One of the most alarming developments of the past few years has been pandemic groupthink and the ferocity with which it has stifled dissenting views and debate. Anyone who questioned the efficacy of lockdowns was accused of deliberately endangering the lives of others. Those who sought out alternative COVID-19 treatments rejected by mainstream experts, such as hydroxychloroquine, were shamed and even deplatformed by social media companies. The message was simple: Question the COVID narrative, and there will be consequences.
But there were still many brave enough to buck the mob mentality. And as time has gone on and scientific data on COVID and pandemic restrictions have become more accurate, it has become clear that the dissenters were right. Lockdowns didn’t save lives; in fact, they likely cost more lives than they saved. Masks, specifically the cloth masks experts pushed on the public, are ineffective at stopping the spread of the virus and are harmful to children’s development. Hydroxychloroquine might actually help COVID patients in some cases. The list goes on.
Unfortunately, nonconformists have had to pay an enormous price for being right.
Take, for example, Jennifer Sey, the global brand president of Levi’s, who resigned this week, giving up her two-decade career at the company because it did not want her to speak out against COVID school closures. In an article for Common Sense, Sey wrote:
But the calls kept coming. From legal. From HR. From a board member. And finally, from my boss, the CEO of the company. I explained why I felt so strongly about the issue, citing data on the safety of schools and the harms caused by virtual learning. While they didn’t try to muzzle me outright, I was told repeatedly to “think about what I was saying.”
However, Sey refused to stay silent. She kept speaking up, meeting with local California officials, going on TV, and writing about the danger of remote learning and how it would hurt children. After appearing on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, Sey knew her time was up. Sure enough, the head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Levi’s reached out to her and asked that she do an “apology tour.”
The fact that I had been asked, back in 2017, to be the executive sponsor of the Black Employee Resource Group by two black employees did not matter. The fact that I’ve fought for kids for years didn’t matter. That I was just citing facts didn’t matter. The head of HR told me personally that even though I was right about the schools, that it was classist and racist that public schools stayed shut while private schools were open, and that I was probably right about everything else, I still shouldn’t say so. I kept thinking: Why shouldn’t I?
This past month, Sey was informed that it had become “untenable” for her to stay on at Levi’s. She was offered a $1 million severance package, but she refused to take it, knowing that if she did, she would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring her from speaking about why she was leaving the company.
She lost it all: her career, the chance to become Levi’s next CEO, which was well within her grasp, and the money she was owed — all because she questioned one aspect of the COVID narrative and refused to stay silent.
Here’s another example. Eric Flannery, a veteran who owns a burger joint in Washington, D.C., decided that he would not enforce the city’s vaccine mandate, which required all businesses to ask patrons to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 when officials implemented it last month. His reasoning was simple: “I’m not a government agent, and quite frankly, it’s not my job to check your personal medical history for you to come in,” he said. “I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t have any opinions on the vaccine. You should talk with your medical doctor and make an informed decision on your own and decide that.”
As a result, Flannery’s bar, the Big Board, was slapped with multiple fines, and its liquor license was revoked. Ultimately, Flannery was ordered to stop doing business altogether by the D.C. Health Department. And last Thursday, D.C.’s Assistant Attorney General Anthony Celo demanded that D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration make its suspension of the Big Board’s liquor license permanent, arguing its “continued operation places the community at risk.”
Just four days later, D.C. announced it would lift the vaccine mandate.
In other words, the city destroyed a man’s small business just to turn around and agree with him that the mandate isn’t necessary. Flannery was right, but he lost his livelihood because he spoke up before anyone else was willing to.
This is not just a pandemic of a virus. It is also a pandemic of mania that has produced some of the most egregious acts of intolerance many of us will ever witness. The latter is the real crisis, as people like Sey and Flannery have learned the hard way. But if we’re to break through and dismantle the stifling groupthink that still hangs over society, we’ll need many more like them: people who have the courage to stand for what they believe is right, even if it’s unpopular, no matter what it costs them.
