On vaccine denial I think there is also an ego issue involved. The fragility of some people's egos to admit they are wrong by getting the vaccine is more than they can handle. I know a person who suffers from this and it's obvious.
Some days, NYT is worse than WaPo. Thank you for highlighting Rubin’s column. She does seem more “objective” than many others, though of course that is a loaded subjective term. The vaccine insanity seems to be culling the herd indiscriminately, at great cost to us all. As for Gavin Newsome, he may be a California governor, but his case concerns many of us. Yours is a voice I look forward to hearing amid all the name-calling hysteria of the current iteration of public life.
I don't get the unvaccinated people who are getting hospitalized. They don't trust medical science when it tells them to get vaccinated, but they do when they get sick from COVID? Hmm, life is a puzzlement.
We must accept that we are a divided country but between the very committed on both sides there exists a wide swath of many who can be won over. They must be approached with compassion and soft arguments not condemnation. This middle group are vital to countering the insurrectionists vitriol. It seems there is a well funded and established element that can use slogans and clever approaches like "sanctuary cities and counties" to weaken and disrupt local government. There must be a coordinated and empathetic movement to counter these efforts winning over the middle ground of voters with calm and neighbor to neighbor discussions.
Robert, I am so very disappointed and angry at the media’s take on Biden. I definitely want balanced, truthful news, but I am beyond understanding the degree to which our society has fallen to the noxious, immoral, “foxed” movement of everything that a democracy is not. Any recommendations and/or suggestions?
My eldest son never used to vote (he's ion his mid-40s) because he didn't think his vote mattered. He started voting about three years ago because he saw the craziness of the Trump era. A few weeks ago, he had finished his final vaccine and was ready to see friends. About 6 fellows met up and all agreed to vote and have done so. They are all residents of Los Angeles and voted not to remove Gavin Newsome. They voted online or by mail or whatever they do there, and there was definitely a triple effect going on!
I can think of a couple of good arguments for the hesitant. If you're a person of faith, consider that God must have given us the vaccine, or at least the ability to discover it. And think about this: More than 200 million Americans have had the vaccine and there are virtually no deaths (in fact, I think the number is actually zero) that have been traced to the vaccine, while more than 650,000 of us have died from Covid. In the end, however, I fear that we cannot convince the doubters. They can only convince themselves. And many of them are doing so, which is why the number of vaccinations rises.
On vaccine denial I think there is also an ego issue involved. The fragility of some people's egos to admit they are wrong by getting the vaccine is more than they can handle. I know a person who suffers from this and it's obvious.
Some days, NYT is worse than WaPo. Thank you for highlighting Rubin’s column. She does seem more “objective” than many others, though of course that is a loaded subjective term. The vaccine insanity seems to be culling the herd indiscriminately, at great cost to us all. As for Gavin Newsome, he may be a California governor, but his case concerns many of us. Yours is a voice I look forward to hearing amid all the name-calling hysteria of the current iteration of public life.
I don't get the unvaccinated people who are getting hospitalized. They don't trust medical science when it tells them to get vaccinated, but they do when they get sick from COVID? Hmm, life is a puzzlement.
Thank you for your clear minded newsletters, a great help in these times!
We must accept that we are a divided country but between the very committed on both sides there exists a wide swath of many who can be won over. They must be approached with compassion and soft arguments not condemnation. This middle group are vital to countering the insurrectionists vitriol. It seems there is a well funded and established element that can use slogans and clever approaches like "sanctuary cities and counties" to weaken and disrupt local government. There must be a coordinated and empathetic movement to counter these efforts winning over the middle ground of voters with calm and neighbor to neighbor discussions.
Robert, I am so very disappointed and angry at the media’s take on Biden. I definitely want balanced, truthful news, but I am beyond understanding the degree to which our society has fallen to the noxious, immoral, “foxed” movement of everything that a democracy is not. Any recommendations and/or suggestions?
My eldest son never used to vote (he's ion his mid-40s) because he didn't think his vote mattered. He started voting about three years ago because he saw the craziness of the Trump era. A few weeks ago, he had finished his final vaccine and was ready to see friends. About 6 fellows met up and all agreed to vote and have done so. They are all residents of Los Angeles and voted not to remove Gavin Newsome. They voted online or by mail or whatever they do there, and there was definitely a triple effect going on!
I can think of a couple of good arguments for the hesitant. If you're a person of faith, consider that God must have given us the vaccine, or at least the ability to discover it. And think about this: More than 200 million Americans have had the vaccine and there are virtually no deaths (in fact, I think the number is actually zero) that have been traced to the vaccine, while more than 650,000 of us have died from Covid. In the end, however, I fear that we cannot convince the doubters. They can only convince themselves. And many of them are doing so, which is why the number of vaccinations rises.