History

History articles feature analysis of historical context in relation to censorship, policy, technology, media, economics, and social life.

All Brownstone Institute articles on the topic of history are translated into multiple languages.

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Matt Pottinger

The Talented Mr. Pottinger: The US Intelligence Agent Who Pushed Lockdowns

By / / , / 26 minute read / Articles
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Pottinger may have simply been overly-trusting of his sources, thinking they were the little people in China trying to help their American friends. But why did Pottinger push so hard for sweeping Chinese policies like mask mandates that were far outside his field of expertise? Why did he so often breach protocol? Why seek out and appoint Deborah Birx?

The Talented Mr. Pottinger: The US Intelligence Agent Who Pushed Lockdowns Read Journal Article

woodstock

The 1968-69 “Hong Kong Flu” Pandemic Revisited

By / / / 5 minute read / Articles
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What happened between then and now? Was there some kind of lost knowledge, as happened with scurvy, when we once had sophistication and then the knowledge was lost and had to be re-found? For COVID-19, we reverted to medieval-style understandings and policies, even in the 21st century, and at the urging of the media and myopic advice from governments. It’s all very strange. And it cries out for answers.

The 1968-69 “Hong Kong Flu” Pandemic Revisited Read Journal Article

The Lockdowns Unearthed American Cultural Rot

By / / , / 10 minute read / Articles
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Many Americans believed the government because, well, they were the government, and were therefore official and legitimate. Because bureaucrats wore business attire— plus scarves—and stood behind seal-bearing podiums, people thought the bureaucrats wouldn’t lie; but they did lie, repeatedly. The Faucist clown show continues, with the Misinformer-in-Chief now ludicrously crusading against “misinformation,” at least when he’s not too sick—after being quadruple-jabbed and double-Paxlovid-ed—to appear in public. 

The Lockdowns Unearthed American Cultural Rot Read Journal Article

deborah birx

Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit

By / / , / 20 minute read / Articles
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The story of the lockdowns is a tale of Biblical proportions, at once evil and desperately sad and tragic, a story of power, scientific failure, intellectual insularity and insanity, outrageous arrogance, feudalistic impulses, mass delusion, plus political treachery and conspiracy. It is real-life horror for the ages, a tale of how the land of the free became a despotic hellscape so quickly and unexpectedly. Birx was at the center of it, confirming all of your worst fears.

Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit Read Journal Article

The Speakeasy Churches of 2020 

By / / / 14 minute read / Articles
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They were meeting; I did not have to wear a mask. They even had Bible study on Wednesday nights, where I could sit with others, all unmasked, and listen to talk of Biblical stories and themes that had sustained people for centuries – stories of mercy and perseverance, of holding onto hope in terrible times, when such hope seemed impossible; stories of miracles arriving through the darkness.   

The Speakeasy Churches of 2020  Read Journal Article

Deborah Birx’s Guide to Destroying A Country From Within

By / / , , / 16 minute read / Articles
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I’m not saying Deborah Birx is a CCP agent. I’m just saying that if she was an agent for Xi Jinping’s stated goal of gradually stripping the world of “independent judiciaries,” “human rights,” “western freedom,” “civil society,” and “freedom of the press,” then every word of her book would read like that of Silent Invasion. If she did do it, this is how it would have happened.

Deborah Birx’s Guide to Destroying A Country From Within Read Journal Article

The Rise and Fall of the Human Rights Industry

By / / , / 6 minute read / Articles
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A partnership of mutual benefit has developed over the past two decades, blurring the dichotomy between wealthy oppressors and those whose oppression often enriched them. With public-private partnerships, human rights and humanitarianism became a fashion statement, allowing corporations and their celebrities to demonstrate that inequality can be veiled with empathy.

The Rise and Fall of the Human Rights Industry Read Journal Article

Governments Were Given Credible Warnings about Lockdown Harms but Didn’t Listen

By / / , , , / 9 minute read / Articles
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Instead of conducting and publishing rigorous cost-benefit analyses, departments and ministries of health turned into Covid-only bureaus, health ministers acted like Covid ministers, and governments were almost corrupted into single-purpose organizations pursuing Zero Covid. 

Governments Were Given Credible Warnings about Lockdown Harms but Didn’t Listen Read Journal Article

The Catastrophic Covid Convergence

By / / , / 15 minute read / Articles
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How did my family, friends and neighbors – who I thought shared my liberal, humanist values – turn into a group-thinking, bullying herd? What forces were exerted to erase scientific and intellectual integrity from the minds of literally millions of doctors, scientists, economists, journalists, educators and other normally curious and compassionate people worldwide?

The Catastrophic Covid Convergence Read Journal Article

Proportionality and the Fog of War

By / / , , / 4 minute read / Articles
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Our representatives and public health agencies have repeatedly violated the rule of proportionality and those who continue to do so without guidance from data on masking, mandates and vaccine effectiveness against Omicron must be called out on this. How many jobs have been lost because of lockdowns and then inappropriate vaccine mandates? 

Proportionality and the Fog of War Read Journal Article

Anatomy of the Administrative State: The HHS 

By / / , / 23 minute read / Articles
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Across two administrations led by presidents who have championed very different worldviews, HHS COVID policies have continued with little or no change; one administration seemingly flowing directly into the next with hardly a hiccough. If anything, under Biden the HHS arm of the US administrative state became more authoritarian, more unaccountable, and more decoupled from any need to consider the general social and economic consequences of their actions. As this has progressed, the HHS bureaucracy has become increasingly obsequious and deferential to the economic interests of the medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex. 

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Stop Blaming Workers for the Labor Shortage

By / / , / 5 minute read / Articles
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It’s useful to think about in terms of what happened in March of 2020. It was then that politicians aggressively took away freedom. The very humans who drive all progress had become a lethal menace to one another, according to politicians and experts. Suddenly eating in a restaurant, trying on clothes in a clothing store, flying on a plane, or merely touching one’s face had life or death qualities.

Stop Blaming Workers for the Labor Shortage Read Journal Article