surprise level 0.
sadness level 100.
folks had no idea what they were putting into their bodies. and meant well while doing so.
When you make a mistake you will continue to make the same mistake until you figure out why. The problem is not that someone else lied, or deceived you or tricked you. Putting the blame on others will never protect you from being scammed. You have to figure out what you did that left you open to being scammed.
So why were they duped?
1. They watched too much TV. They let MSNBC and NPR and CNN lie to them and they treated them like authorities. Prior to 2020 there was plenty of evidence to not trust them. For 3 years they told you daily "orange man bad" and "where there is smoke there is fire" with regards to the Mueller investigation. But what happened when Mueller submitted his findings, they went silent. If they had spent a few minutes to find out what the Mueller report said then they would have lost trust in CNN, MSNBC, and NPR and would not have allowed them to dupe them about the vaccine.
2. They were willing to let Fauci tell them what to think rather than to think critically. I also had complete trust in Fauci when he first started speaking, but I was listening for an explanation that I could then share with my students. I wanted to be educated about why, the people who were duped did not care about why, "just tell me what to do". That is how you become mindless.
3. People were willing to turn against the people trying to help them. I am the only person in my family who is a scientist. Yet they were willing to believe I was "anti science". As a teacher I had all my shots and yet they were willing to believe I was "anti vaxx". That doesn't make sense. Why are you so willing to listen to someone on TV who is not providing any evidence for their claims, and yet they are telling you to ignore people close to you who are warning you that this was a lie.
These are three major mistakes that each of us should become aware of and learn from.
In this particular case the logic was completely distorted. I was warning people that something was not right and Fauci was not to be trusted. They wanted to know why. How could I possibly know why? Answering that question can take years, it is absurd to respond "it doesn't make sense so I'll go ahead and trust him" even though he was clearly lying. They would also ask for proof that the vaccine was dangerous. Again, faulty logic, the vaccine maker should be the one required to give you proof it is safe, not the other way around. How would I have access to that proof? It took six months after the vaccine mandate before a judge ordered the Pfizer documents released.
Instead what people should have been asking was "why are they violating the law concerning experimental vaccines?" Also, "why are they mandating a vaccine to people with little or no risk from Covid?" Also, "why do you have to mandate a life saving wonder vaccine that will save lives?"
Everyone should have known that something was rotten, it didn't smell right, and they should have refused to take the vaccine. Even if they decided they would take the vaccine they never should have required others to take it if they didn't want it and they most certainly should not have insulted, ridiculed, mocked and shun those who questioned Fauci and the vaccine.
Unless people deal with those issues they will continue to be duped.