Thread by @caitoz

They and their clique have been trying to pressure and cajole me into writing about a global Covid conspiracy for over a year, and I'm just not going to say something that I don't know is true. I just won't. I don't care how much misdirected rage they're able to whip up about me.

https://twitter.com/BernardGyorgy/status/1419324398364860417

I'm reluctant to even address this because any time I do whatever I say gets spun in the most insanely negative interpretation possible, bits are snipped out of context dishonestly, and no good comes of it. They're the most disgustingly bad faith faction I've ever encountered.

Every mistake I’ve ever made in this job was the result of listening to other people instead of trusting my gut and moving with my own intuition and inspiration. I'm too experienced at this point to ever let anyone cajole me into writing about their pet topic in their way.

People shrieking at me will never convince me to say there's a monolithic global Covid conspiracy when I'm not convinced there is one. I need better evidence and arguments. All I'm seeing is a mixture of fact, speculation and idiotic nonsense woven together to form a narrative.

Yes I do live in Australia, and yes there are lockdowns in Australia. I don't know what mental contortions that faction is performing to conclude this means I need to get on board with their worldview and start writing about what they want me to write about. It makes no sense.

Okay see that's what I'm talking about. It's a whole convoluted mess conflating things like "lockdowns are inherently bad" (which I'm not convinced is true) to things like "the elites using this to take over the world" (like they haven't already). I can't.

https://twitter.com/cassandrasbox/status/1419366367845834755?s=20

When I was trying to orient myself to what's going on with this Covid thing I got a bunch of people telling me I need to listen to this person, who has me blocked for some reason. Look at that shit. Does this seem like someone who actually knows what's going on?

I'm very bad at science, so any insight I have into combing through all the information for myself needs to come from logic and intuition, which is how I navigate everything. And my navigation tools don't show me that this is where I should be placing my shoulder and shoving.

None of the people I know to be consistently good at understanding what's going on in the world are buying into the "it's a scamdemic" narrative, while many of those pushing it (including Off Guardian) are people I've known to be bad at interpreting information and often wrong.

So that just leaves what I've been able to glean from my own personal research, logic, insight and intuition, none of which tells me I should spend my time and energy yelling "scamdemic" and "medical tyranny" all the time. Smear me and hate me as much as you want; I still won't.

And I have actually written a bunch about the aspects of this thing which make me nervous, and I'll write a lot more if more information comes in or if the situation changes. But until then I'm just watching and listening and using the same processing tools I've always used.

In order for me to change what I'm doing and start yelling scamdemic, I'd have to change really fundamental things about the code of conduct I follow and the way I process information. So people are saying "Caitlin I like what you do, but now you need to be completely different."

I get that people are scared, but me injecting more fear and confusion into the information ecosystem isn't going to help that, it'll make it worse. I can't think of one good thing it would achieve. What do they imagine I'm going to do, single-handedly ignite a global revolution?

Thanks. Yeah that just seems like common sense to me, and I don't really understand why it's not common sense for everyone instead of "Oh that lady writes good about war and propaganda, so obviously now she needs to be a high-level medical scientist."

https://twitter.com/coqumragep279/status/1419373870402793472?s=20

Someone recently highlighted Off Guardian's hypocrisy by noting there are important areas they've been neglecting in the field of anti-imperialism themselves. And I've actually written more about Covid authoritarianism than they've written about Palestine.

https://twitter.com/ainiladra/status/1418930858652745734?s=20

I can promise with everything in me that I will keep looking at this thing and responding to it in the most truth-based way I can. I can't promise that will look like what you want it to look like. That might make you angry, but for me that's better than compromising my values.

That's really got nothing to do with it. If I sincerely believed this was where the truth is at I'd be charging in full tilt. I just don't hold that belief right now, and I'm not going to pretend I do.

https://twitter.com/BatByann/status/1419383177433559054?s=20

That's what it looks like to me at this point.

https://twitter.com/TetsuoMarxx/status/1419384049030795268?s=20

To be clear, I'm glad there are people who are looking at this thing and asking critical questions. I've said over and over that they shouldn't be censored and deplatformed and I'm glad they're a thing. I just don't accept that I need to be one of the people focusing on it.

Yeah, people are always citing their favorite doctors and experts, but everything they say is contradicted by the assertions of other doctors and experts. And with my very unscientific brain I don't really have the tools to make a call who's right.

https://twitter.com/Francis_Watts/status/1419389210725736454?s=20

In one of the last exchanges I had with Off Guardian they were arguing that all polling institutions might be conspiring to lie about boomers polling more anti-socialist than younger generations. And they want me to take guidance from THEM about stuff? No.

https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1238771583226761216?s=20

All polling institutions are conspiring to lie about a historically more anti-socialist age group "to scapegoat boomers so all the Bernie supporters start spouting anti-boomer memes instead of talking about the real problem." Also, follow our lead on Covid! We think good!