Scandals: On cheating "the other guy"

Published at Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation

Note: This column and all future Scandals columns will be dedicated in loving memory to Nicholas Regush, my mentor, my adviser, my inspiration, but most of all, my friend.


There's an urban landmark in the town where I live, a popular bar called Chilkoot Charlie's, with arguably one of the greatest advertising come-ons of all time: "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you".

It's a hysterical line, and we can all get a chuckle out of the obvious and intended absurdity of that slogan.

I fear the joke may be on us, however, for it has occurred to me that Public Health's vaccination policy, which expects personal sacrifice for the so-called common good, is in a way a very serious attempt to implement this intentionally senseless and foolish motto. Moreover, the reason the attempt has worked, been accepted, been bought by the public, is that most people truly believe, at least until it obviously happens to them, that someone else is doing the sacrificing, not them.

But isn't the notion that it's the other guy who's making the sacrifices, that it's the other guy's children who are going to pay with their health, so ours can thrive, at best an iffy proposition?

At worst, isn't it an immoral one as well?

The truth is, public health can't really cheat the other guy and give you, me or anyone else the savings.

It's not right and it's not true.

As long as vaccine damage continues to be institutionally denied, we may be able fool ourselves into believing that the damage is not only minimal, but that it is also "only" happening to the other guy.

However, we do so at our own peril. For we have met the "other guy", and he is us.

by Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz)

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), paraphrasing John Philpot Curran (1808)

Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz) is the publisher of the website "Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation", and writer of the columns "Scandals" and "Out of Control".

Past Scandals and Out of Control.

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