rigorousintuition.ca

Lead columnist for Truthout died yesterday of a heart attack. I liked his writing. Rest in Peace.

2017 Pitt: William Rivers Pitt | A Lesson From My Hospital Bed: For-Profit Health Care Is a Merciless Sham

2021 Pitt: As I Received My Vaccine, I Remembered the Full Weight of Trump’s Negligence

RIP, William. Even when you were sheepdogging for establishment Democratic candidates, I always appreciated your fighting spirit.

stickdog99 wrote:2017 Pitt: William Rivers Pitt | A Lesson From My Hospital Bed: For-Profit Health Care Is a Merciless Sham

2021 Pitt: As I Received My Vaccine, I Remembered the Full Weight of Trump’s Negligence

RIP, William. Even when you were sheepdogging for establishment Democratic candidates, I always appreciated your fighting spirit.

My sentiments as well, unfortunately. Truthout is stuck on the idea that the status quo can be fixed using the status quo and is finding itself to the right of a significant portion of their readership.

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Always unfortunate, and tragic, for any human to pass at an earlier than average age [in his case, 50]. Especially when sudden.

But I'm going to be an asshole now, and express irritation and a hard rolling of the eyes as I observe Pitt's most recent Twitter output (I've admittedly forgotten how long its been since I've come across or looked for his output. My separation from largely status quo talking points -- at least as a means to make sense of the world -- has widened considerably in time. The chasm widened more pointedly over the last ~couple years in particular).

I mean, for those who have established a name for themselves by opining and commenting on world affairs, to what extent should we expect them to be capable of sifting through blatant crimes against humanity, particularly when it counters their own politics? How much do we ignore, or forgive, when those that are claimed to "rage against evil" are incapable of observing the evil around them? To what extent should we allow for such blindspots, namely, the failure of the "truth tellers" in calling out -- or worse, willfully ignoring -- egregious wrongs?

Perhaps I'm off-base here. Since I haven't looked through his material in years, it may be he's put out some gems more recently. Happy to be corrected. But this is what I see when I clicked on his Twitter handle:



Ukraine flag as profile pic. Sigh.

His last several tweets are fixated on Trump. Sigh.

And then the piece that Stickdog shared above, Re: vaccines. I struggle not to get irritated, because it's precisely the mindset that he expresses in that piece that enabled and emboldened many to double down in support of policies that segregated millions and ruined livelihoods (and lives).

https://truthout.org/articles/as-i-rece ... egligence/

A few excerpts/snippets, as I don't want to turn this into yet another covid-themed thread (though I'll add the pink elephant comment here that it can't be ruled out that these shots may have contributed to his demise):

...
“I really wish people would stop feeling guilty for getting the vaccine,” she told me. “Every one of us who gets it is helping the greater cause. And you ALL deserve it. They had to use certain criteria because of the shortages but more and more vaccines are becoming available. I’m relieved and hopeful with every single person I hear getting it. Congratulations.”

...

... two nurses carrying plastic baskets filled with Pfizer-shot syringes and wipes appeared and began to move from car window to car window injecting passengers. Zap, boom, done.

...
I took a bit of a beating in the side effects category, which isn’t necessarily typical for dose 1. Nothing terrible by any means, but for three days I felt like I was trying to walk underwater, malaise, fatigue, all of which was cured by sleeping through it as much as I could. For a day, my injection site in my left bicep felt like my boyhood friend Andrew had landed a perfect dead-arm punch, but that passed just as quickly. That was it. Today, I’m all the way back, and looking giddily forward to my booster, which happens to land on the day I was supposed to get my first shot. Life is weird, man.

...
As for the vaccines themselves, am I worried about the long-term effects of this massive and unprecedented global science experiment? At present, not really. Part of it is simple giddy trust in the idea that turning a billion people into zombie monsters would be bad for the bottom line over at Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, and they know this. This was a dazzling leap forward for medicine, Star Trek shit, and it will serve us well as we enter the Age of the Pandemic for real.
...
Part of it is the fact that I have only so much RAM in my head for theoretical horrors, given how much actual horror surrounds us every day. Example: Some 25 percent of Republicans in congress have refused to get the shot, pretty much because Trump hasn’t given it his blessing yet. No surprise here: These are the same Republicans taking credit for the stimulus bill they unanimously voted against. This is where I spend my RAM; vaccine “what if’s” can take a number in the face of this endlessly grasping, self-destructive nonsense.

These people, however, are outliers; a majority of the country is actively seeking vaccination, and in an excellent sign, almost all who require two shots are returning to get the second one. Bet your bippy I’ll be going for mine unless the creek rises, and I urge all who read this to do the same when you have access. Is it a leap of faith? I suppose, yeah, and we all have to make our own choices.

Caveat: this was published back in March of 2021; I'd be interested to know if his perspective changed since then, prior to his premature end.
Flash Update: Nah. Scrolled a bit further down his twitter feed and it's clear he was one of those deluded and lost souls that believed covid 'is not over' (indeed; like the flu, it will remain with us. There shan't ever be 'zero' covid), which typically implies that, in his opinion, we can't 'loosen', let alone drop, restrictions. No apparent assessment whatsoever into the extent the [unethical, illegal] policies pushed on populations -- not to mention those covid shots -- may have played a role in exacerbating covid-related harms.

Sad, seeing those words he published.

that’s sad. he had kids iirc…prolly one of them in his bio pic.

i can’t help but wonder if he’d been boosted. seems like if one were inclined to do so, this would be the time.

Pitt gets cred bc he angered ‘obamabots’ on DU with his ‘used car salesman’ thing. That needed to be said, and the fact that it angered so many was glorious.

I’ve checked in with him occasionally since DU and recall being disappointed every time. Aaaaand this doesn’t seem the time/place to say that so I’ll just stick with this is really sad for kids to lose a dad at 50. Horrible.

dang.