Literally anyone.

Maybe you came across a link to this documentary someone uploaded on YouTube. Some have said that the video is telling a very powerful and truthful story because it was made and posted by a doctor named Judy Mikovits. But to be honest, Judy Mikovits is a doctor in the same sense that Mike Hughes was an astronaut.

The claim was made that she was a hero who discovered that vaccines actually deliver viruses. But this has been disproven. She was fired, and then stole equipment. Then she became a crusader against inoculation. Then she made a documentary with all sorts of false claims that contradict one another. I’m not putting a link to it. It’s not worth watching. But if you do find it and watch it, read this also.

Nonetheless, somehow between 10 and 20% of people I know on social media bought into it. Naturally, YouTube deleted it because it contains medical misinformation. Their videos tolerate a lot of stuff, but a documentary that encourages Americans to distrust inoculation is dangerous.

Despite the fact that YouTube is not a government entity, and their decision was made consciously and with good reason, I keep seeing this reaction pop up:
“Private companies keep blocking media on their own servers that I want to watch, all because they checked it out for facts and it didn’t hold up to any scrutiny.
1) What are they trying to hide?
and b) Whatever happened to freedom of speech?”

Narcissistic is what it is. Not everything is about you, and not everything is about your views.

Admit it. Sometimes your instincts are wrong. Even when they seem so right. I mean, the government wanting you to get pricked with tiny things in your blood? And it’s supposed to keep you from getting sick?

But that’s how it works. And it’s not good or evil because it looks like it to you. You also don’t get to play the spiritual card on it, either. Think of how absurd you sound.

But for some reason some of my Christian brothers and sisters bought into it (some buy into it still). This writer has a good explanation for why. Conspiracy theories make you feel special, and they offer an explanation for evil.

When we don’t like the reality we face, it’s in our nature to look for an excuse to pretend it’s a fake reality. Then that means someone was manufacturing it. Then that means there is someone to blame. They owe us something. We want to be participants in getting it back.

But here’s the thing:
You have to prove it. I mean really, really prove it.

And if you haven’t proven it, you need to strongly consider letting it go. When you find out it’s bogus, the lesson isn’t to then say “yeah, well, even if it’ not true, it’s still something that makes you think.” No, the lesson is to admit you were fooled, and then ask yourself how you can prevent being fooled like that again.

It is not for us to live in fear right now. It is for us to live for others. Consider these words from David Foster Wallace:

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”