After reading Gary Horton’s latest attempt (Feb. 2) to convince the remaining holdouts to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by “exposing irrationality as a weapon against cult and illogical thinking,” it suddenly occurred to me that Gary Horton himself is guilty of cult and irrational thinking — most “partisans” are.
Oh, yes you are, Mr. Horton. You yourself are guilty of cult and irrational thinking. You have also bought into a certain mind set that has been sold to you by a certain “establishment.”
For instance, to make a statement such as this: “‘Give me liberty or give me death’ was never supposed to mean stupidly going to your grave over a proven vaccine that’s been administered to billions, saving millions of lives.” First of all, that statement in itself cannot be proven as it is actually impossible to know for certain what would have happened if the billions of vaccines had not been administered.
We don’t have a method of knowing the outcomes of alternate realities. Not even science can do that. Go ask a scientist. If they have the guts to be honest they will tell you that such a statement is as faith-based as believing in a god — your god, Gary. The god that your cult follows.
As far as I’m concerned, everyone is a cult member of one kind or another. No one is capable of truly independent thought and volition. We are all influenced by someone to think, say or do something that we would not have done otherwise.
We all want to be accepted by, be part of, that group, that tribe.
And if Gary Horton could be honest enough with himself he would realize that in that sense he is just like the rest of us. The pandemic merely provided us with the means to see that.
I often wonder if Gary Horton ever actually reads The Signal’s opinion section. I often wonder if he reads the letters that disagree with his opinions. I often wonder if he has ever considered the possibility that he is capable of being wrong, about anything.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
