>>172368, >>172369, >>172370, >>172371, >>172372, >>172373, >>172374, >>172375, >>172376, >>172377, >>172378, >>172379, >>172380, >>172381, >>172382, >>172383, >>172384, >>172385, >>172386, >>172387, >>172388, >>172389, >>172390, >>172391, >>172392
This all changed once I started writing about the pandemic. Soon people started talking about me the way I once thought about conservatives. This led to a complete identity collapse as I came to understand that my old worldview was hateful and ignorant, that I hadn't understood what I had been judging.
I cannot forget the hearing that led to my dismissal from medical school a year after I started writing. During the hearing, people talked about me as if I wasn't human. My behavior was interpreted in the worst possible light. Complete fabrications were created. Nobody was concerned with the truth, only horrified at my apparent "unprofessional behavior", which was really a mirror of their unprofessional behavior directed at me. They structured the hearing to make it virtually impossible for me to speak and explain that what was being said was a lie. And nobody seemed to have any problem with this. Why? Because I was bad. If I am bad, then every mistreatment and every violation of the school's own policies became justified. A person who is bad does not deserve any rights. They only deserve punishment.
But the thing I remember most was the allusions to my social media activity. They said, "Kevin is driven by resentment from his childhood." I wasn't. I was on good terms with my parents. They alleged that I needed psychotherapy to deal with this trauma. It was a completely fake story that they had constructed about me, to demean me, to marginalize me, to try to explain the views I had expressed: that something terribly wrong had happened during the pandemic. They couldn't imagine that I might have legitimate points. So they reduced me to the same kinds of psychological caricatures that I once reduced conservatives to in my own mind.
When I was dismissed, I was broken. But I had help from friends who helped me understand what happened. And I came to realize that a hysteria had overtaken the left. I spent a lot of time reading about show trials, about witch trials, and so on. I also connected with people who had experienced similar things and came to realize that something similar had happened to hundreds of physicians around the country. My story wasn't unique. It was all the same story over and over again.
I cannot believe the person I once was. I cannot believe that I could exist like that. I still don't understand how I could be like that, or how millions of people in this country could continue being like that. It disturbs me greatly.
One thing I know is that whatever this thing is that is driving people crazy needs to be destroyed. It is hostile to civilization and to our humanity. It causes us to dehumanize each other and try to destroy each other. It is the very same monstrous thing that I once attributed to conservatives. But it had been inside me, and I could now see it inside others. This is something I still grapple with.
https://x.com/kevinnbass/status/1901442666367181249

KidRock @KidRock - Golfed with your favorite President again recently and he played me a live version of James Brown and Pavirotti performing “This is a Mans World” - Can’t believe I have never heard this. Incredible!
https://x.com/KidRock/status/2005659881031008620

Kirill Dmitriev @kadmitriev - NEW: Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov - Trump was “shocked and outraged” that Kiev tried to strike the Russian president’s state residence with drones—reportedly almost immediately after the Mar-a-Lago talks.
Quote
Kirill Dmitriev @kadmitriev
NEW: President Putin aide Ushakov:
- Trump told Putin that Kiev has been advised not to seek a temporary “pause,” but to focus instead on reaching a comprehensive agreement