The Crisis Is Here

The word is overused but that's because the ruling class keeps escalating.

The word “crisis” might seem overused but that’s because this country and the world keep finding new ways to escalate it. The lockdown-provoked crisis became a medical, economic, and cultural crisis that has now turned into a political struggle reminiscent of interwar Europe, complete with optics and language copied from dystopian movies and video games. 

Brownstone Institute has been a voice for sanity throughout. Today, the need is greater than ever before. The demands on our publishing arms have intensified and our numbers have grown with our moral responsibility to expand the reach. Considering the barrage of censorship, intimidation, and control, it’s remarkable how we’ve managed to drive so much of the debate. 

If you are a supporter now, thank you. We have no guaranteed stream of support and no staff dedicated to the task. Our existence depends entirely on generous readers and backers. If you have considered joining us, now is an excellent time. 

In the end, nothing is as effective in this battle of ideas than telling the truth. 

P.S.: Our monthly supper club to which you are invited takes place September 21, 2022.

Fauci’s Red Guards: The Mass Censoring of Social Media BY MICHAEL SENGER. By simultaneously threatening both the federal bureaucracy and social media companies, a handful of high-level officials could effectively transform the federal government into a sprawling censorship army reminiscent of Mao’s Red Guards, silencing any opposition to tin-pot public health policies with increasing detachment and certitude as this systematic silencing falsely convinced them that the regime’s policies were just and good.

The History and Meaning of Schedule F: Interview with James Sherk BY BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE. The struggle against the administrative state – the permanent professional bureaucracy that exercises awesome power without accountability to voters – is among the most formidable of our time.

The Pandemic Did This? New York Times Fails Fact Check BY DEBBIE LERMAN. A pandemic cannot impose mandates or lockdowns. A pandemic cannot block borders or force people to stop traveling. A pandemic cannot shutter schools – overnight or otherwise. A pandemic cannot impact math and reading.A pandemic cannot cause learning gaps.

Cold War Nostalgia Explained BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER.  With lockdowns and the current political and economic chaos, the global empire has come home to oppress us all in the most personal possible way. We now read tales of life in the Soviet Union and we recognize it all too well. We read 1984 by George Orwell and recognize it in our own experience. This is not what winning the Cold War was supposed to mean. 

Uncovering the Army of Federal Censors BY AARON KHERIATY. This evidence suggests we are uncovering the most serious, coordinated, and large-scale violation of First Amendment free speech rights by the federal government’s executive branch in U.S. history.

Mask Up, Berkeley Students BY ROBERT MALONE. Seems like UC Berkeley is living in some authoritarian reality, where it is acceptable to dictate medical procedures based on their own twisted morality, values and virtue signaling.

The Universities Failed Us During the Pandemic BY MICHAEL TOMLINSON. Both universities and governments imposed extreme policies, extending to the micro-management of everyday life during lockdowns and gross violations of human rights, including the right to bodily autonomy. These extreme policies were not supported by hard evidence of effectiveness either at the time or since.

US Life Expectancy Down Three Years in Two Years BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER. In the name of pandemic planning, the elites turned a manageable pathogen into a killer policy that sliced three years off the average life expectancy in the US, with costs that are truly incalculable. All the cover-ups, political propaganda, and excuse-making cannot cover up the vital statistics, which are among the most difficult to disguise. And they are looking ever more grim. 

Lockdowns and the Loss of Love and Family BY MARK OSHINSKIE. While many cite the grossly inflated Covid death tolls—overwhelmingly among the old, who already had a fair chance at life—few showed any concern about the social and psychological costs of keeping young people apart.

Covid was Spreading Across the U.S. in 2019 BY BILL RICE. The antibody evidence strongly suggests the novel coronavirus was being transmitted person-to-person throughout the United States well before January 1st 2020, and was probably occurring by October 2019. 

It Was Birx. All Birx. BY DEBBIE LERMAN. The only way to make sense of these contradictions within Birx’s narrative and between her, Atlas and Pottinger’s stories, is if we understand “align with us” and “our recommendations” to refer not to the perceived Birx-Fauci-Redfield troika, but to the Birx-Pottinger-lab leak cabal that was actually running the show. 

To Those Who Misunderstand Giorgio Agamben  BY NARUHIKO MIKADO. Giorgio Agamben had, for a few decades before 2020, been known as one of the most judicious thinkers in the world. Since the genesis of what has been called a pandemic, his public image has undergone a radical change. In lieu of praise, he has courted the savage hatred of very many people. Even derogatory labels like “crackpot,” “lunatic,” “coronavirus denier,” and “crazy anti-vaxxer” have been accorded to him.

The Psychology of Totalitarianism BY MATTIAS DESMET. A new totalitarianism is emerging in our society. Not a communist or fascist totalitarianism but a technocratic totalitarianism. A kind of totalitarianism that is not led by “a gang leader” such as Stalin or Hitler but by dull bureaucrats and technocrats. As always, a certain part of the population will resist and won’t fall prey to the mass formation.

Maimonides on the Liberty of the People BY DANIEL SLATE. In these times, when calls for crisis government and more emergency powers for the administrative state seem to grow louder by the day, the legislators in Congress — the people’s representatives and trustees — ought to pause, look around the Capitol, and consider the long tradition of freedom and dignity that is our inheritance and could still be their legacy. 

The Lockdowner’s Lament BY BHASKARAN RAMAN.  I don’t care, I don’t know, I don’t care to know. I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t know how to care.

50/50 Split: BioNTech and the Pfizer Illusion BY ROBERT KOGON. Why is there so much focus on Pfizer in public discussion of the Covid vaccine market, virtually to the exclusion of BioNTech and even in discussion by seasoned financial analysts? 

Social Distancing Was Supposed to Be Forever  BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER. Social distancing was not really about preserving hospital capacity and it was not just about two weeks. It was really about the complete reconstruction of social life itself, critiqued as pathogenetic starting 12,000 years ago, with Covid as only the latest example of the costs of free association.  

Why Did Covid Enforcement Target Religion? BY JULIE PONESSE. Religious persons today are a threat, but not to public safety as the narrative instructs us. They are a threat to the idea that the state is to be worshipped above all else, to the religion that’s trying to take their place, to the idea that it’s possible to find a compelling and complete sense of meaning outside of the state.

Moderna and Pfizer: Cat Fight!  BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER. There is absolutely no theory of political economy in existence that could possibly justify this combination of 1) private company with vast tax funding, 2) government-enforced monopoly claims of ownership, 3) indemnification against damage claims, 4) publicly-traded stocks, plus and 5) a forced customer base. And to top it all off, it’s not even clear that the product worked; it certainly did not live up to the wild claims from top government officials.

What I Heard and Saw: Dr. Paul Alexander Speaks BY BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE.  Paul Alexander tells his story. We can only urge readers to spend the time to listen because nothing we write here can adequately summarize what he saw and heard.