounded by diversity. Where I lived and the people that I hung out with, I am not a sheltered Becky as they would say, or a Karen where I'm now right now I'm actually living in a sheltered environment.
I moved in with my parents because of my health. And they're in a pretty white neighborhood that's pretty well off. And they are sheltered here. I can see why some white people have a lot of white guilt because they have money here. There's like one Asian family that lives in this neighborhood pretty much everybody else is white, and they have money and they are sheltered. And so they probably don't have. People of color as their friends. Maybe they do some of them, but you know, right right where I'm at right now, it is. It is pretty, pretty monochrome.
But where I was in LA, I had, you know, there was one apartment. My neighbors on my right where a black family and my neighbors on a left were Asian family. There was Hispanic families. I was like. I was actually probably a minority in the apartment complex, one of the few white people in the apartment complex and I. You know right now I I don't really have any white. I have. No, I have maybe one or two white males that I talked to on a regular basis in terms of friends I have, you know, really like I already mentioned my, my two friends from LA who are black and Hispanic, who are not Democrats. And I've had conversations with them about this stuff. Quite frequently. I have gay friends. I have, I have female friends, but not none of these. Oh, I do have some white male friends who are back in Austin that I don't talk to you that much anymore. And they are conservative, but they're not racist.
So I personally haven't. I personally don't see the massive racism problem that maybe other people are seeing, and I think maybe if you are in a more white suburban environment you might think that there's well, there is a there's definitely some economic issues here. So I don't want to say that there aren't problems, but you're going to have a different perspective and I think you'd be more sensitive to not wanting to come off like a racist because you are afraid that you might be a racist because you really do have a pretty white environment that you're in.
Whereas for somebody like myself, I have not been in a white environment other than recently most of my adult life. I've had, had boyfriends of all different skin tones and ethnicities and all sorts of things and. All sorts of diverse people in my life. I just I've had a completely different experience, so that was the irony of this woman. Thinking that I was sheltered because I'm like the opposite of sheltered.
One of the guys that I used to date was a gang member up in Compton - not Compton, Stockton. Stockton is a really bad gang city in California and he'd moved down to LA. And he was well, he was. His name was Gregorio. He was like nine years younger than me at the time. I was like 31 or 32 and he was super hot when I went out with him. Oh my God, he was like six foot two and he could have been like a model. And I met him at the Bally's Total Fitness in Culver City. He was working there and I don't know, we just hit it off and we we hung out. And he was really cool.
And he told me he was one of two guys that got out of the gang. And the rest were still stuck there. But I said, did you ever kill anybody? And he's like, no, but I broke somebody's legs once. It was just kind of like matter of fact like that. And then he went and became a firefighter for awhile and I don't know why he stopped doing that. And then he was working at Bally's Total Fitness. And last I saw him on Facebook. um, when I had, I had my old Facebook account. He had a kid or something and was, you know, starting to get a little older. But, you know, still cute.
Anyway, he was super nice and he told me he his parents had come up from Mexico and and they were poor and that they struggled a lot and he was thinking he wanted to do some sort of film or story about the struggles that they had. So there's definitely struggles that people have in these communities and I don't want to downplay them.
But at the same time. I think there's this assumption of racism that's being used right now to throw at people politically and what's happened on the left is that they have gotten so triggered and upset by it that you can't talk to them about it without them getting very upset.
And here's another little story I wanted to share. I had a ex in LA and he reconnected with me on Facebook and I didn't know who he was, but he made this like 'cause. He had changed his name and had put on like a weird avatar. He had written something he was really upset by Trump and he had written this crazy post where he had. It was all caps, and he'd had previous drug problems. So I don't know, maybe he was having a relapse or something, but he was like, hey, these Trump people was after they had the the what do you call it? The protest Michigan with the open carry, which was a really bad idea optically. And he was like these Trump supporters. We need to all beat them up with baseball bats or something. It was very violent, and I terrified me. I had no idea who he was. I was like, whoa. And actually, I never do this. But I kind of reported it to Facebook 'cause. I was like, whoever this is is could harm somebody.
And then I found out later it was my ex. I felt really stupid and bad about it. I was like. Oh 'cause. I know he wouldn't really hurt a fly. He was just freaking out. But so he kept writing all these posts about Trump. He was so obsessed and so full of hate against Trump and and really working himself up into a tizzy. And I felt bad for him.
And one point he wrote about, oh, all these Trump supporters are racists. And so I went on his Facebook feed. Now was like, dude, I've got Trump supporter friends who are black and Hispanic, and they don't think Trump's a racist and they don't experience his supporters as racist. So I don't think it's as bad as you think it is. And maybe you could calm down.
Well, that was the wrong thing to say. So what do you think happened? He got really upset and triggered. He wrote me this really, really long message in Messenger and then he disowned me and he unfriended me and blocked me. And he won't speak to me now. And I found his website and I sent him an email and I was like. I won't say his name, but I was like, dude, I was just trying to calm you down 'cause I was getting really concerned about your mental health and he never wrote me back.
So this is the environment that we're in. People have gotten really, really easily triggered. They are very much. If you try to talk them down from it, they will get upset with you because then. They it sounds like you are denying the problem or you're being like a Holocaust denier, and then that's more proof that you actually are a racist. And it's so you can't win. You can't. There's really no, I don't know if there's any way to get through to them.
And unfortunately now with this whole backdrop of what I just explained, they're now tying that emotiona thing with with the racism and the quote unquote systemic racism with being anti-vaxx. So what do you think is going to happen?
This is not good, and once they paint it as that and they've made the, when I say they, I mean like the media and the politicians, once they paint it as that, it's going to be very, very hard to get any sort of messaging through because people have been basically emotionally primed and triggered to have like. In an emotional reaction, and they they are unable to think at that point and they're more than willing to disown you because now they've convinced themselves that you are the evil enemy.
So this is obviously been happening with the Canadian convoy. They're going to do this with the US convoys. Why? I'm concerned about it and why I think it's not necessarily the best idea. Meanwhile, we might be going to war with Russia. And they like to blame the anti-vaxx thing on Russia too.
You can read my post from yesterday where I talked a little bit about this kind of in a bit of an oblique way, and there's a clip that I shared of a Canadian MP who was claiming that honk honk means Heil Hitler, which is. I'm sorry. It doesn't mean that. And once again, if you if a person is bought into that idea and I laugh at it, they're gonna think I'm being cruel or mean or in denial or whatever.
But. I'm sorry, it just isn't true. It's a lie. I I will give you a little bit more history on this, so that maybe you have some context. If you try to talk to people, but here it is real quick and then I'll wrap up 'cause. I got other things to do today and this is longer than I intended it to be.
So here's the deal. Back I think around when Hillary Clinton was running for president, there's this board called. It's a website. It's kind of a bulletin board called 4chan. It's been around for years. It's crazy. It's completely uncensored.
So people go there to blow off steam and you'll see all sorts of horrible, stupid, racist, ridiculous things there and some of them might be genuine. And I personally think and based on what I've been hearing from other people. A lot of it's just like teenagers who now are in this society where they can't say those types of things. So they're going there to kind of LARP and role play and act like jerks just to blow off steam. Go look, they said this stupid racist thing. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're racist now.
I know that some people say no, that does mean that they're racist because they're saying that, well, I'm. I like to try to say that people are… I try to look at the best in people, not the worst in people and and if a teenager is just being stupid and they aren't really meaning it, I don't want to write them off as some horrible evil person that's beyond…of…they can't ever be a good person, I guess so anyway. So, so.
And then there's these kind of, they call them autists, these kind of autistic people or people on the spectrum now I'm actually high up on the spectrum myself, so I think that's why my I might get this a little bit more than other people do.
So these people have a weird sense of humor. And with this sort of whole racism thing, they decided to kind of make fun of it.'cause they saw that the media and the left was always making everything racist, so they're like, well, why don't we just like, panic them even more, which probably wasn't a good idea because it would they they succeeded. They basically panicked them even more. So what they did was they said what? What can we make that racist that's not actually racist? And and they decided to make up some things to see if the media would pick up on it and suddenly make it a racist thing.
So one of the things they picked up on was the OK sign, you know, that's like where you put your your index finger and your thumb together, and you make the OK sign. They're like, we're going to make that racist. It wasn't serious. They made it up and they weren't serious. They were joking.
And so they they took the three fingers that are up pointed up and they turned that into a W and then they turned the circle made with the index finger in the thumb into a P and said, oh, look, this means white power. And they made this little graphic. Which, if I can find, I will put into the article below. So they made this little graphic saying look the OK symbol means white power and they started posting this around the Internet and sure enough the media caught up on it and they're like oh look, the OK symbol is a symbol for racism when a lot of times that people would use the symbol, they were basically trolling the media and saying you guys are a bunch of morons who fell for our troll.
Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. So they were trolling and then the media picked up on it. And so the same thing has happened with Pepe the frog. Pepe the frog is like it's a cartoon frog. He's kind of a sad looking frog. And for whatever reason, some of the people, particularly on the Donald Reddit Forum, which is now been closed down. They moved to a website. I think it's the Donald dot win or something, or patriots dot win or something like that now.
And and so they started using Pepe the Frog as their mascot, and Pepe Pepe is not racist. Pepe’s first of all, a green frog, but it's kind of the same thing. Some people on 4chan would put Pepe into, you know, racist contacts kind of as a joke or maybe some of them were serious. But that doesn't mean that every time somebody puts a Pepe on something. They're about racism. They just think Pepe is cute and funny and and so Hillary Clinton got really upset about Pepe the frog because they would make fun of her with Pepe the frog and so made it out to be always this big symbol of white supremacy, when it really isn't. And so this is where this connection with the honk honk is.
And I explained it a little bit in my article yesterday, but I'll comment a little bit more on it right now. So the short version is that as the world became crazier, they came up with this idea of calling the world clown world, which is like boy, things are really stupid and crazy. And it's just ridiculous. So we're going to make fun of it. And they put a Pepe…into a clown kind of outfit with a rainbow hat. Now for some, this is a little bit of a dig at LGBT, but it's also just he's a clown, and that's a clown, a clown wig. And then he has a big Red Nose, and when he honks, his nose kind of like bows of the clown, it goes, honk, honk.
And so when they say honk honk, they're saying the world is really stupid and crazy. It's not saying Heil Hitler. None of these people want to have more state control. They are. It's it's funny to me because on the one hand you'll see the media say, Oh well, these convoy posters are anti-government but they're Nazis. Do you not understand that the Nazis were were like a totalitarian, oppressive government, so you can't be anti-government and pro-Nazi at the same time? It doesn't. It just doesn't fit.
So anyway, uh so? Years before the convoy people were posting honk, honk and Pepe the clown memes to say we're in clown world and the world is just crazy. And then coincidentally, we have a convoy coming out where now there's literally honking going on. And so quite a few people don't realize that there is this previous honk, honk meme that had predated the convoy that to make things even a little crazier and weird.
You read my article yesterday I put a link to a website where they lay out this crazy timeline of how there are these weird coincidences surrounding the Pepe meme, and they're kind of joking, but they're kind of not in that. Somehow it's related to this ancient Egyptian frog god, and that it can manifest things so as a. You know somebody who's been dabbling in a new age, I actually find this a bit interesting because this idea of like your thoughts create your reality, which I don't believe like it happens literally all the time, but that there's a consciousness that somehow kind of can create synchronicities or whatever you call.
So there is this weird synchronicity with Pepe and his Pepe the Clown honking and the honking of the trucks. It is. It is an odd synchronicity, so check out that website and just prepare to be a little bit kind of puzzled, at least. Or if you find those types of things interesting, I do. I just found that was really interesting. I'm not sure people who read my article yesterday really got what I was saying, so I wanted to explain a little bit more 'cause. It is a little weird. In a little…this is a little off the wall.
I am definitely getting into some rabbit holes here and this audio file, but I just wanted to get into it because we do have this issue that they are trying to conflate anti-vaxx with right-wing racist misogynists, that sort of thing. And it's definitely not true.
Some of my friends who were against the vaccines once again, they're not white dudes. They're not white or they're female, so I'm female. So it's it's just a lie. And we have to just. I'm thinking more about this. How do we breakthrough all this emotional programming that people have? Because because it is, it is very cultlike. And it is hard to breakthrough, but we need to, we need to try to reach out and and also I just would like to say that try not to respond in kind because that just makes it worse. It freaks them out even more. It gets them more defensive and then we kind of ping pong back and forth.
This is why I really prefer more of an Aikido approach. Aikido is about redirecting energy towards you and using that energy as opposed to like going on a direct attack. I don't think it works very well, but I'll try to write something up more about this as I can if I can come up with a better way of articulating this.
Anyway, I hope this was interesting. I hope you know. I hope I didn't offend anybody. I'm sure I did. Well, maybe I didn't, but if you got this far, maybe I didn't try not to be so offended by everybody. Try to look beyond and look for the goodness in people's hearts. Even people you disagree with. We need to start coming together and I urge you to stop trying to fight hate with hate. Try to try to fight hate with love. So love people that you disagree with. That includes people who are trying to push vaccine mandates, try to love them too. or whatever side you're on if you if you're listening to this and you're very pro vaccine you're upset at people like me try to love us too OK let's try to love everybody uh i love you i hope you love me and we'll all be happy family maybe not already thank bye
Follow me on GETTR @stephaniebrail.
Resources:
Free Holistic Healing Clinic (for vaccine injuries, long covid, and more) at MeWe
Free Medical Qigong & Spiritual Healing at LearnItLive
Holistic Health Podcast on Odysee and Rumble
Covid Vaccine Freedom Channel on Telegram
Holistic Healing Channel on Telegram
Holistic Health & Wellness Community at Locals
Uncensored Holistic Healing Community at MeWe
On the Media Painting Anti-Vaxxers as Trump Supporters and Racists