Covid Lies

We're drowning in lies. It's unbearable.

Something that keeps me from becoming completely demoralized is rereading history. Every now and then I read what was said about HIV during the first decade of its onslaught. And I see how ridiculous, dangerous, and incredibly ignorant our public health messaging was.

To know and remember that lies, misinformation, prejudice, and hidden agendas regarding novel viruses have precedent gives me a grounded perspective on what we're dealing with.

It can be soul and sanity crushing to believe that what’s happening with covid is some modern world hyper-political phenomenon. And then I remember that Reagan didn’t even utter the word “HIV” or “AIDS”. The erasure was not subtle at all. It was intentional, nasty, and immoral.

This is the 1980s and 1990s. I'm old enough to recall when saying someone looked like they had AIDS was an insult that flew out of folks mouths way too easily.

To witness the pied pipers of propaganda carry on with their lies about covid, vaccines, & death is business as usual in a society that fears the human body. I say to myself, "Yes, this is how it goes. Denial is how we avoid reckoning with our powerlessness & mortality."

I have to keep saying this to myself. I have to keep repeating it and tweeting it. I know that we are spiritually starving. We have no rituals, no mantras, no prayers, and no one to shepherd us through. But I know my calling so I'll continue speaking and teaching and praying.

Originally tweeted by Dayna Lynn Nuckolls (@PeoplesOracle) on January 10, 2023.