Twitter Chronicles, Vol. I: A Sheepdog amongst Wolves
Twitter Chronicles, Vol. I: A Sheepdog amongst Wolves
Highlights from the trenches of the COVID origin fight.
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I’ve been wanting to put together a list of the funniest moments in my pandemic research journey, and it’s nice to take a look back, now that momentum is steaming ahead. Unfortunately, I could only fit two-months worth of nuggets in a single article.
I’m confident that there will be plenty of inspiration to come, but here’s a glimpse at how we try to stay sane while digging through the internet for evidence.
My very first block from a Virologist. It turns out that being blocked by virologists is sort of a merit badge for DRASTIC [My 5 badges are in the bottom quartile😥]. Apparently, virologists implicated in covering up the origins of global pandemics don’t enjoy my Yoda-level sarcasm. That’s fair - I don’t like renowned scientists faking evidence and censoring research to protect themselves in the midst of 4 million people dying, potentially from a virus from a lab. Spoiler Alert-the only feelings I care about are the families of those victims.
The Greatest Commandment:
Since Dr. Rasmussen staunchly rejects the possibility of COVID-19 having leaked from a lab, I decided to use an example to point out the error in her logic. During a back-and-forth discussion on an odd strain of Ebola emerging in Africa, I jokingly said that it must have come from a lab leak. When she rebuked me by pointing out that the nearest lab was two countries away, I pointed out that she was right. She walked right into my trap 😈 [note the tiny, to-scale map of Wuhan in the center, lol]:
Censorship leads to interesting statistical anomalies:
A ‘leading’ virologist complained about our ‘Cherry-Picked’ evidence, so I turned myself into a cherry. Now, it’s not completely a lie for her to say that. See? I work to solve problems and foster dialogue. She never thanked me before blocking me 😥
DRASTIC has created a vaccine specifically to address another global pandemic:
My favorite analogy - from a fellow DRASTIC member, JJ Couey [PhD researcher]:
I’d say this is fairly self explanatory:
Some poetry, plus some practice editing of graphics:
I’ve started to enjoy making captions for my research figures:
I began to realize that the American members of DRASTIC have been less involved in recent media coverage than some of our compatriots in other countries [roughly 75% are from other continents]. So, I figured an introduction to the public was in order:
A nightmare of mine:
A single image that shows why & how the Chinese data in the recent COVID-19 origins report by the WHO is fake.
Here’s an anecdote from my last article, in which I question the willingness of scientists to walk the walk:
When my latest article was picked up by Zero Hedge on the 24th, it did really well; but, at least America still has its priorities, lol:
Resume Building:
A pic of the Xinhua story headline image:
The best defense is good sarcasm. The best offense, of course, is even stronger sarcasm.
Rarely, over the course of my adult life, I’ve had to take a stand against wolves; on two occasions, the wolves were my superiors. What I’ve learned is that wolves appear in sheep’s clothing all the time, and that is a dangerous threat.
But - rarely, something much worse happens.
That’s when one discovers a wolf in a sheepdog’s clothing; a sheepdog that is willing to betray the sheep he is sworn to protect. That scenario is far, far worse, because instead of trying to pick off sheep 1 by 1, the wolf can pick and choose because nothing stands in his way.
Some readers may be surprised to see that I frequently use sarcasm in my articles - especially within the broader context of a global pandemic that I’ve been passionately writing about for 18 months. I should warn them that 15 years as a Marine has made me fluent in my second language, and 10 years as a leader of Marines has shown me just how many wolves there are masquerading as protectors of their flocks.
Sometimes, sarcasm can be cathartic - especially within the context of a global pandemic that has consumed everyone’s daily lives for 18 months. The real value of sarcasm, however, is that it can be extremely effective at making something complicated and ridiculous understandable and ridiculous.
This thread
~Rixey