I believe in the efficacy and safety of the vaccines based on having a 3000-patient panel with no side effects and no significant Covid illness in those who were vaccinated (including myself, I might add).

Almost invariably, however, whenever I express this opinion, no matter how civilly, on a conservative forum, I’m told not only that I’m wrong but that I’m a “murderer” - yes, that’s the term generally used - for “pushing” the vaccine onto my patients.

Needless to say I don’t find this to be a particularly tolerant position. I never believed in the vaccine mandates and actually made efforts on behalf of some patients to exempt them from employer mandates. I don’t “push” the vaccines, I merely express my opinion about them when patients ask me.

At this juncture I think both sides are deeply intolerant. Matt obviously cares a lot about free speech but I don’t sense that he cares much about the content of that speech. He seems to assume that meaningful dialogue will result and the truth inevitably emerge from people being left unchecked to say literally anything to each other.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s no alternative other than to leave speech completely uncensored, but I don’t share this view that doing so will inevitably result in a brighter future. I think that sometimes, when societies have truly degenerated beyond repair, free speech of the kind that seems to be preferred by BOTH the right and the left nowadays simply accelerates the downward spiral.