Does my liberalism make you mad?

Does witnessing diverse views upset you?

Meh.

A lot of people followed my social media accounts (not “me”) during COVID because my COVID outbreak forecasts aligned with their preferred public health policies, and then because my findings on COVID origins were correct and, for some, advanced their preferred narratives (either pro-Trump, anti-China, or anti-Fauci).

During COVID, it upset many Democrats and even colleagues in science to hear me speak my truth about COVID science. I recognized that conservatives were out of power in both the US federal government and in the scientific establishment, and I fought for their inclusion in the public health policy process because that’s what I do: I like to fight for people whose voices aren’t being heard, whose valuable truths aren’t being appreciated or properly understood.

If that felt good then, but my liberalism upsets you now, it’s worth reflecting whether our alignment was ever about higher principles of tolerance and inclusion… or if you made it just about you.

Now, with the GOP in control of all three branches of our federal government, the most important issues for me to speak up about are not COVID. In fact, while I have findings on COVID origins that would rattle the world, I refuse to publish them in this environment precisely because I’ve seen how people don’t seem to care about the truth, or the nuanced views of this issue, so much as they want to use my confirmation of their bets on the theories of viral origins as a cudgel to tell others they were wrong.

We don’t really need more COVID science. At the moment, the underappreciated views and unshared science of importance relates to the humanity of liberals and a world of people dehumanized by Trumpism.

If you liked me for my COVID views but can’t tolerate my liberalism, then you never cared about me - you cared about you. You cared about your own information diet, your own ability to use my knowledge for your own purposes, your own political objectives and your own rage against Fauci, China, or whatever. You never cared about me and, frankly, that leaves me with little reason to care about you, much like I didn’t care about the intolerant COVIDians or zoonotic origin theorists when I spoke up against them in favor of underrepresented but valid scientific perspectives.

Does my liberalism make you mad?

Well then, you’re gonna be furious. My independence has made many people mad over the course of my life, so get to the back of the line. You most likely found me during COVID and, now that issues evolved, you’re the latest batch of person who used my brain and words when they suited you and then morphed into twisted rage when suddenly you find one aspect of my personality that isn’t aligned with your interests.

You sound just like COVIDians when you talk like that. Our proximity on the internet was caused by you agreeing with me on one issue, and suddenly a slight difference of perspective is infuriating.

This might be a “you” problem, because I’m being the same “me” I’ve always been.

The reason I love DEIJ efforts is because “inclusion” is all about loving people for the full spectrum of who they are, especially those aspects of them that we might reflexively disagree with, including rural white people, conservatives, Christians, literally everyone in the entire world. You see, it was DEIJ that led me to advocate for the inclusion of “diverse” conservatives’ views and to give conservatives equity in our public health policy process because, at that time, conservatives were a political minority excluded from the room and good, inclusive allies will recognize those sorts of imbalance sand speak up.

What? I’m a deaf man whose scientific career was made possible by DEIJ initiatives in the sciences. I was a MARC scholar - Minority Access to Research Careers. I’m white, but with complex ancestry that I hold inside of me and whose truths I honor. I grew up in the school-to-prison pipeline of New Mexico’s low-income schools, a disenfranchised setting in a disenfranchised state with close proximity to all sorts of disenfranchised folk, where white people are a minority and we aren’t bitter about it. Instead, we love the cultural diversity that makes our state thrive and it feels so good to love Mexicans, BIPOC folk, and every person on the planet.

So my liberalism might make you mad, but I don’t care, or at least I’m not going to diminish this light just to accommodate an intolerable group of people that currently has control of the US government. On the contrary, I’m going to shine even brighter.

Does it make you mad when I assert my humanity?

Does this glow of authenticity upset you?

In this world of online avatars, countless people who follow my accounts and comment on my posts are anonymous people, yet here I am with my name, a picture of my face, and my full authentic self, speaking my truth. I will never take advice from an anonymous account that lacks the courage to stamp their name to their own words, because they are still hiding behind an account, unaccountable (pun intended) for whatever inhumane or intolerant or outrageous thing they say.

It took courage to stand up against colleagues during COVID, and it takes courage during Trump’s reign of terror to assert not just my liberalism but my humanity. Yet, Trump’s hideousness, his vile intolerance and potent divisiveness, his dehumanization of migrants and abandonment of allies, his blaming plane crashes on DEI and a million other stupid, hateful things still to come from his warped brain and the goons who enable him, are worse threats to the world than laboratory pathogens at the moment. It’s common for people to use scientists only when it suits them, to extract a scientist’s words when the scientist’s words advance their political narratives, but I’m not going to contribute one more sentence of biology, statistics, or any other thing that I uniquely know if I see it being appropriated by an intolerant mob or otherwise cruel faction sowing divisions and fanning the flames of hate.

If my liberalism makes you mad, then you never cared about me. My liberalism (which is more complex than simply “liberalism”) is at the core of who I am, it’s what gave me the courage to speak up and defend conservatives during COVID and it’s what gives me the courage to say, with my name signed and face attached, that Donald Trump is a jerk who divides us and makes our country weaker.

If my liberalism makes you mad, then either examine why my authentic existence makes you mad and fix that, or please unfollow me until you get better. I’ve never cared about fame or fortune, so I don’t care about followers or subscriptions (hence I turned off subscriptions). I’m a scientist because I care about truth and I’m not afraid to share that truth, whether it’s logical and mathematical, empirical and biological, or social, political, and personal. As a person and a US citizen, I care about the state of the world, and liberalism is the best way to express how I believe our political system can care for the people I’m aware of in my world in a way I feel they want.

If my liberalism makes you mad, I hate to break it to you but… I don’t care.

If you can’t handle that, then, at the current rate of Trump’s already disastrous presidency, you’re not going to like what I have to say over the next four years and your continued inability to show curiosity for people with different perspectives is precisely the thing I have always stood against. You better protect your delicate intolerance by leaving now because I have the self-respect to stand by my beliefs (and incorporate new views from curious, smart, and well-meaning folk).

The world has many Atlases, not just the rich and powerful but also the knowledgeable, the caring, the generous, the fiercely independent, and more. When our society is unkind or intolerant or otherwise inhospitable, they shrug.

Meh.

No more COVID origins from me until Trump stops being hateful and dangerous.

If my audacious self-respect surprises you, then perhaps there are important things you don’t understand, as the nature of surprise is a discrepancy between prior beliefs and emerging evidence. Perhaps the deranged fury of Donald Trump has shut off your ability to have compassion, his narratives of how liberals are bad have made you so unable to accept that liberals are people, so colorblind you can’t see or hear or otherwise feel without being hurt the rainbow of political views and lived experiences around us, the more complex but unfortunately true reality that your liberal neighbors, the liberal accounts you follow, the liberal scientists, the liberal teachers, the liberals who fight beside conservatives in our armed forces, the liberals who advocated for conservatives during COVID, the liberals in the hospital bed beside you are humans too. Maybe this is a “you” problem.

As I continue to be myself, and not just the social media account you used as a cudgel, I will continue saying things that upset those unable to have compassion for diverse views. Consider this a trigger warning: there is a lot more liberalism where this came from, so feel free to unfollow me before your poor, unfortunate, government-controlling sensibilities are made insecure by people who defiantly disagree.

Don’t bother saying anything on your way out the door. If you don’t care about me then, as Marcus Aurelius advised, I don’t care what you think of me.

If you do care, or if my liberalism is different and you’re able to approach this with curiosity, then I will return in kind, with care and curiosity, as always. This is the cornerstone of modern DEIJ - it’s not about race, it’s about authenticity and creating space for everyone to belong, to live their truth and know they’ll still be loved.

I have a wonderful community of friends and family who love me for who I am, and I want this for every person in the world. My reason for being on the internet is to read the news and share views, be they scientific or personal or whatever else comes to mind, in an effort to share my color in this large, memetic cultural pot that evolves alongside our species. I’m going continue pouring my love and wisdom, my ethics and values, my heart and soul into this pot in my own way, unabashedly sharing my truth, because there are others out there who are curious and, like me, seeking authenticity while respecting each others’ humanity.

With rainbow-colored love and no fucks given,

Alex Washburne