Brownstone, Moral Courage, and the Fight of Our Lives

So many donors from all over the world have believed in the vision of Brownstone Institute from its inception.

Gratitude comes first: so many donors from all over the world have believed in the vision of Brownstone Institute from its inception. They have made everything possible, including the thousand-plus essays and studies that millions have read. They are reprinted daily across the globe. Same with our book publishing program, which allows great minds to reach the multitudes despite censorship. 

It is donors’ trust and confidence which has also made possible our Fellows program, which has given safe haven and support to displaced journalists, scientists, intellectuals, attorneys, and others who have been among the most inspired fighters in this information war. 

Here in is an annual appeal: will you join our work with the most generous contribution?

The work we do is not only essential. It has also barely begun. It cannot stop until we get back on the right track for essential liberties and privacy, sensible public health policies, and a functioning and coherent economy, to say nothing of a government that does what it is supposed to do instead of wrecking social functioning. 

Meanwhile, authorities are working to preserve what they can of their controls, including that which could lead to vaccine passports and a central bank digital currency as a step toward a China-style social credit system. 

And yet we face an even greater danger than all that right now: public demoralization. 

How many people have you heard say something like the following? “I’ve had all my idealism beaten out of me.” Countless numbers of people have said or thought this over 32 of the hardest months of our lives. 

We’ve seen and experienced things we never imagined possible. It started with travel restrictions, then business, church, and school closings, and moved gradually to trillions in welfare spending plus monetary inflation and culminated in the legal segregation of our once-great cities. It was all done in the name of public health but here we are today dealing with a public-health disaster for the ages. 

It’s not as if we could not have known what the results would be. We knew very early on. This is why pandemic plans never recommended lockdowns and instead actively condemned them. Science and experience – plus law and economics – were all thrown out the window in a well-cultivated panic. 

There have been very few apologies. Anthony Fauci’s court deposition last week embodies the tone. He remembers very little of what happened but that which he does remember doing, he defends. So it will go for years to come. 

Fauci did admit that his idea for locking down came from China’s experience in Wuhan when authorities arrested an entire city and proclaimed that it worked. Fauci’s deputy assistant traveled to China in the third week of February 2020 with a delegation from the World Health Organization. They returned with a report that they sent to the world: lockdowns work, so let’s do this the world over. 

And yet look at China today. They are still doing this. Cases are still spreading to fill the immunity deficit. And the people are rising up at great risk to themselves, fighting a totalitarian regime that inspired US policy. The future of freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan are gravely in jeopardy. Xi Jinping, who believes strongly that lockdowns are his great achievement, seems ready to double down. 

To say that this whole experience has been an unmitigated disaster is an understatement for the ages. But making it all worse has been the strange silence and acquiescence of the media, academia, and the nonprofit world. 

Part of the answer about why is coming out now in a story that is impossible to make up. Many were in the pay of a magic bean factory in the Bahamas that promised to hand out billions in money for “pandemic preparedness.” The money went to prestigious universities, think tanks, and major journalistic venues that pushed for lockdowns and mandates. 

And before that racket got going, many voices had already been compromised by funding from the Gates Foundation and the pharmaceutical industry that saw a pandemic as a ticket to infinite riches. 

Let’s just stop the story there. The effect of the events and the endless search for the question about “why” does have the effect of enervating the human spirit. It seems designed to demoralize and drain, making us all believe that fighting this is hopeless. 

Simply put, this is what they want you to believe. We cannot allow that to happen. 

Since its inception, Brownstone Institute has been a refuge of research, public health wisdom, and moral clarity. With millions of readers the world over (the site is published in 19 languages), our struggle is your struggle. During lockdowns, several states put out the message that “We’re all in this together.” This time, it is really true. 

We are publishing the absolute best in analysis and research, and it is having a huge impact despite every attempt to shut us down and censor Brownstone’s voice. Through strategic management and a focus on excellence and accuracy, Brownstone has become the world’s most reliable source for understanding the crisis of our times. 

It perhaps seems as if we are outnumbered and outgunned. Surely that is true. Resources for what we do are hard to come by. They certainly aren’t falling from the skies as they did when FTX was running the show. And yet we get by thanks to the idealism that still exists out there. 

Brownstone began operations from the conviction that we cannot simply stand by as civilization is sweeping to destruction. The truth is more powerful than all the world’s armies backed by the billions shelled out by the ruling class. 

Sometimes it takes just one study, one article, one link, one interview, one book, one well-placed commentary to change a mind, and then that mind changes others, and so on it goes through the brilliant properties embodied in great ideas. They are infinitely reproducible and thereby powerful enough to change history. But first they must be produced and distributed. 

The salvific mission of Brownstone furthers an innovative program to provide a professional bridge to courageous writers, researchers, and thinkers who have refused to go along. We’ve started with 7 in the program for 2023, but it is scalable and essential that it be expanded to 70 and beyond. 

Providing sanctuary for truth is essential in all times. The fall of Rome inspired the creation of monasteries to provide safety as a light to the world. In the interwar period, it was the same. But for the actions of heroes who saved lives and ideas during those dark days, the rebuilding would not have been possible. Not everyone could be saved but that does not mean that their efforts were in vain. 

We are living through such times now. The rebuilding after the disaster must begin but it will take many years to complete. The perpetrators of the great destruction are working to cover their tracks and pretend that all is well. But it is not. We must discover the how and why of it all and work toward restoring essential rights and liberties in every country. 

The idea of rebuilding is baked into the name Brownstone. This was the stone most commonly used in the time before the commercialization of steel to build churches and town squares. It was affordable, durable, and malleable. It was also called freestone. Its red color became a symbol of rising prosperity for everyone. Even today, you can walk in streets in New York and all over New England and see the evidence of the mighty efforts undertaken in the 19th century to make life better for everyone. 

Such are our times today. We must not and cannot rest. We must not and cannot give into the temptation to give up. Brownstone is having a massive effect on the debate, which we can tell not only from the sheer traffic but also from the attacks and smears, which are of course intensifying. People have wondered how in the world this pocket of sanity has survived the onslaught. The answer is simple. Some voices cannot be bought or otherwise intimidated. To them, we owe the continuing of freedom, rights, and rationality. 

Many of you have been faithful supporters throughout. We ask you today in this season of fundraising to please continue and step up your support, if it is possible. To those who have not given, make today the day with a tax-deductible contribution to this great work. 

Supporting Brownstone is a way of making a difference and effectively saying: we are not willing to give in and give up. We’ve come too far as societies and people to turn back now. We will not give the keys to the kingdom to Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, Sam Bankman-Fried, much less the New York Times and Mark Zuckerberg. They might seem to have all the money and power but we have something they lack: dedicated moral passion to tell the truth. 

We really are at the point in history where no one wanted to be: at the precipice. It takes visionaries to see us through. You are among them. And with that comes the urgency of action. 

Will you support Brownstone with your most generous donation today? If so, please know of the gratitude of so many who need this support. Let’s neither give up nor give in but stay on track. At some point in the future, we can all look back and say: it was a job well done.