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Bess Storm's avatar

Berenson is/was an important and valuable voice but it is befuddling why he went after Dr. Malone the way he did.

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eyedoc11's avatar

And, he spouts nonsense about Ivermectin not working because of Malone supporting its use. I can't read him anymore.

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denis bider's avatar

Alex Berenson is a plant. He maintains all of the official narratives except whether the vaccines, masks and lockdowns are effective. He ridicules those who point out it's by design.

He does not even talk about adverse effects. With Taylor Hawkins, he posted an obviously manipulated NY Post "drugs found!" screenshot in a clear PR attempt to deflect from the vaccine.

He has attacked and tried to discredit people, including Robert Malone and Joe Rogan. He ridiculed ivermectin using the fraudulent Malaysian study, which is rigged to exclude zinc, and whose real results are the opposite of what is stated. He did the same with the NEJM study.

His book is to distract from RFK Jr's The Real Anthony Fauci. It explains away a globally coordinated genocide with malicious aforethought as if it's just a bunch of mediocre government officials grappling with complex problems. "If only we knew!" Haha. Nervous laughter.

He is a former New York Times reporter, which means basically an intelligence propagandist.

There are many like him, and the common thread is that they are official dissenters. Their role is to protect the mainstream narrative by capturing those who figured out one of the main tenets is a lie. They agree with you that yea, that one thing doesn't hold up - but the rest of the narrative is still true, honest! Surely you don't want to sound crazy - like one of those conspiracy fanatics?

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Cindi's avatar

I thought that charge of plagerism was really odd too. I’d not only seen that line but had used it myself in several comments in various substack blogs. All w/out having read his book. Really surprised he thought he’s the only one who had ever seen or heard it. It was one of the most infuriating things I ever heard & that confirmed my suspicion meter

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Cindi's avatar

*What Ferguson said was one of the most infuriating things I ever heard

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The Ungovernable's avatar

Alex Berenson is truly the most confusing and frustrating member of the "awake". He's made awesome points and done great work. Meanwhile, accusing members of the tribe of plagiarism and attacking such warriors as Dr. Malone.

SMH.

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John Cougar Misanthrope's avatar

I will always cut Alex a lot of slack because he was one of the bravest and most vocal in calling "b.s." from the very outset. While some of the current opponents were lining up to get their shots, Alex was asking questions and sending up warning signals.

Alex has strayed from his lane a few times, for example, by parroting the MSM Ukraine narrative and attacking Dr. Malone. However, he has still remained largely consistent. In his defense, he did apologize for his reaction to Virginia Hume, in an "Alex" way: "But if Virginia hasn’t read PANDEMIA, then I impugned her unfairly, and I apologize."

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SocialismAlwaysFails's avatar

My view is that Alex thinks everyone is out to get him, including those on his side. To be honest, that paranoia is what drives him to be a great journalist.

A small anecdote. I noticed he was walking past me in a hallway at CPAC. (He's actually much taller than I expected). Anyhow I stopped, shook his hand, said I happened to have his book upstairs and asked if he could he sign it.

The entire time, he had a look like I was figuring out how to stab him with a soviet umbrella.

I'm OK with that. As "Ryan" mentioned below: Berenson gonna Berenson

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SCA's avatar

I think Berenson has never recovered from being tossed out of the cool kids club at the NYT. I can well understand that the scorn and abuse he's received from the beginning of his reporting on The Plague would have a serious emotional impact, but he's betrayed a great deal of instability in all his writing since being banned from Shrikeville. He really wants to be seen as the smartest kid in the room and unfortunately, he's just lousy at humor, irony and wit.

And that's sad, because so much in just everyday news vindicates his analyses. He's been so mocked for his take on cannabis and yet so many reported crimes reveal an astounding level of psychosis that I can't remember seeing even in the wild years of the 70s.

Being a groundbreaking reporter of unpopular reality isn't an occupation where one should hope for acclaim from one's peers. One can only hope to live long enough to be proven correct.

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Ryan's avatar

Berenson gonna Berenson...

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smokegetsinyoureyes's avatar

🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏

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Skeptical1's avatar

Awesome!! 🤣

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Virginia Hume's avatar

Thanks so much, Michael. And, yes, the plagiarism accusation was a bummer. Being off Twitter, he might not realize how widely circulated/oft-cited that Ferguson quote is. He also cited The Atlantic headline, “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice,” which was funny - if hadn’t wanted to talk about Georgia, I would have picked a different example, because that headline is basically a cliche at this point. To his credit, Alex posted his apology within a half-hour of my emailing him.

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Michael P Senger's avatar

Great to hear. Thanks for the update, Virginia—outstanding work on the article!

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Virginia Hume's avatar

Thank you! Looking forward to reading your book.

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Rascal Nick Of's avatar

Yeah, Berenson got way out over his skis on the idiotic 'plagiarism' accusation. If anything it plagiarizes Ferguson! The quote has been widely reported on, and I don't think he alone 'broke' the story on it. He can be a bit over the top and sensationalist, but is an effective messenger. I don't pay him for what he writes, or I would have scolded him at his 'stack for that faux pas.

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The Ungovernable's avatar

I was a paid subscriber for a year but cancelled my subscription with lots of pointed criticism. I'm sure he never read it but it made me feel good. :)

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Cindi's avatar

Same. I read for free & he can be condescending. But he sure as hell didn’t break that. I heard about when Ferguson 1st said it

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Janet's avatar

Great article with loads of references. I was in the middle of preparing a post about this ridiculous narrative rearing it's head again: Fraud-ci saying another lockdown might be in the future. People have to stand up for their rights and stop giving into "the dark side" - literally

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Pepperkin's avatar

Berenson’s book was hugely informative but I was horrified by his accusation of plagiarism here. The Ferguson quote pops up all over the place. If you’re interested in the Imperial modelling you really can’t avoid being familiar with it.

I was also pretty shocked by his grudging publication of the author’s email to him. She was open and gracious; he came across as sullen, irrational & paranoid in his response. It’s a great shame he’s gone down this very negative route, particularly since it does inevitably cast doubt more widely on his judgement and reliability.

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Trewpol's avatar

Although offering useful insight (after the fact) Berenson does come across as very needy and needlessly touchy. He’s cheering Musks takeover of Twitter solely because he wants back in with the champagne socialist crowd - the other day he actually @‘d Elon Musk to tell him he’s (Berenson) still banned. Funny and tragic.

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Lisa Sage's avatar

He's always throwing little bombs like that. He's a bit upset that he has not been admitted back on Twitter. He writes about that A LOT. Sorry, if he has been reinstated as I have not kept up on his latest Twitter status.

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Amking's avatar

Just ordered your book.

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Michael P Senger's avatar

Awesome. Thanks!

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Brandon G's avatar

Alex also believes that early treatment and Ivermectin don't work and won't lift 1 finger to talk to the myriad of doctors who have had success but instead relies solely on study abstract to inform his opinion.

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

Yes, it was "our collective failed COVID response", not theirs, since we allowed them to implement their scams.

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Tam Hunt's avatar

Great to see this kind of analysis coming out but she misses an absolutely crucial part of what went wrong: the degree to which testing asymptomatic people with imperfect tests led to a vast (like 95% or higher) majority of "cases" being based just on false positive tests. We write about this in this rapid response essay for BMJ here: https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1411/rr

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David Watson's avatar

It's not about Alex, but Victoria. Focus, folks. Alex is a little high strung, probably enduring a lot of stress that he doesn't always handle well. Like anybody else, we shouldn't expect perfection. Use what's useful, filter out the neuroses.

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