Questions for Trump About Covid
Donald Trump will likely become the Republican Presidential nominee in 2024, without ever having to answer any questions about his administration’s disastrous pandemic response. If there were any accountability, and any real journalists insisting on it, these would be some of the questions Trump would have to answer.
False Knowledge is Our Fool’s Gold
Many others, including Brownstone writers, have met with far worse treatment than that, including threats, insults, punishments, and the loss of jobs for sharing helpful information. Understandably, it is hard to admit that one has been ignorant or duped. However, the acquisition and propagation of real knowledge is immensely preferable to a pandemic of ignorance, especially when the ignorance may have very dire consequences.
The Four Sins of ‘Thawteffery’
Thawteffery is the wicked management of thought, election-to-election, by wicked people for wicked purposes. I speak of the wicked as forming “the junta,” even though the conspiracy may be rather spontaneous. We are talking about some amalgam of a wicked faction, the Deep State, the administrative state, the swamp, the blob, and so on. It has become clear that the CIA and other intel agencies, and the Left Pole, are central in the junta.
Illusions in Vaccine Effectiveness
The pseudo-effectiveness of Covid vaccines against death from unrelated causes is not a new observation. The same kind of pseudo-effectiveness was discovered long ago for the flu vaccines. It is called the “healthy vaccinee effect.” For various reasons, unrelated to the vaccines, people who are vaccinated have better background health (on average) than people who are not, and therefore, they are less likely to die from “anything,” including flu and Covid. Vaccinated or not, they would have had lower Covid mortality than their unvaccinated counterparts.
Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research is a nonprofit organization conceptualized in May 2021.
Its vision is of a society that places the highest value on the voluntary interaction of individuals and groups while minimizing the use of violence and force even including that which is exercised by public authority.
This vision is that of the Enlightenment which elevates learning, science, progress, and universal rights to the forefront of public life, and is newly threatened by ideologies and systems that would take the world back prior to the triumph of the ideal of freedom.
Not Just This One Crisis
The motive force of Brownstone Institute is the global crisis created by policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. That trauma reveals a fundamental misunderstanding alive in all countries around the world today, a willingness on the part of the public and officials to forgo freedom and fundamental human rights in the name of a public health crisis. The consequences are devastating and will live in infamy.
It’s not just about this one crisis, but past and next ones as well. The lesson we should learn concerns the desperate need for a new outlook that rejects the rights of the legally privileged few to rule over the many under any pretext, while preserving freedom, free speech, and essential rights even in times of crisis.
Why “Brownstone?”
The name Brownstone is from the malleable but long-lasting building stone (also called “Freestone”) used so commonly in 19th-century American cities, preferred for its beauty, practicality, and strength.
Brownstone Institute regards the great task of our times as rebuilding the foundation of liberalism as classically understood, including core values of human rights and freedom as non-negotiables for an enlightened society.
OUR MISSION
The mission of Brownstone Institute is constructively to come to terms with what happened, understand why, and how to prevent such events from happening again. Lockdowns have set a precedent in the modern world and without accountability, social and economic institutions will be shattered once again.
An institution such as Brownstone Institute is essential in preventing the recurrence of lockdowns by holding decision makers intellectually to account.
In addition, Brownstone Institute hopes to shed light on a path to recovery from the devastating collateral damage, while providing a vision for a different way to think about freedom, security, and public life.
Brownstone Institute looks to influence a post-lockdown world by generating new ideas in public health, scientific discourse, economics, and social theory, to defend and promote the liberty that is critical for an enlightened society from which everyone benefits.
The purpose of Brownstone Institute is to point the way toward a better understanding of essential freedoms – including intellectual freedom and free speech – and the proper means to preserve essential rights even in times of crisis.
The Road Ahead
The world needs Brownstone Institute now to prevent the next “snap” lockdown and make the case for an open and free society.
The idea is to correct and compete with the mainstream media and take on the technocratic disease managers, or anyone else who believes rights and liberties can be violated, at the discretion of political leaders, to central plans.
The research and content at Brownstone are sophisticated but accessible. Operationally, Brownstone’s mode is no fluff in the budget, no bureaucrats, no cronies, only a highly competent small team working to change the world.
The institute will have media reach and call on scientists, intellectuals, and others who are dedicated to this task.
OUR PRIMARY FOCUS
- A rethinking of the relationship between social and market functioning and public authority, particularly as it relates to crises;
- The post-lockdown recovery and vibrancy of markets, small businesses, and entrepreneurial opportunity;
- The inviolability of academic freedom, free exchange of ideas, and the openness and vitality of scientific discourse;
- The prosperity, freedom, and health of all members of society, including and especially its less privileged members;
- The rights of association of individuals, families, and the well-being of school-age children, who carried the greatest burden during the lockdowns.
Brownstone Institute’s goals are accomplished through research and publishing, including essays, articles, reports, media, and books, and by organizing conferences and retreats.