Tin foil for thought.
Tin foil for thought.
I'm trading in my hat for a high fashion fascinator.
I guess I’m still just Conspiracy Sarah…despite copious evidence that my tin foil hat was actually a super hot, undiscovered fashion icon. This substack is my personal tribute to the dying art of thinking…
Maybe thinking is overrated. Have I missed an opportunity in the fashion industry with foil headwear?
“Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”
― Agatha Christie, Peril at End House
Remember when thinking was admirable and encouraged? Yeah, me too.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. Let’s start with a little background. Is that what you do on Substack? I’ve only read things on Substack. I’ve never actively participated, beyond reading all the people I follow that got cancelled/banned everywhere else.
I imagine my substack naivety is self evident.
In fact, I think this thing that I’m writing is available to read as we speak, although I’m quite sure nobody’s reading it. All I was trying to do was get my Substack affairs in order to possibly begin adding content…and now here I am, just airing out my dirty foil in real time.
Or I’m not. I’m still not sure.
Ah yes, background. I come from a family teeming with doctors and science people. My grandfather was a doctor, Harvard trained at that. My dad was a doctor. My brother is a doctor. I have a cousin that’s a doctor, head of emergency medicine at his hospital. My aunt is an audiologist. My uncle taught biology, chemistry, and physics. I have two pharmacist cousins. I have a math professor cousin. I have a radiologist cousin. I have a dental hygienist cousin. My mom got her master’s in health psychology and my stepdad had his PhD in psycho, I mean psychology.
I majored in dance.
As you can imagine, this gave me an immense amount of clout at the family discussion table. About anything.
I then went on to have an unimpressive, extremely brief, dance “career” with an incredibly small company in Florida. After an injury, I got trained in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and worked with autistic folks with severe problem behaviors at a group home (because, DUH, that’s CLEARLY the next step). I ended up really nerding out on the whole ABA thing and taught it for a bit before deciding pilates was the place for me. And I was right. I did a 300 hour certification program followed by a 600 hour full apprenticeship and certification in Atlanta, GA. And I REALLY nerded out on anatomy and the anatomy of movement. I love it. I love kinesiology and physiology too.
It’s like I got a partial science gene and the rest of my fam got the whole one. Hey! Maybe soon they’ll not test a vaccine and bring it to market for that unfortunate science gene thing I’ve got going on! Who knows??? Sky’s the limit…oh wait…
I digress. I’m disclosing all of this because I intend to share my personal experience and observations in relation to Covid, mis/dis-information hysteria, mass formation, cancel culture, and being labeled a conspiracy theorist long before Covid arrived at the party.
I just want to get super clear first. I am not a doctor, a nurse, or a scientist. I’m not a statistician, a virologist, or immunologist, or anything in the vicinity of these fields of study. I am WELL AWARE of these facts and have been for literally my entire life.
I have bitten my tongue, kept my mouth shut, and turned the other cheek as I’ve been repeatedly reminded of my seat; which is squarely not at the discussion table of all things medical, science, or anything remotely in that vicinity.
And I am feeling all done with keeping my mouth shut.
“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith
Throughout this totally weird (almost) three years, I have been (mostly) quietly researching.
Reading. Observing. Noting. Organizing information.
Some might say obsessing.
Creating countless file folders of studies and articles and op-eds and resources. In the beginning I thought that if I could just compile what I was seeing in one place for my clients and family to easily access and read, then they would see what was happening and not rush into anything that couldn’t be undone. Then I thought that maybe if I printed out the really compelling stuff and had it in the studio…then they would see.
I read the patents. I read the 2016 CARES Act.
I printed and highlighted some concerning parts so that they didn’t even have to search for it.
I’m not sure that a SINGLE person read what I gave them. This continues to amaze me. The refusal to even LOOK. It’s not unlike a child plugging his ears, squeezing his eyes shut, and yelling “LA LA LA LA LA” in an obnoxious, defiant, ridiculous tantrum.
I checked VAERS every Friday when it updated. I kept a running tally of the death count. I also began keeping my own observational, (gasp) ANECDOTAL data. I know…I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t science.
anecdotal
ăn″ĭk-dōt′l
Based on casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis.
I do however have eyes, ears, and a brain. I own a structural integration studio with my partner. He and I collectively have 70-100 bookings each week. Not all of those are unique individuals, or we would be super human and this conversation wouldn’t be happening because we would have already solved everything and saved humanity. Some of those appointments are private sessions, but many are 2-5 people together. They are all relatively intimate in the sense that they are very small groups of the same people seeing each other regularly and consistently, whilst under some amount of novel stress (see Covid19 Pandemic for almost 3 years now).
“People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions.
Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
― Helen Keller
It’s my intent to share my experience here. I’m not harboring under any delusions of grandeur. I realize that my contribution to this movement, this resistance, will likely be minimal, at best. But I cannot simply continue to be quiet. It is my hope that my musings will contribute in some way to the collective dissident voice of the group; the group that simply will not comply with the absurdity. Perhaps this will find someone hanging in a similar space, feeling a bit isolated and lonely, and offer a wink and a nod.
You are not alone.
You are not crazy.
I bet your outcomes have been better than most, despite going against SCIENCE. By insanely thinking that you could possibly do your own research. You might have even dared to think for yourself, and make decisions based on the conclusions you came to…by way of thinking.
Hey, look on the bright side. Jimmy Kimmel made a barbie about you. I mean you’re kind of a big deal…
It isn’t easy to stand still and firm amidst a formation of the masses.
Or at least it hasn’t felt easy for me.
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
—Coco Chanel
“The most important thing for people to do is to continue to speak out even if it’s just to say that you don’t agree with the mainstream narrative because mass formation is provoked by the specific voice it’s gotten used to. Totalitarian leaders know this very well. They start every new day with thirty minutes of propaganda in which the voice of the leader constantly penetrates the consciousness of the population … If other voices are available in the public space, then the mass hypnosis will be disturbed.” – Professor Dr. Mattias Desmet, professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium.
“One man with courage is a majority.” —Thomas Jefferson