I May Have Finally Found the Hill I’d Die Upon

I’ve often pondered a bit of a fault or complication of this generation.

History is always weird. It’s so easy to look back and say who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. It’s easy to imagine being passionate about causes of the past and say you too would have risked your life like our ancestors did, because what they were fighting for was completely worth it. Their cause was a pleasure to be passionate about. Then it was easy to find the hill we’d die upon.

Of course, we also assume that if we were alive or adults during the civil rights movement, we would have marched along with our black brothers and sisters. We would have stood up for truth and justice, even if it might have meant serious risk to our own freedoms and well-being. We would have been absolutely certain we were standing on the right side of history, and therefore the risk of martyrdom was 100% worth it.

The Hill of This Generation?

But what about this generation? I’ve thought for years I knew exactly what I believed or was passionate about, only to have everything thoroughly shaken up. Only to discover that either I was wrong or that I wasn’t as right as I thought I was. Other issues are too unclear from the get-go. One moment I’m standing on one side of the aisle, the next I’m wavering and leaping to the other side. And even still, there are other issues in which I’ve made up my mind… but I’m dispassionate. I’m not going to a protest let alone risk my life. I just don’t really care that much.

Living without this intense passion for a cause is painful. It means looking out the window and seeing loads of grey. Heaping piles of boredom. It means Netflix becomes infinitely more appealing than activism. And it interferes with really feeling like you have a purpose in this world.

So I’m both horrified and ecstatic that I finally found the hill I’d die upon. I’m finally faced with a cause so important, I wake up unnerved about certain changes in the world. And I fall asleep worried that the direction we’re moving in is irreversible.

Vaccines vs Freedom

I certainly understand that these times are charged with concern, anger, fear, and so many emotions that are prone to make people act erratically, but the venom I’m seeing coming out of people’s mouths defies logic.

For the most part, here’s where I stand on vaccines: The science shows they’re pretty darn good, and that they have the potential to save lives and even pull us out of the funk we’ve been in for eighteen months.

But at what cost?

I want to live in a world with freedom of choice, speech, and expression. I want to live in a world where people discuss ideas openly and honestly, and actually listen to views different from their own. I want to live in a world in which information is shared freely, without fear that people’s words will be shut down because someone doesn’t like their message or a subtlety of their word choice.

That’s the world I want to live in.

And I’d rather the population of the world gets ravaged by a vicious disease than live in a world in which these basic freedoms have been completely trampled upon.

Along for the Ride

And much to my great dismay, I fear we’re going in that direction, and most people are happy to go along for the ride.

There’s one acceptable narrative in the world right now: The vaccine is the only way out of this mess.

Therefore, anything–anything–presented to society that doesn’t 100% support the narrative is viciously and aggressively shut down. It’s mocked as being dangerous or anti-science.

And a greater irony has never been told.

Nothing is more scientific than making sure all relevant details are readily available for all eyes to see.

Scientific facts on the table that are hardly ever spoken about or are even mocked freely:

a. There do exist treatments for Covid that have been used very effectively and repeatedly

b. Many, many people have reported terrible side effects and complications due to the vaccine

c. The elephant in the room: One of the biggest contributing factors to the morbidity rate of Covid is obesity

Hanging Outside the Narrative

But these are barely talked about. Because they don’t fit the narrative. If it’s possible to treat Covid, fear is reduced alongside incentive to run out and get a vaccine. If we talk about side effects, we are shut down and told (at best) that the risks are not nearly as terrifying as death (ya know, because of that 2% death rate we need to fear so much). And God forbid we suggest someone lose weight! That, my dear friends, is fat shaming. And in the 21st century, we are required to live with the illusion that somehow sensitivity to the body shapes of people is more important than helping others to live longer, more fulfilling lives.

But withholding this information is not scientific. It’s abuse of power. It’s exercising authority to gain control over a situation, ignoring the fact that truth and freedom are far more important than making sure you are listened to.

So here we are. These are the same people who told us a matter of months ago not to wear masks but then fined us if we didn’t wear masks. It’s the same folk who told us we needed to stay home to protect the people around us, then threw parties and went to restaurants, publicly and openly, taking no precautions whatsoever. The same people who lauded Andrew Cuomo as a hero and now wash their hands of him as if they weren’t pushing him to run for president just a matter of months earlier.

But now we are supposed to believe everything they say about vaccines. Now we are supposed to ignore other details and accept like zombies whatever is told to us. And we’re supposed to mock and alienate anyone in our lives who doesn’t behave the same as us.

Government, Media, Big Pharma… Oh My!

Just a few months ago we had no trust for government or the media or big pharma. But now they are the messiah. Now we accept them as honest bodies only looking out for the greater good.

I’m sorry, but when they are all working together to shut down the ability of people to speak their minds or live their lives, they are the enemy. They are the enemy of freedom and the enemy of reason.

What you give up when you lie down and let those in charge take away people’s basic freedoms is a slippery slope none of us want to go down. The end is ugly and painful.

I stand by anyone who stands up for freedom of speech. I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on. We should all be on the side of freedom. Once we lose that, we have nothing.

I’ve found my hill. The hill I’d die upon.

And I won’t back down.