I subscribe to you for your insight on biology, not your political opinions.
And I strongly disagree with “ We don’t really need more COVID science.”
We desperately need to learn what we did wrong, so that when the next pandemic hits, we are better prepared. You can help.
I don’t understand why you would refuse to publish “ findings on COVID origins that would rattle the world” because some people disagree with your politics…
Well, that was rather self-congratulatory. And if you really have earth-shaking COVID information, then you have a moral obligation to release it. So that part was rather self-martyrizing (if that's a word). I prefer it when you share information and facts rather than hold yourself out as holier than thou.
No, Alex, nothing to do with where you stand politically...more to do with whether you're insightful or not. And no, unfortunately this drivel isn't insightful at all. It's more like diarrhea that runs and runs and runs on.
You might want to start by not reducing the world to simplistic dialectics of "liberals" versus "conservatives." And you may also want to try to understand other perspectives rather than reduce those perspectives to whiny cliches. Doing this might help you get past your severe TDS like it helped me do the same as I noted here https://beyondspin.wordpress.com/2024/10/19/post-tds-recovery-independence/,
Plus politically it might make your thinking, when it comes to politics, a bit more complex as a so-called "liberal" rather than just being a platitude. So, start by reading the 2016 book, "Listen, Liberal" so you have a clue. Here's a review I wrote of that book: https://beyondspin.wordpress.com/2024/01/20/listen-liberals/
People read other people's substacks for a variety of reasons. Many people read your substack because of your germane background in science relevant to the sars-cov-2 . Your politics were and still are irrelevant.
If you have earthshaking new COVID information that you plan to withhold because you believe that Trump is an intolerant meanie, you never really cared about the truth or about the people harmed by COVID or the ill-planned response to it.
I can relate to your experience, and I left Twitter shortly after the election after finding that many of my (relatively few) followers who agreed with me on Covid got quite nasty when I voiced my principled opposition to Trump, who I think is clearly a sociopath unfit for public office, usually acting in bad faith, and on a quest to destroy the rule of law and the civil service.
However, when I see that picture of the gender-nonconforming boy that adorns your post, all I can think of is hoping that he won't be declared "trans" by my fellow liberals, and put on a path to lifelong medicalization and sterilization in a futile attempt to "change his gender" or realizing a fictional inborn "gender identity" (a concept for which there is no scientific evidence whatsoever), averting his potential future as a gay man. There are more issues than Covid on which I and other "heterodox" liberals (like Kathleen Stock, Lisa Selin Davis, Ben Appel, Jamie Reed and others) find ourselves agreeing on with the other side.
We spend too much time pigeonholing and categorizing people. Since realizing how we've been lied to about Covid, I've been making a conscious effort to recognize and resist the tendency to slip into cults of personality, and instead focus on discovering facts and truth.
So I don't really care about your politics or you in particular. I *am* interested in what you know about Covid origins. Someone is doing their darndest to run the same playbook again, and the more we know the better we can deal with it.
Alex, your analyses of the origin of SARS-CoV2 are brilliant but your ideological rants ... your vanity project ... your virtue signaling are beyond boring. Do your homework before prattling on and on about your "liberalism." Connect the dots ... connect the dots. Fill the gaping lacunae that have distorted your worldview. You need more introspection (you're still young so that's not surprising). Ask yourself: what has led me to become a whiny "liberal" and what does it really mean to identify as a "liberal" or a "progressive"? Where did those terms come from and what do they actually signify? Ask yourself: Why do I feel such a strong need to convince everyone that I'm a "compassionate" person?
Thank you for your contribution in investigating the COVID origin. Yor restriction enzyme analysis was superb. That will never change as that is the reason I subscribed. I do care about fellow human beings in general, but it seems superfluous to bring it up as subscribers are bonded with caring relationships primarily. I reserve that term for intimate relationships. Subscribers may have a shared goal of knowing the truth and the joint endeavor as fellow pilgrims. I hope you apply the same investigational principle you used for COVID analysis to all other domain of life and you will likely find that Trump is not as irrational person who is friendless. Hope the best for you.
No one hates you. You uniformed or misinformed. DEI is wrong so as other emotionally charged statements you make. Being a white man shouldn’t be a You are one sided do as many of us. But no one hates you, although you say you don’t care, but I think you do. Have a nice day.
Belief is the refuge of a weak mind. Truth lies in the transcendence of point of view. It may not be found by seeking for it. Truth must be realized, not by thought but by the complete absence of it. Until this is understood inherently, natively at the root of being itself, you will continue to seek and think. It is the fundamental addiction which actively creates separation and separateness. Left and right, up and down you will go, when it stops you cannot know. May you be blessed.
I’ll ask the same question I’ve asked other liberals: what is the purpose of a proper government? Until I get a good answer from someone on the left, I’ll assume none of them have thought things through.
Comments on Substack can tear at your heart, and it looks like some here have done that to you. I care about you and read whatever you write because I care. You have a lot of insight, and thanks for sharing it with us on whatever topic you choose. God bless.
You are clearly brilliant in many ways. I've *deeply appreciated* several of your Substack articles and usually can't wait to see what you share next with the world—regardless if I agree with you, or not. Even though I don't "like" all of your posts, I still listen to everything you present.
A smidgen about me—so you get a feel of where I'm coming from in this comment:
I'm a 27-year-married, mother of three spectacular young adult children (my beloved husband and I married young 💖); conservative; Latter-day Saint Christian (I'm guessing you might know a little about my religious population as you grew up in New Mexico); serious fitness enthusiast (nut? junkie? 😂); piano teacher (15+ years); and substitute teacher for my local school district.
I supported my husband through his four (almost five) university degrees: BS in Economics; BA in Japanese; MBA; MBA addendum in Organizational Behavior; nearly a second MS in Leadership Education that was taken offline before he could finish.
I chose to be a full-time stay-at-home "professional" mother (including the sacrifices that accompany such a vital choice) and supported my three beautiful children to where they are today. One of my children just graduated with a BS in Applied Mathematics; another child is on track for a BS in Computer Science. That, of course, was all made possible by my stellar husband who was happily on-board with my vision and shared my dream for our amazing, close-knit family!
I've lived in four states, spread across our wonderful USA. My nephew-in-law is deaf; his hearing wife and young children are fully fluent in ASL. As a young teenager, I was obsessed with learning sign language—I wish I had become fluent in ASL! I share those tidbits so you know that I definitely don't reside in a bubble. I could endlessly share experiences to hopefully illustrate that I have seen it all, and then some. And I want to see/know even more!
Now that you know a little about me, I will share some thoughts about your two most recent posts (including this one). Despite some of the content of said two posts, I believe that you really DO care what most other people think about you. You just happen to surround yourself in your personal life with people who align with your views—which makes close relationships easy, happy, and fun. That's how the vast majority of humans live their lives! Validation of who we are and appreciation for what we do feels really good! Every human wants and deserves unconditional love and understanding!
Of course, it's important to be aware of others' differing opinions. None of us should be living in our own bubbles that constantly and perfectly reflect our own views 24-7. The challenge for all of us is to allow others to fully live their lives as they see fit—as long as their living doesn't restrict nor harm us from the way we choose to live our lives. That said, there are certain laws of society that absolutely should not be broken, and the vast majority of us are—thankfully!—definitely on that same page.
Just as you are free to think/feel/believe and publicly express what you think/feel/believe, so are the rest of us. Thank goodness that free speech literally belongs to everyone! 🇺🇸
Sadly, based on your two most recent Substack posts (including this one), I believe that you have rushed to an incredibly harsh and judgmental stance as to what a lot of the rest of us are/think/believe/feel/do—including President Trump himself. It's like you have predetermined what every single Donald-Trump-voting-conservative IS before you even personally know any of us! And the 2024 presidential election is the very first time I've ever voted for Donald Trump!
None of us should be harshly judging each other. Full stop. We should judge as "righteously," curiously, and generously as possible, and allow others to freely grow and develop throughout their lives—to whatever extent that may be (providing that safety is assured for everyone involved). We are all on different life journeys. None of us have any true idea what it feels like to be another person—even though we can have similar life experiences that give us common ground on which to meet.
While there are many excellent resources to help us deal/work with the personality diversity of our world, I highly recommend reading "The People Code and the Character Code: Omnibus Edition" by Dr. Taylor Hartman—Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Leadership. His invaluable research and experience can help everyone "simmer down" when dealing with opposing views from differing personalities:
I truly, honestly, and sincerely wish you the very best, Alex. I'm grateful you've shared so much of your knowledge during the COVID-19 nonsense that we all had to endure. I also dearly hope you will find a more balanced view of others with whom you disagree.
Sadly, I know all too well what can happen when rigid, judgmental, intolerant thinking entirely dominates a person:
My own flesh-and-blood brother first restricted and then entirely revoked our sibling relationship because I am unvaccinated against COVID-19 and didn't follow society's ridiculous CV19 rules/mandates. There's a ton more to that story, but you get the gist.
I used to literally cry about losing my brother, but I no longer allow his incredibly distorted views and immature actions to negatively affect my life. My brother didn't die from COVID-19, but I've had to grieve our relationship as if he did.
Relationship "deaths" are yet another unreported statistic of the garbage COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. 🌷
I subscribe to you for your insight on biology, not your political opinions.
And I strongly disagree with “ We don’t really need more COVID science.”
We desperately need to learn what we did wrong, so that when the next pandemic hits, we are better prepared. You can help.
I don’t understand why you would refuse to publish “ findings on COVID origins that would rattle the world” because some people disagree with your politics…
Well, that was rather self-congratulatory. And if you really have earth-shaking COVID information, then you have a moral obligation to release it. So that part was rather self-martyrizing (if that's a word). I prefer it when you share information and facts rather than hold yourself out as holier than thou.
Spot on.
No, Alex, nothing to do with where you stand politically...more to do with whether you're insightful or not. And no, unfortunately this drivel isn't insightful at all. It's more like diarrhea that runs and runs and runs on.
You might want to start by not reducing the world to simplistic dialectics of "liberals" versus "conservatives." And you may also want to try to understand other perspectives rather than reduce those perspectives to whiny cliches. Doing this might help you get past your severe TDS like it helped me do the same as I noted here https://beyondspin.wordpress.com/2024/10/19/post-tds-recovery-independence/,
Plus politically it might make your thinking, when it comes to politics, a bit more complex as a so-called "liberal" rather than just being a platitude. So, start by reading the 2016 book, "Listen, Liberal" so you have a clue. Here's a review I wrote of that book: https://beyondspin.wordpress.com/2024/01/20/listen-liberals/
People read other people's substacks for a variety of reasons. Many people read your substack because of your germane background in science relevant to the sars-cov-2 . Your politics were and still are irrelevant.
Exactly!
If you have earthshaking new COVID information that you plan to withhold because you believe that Trump is an intolerant meanie, you never really cared about the truth or about the people harmed by COVID or the ill-planned response to it.
I can relate to your experience, and I left Twitter shortly after the election after finding that many of my (relatively few) followers who agreed with me on Covid got quite nasty when I voiced my principled opposition to Trump, who I think is clearly a sociopath unfit for public office, usually acting in bad faith, and on a quest to destroy the rule of law and the civil service.
However, when I see that picture of the gender-nonconforming boy that adorns your post, all I can think of is hoping that he won't be declared "trans" by my fellow liberals, and put on a path to lifelong medicalization and sterilization in a futile attempt to "change his gender" or realizing a fictional inborn "gender identity" (a concept for which there is no scientific evidence whatsoever), averting his potential future as a gay man. There are more issues than Covid on which I and other "heterodox" liberals (like Kathleen Stock, Lisa Selin Davis, Ben Appel, Jamie Reed and others) find ourselves agreeing on with the other side.
This is a bit narcissistic imo, tinged with a large dose of TDS….. I’m really not sure of the point of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We spend too much time pigeonholing and categorizing people. Since realizing how we've been lied to about Covid, I've been making a conscious effort to recognize and resist the tendency to slip into cults of personality, and instead focus on discovering facts and truth.
So I don't really care about your politics or you in particular. I *am* interested in what you know about Covid origins. Someone is doing their darndest to run the same playbook again, and the more we know the better we can deal with it.
Meh ...
Alex, your analyses of the origin of SARS-CoV2 are brilliant but your ideological rants ... your vanity project ... your virtue signaling are beyond boring. Do your homework before prattling on and on about your "liberalism." Connect the dots ... connect the dots. Fill the gaping lacunae that have distorted your worldview. You need more introspection (you're still young so that's not surprising). Ask yourself: what has led me to become a whiny "liberal" and what does it really mean to identify as a "liberal" or a "progressive"? Where did those terms come from and what do they actually signify? Ask yourself: Why do I feel such a strong need to convince everyone that I'm a "compassionate" person?
The title of your post reeks of narcissism.
Today's version of radical chic.
Hint: it's not about you.
Thank you for your contribution in investigating the COVID origin. Yor restriction enzyme analysis was superb. That will never change as that is the reason I subscribed. I do care about fellow human beings in general, but it seems superfluous to bring it up as subscribers are bonded with caring relationships primarily. I reserve that term for intimate relationships. Subscribers may have a shared goal of knowing the truth and the joint endeavor as fellow pilgrims. I hope you apply the same investigational principle you used for COVID analysis to all other domain of life and you will likely find that Trump is not as irrational person who is friendless. Hope the best for you.
No one hates you. You uniformed or misinformed. DEI is wrong so as other emotionally charged statements you make. Being a white man shouldn’t be a You are one sided do as many of us. But no one hates you, although you say you don’t care, but I think you do. Have a nice day.
Belief is the refuge of a weak mind. Truth lies in the transcendence of point of view. It may not be found by seeking for it. Truth must be realized, not by thought but by the complete absence of it. Until this is understood inherently, natively at the root of being itself, you will continue to seek and think. It is the fundamental addiction which actively creates separation and separateness. Left and right, up and down you will go, when it stops you cannot know. May you be blessed.
I’ll ask the same question I’ve asked other liberals: what is the purpose of a proper government? Until I get a good answer from someone on the left, I’ll assume none of them have thought things through.
Comments on Substack can tear at your heart, and it looks like some here have done that to you. I care about you and read whatever you write because I care. You have a lot of insight, and thanks for sharing it with us on whatever topic you choose. God bless.
So try I have unfinished sentence. Being a white man shouldn’t define you as a person or a human being . Iam done, thank you
Hi, Alex,
You are clearly brilliant in many ways. I've *deeply appreciated* several of your Substack articles and usually can't wait to see what you share next with the world—regardless if I agree with you, or not. Even though I don't "like" all of your posts, I still listen to everything you present.
A smidgen about me—so you get a feel of where I'm coming from in this comment:
I'm a 27-year-married, mother of three spectacular young adult children (my beloved husband and I married young 💖); conservative; Latter-day Saint Christian (I'm guessing you might know a little about my religious population as you grew up in New Mexico); serious fitness enthusiast (nut? junkie? 😂); piano teacher (15+ years); and substitute teacher for my local school district.
I supported my husband through his four (almost five) university degrees: BS in Economics; BA in Japanese; MBA; MBA addendum in Organizational Behavior; nearly a second MS in Leadership Education that was taken offline before he could finish.
I chose to be a full-time stay-at-home "professional" mother (including the sacrifices that accompany such a vital choice) and supported my three beautiful children to where they are today. One of my children just graduated with a BS in Applied Mathematics; another child is on track for a BS in Computer Science. That, of course, was all made possible by my stellar husband who was happily on-board with my vision and shared my dream for our amazing, close-knit family!
I've lived in four states, spread across our wonderful USA. My nephew-in-law is deaf; his hearing wife and young children are fully fluent in ASL. As a young teenager, I was obsessed with learning sign language—I wish I had become fluent in ASL! I share those tidbits so you know that I definitely don't reside in a bubble. I could endlessly share experiences to hopefully illustrate that I have seen it all, and then some. And I want to see/know even more!
Now that you know a little about me, I will share some thoughts about your two most recent posts (including this one). Despite some of the content of said two posts, I believe that you really DO care what most other people think about you. You just happen to surround yourself in your personal life with people who align with your views—which makes close relationships easy, happy, and fun. That's how the vast majority of humans live their lives! Validation of who we are and appreciation for what we do feels really good! Every human wants and deserves unconditional love and understanding!
Of course, it's important to be aware of others' differing opinions. None of us should be living in our own bubbles that constantly and perfectly reflect our own views 24-7. The challenge for all of us is to allow others to fully live their lives as they see fit—as long as their living doesn't restrict nor harm us from the way we choose to live our lives. That said, there are certain laws of society that absolutely should not be broken, and the vast majority of us are—thankfully!—definitely on that same page.
Just as you are free to think/feel/believe and publicly express what you think/feel/believe, so are the rest of us. Thank goodness that free speech literally belongs to everyone! 🇺🇸
Sadly, based on your two most recent Substack posts (including this one), I believe that you have rushed to an incredibly harsh and judgmental stance as to what a lot of the rest of us are/think/believe/feel/do—including President Trump himself. It's like you have predetermined what every single Donald-Trump-voting-conservative IS before you even personally know any of us! And the 2024 presidential election is the very first time I've ever voted for Donald Trump!
None of us should be harshly judging each other. Full stop. We should judge as "righteously," curiously, and generously as possible, and allow others to freely grow and develop throughout their lives—to whatever extent that may be (providing that safety is assured for everyone involved). We are all on different life journeys. None of us have any true idea what it feels like to be another person—even though we can have similar life experiences that give us common ground on which to meet.
While there are many excellent resources to help us deal/work with the personality diversity of our world, I highly recommend reading "The People Code and the Character Code: Omnibus Edition" by Dr. Taylor Hartman—Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Leadership. His invaluable research and experience can help everyone "simmer down" when dealing with opposing views from differing personalities:
https://www.amazon.com/People-Code-Character-Omnibus/dp/1501171372
If you have a way to enable subtitles, Dr. Hartman's podcast is also excellent! (I recommend reading the book first.)
"The Very Best of Living"
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6mBV7vL9XwpSwWTDFiq0uu
Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-best-of-living/id1548078862
I truly, honestly, and sincerely wish you the very best, Alex. I'm grateful you've shared so much of your knowledge during the COVID-19 nonsense that we all had to endure. I also dearly hope you will find a more balanced view of others with whom you disagree.
Sadly, I know all too well what can happen when rigid, judgmental, intolerant thinking entirely dominates a person:
My own flesh-and-blood brother first restricted and then entirely revoked our sibling relationship because I am unvaccinated against COVID-19 and didn't follow society's ridiculous CV19 rules/mandates. There's a ton more to that story, but you get the gist.
I used to literally cry about losing my brother, but I no longer allow his incredibly distorted views and immature actions to negatively affect my life. My brother didn't die from COVID-19, but I've had to grieve our relationship as if he did.
Relationship "deaths" are yet another unreported statistic of the garbage COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. 🌷
I delight in the red headed child in the tutu, Al. And I figure at this point I make you mad. But I trust that we'll keep talking and loving.
There is no doubt in my mind that you are an extraordinary scientist and human being, and nothing would have or will stop youin either regard.