Notes from the edge of civilization: Feb. 18, 2024

Bad juju for us, good writing for others; think for yourself; good news about cancer; and more.

This was a wobbly week for the Collapse Life crew: things we thought were sorted out turned out not to be, leading to more last-minute scrambling than we usually like. Maybe it was the effect of the waxing gibbous moon? Or the fact that it’s now officially the Year of the Wood Dragon?

Whatever caused things to go off-kilter for us seems to have had the opposite effect for some of our fellow bloggers. We read some excellent, enlightening, funny, and often concerning content this week, including:

• Germany announces wide-ranging plans to restrict the speech, travel and economic activity of political dissidents, in order to better control the "thought and speech patterns" of its own people by eugyppius

• Attack of the Middle-Aged MILFs by Peachy Keenan

• We've Lost the Ability to See Reality by David Farrier

• CDC Mandates New Hampshire Residents Must Wear Adult Diapers by William M. Briggs

• Study Pushes for “Fact-Checks” To Be Rebranded as “Confirmations” by Reclaim the Net

What are you reading? Drop your suggestions in the comments!

We also read some dreck, most of which we won’t subject you to, with one exception because it was egregious: it was this doctor’s puerile attempt at a takedown of misinformation, in which she argues that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a dietary sweetener “like honey… or maple syrup.” Nothing could be further from the truth, which effectively means she’s creating her own misinformation.

For what it’s worth, here’s how HFCS is made:

After liquefaction, saccharification, filtration, decolorization and ion exchange, starch is turned into glucose syrup, which is further concentrated by multi-effect falling film evaporation.

Here’s how honey is made:

Honey starts as flower nectar collected by bees, which gets broken down into simple sugars stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of the bees' wings causes evaporation, creating sweet liquid honey.

We won’t bother explaining maple syrup, except to say we have a hard time in the office picking which is more delicious. No one ever waded into the debate by saying: “Hey, I really prefer corn syrup!”

But we digress — the point the doltish doctor was trying to make is that when you’re trying to fact-check a claim you think is misinformation (such as “HFCS is the deadliest carbohydrate on the planet”) you should definitely be sure to believe sources like the FDA or Harvard Medical School studies, but definitely not believe anything you’d find in a Google search and most definitely not the “legacy media, like The New York Times or the Washington Post, as they frequently dabble in both side-ism.”

Face palm to the forehead — hoo-boy! — where would we even start? At any rate, we won’t waste any more of your time (or ours, frankly) on this scat, but bring it up only to say that just because someone is a doctor donning their angelic white coat, doesn’t mean you should believe them. And any good doctor will tell you as much.

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Speaking of good doctors, we freely admit our bias when it comes to this week’s podcast guest. He not only put it all on the line during the pandemic, paying the price of losing his esteemed career and having his reputation questioned, but he and the group of like-minded colleagues he brought together to form the FLCCC Alliance were characterized as dangerous and delusional by the none other than the FDA, The New York Times, Harvard Medical School, and all the other media and academia captured and manipulated by the deep pockets of Big Pharma.

All that be damned, because even in the face of this overwhelming darkness, he is still dedicated to saving lives, unlike the duplicitous medical industrial complex which he has shown on many occasions is trying to kill you.

So who did we get to chat with this week? Our podcast guest was the indefatigable Dr. Paul Marik. He told us how he’s moved on from critical care to finding novel ways to treat chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer using lifestyle changes, supplements, and off-label drugs.

He walks the walk too, having turned his own health around — he lost 30 pounds and cured himself of Type II diabetes through supplements, diet changes, and intermittent fasting. Loads of good information in this one, including the hard truth: if you don’t like your doctor, you should fire them and find another.

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In spite of the bad juju described earlier in this post, we continue to be humbled by those of you who have added Collapse Life to your reading list. In fact, it’s what drives us to continue to do what we do. We say this as we close in on a major milestone: our first 1,000 subscribers.

If you are one of the many new readers joining us this week, we want to welcome you and thank you for being here. We’re thrilled to be taking this journey of discovery and exploration together.

In addition to weekly wanders around the internet, scooping up what we deem interesting or important for the week and including them here in the Sunday Notes, we also publish a couple of new stories and a video podcast weekly.

Some of our readers have gone a step further and become paid subscribers. We are working on special content and features exclusive to you. It’s taking a bit more time than we would like, but please continue to bear with us. More generally, we are always open to your comments, critiques, suggestions, and compliments. In fact, it’s what keep us going. So never hesitate to weigh in.

There’s no substitute for gratitude: please know how grateful we are to each and every one of you. And every time you restack, share, comment, like, or link to us, we recognize that the infinite power of community and discourse is the driving force behind that which tilts the world towards the light. Thank you.

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