I NO LONGER CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK – THIS HAS GONE TOO FAR

Now we need more of you to start speaking out

By Charlotte Hervis

I’VE done it. I’ve put my head above the parapet. After two years of softly softly, gently gently I’ve said something a little bit provocative on LinkedIn about Covid.

I spoke my mind (albeit briefly, perhaps too timidly) about censorship and entrenched views on PCR testing. And I did it in the main marketplace where I ‘tout my wares’. Perhaps I will ruffle some feathers, perhaps colleagues will take a view on me. I no longer care what they think. This has gone too far. 

When you run a small business in a niche industry and are one of the three million or so UK directors who received no public finance support during lockdown because your income stream is so unstable that you pay yourself a tiny salary, then chunk it out with the remaining profit at the end of a quarter or financial year, you become resilient.

You carry on working, day in day out, while many around you lose their minds on propaganda. You still find time to research the madness around you and for once in your life have a strong opinion on something.

Yet no one will listen. Slowly friends and family fall away. The hints dropped on Zoom calls dry up, you realise you are alone. You decide to abstain from the chaos, knuckle down, keep calm and carry on. 

You watch with amazement as those in your professional circle, people you admired, are captured by the prevailing narrative. You mourn the loss of shared viewpoints and opening chasm of differences of opinion. You have tried to warn about lies, deceit, conflicts of interest; they close you down, the subject gets changed, they move on.  They think you are mad.

You resign from your community voluntary work, exasperated by illogical viewpoints on lockdown, testing, masking and mandates. Groupthink places you in the minority, you retreat and save your energy for the denouement, which haunts your sleep yet remains partly visible, giving you the hope to remain steadfast.

Amid a backdrop of wokeness in the corporate world and public sphere, there should be diversity and inclusion of opinion within both workplace and society. LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, with more than 700m users globally, is perhaps not the place to be provocative; the platform made its allegiance to the narrative clear, no surprise really, given that it is owned by Microsoft. Esteemed scientists such as Dr Robert Malone, below, were ejected from the platform early doors in 2021, indicating that this was no place for scientific debate, nor counter narrative.

Many professionals have resorted to sharing honest opinions under cover of a pseudonym, with researchers from Cambridge exploring the topic. It is hard being two-faced, when in fact all you want is for people to see the real you. Old friends and colleagues are not prepared to engage with the rebellious questioning coming from this once-timid 40 something.

The pandemic has awoken many quiet thoughtful people, made us realise our inner strength, enabled us to see which people we could have relied on ‘in the trenches’ – indeed, we still are in the trenches, albeit in some kind of no man’s land in a war which many people do not even know is being fought. It is an information/propaganda war and censorship is one of the weapons.

This is a call for more of the timid professionals to start being honest with themselves and speak out, meekly at first if that is your way. Your heart, your gut and your head have helped you through so far. Our industries need our diversity of thought, our analytical brains, our ‘3,000 foot view’ on the world, our ability to call out nonsense when we see it. Our businesses will be better for it.