I feel the same way about Emily... Sad for her. And her article did do a good thing... It opened up the conversation to all that things haven't been right and a short jump from that is recognition of what was wrong and then apologies... Maybe I live in a logical yet fantasy world. Keep up the great work Tessa!
Nov 12, 2022·edited Nov 12, 2022Liked by Tessa Lena
Hi Tessa,
This is the most well-thought out response to Oster I have yet to read, and if it is a hint regarding the nuances of your conversation with Charles, I am really looking forward to listening in.
I particularly liked your 'To my senses ...' paragraph deconstructing Oster's stage of development. It reminded me of your poem-song of the boy-who-would-be-King.
But the paragraph I still struggle with is in the first one of Final Thoughts. Oster may be just as you described her, ephiphenomenon of generations of broken people, and a useful idiot of the machine. ''they were not in any way special'' may apply to her and her ilk. But she is not the spear-head. I am still struggling through the stilted prose of Lobaczewski's 'Political Ponerology'' — but triangulating from my experience of social dynamics in Japan, there does seem to a small percentage of 'special' people, genetically pretedermined to be high in Cluster B personality traits ... those dark triads — the small, but persistent 'cruel 10%' (Susan Sontag) who can be found everywhere in the world.
I've read percentages of anywhere between 3 and 30%, and there is no way to account for all of the confounding variables of epigenetics and social constructs. But among that qualitatively different category, I would include the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Kissinger, Schwab, Biden-Trump, Stalin, Gates, Attila the Hun, Caligula, and so on. Just as some of us are born with a high predisposition for empathy, there are some who are temperamentally incapable of feeling shame or remorse. Like a typical national politician here in Japan, or CEO anywhere ... they are clever at making a show of remorse with a precisely calculated bow. But just a show.
I have no idea of how to deal with them. Compliance to forgiveness, and anything in between, historically appears to be irrelevant. More than the average person, or the above average altruist, they are quicker to take advantage and pervert any positive emergent innovations of culture and technology. And if our species sees its last sunset, I suspect more than a mere correlation with the behavior of this 'special' few. They will be 'the' cause. Proximal. Distal. Terminal.
Oh by the way, thanks to you, I showed 'Numb' to a few teachers and staff at one of the Japanese Jr. Highs I work at ... some think it is not too harsh for the students to see and react to because they are not bringing the same experience to it to react in the same way as myself and substack buddy Heidi Heil. By chance, all 9th graders are giving 3 minute Power Point presentations in English, and I suspect this is part of the nation-wide English curriculum. I will be forwarding a link of Numb to the principles of the 3 Jr. Highs I work at, and several elementary schools, and suggesting they forward this to the central Ministry of Education (I used to work for MEXT as a cultural advisor and textbook editor) to consider as supplementary material to their suggested curriculum — nation wide.
But damn, even after several viewings ... I still can't last the whole 3 minutes without wiping the tears from my eyes. And not just tears of sorrow. More than a little rage is in the mix.
Employer mandates, which mean forced medical procedures, are Nuremberg crimes, regardless of any data.
That never did take a scientist or a "city intellectual" to figure out.
The data being especially bad should only make the trials shorter, so scientists could help there a little bit. I have some other ideas about what "city intellectuals" can do.
"She is like an overly medicated domestic pet who, if let out into the wild, would freeze in terror and confusion, having no idea what to do with all this chaotic freedom." Hmmm. Now tell us what you REALLY feel, Tessa! Such an accurate observation. Thank you.
And your comment about the people who participated in the atrocities of the past being broken: yes.
In the documentary "Propaganda Exposed: Uncensored" Mel K made the following observation, paraphrased with a bit of embellishment: Six million or more Jews were killed in various ways during the holocaust. One million Germans went home after working, killing them, to have supper with their families, to go to bed, and the go back to their job the following day, after a nice breakfast.
Emily is one of those workers.
And that reminds me of the story of the Jew who, after getting pushed out of the cattle car into the concentration camp. "Thank you, God!" Another beside him asked, "What are you thanking God for? Look where we are!" "I'm thanking God I'm not one of them!"
Nov 12, 2022·edited Nov 12, 2022Liked by Tessa Lena
The discussions of strategies to have us vaccinated is so condescending, and yet I am not sure she even feels any remorse for her attitude. For her
•Shame was off the table, but reduction of liberty wasn't. What was her overall thoughts on the mortality rate of the virus that it would require bullying someone to get a vaccine otherwise they can't travel, work, or attend entertainment venues.
•When did someone who read any of Oster's tweets ever think she had the libertarian mindset of "you do you?" Someone with a heart and mind that believes in liberty doesn't sit around and have strategy sessions on how to coerce and manipulate people into getting an experimental substance injected into them.
•On reaching fear-based vaccine motivation, why was this ever a thing to begin with? There was never any actual release of data along all points to support the vaccine anyhow.. First you have to convince people that a vaccine is needed to begin with. Second, you have to convince those that the vaccine is effective (you know stops infection and transmission) and third that there is a control group who actually faired far worse than those who were vaccinated. (see the Danish study for a study on masks).
Could you imagine having a similar discussion in a condescending manner:
Shaming people who coerced and manipulated others is not likely to work at this point (if ever)
what will?
Showing them family/friends who suffered vaccine related injuries (Maybe)
Restrictions from things you enacted upon the unvaccinated (travel/entertainment/work/food)
We can have these without shame.
To be clear: I am not suggesting we say "you do you" to the vaccine acolytes. The other side here is that there are unvaccinated people who continue to see vaccinated friends/relatives., which I think is a difficult choice with nuance and often pain of seeing a vaccinated person who could encounter one of many vectors for vaccine injury.
I'd add a mandated vaccine booster for those who were coercing others to vaccinate to this list as well.
The unpopular opinion of the day is that I think we may be reaching the limits of rationality in regards to those who either supported or pushed vaccine mandates and threatened to fire, restrict, and otherwise take the freedoms of those who did not comply. What might work?
I don't feel bad for Emily and I don't respect her stinking soul, and I can't STAND her snotty voice. What is it with these self righteous do-gooders they all have to affect a vocal fry? Oh. My. God. She should burn in hell. Great article Tessa, it made me so mad!
Nov 12, 2022·edited Nov 12, 2022Liked by Tessa Lena
wow tessa - so much to unpack here.
i had read a lot of venomous responses to the atlantic piece before i held my nose and took the plunge - ugh. my immediate reaction was that this was a propaganda piece written by committee (as athena mentions in her comment above). there were obvious multiple voices involved. the pro-vaxx coda is such an obvious bad segue that it just makes you laugh. like the andrew hill article that tess lawrie called bullshit on.
scientific studies which soberly present evidence and then reach a conclusion that's pure doublethink are a thing now. the truth ministry is paying big bucks for this stuff and oster is obviously hitting on that glass pipe. so i think she's more of a propaganda mule than an original thinker. she's just reading from a script, more or less.
i also find that script considerably more sinister. this is no mea culpa. it's an order for the compliance nazis on the ground to double down against us and and to cast aside any misgivings or residual guilt that may be percolating in their poisoned minds.
the atlantic used to be a reliable source for investigative journalism. scott ritter and seymour hersh used to write for them. now they're financed by gates and owned by a woman who's pals with ghislaine maxwell.
guessing that you saw the absolutely brilliant analysis by meredith miller, who unpacks it through the prism of recovery from trauma and abuse. she echoes you a lot.
and as a digression, just the idea that raising and nurturing children could or should be based on principles from the dismal science of economics is repulsive to the core. that's textbook technocracy. like you said, it's going to be quite the challenge when generation fear grows up and we have to help them cope.
Hey Tessa, you are assuming that "Emily" (I hate calling evil psychopaths by their first names, something I have chastised Tim Pool for often) hasn't drawn the short straw and been "chosen" to be the public face of this climbdown.
I wrote an (unpublished) article for a UK alt-media website in early 2021 where I predicted the whole charade would come crumbling down and these people would do anything to prevent Nuremberg 2.0. There is no way they can get away with what they have done.
The problem with making predictions is things move way slower than you expect. So I don't do that anymore.
I highly doubt this stupid woman regrets anything. She would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Tessa, that's the best skewering of Emily Oster I've read to date, and in turn, of The Atlantic, and in turn of the entire swath of her liberal kinfolk. Hundreds of thousands who have a lot of work to do to earn our forgiveness. I appreciate how you examine not just the irrational policies this self-regarded rational woman endorsed but as well her psychological mindset that swept her into the latest edition of mass deaths. She was as loyal to her cause as any Pol Pot soldier.
"Here is the problem. When we think about past historical atrocities—the massacres, the genocides, we imagine that the collaborators of the past danced with some kind of a special evil. But the truth is, they were not in any way special. They were just regular people with broken senses who, step by step, floated farther and father from their souls, which turned them into wobblyfolk. They were just regular people who were so desensitized by the propaganda of their time to their own ability to relate to fellow human beings that they became collaborators and enablers of various horrors. Gradually, then suddenly.
"And so, the difficult task before us is to heal the senses somehow and to revive our impenetrable spiritual power. The big villains (who are very few among us) depend on the massively broken senses of regular people to feed their powers. If regular people, en masse, connect to their souls, the big villains will lose their power. The problem is that right now, collectively, we are nowhere near being healed. It’s a mess. It’s a multigenerational mess, and most people are broken. "
The approval, "blessings," and amnesty of man are woefully short-lived, God's promises eternal. "His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Be in the Word.
Great article, Tessa, and great references. (I will forward to others.) It all boils down to simple logic and common sense; none of us had to be brilliant to figure out what was right. The mystery is why so many others did not. I'm glad I'm on this team, and am very happy that you are here with us, often tempering and moderating what might otherwise become become very nasty feelings.
Gosh that video of her talking about her book...this kind of thing is everywhere. When and how did we all become so dumb and disconnected to our instincts that we “need” this kind of parenting help? So sad. I’ve met so many moms like them--stress cases.
I feel the same way about Emily... Sad for her. And her article did do a good thing... It opened up the conversation to all that things haven't been right and a short jump from that is recognition of what was wrong and then apologies... Maybe I live in a logical yet fantasy world. Keep up the great work Tessa!
Hi Tessa,
This is the most well-thought out response to Oster I have yet to read, and if it is a hint regarding the nuances of your conversation with Charles, I am really looking forward to listening in.
I particularly liked your 'To my senses ...' paragraph deconstructing Oster's stage of development. It reminded me of your poem-song of the boy-who-would-be-King.
But the paragraph I still struggle with is in the first one of Final Thoughts. Oster may be just as you described her, ephiphenomenon of generations of broken people, and a useful idiot of the machine. ''they were not in any way special'' may apply to her and her ilk. But she is not the spear-head. I am still struggling through the stilted prose of Lobaczewski's 'Political Ponerology'' — but triangulating from my experience of social dynamics in Japan, there does seem to a small percentage of 'special' people, genetically pretedermined to be high in Cluster B personality traits ... those dark triads — the small, but persistent 'cruel 10%' (Susan Sontag) who can be found everywhere in the world.
I've read percentages of anywhere between 3 and 30%, and there is no way to account for all of the confounding variables of epigenetics and social constructs. But among that qualitatively different category, I would include the likes of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Kissinger, Schwab, Biden-Trump, Stalin, Gates, Attila the Hun, Caligula, and so on. Just as some of us are born with a high predisposition for empathy, there are some who are temperamentally incapable of feeling shame or remorse. Like a typical national politician here in Japan, or CEO anywhere ... they are clever at making a show of remorse with a precisely calculated bow. But just a show.
I have no idea of how to deal with them. Compliance to forgiveness, and anything in between, historically appears to be irrelevant. More than the average person, or the above average altruist, they are quicker to take advantage and pervert any positive emergent innovations of culture and technology. And if our species sees its last sunset, I suspect more than a mere correlation with the behavior of this 'special' few. They will be 'the' cause. Proximal. Distal. Terminal.
Oh by the way, thanks to you, I showed 'Numb' to a few teachers and staff at one of the Japanese Jr. Highs I work at ... some think it is not too harsh for the students to see and react to because they are not bringing the same experience to it to react in the same way as myself and substack buddy Heidi Heil. By chance, all 9th graders are giving 3 minute Power Point presentations in English, and I suspect this is part of the nation-wide English curriculum. I will be forwarding a link of Numb to the principles of the 3 Jr. Highs I work at, and several elementary schools, and suggesting they forward this to the central Ministry of Education (I used to work for MEXT as a cultural advisor and textbook editor) to consider as supplementary material to their suggested curriculum — nation wide.
But damn, even after several viewings ... I still can't last the whole 3 minutes without wiping the tears from my eyes. And not just tears of sorrow. More than a little rage is in the mix.
Cheers Tessa,
Keep up the good fight.
steve
Employer mandates, which mean forced medical procedures, are Nuremberg crimes, regardless of any data.
That never did take a scientist or a "city intellectual" to figure out.
The data being especially bad should only make the trials shorter, so scientists could help there a little bit. I have some other ideas about what "city intellectuals" can do.
I think the whole idea is predictable and boring and will never catch on. In fact, here's an anagram of Emily Oster:
TIRESOMELY
"She is like an overly medicated domestic pet who, if let out into the wild, would freeze in terror and confusion, having no idea what to do with all this chaotic freedom." Hmmm. Now tell us what you REALLY feel, Tessa! Such an accurate observation. Thank you.
And your comment about the people who participated in the atrocities of the past being broken: yes.
In the documentary "Propaganda Exposed: Uncensored" Mel K made the following observation, paraphrased with a bit of embellishment: Six million or more Jews were killed in various ways during the holocaust. One million Germans went home after working, killing them, to have supper with their families, to go to bed, and the go back to their job the following day, after a nice breakfast.
Emily is one of those workers.
And that reminds me of the story of the Jew who, after getting pushed out of the cattle car into the concentration camp. "Thank you, God!" Another beside him asked, "What are you thanking God for? Look where we are!" "I'm thanking God I'm not one of them!"
Thank you, I'm not Emily.
The discussions of strategies to have us vaccinated is so condescending, and yet I am not sure she even feels any remorse for her attitude. For her
•Shame was off the table, but reduction of liberty wasn't. What was her overall thoughts on the mortality rate of the virus that it would require bullying someone to get a vaccine otherwise they can't travel, work, or attend entertainment venues.
•When did someone who read any of Oster's tweets ever think she had the libertarian mindset of "you do you?" Someone with a heart and mind that believes in liberty doesn't sit around and have strategy sessions on how to coerce and manipulate people into getting an experimental substance injected into them.
•On reaching fear-based vaccine motivation, why was this ever a thing to begin with? There was never any actual release of data along all points to support the vaccine anyhow.. First you have to convince people that a vaccine is needed to begin with. Second, you have to convince those that the vaccine is effective (you know stops infection and transmission) and third that there is a control group who actually faired far worse than those who were vaccinated. (see the Danish study for a study on masks).
Could you imagine having a similar discussion in a condescending manner:
Shaming people who coerced and manipulated others is not likely to work at this point (if ever)
what will?
Showing them family/friends who suffered vaccine related injuries (Maybe)
Restrictions from things you enacted upon the unvaccinated (travel/entertainment/work/food)
We can have these without shame.
To be clear: I am not suggesting we say "you do you" to the vaccine acolytes. The other side here is that there are unvaccinated people who continue to see vaccinated friends/relatives., which I think is a difficult choice with nuance and often pain of seeing a vaccinated person who could encounter one of many vectors for vaccine injury.
I'd add a mandated vaccine booster for those who were coercing others to vaccinate to this list as well.
The unpopular opinion of the day is that I think we may be reaching the limits of rationality in regards to those who either supported or pushed vaccine mandates and threatened to fire, restrict, and otherwise take the freedoms of those who did not comply. What might work?
Full FDA disapproval.
firings
I don't feel bad for Emily and I don't respect her stinking soul, and I can't STAND her snotty voice. What is it with these self righteous do-gooders they all have to affect a vocal fry? Oh. My. God. She should burn in hell. Great article Tessa, it made me so mad!
wow tessa - so much to unpack here.
i had read a lot of venomous responses to the atlantic piece before i held my nose and took the plunge - ugh. my immediate reaction was that this was a propaganda piece written by committee (as athena mentions in her comment above). there were obvious multiple voices involved. the pro-vaxx coda is such an obvious bad segue that it just makes you laugh. like the andrew hill article that tess lawrie called bullshit on.
scientific studies which soberly present evidence and then reach a conclusion that's pure doublethink are a thing now. the truth ministry is paying big bucks for this stuff and oster is obviously hitting on that glass pipe. so i think she's more of a propaganda mule than an original thinker. she's just reading from a script, more or less.
i also find that script considerably more sinister. this is no mea culpa. it's an order for the compliance nazis on the ground to double down against us and and to cast aside any misgivings or residual guilt that may be percolating in their poisoned minds.
the atlantic used to be a reliable source for investigative journalism. scott ritter and seymour hersh used to write for them. now they're financed by gates and owned by a woman who's pals with ghislaine maxwell.
eugyppius writes off oster and her ilk as classic high-achieving conformists. https://www.eugyppius.com/p/once-more-on-renowned-fool-emily
guessing that you saw the absolutely brilliant analysis by meredith miller, who unpacks it through the prism of recovery from trauma and abuse. she echoes you a lot.
https://meredithmiller.substack.com/p/never-forget
sarah reynolds did a great takedown too which focuses more on underlying psychosis.
https://sarahreynolds.substack.com/p/everyone-is-talking-about-emily-oster
and as a digression, just the idea that raising and nurturing children could or should be based on principles from the dismal science of economics is repulsive to the core. that's textbook technocracy. like you said, it's going to be quite the challenge when generation fear grows up and we have to help them cope.
You have written many great essays Tessa, but this one is one of your best.
I’m not saying anything to diss Nuremberg 2.0, but it is useful to try and comprehend the source of “our” (whoever that encompasses) mental issues.
Hey Tessa, you are assuming that "Emily" (I hate calling evil psychopaths by their first names, something I have chastised Tim Pool for often) hasn't drawn the short straw and been "chosen" to be the public face of this climbdown.
I wrote an (unpublished) article for a UK alt-media website in early 2021 where I predicted the whole charade would come crumbling down and these people would do anything to prevent Nuremberg 2.0. There is no way they can get away with what they have done.
The problem with making predictions is things move way slower than you expect. So I don't do that anymore.
I highly doubt this stupid woman regrets anything. She would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Tessa, that's the best skewering of Emily Oster I've read to date, and in turn, of The Atlantic, and in turn of the entire swath of her liberal kinfolk. Hundreds of thousands who have a lot of work to do to earn our forgiveness. I appreciate how you examine not just the irrational policies this self-regarded rational woman endorsed but as well her psychological mindset that swept her into the latest edition of mass deaths. She was as loyal to her cause as any Pol Pot soldier.
Lovely description of the problem:
"Final thoughts"
"Here is the problem. When we think about past historical atrocities—the massacres, the genocides, we imagine that the collaborators of the past danced with some kind of a special evil. But the truth is, they were not in any way special. They were just regular people with broken senses who, step by step, floated farther and father from their souls, which turned them into wobblyfolk. They were just regular people who were so desensitized by the propaganda of their time to their own ability to relate to fellow human beings that they became collaborators and enablers of various horrors. Gradually, then suddenly.
"And so, the difficult task before us is to heal the senses somehow and to revive our impenetrable spiritual power. The big villains (who are very few among us) depend on the massively broken senses of regular people to feed their powers. If regular people, en masse, connect to their souls, the big villains will lose their power. The problem is that right now, collectively, we are nowhere near being healed. It’s a mess. It’s a multigenerational mess, and most people are broken. "
The approval, "blessings," and amnesty of man are woefully short-lived, God's promises eternal. "His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Be in the Word.
Great article, Tessa, and great references. (I will forward to others.) It all boils down to simple logic and common sense; none of us had to be brilliant to figure out what was right. The mystery is why so many others did not. I'm glad I'm on this team, and am very happy that you are here with us, often tempering and moderating what might otherwise become become very nasty feelings.
Thank you!
Gosh that video of her talking about her book...this kind of thing is everywhere. When and how did we all become so dumb and disconnected to our instincts that we “need” this kind of parenting help? So sad. I’ve met so many moms like them--stress cases.
Your writing is brilliant, as always....thank you...... 😘