Senior Leader columnist Bill Mann is at it again, unleashing his second wave of trash-talk against so-called “anti-vaxxers”, calling them “stupid”, “idiots”, “foolish”, “deniers”, “clueless”, etc., etc., etc.
In a bizarre reversal of reality, Mann blames lockdown opponents for locking his grandchildren into a “bubble” that “deprived [them] of a normal childhood”:
I don’t blame my cautious daughter in Oregon for the protectiveness she affords our two under-5, un-vaxxed grandkids. They’ve never been in a store or restaurant. They only go to empty playgrounds. They have only one “bubble,” three other kids in a small family that they play with. And we can all hardly wait until the day those kids under age 5 can get vaccinated. If all the clueless and heedless had been vaccinated, our grandchildren may not have been deprived of a normal childhood.
Mann is mistaken regarding the relative risks versus benefits of the Covid quasi-vaccine for otherwise-healthy youngsters, who have virtually zero risk of death from the virus but serious known and unknown risks from the vax.
New studies are finding healthy boys have about 4-6 times higher chance of cardiac hospitalizations than catching Covid, with 1 of every 4515 adolescents hospitalized for myocarditis in Hong Kong after the second dose, and similar destruction of young hearts in the U.S.
County officials have been repeatedly alerted about these dangers, but falsely claim “no children have died from receiving Pfizer’s vaccine” and are “hopeful” they can start pushing it on children under 5 soon.
Mann’s new column is a sequel to his similar screed from August 25, 2021, which unloaded even more vituperative verbiage:
- dehumanizing his neighbors as “boneheads”, “spreadnecks”, “dolts”, and “knuckle-draggers”;
- demonizing them as public enemies “making innocent people sick, especially children”; and
- urging they “should not be allowed in public spaces” and “not work.”
The Leader‘s blithe promotion of Mann’s provocative hate speech, coupled with their continued censorship of contrarian voices, unleased a flood of letters to the editor and critical responses online. When none of this criticism was allowed to see print in their Opinion Forum, protests outside the Leader offices followed.
Unfortunately, Mann is not just shouting at the moon, but is a small but angry cog is a larger campaign to fan up fear, hatred, deplatforming, discrimination, and violence against so-called “anti-vaxxers”.
This jive term was originally a slur on folks concerned about problems shared by all vaccines, but “anti-vax” has been progressively broadened to suppress negative findings about any individual vaccine or booster, especially the experimental mRNA injections that increased all-cause mortality by 24% during their abortive and fraudulent emergency-use-authorization trial (and which are not even vaccines according to the CDC definition from a year ago).
The “anti-vaxxer” slur has nonsensically been extended to embrace those who are pro-vaccines but anti-mandates, as well as anyone who questions any aspect of the current lockdown narrative. According to its current usage, the majority of Americans are “anti-vaxxers”, given the unpopularity of vaccine mandates.
The authoritarian risks from this hate campaign are not just academic… an unhinged Department of Homeland Security has now issued a crazy dangerous bulletin targeting those spreading “misleading narratives” or factual “malinformation” including about “vaccine and mask mandates” as “domestic terrorists”!
If the malefactors behind this classification get their way, what’s next?
- Burning books and outlawing free speech, as is already happening via social media monopolies following illegal executive branch marching orders in defiance of the First Amendment?
- Rounding up thought-criminals into concentration camps like those being built in Australia?
- Freezing or stealing their bank accounts as done to working-class truckers and their supporters in Canada?
- Indefinitely detaining them in gulags and trampling on due process rights as done to Jan. 6 trespassers?
To his credit, Mann now expresses openness about ending mask mandates, but is quick to say that doesn’t make him “anti-mask”. Wrong again… at least according to the broad-brush “anti-vax” definition rules, Mann’s statements are as “anti-mask” as the nuanced views of most supposed “anti-vaxxers”.
Given that his county health officer is still urging everyone to wear masks, the fact that Mann’s “anti-mask” published views differ from the official truth means Mann is spreading medical “misinformation” as defined by Homeland Security. That also means Mann may now officially be a “terrorist”, whom the covid coup threatens to censor and persecute along with the “anti-vaxxers” that Mann despises. Maybe he can share a prison cell with them.
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The Leader saw fit to print Mann’s two feature columns dedicated to abusing “anti-vaxxers”, despite (or because of) their being filled with “insults, taunts, bullying, intimidation, and profanity” … the very language that specifically violates the Free Press commenting policy against flame wars deterring and drowning out serious discourse.
As writers and editors, we wrestle to discern what level of civil discourse we should aspire to and enforce… what would be most true, kind, and helpful. I am concerned that my own words of criticism are sometimes too barbed and unkind in this and other articles I have written, and if so, I truly apologize.
But it is also true that our own county’s namesake was adamant that his sharp words should stand in our Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson wrote: “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
Stephen Schumacher graduated with honors in Mathematics from Harvard College and programmed funds transfer systems between Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve before moving to Port Townsend in 1983. He has served as an officer for various community organizations such as the Food Co-op, Jefferson Land Trust, and the Northwest Nutritional Foods Association. He co-created The Port Townsend Leader’s original online newspaper and programs ship stability software used by naval architects.
Ya well, when he keels over from vaxx spike protein kidney disease or pancreatic disease,,, we will have the last laugh! Not that any of us would laugh Gid forbid. But seriously,, many people are going to get very very sick in the next few years and they seem oblivious to what is happening in their bodies and to their blood. So,,, let him make a complete fool of himself as we remain healthy and happy with our decisions.
He is obviously too stupid to understand “my body, my choice”.!!!!!
Goebbel’s would be proud of The Loser- er Leader
“I regret that I have only one local-newspaper cancellation to give for my Country” ….. and that was many years ago. It’s not called the MisLeader for nothing.
What Mr. Mann doesn’t realize is that when you resort to dehumanizing people who have a different opinion, or have made a different choice, you’ve lost the argument.
Perhaps he resorts to this hateful behavior because he is not too sure of his own choice. Perhaps he is insecure and this makes him feel superior in some way. E.g.: “Can’t these idiots understand the simple SCIENCE like I can?”
Mr. Mann: Look out! Your hubris is showing and it is not attractive.
Bill Mann and the mis-Leader are following the age old totalitarian tradition of purging dissidents. Your science, data, facts and logic are not acceptable to them. Some examples of previous purges are the Russian Revolution (1917) and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (mid-1960s). More recent, closer to home and available on YouTube is the 2017 Evergreen State College / Bret Weinstein kerfuffle. All these purges follow the SAME patterns.
In the spirit of the Native American Heyoka and Laughing Man (only one N) here are some barbed realities for Mr. Mann and his handlers, the Leader. In many cultures this is necessary when some forget that they are no more or less than others. Here we go.
In the world of “journalists”, the entertainment guy is the bottom rung. A relatively small-time retired guy writing for a local paper is re living glory days for the most part. “I used to be somebody” stories entertain some fellow sun setters. But no one I know. This is not a “newsmann” as Bill refers to himself as.
Usually harmless if not boring.
His Spreadneck piece was the final straw in my terminating anything to do with the Leader. A difficult choice as it is essentially a local monopoly on information and spin. Deleted comments and even a deleted entire piece on FWPDA meltdown architect Robeson contributed.
A fixation of Mr Mann, who the Jeopardy host will be is thankfully not important to many who can ask their own questions and research different answers for that 30 minutes of their day. Bill isn’t a host of a reality that is like Jeopardy. He doesn’t have answers on cards in his hand. His poison ego rears its head regularly. Some are entertained. Small time gadfly with a pulpit.
Get this straight Bill. The current vaccines do not stop you or anyone from spreading or getting Covid, although I see some local officials basing positions on the myth that they do. What do you have to say about the careless Vaccinated Bill? Make that your cornerstone of reality as you blame and blame and blame. Then your blame will transform into personal responsibility.
As a fellow human being I truly wish you the best. I know your and others are terrified. It shows. As a damaging ***hole (asterisks borrowed from the Leader) you need a reminder of who, what, and where you are. A journalist would research and see into himself. The final product would be humility.
The Leader is responsible for the platform. You both only define and debase yourselves. In the long term. “I used to be somebody” even if not that much of a somebody will still entertain some Leader readers. Thank God for the Free Press.
Todays Jeopardy answer is “Knuckle dragging, self absorbed egotistic ***hole”.
I have the answer, ghost of Alex Trebek…….. “Who is Bill Mann”.
I now take off the Laughing Man mask and Heyoka spirit and resume respectful discourse. Get real Bill. You started it.
Thanks stephen/etc for the mann deconstruction & overviews, our free press & commons. Love the community’s comments.
Two years into this most obvious mass psychosis — one is impelled to ask what’s the source of all the sudden, stunningly inverted behaviour — local to global, dovetailing with rushed endgame agendas? SOMETHING swept through the world’s populations akin to a vectoring pandemic/plague, a brutalizing infection becoming far more terrifying & real than this cov “bug”.
Call it ‘a tale of two viruses’. One handled fairly easily by our natural immune systems. The other far more insidious & deadly, especially without some kind of stout spiritual/psychic immunity — given the incessant tidal waves of BS and fear broadcasting. Currently approaching “the great reset” at dark speed.
“Normal” was bad enough, but something got r/amped up back there, almost overnight. We’ve witnessed the globalized madhouse & consequences, but PT was also hit particularly hard — the personal & community losses were immediate & profound.
What changed? What of humanKIND got turned-off, and the dehumanizing inhumane switched-on? A substitution was apparently made… but was the infection & susceptibility there all along, awaiting triggers? Most importantly, has this happened before”?
Yes. On both accounts.
Are we students of history yet?
The native/original americans here described a mind parasite/predator they called “wetiko” — what we have come to know as psychopathy. Those peoples & cultures were literally subsumed by that dark, institutionalized force. History is the ongoing record of psychopaths & wetikos — embodied in the strivings of empire — to control & possess, extract & destroy. The wetiko parasite is a decidedly & determinedly anti-life dynamo.
The invasive european hordes, weaponized with their evangelical ideologies and overarching avarice — overran, genocided & enslaved, stole this continent, north & south. Eventually, those tidal waves of murder & theft, annihilation & criminality morphed somehow into a liberation movement, marketed as “democracy”…. soon with imperial designs. Fast forward hundreds of years — the u.s. gov’t has a thousand military bases around the globe. All for “national security & interests”, of course.
Quite the wetiko magician’s slight of hand.
Wetiko inhabits & drives mass psychoses — the basis of all ideologies of control & aggregation — not just of global resources & places, but also the misshaping of perception & behavior on a vast scale. And always towards certain larger agendas — just as we see today. We are endlessly taught of wetiko’s exploits in the “educational” & “economic-corporate” systems — that these are good things, that it’s “normal”. You know, mass psychosis is just “normal”.
We all have wetiko to one degree or another, and it becomes a matter of personal responsibility, integrity, vigilance & housekeeping — towards recognizing its ‘influenzas’, then mitigating and/or eliminating its sneak thief infections & drives. Once and for all, and then never again. THIS may be our last chance, on a final battlefield — humans have been far too susceptible for far too long.
The wreckage…. well, what can ya say?
Now, today, as we face the consequences of a world driven mad by wetiko, we turn to face ourselves. Mann overboard is just another example. Waay overboard. Another wetiko slap in the face. Anymore, one can just about set the clock by it.
Places to begin —
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2041688.Columbus_and_Other_Cannibals
Wetiko in a Nutshell: Who Do You Think You Are?
Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus
I cancelled my Leader subscription last August after Mann’s first idiotic rant, and let Mann, the editor and publisher know why. Please, if you haven’t already, cancel and be vocal about it. You can’t fix stupid, but you can hurt their bottom line.
Speaking of Stupid…
Several months ago, the Leader changed tags or names of commenters. The format used to allow one to use whatever real or anonymous name they chose. Then suddenly accounts for some revealed real names or used passwords etc, and some anonymous tags left clues as to who posted. I specifically always used my name Harvey W but, on a very few occasions, used an alias.
I contacted the leader to have my real name restored. Over years and years of comments they had changed to forestgems19. I simply wanted to stand by what I have said over the years and have some continuity. Thanks to the Leader for changing back to my Harvey W tag. Others remain scrambled.
I did comment on the “Spreadneck” piece as myself and then did some satire as “Spreadneck of Knowledge”. Now that tag is Harvey W so some of the replies to me and related comments don’t seem to make sense as they are based on replies not knowing who I was.
Oh well……. here is the shoot self in foot moment you shouldn’t miss.
As part of the change IT WOULD APPEAR that Bill Mann, now exposed with his NEWSMANN tag not originally used, commented below supporting himself pretending to be someone else. No, you can’t fix stupid. It’s still there for all to see. So far. Catch it while you can. Two explanations here, the Leader doesn’t even know this happened, or the Leader is complicit in (brave) Billie’s apparent Mis-Leading. You choose. Here it is. Misinformation? Look in the mirror Billie.
Newsmann:
Kudos to The Leader for running Mr. Mann’s brave column. The anti-vaxxers and anti-mask crowd fall into various categories: the willfully ignorant, the superstitious , and the political right wing (aka the tea baggers and Trumpbots), who misunderstand or purposely distort data. Often they declare they are “patriots,” while trampling on the rights of other Americans struggling to avoid the hideous plague. Meanwhile, their non-compliance is leading to horribly overcrowded hospitals while keeping the virus alive and well, which means, say leading scientists, it will eventually mutate into something even more deadly. Hundreds of millions have been safely vaccinated and are not keeling over in the streets. But many millions of the unvaccinated have died of the disease — and many who recovered suffer the agonies of long-haulers, something which the anti-vaxxers never mention. As for those who say they are upholding our Constitution by fighting mandatory masks and vaccines, they should remember the sorts of pundit Samuel Johnson: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” These people need to suffer the consequences of their dangerous actions— including the loss of their jobs. The sane among us can no longer rollover for their pernicious nonsense. Newsmann
Isn’t Mann from Montreal, Canada? I suppose he has also never been involved with the US military and made the promise to protect the Constitution of the United States against all foes foreign and domestic. He keeps referencing how wonderful Canada is that he should return there at the soonest possible time. We don’t need him here, as we can run our own country without his BS. I would personally be happy to take him to the border as long as I don’t have to hear him talk all the way. Oh, I forgot, they don’t want to let us cross the border. Perhaps they will not want him either. Too bad. as he’d have to pitch a tent and wait there, a Mann without a country.
Mr Mann feels free to spew this stuff because the same junk comes from late night tv hosts, certain TV networks, large newspapers etc. In Renton I have heard adults tell their kids “Florida man” jokes belittling them during the height of the China flu because of Florida’s resistance to the mask hysteria. He is simply helping to divide us even more. We certainly have free speech and expression, even to fanatics. He should type less and look at facts a little more, but he and his disciples never will.