Science is constantly changing. That’s part of it being science. You have a theory, you test it, your peers test it, it goes through what should be a rigorous process, and only then is it considered a fact… at least until it’s not, if further testing or evidence is discovered down the line to change the base of what is considered a fact.

THAT is science.

Having an open mind.

Asking questions. Testing. Doing experiments. Etc.

At one point, certain habits or foods or medicines were thought good or bad for you, and now, after further evidence, we see them differently. That’s how science goes.

So, like many, many, many people, during the covid pandemic, I went by what the accepted science was at the time.

However, it changed as other evidence was uncovered and time passed.

Now I think differently about certain things.

That doesn’t mean I, or other people, were trying to be nefarious and evil at the time, it means we were going by what the available evidence was at the time.

Now, of course this gets to the whole Fauci mess taking place right now. The right is crucifying him, and the left is mindlessly defending him. The truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle, and neither wants to follow that path because their identities are too wrapped up in their tribal instincts to think for themselves.

Fauci is no saint. He lied to people. He pushed the bullshit story that never made any sense that the virus came from a wet market, when it “coincidentally” just happened to emerge in a city that has a massive lab dedicated to studying and working with viruses of this type. I remember saying this at the time (as did Jon Stewart later on) and people called me racist, because that’s what they were brainwashed to say. But it wasn’t racist to exhibit common sense, or to say that most likely human error was the reason it was released from that lab, although doing this type of research isn’t exactly the safest or best thing in the world either.

The world deserved the truth. Not a bullshit story.

In this case, we got “duck and cover,” when we should’ve been told what really happened.

Fauci’s diary, if it’s factual, does point to him lying about this, and other things, and covering them up, which is bullshit, and he deserves to get nailed for that.

He also deserves to get nailed for being a pretty massive narcissist, if the diaries are real, because it’s gross for a guy to be getting off on being a celebrity when his celebrity has been brought about by a pandemic that killed thousands of people.

That said, from what I’ve seen, nothing in the diaries points to him willingly releasing the virus or actively trying to get people killed, so comparing him to Josef Mengele or saying he should be “hung for his crimes” is a bit much. Should there be some repercussions for him covering up information that should’ve been released because it could’ve helped people? Hell yes there should be. But given his obvious narcissism, I don’t think he did it because he’s Dr. Evil, I think he did it because, like many narcissists, they never want people to think that they’re wrong, and they have to constantly cover their asses when they screw up. (See Trump, Donald, et al.)

This reminds me of the old saying, “never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence.” In retrospect, in some ways, the pandemic was incompetently handled. But in other ways, it was handled with excessive caution which seemed right at the time based upon available evidence, and that excessive caution, given the fact that lives were at stake, was a good thing. It’s much better to be safe than sorry, than vice versa.

That’s how I feel personally. Are there precautions I took that, looking at all the evidence now, were unnecessary? Yeah. But I was going off the information I had at the time, and I wanted to do the right thing, the safe thing, and I would much rather have done that, and been wrong, than abandoned any caution and suffered the consequences had things been far worse.

Dr. Fauci is no saint, but he’s no demon either. He’s a run-of-the-mill bureaucrat and narcissist who was covering his ass, like so many other people in Washington. Was he wrong in some of the things he did? Yes. Do I think those things were based in diabolical or evil intent? I don’t think so.

Also, does the fact that the science was changing or certain things were covered up mean that pseudoscience and other theories on the opposite ends of the spectrum were and are right? No, it does not. It means you should keep an open mind, and only make up that mind when it’s changed by actual factual evidence based upon multiple sources.

You know, like science.

So, again, like most things, there are shades of gray here, and people should adjust their reactions accordingly. Yes, Virginia, you can hold multiple complex thoughts in your head at one time and come to a nuanced and multi-leveled position on issues. You just have to disengage from the Hegelian dialectic, give yourself a pause, and think about it.

And, here’s the important thing: Learn from it.

And what we should all learn is that it’s good to have a healthy amount of cynicism and questioning and perspective on issues. There’s nothing wrong with that, because it usually lends itself to finding what’s closest to the truth.