Brownstone Journal

Articles, News, Research, and Commentary on public health, science, economics, & social theory

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listen to the kids

Listen to the Kids

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People often ask me why I still care about school closures and other covid restrictions that harmed a generation of children. “Schools are open now,” they say. “It’s enough already.” No. It’s not. The impact to this generation of children continues. And so do many of the restrictions impacting young people. 

Listen to the Kids Read Journal Article

humiliation ritualized

Humiliation Ritualized, in Childhood and Politics

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My experience in academia and many other realms of life has shown me that the desire to humiliate others and thus putatively raise one’s cache of social capital—an impulse I can honestly say I’ve never quite understood—is a cardinal trait of many human beings, most of whom are desperately and futilely trying to use these public demonstrations of would-be dominance to very fill large affective holes within their spiritually empty selves. 

Humiliation Ritualized, in Childhood and Politics Read Journal Article

Covid climate emergency

Covid Emergency, Climate Emergency: Same Thing

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All signs indicate that the U.S. and other world governments want to expand the reach and control of the globalized industrial food system, further concentrating power in the largest Big Food corporations. Governments around the world are using environmental goals to forcibly shut down small farms as they promote dependence on industrial technologies and factory foods that could make climate change and other environmental problems worse.

Covid Emergency, Climate Emergency: Same Thing Read Journal Article

end of the emergency

An Analysis of the End of the Emergency

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The widely distributed and weaponized fearporn which has driven the gross over-reaction of governments and their citizens (all over the world) was not justified. In retrospect, the global COVIDcrisis agenda and response which has devastated global economies, enabled a massive upwards transfer of wealth, and has been exploited to justify imposition of “The Great Reset” globalist agenda items cannot be justified as a credible and effective “public health” response.

An Analysis of the End of the Emergency Read Journal Article

speakeasy world

The Speakeasy World of Covid Lockdowns

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In Speakeasy World, people were aware that they lived in a panopticon. But they realized that the one and only guard was probably checking TikTok on his mobile phone during working hours instead of surveilling prisoners. The prisoners made a calculated bet that the guard was not paying attention to their transgressions. 

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Questions for a Congressional Inquiry

Questions for a Congressional Inquiry

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Members of the U.S. Congress are conducting such an inquiry, and their efforts require the help of physicians, scientists and public health policy experts to identify key policy decisions and provide a rationale for investigating those policies and the officials and government agencies that devised and implemented them, with the ultimate goal of meaningful reform.

Questions for a Congressional Inquiry Read Journal Article

wrecking of New York

The Continued Wrecking of New York City

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Saddest of all, masks are still required at nursing homes, so the elderly, in their golden years, continue to be deprived of facial cues and the comfort of smiles, whether they like it or not. This means countless older adults with hearing loss, dementia and other age-related limitations have been forced to live in a faceless, isolated, masked world for nearly three years now; there’s no reason whatsoever it should be that long, yet they have little power to effect change.

The Continued Wrecking of New York City Read Journal Article

first amendment covid

Shouting Covid in a Crowded Theater

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The Covid Leviathan stripped Americans of their First Amendment rights and divided them as well. Bureaucrats worked to stifle journalists who reported on inconvenient facts, President Biden attacked his own citizens as unpatriotic, and Anthony Fauci coordinated attacks against scientists who dared to challenge his authority. 

Shouting Covid in a Crowded Theater Read Journal Article

political became personal

The Political Became Very Personal

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The scars that have been left on all of us by the response to COVID are incomprehensibly varied and deep. For most, there hasn’t been enough time to mentally process the significance of the initial lockdowns, let alone the years-long slog of mandates, terror, propaganda, social stigmatization and censorship that followed. And this psychological trauma affects us in myriad ways that leave us wondering what it is about life that just feels so off versus how it felt in 2019.

The Political Became Very Personal Read Journal Article

international travel

How the Bureaucracy Wrecks International Travel 

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The US Travel Association is now pressing the Administration and Congress to end the travel ban. While the lobby’s focus last year had primarily been on reducing visa wait times, its focus quickly shifted to prioritizing ending covid restrictions following the PHE announcement. CEO Geoff Freeman strongly questioned Biden’s decision to end the emergency in May: “but why wait til [sic] May? We have the power right now to remove this requirement to bring travelers back into the country.”

How the Bureaucracy Wrecks International Travel  Read Journal Article

covid denial

Denialism: A Woke Way to Stifle Dissent

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Covid denier, climate denier, election denier, science denier – are all bandied about to immediately end debate,  tar any difference of opinion as literally insane, and depict anyone who ever disagrees with you as stupid and evil.  This epithet is now even being used pre-emptively to makes sure that no matter what anyone who now or ever questions the move to ban gas stoves will not be doing so based on facts or logic but because of their “gas stove denialism.”

Denialism: A Woke Way to Stifle Dissent Read Journal Article

Three Tests of Compliance

Covid and the Three Tests of Compliance 

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From legend and literature, this is how things usually are presented, not with one inviting temptation to go along but rather with three chances to comply, each with assurance that all will be well if we just give up our recalcitrant desire to think and act for ourselves. At each stage, every one of us faces enormous pressure, and not just from government but also from family, friends, and coworkers. 

Covid and the Three Tests of Compliance  Read Journal Article