The necessity of comparison: A response to the Catholic left

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October was full of surprises this year, which included seeing my name published in the infamous America Magazine. To my great relief, the article was critical of me, which is the only way I ever hope to appear in a dissident publication. I might have remained ignorant of the thing except for an email I received which linked the article. The message, from someone who profoundly disagrees with much of what I believe, read something like this:

You should humble yourself and apologize for the terrible things you write.

The email arrived while I was mid-sickness with the Fauci flu. Reading the chastisement through the fog of illness, I wondered, What the heck did I write? Such a relief to find, after a quick skim, that it was much ado about nothing. I returned to the more necessary task of breathing and didn’t look again at the article until December.

I hadn’t planned to respond at all, but there is merit in correcting lies which the author promotes using my name. And because her erroneous ideas are spreading like a virus through the Church, it is worth engaging.

5 MINUTES OF FAME

On October 8, 2021, America Magazine published an article by Jenn Morson entitled “Stop Comparing Vaccine Mandates to the Holocaust.” The title is itself a straw man. The content, a collection of logical fallacies and slander. No one ever said journalists are academics, but the lack of intellectual honesty here is surprising.

Morson only mentioned me briefly and I was surprised to be mentioned at all, let alone in the company of good men like Bishop Athanasius Schneider. I’m a pretty small fish, so having 5 critical sentences devoted to me in a large publication is not as harmful as one might think. My analytics certainly didn’t suffer and I even sold a copy of my book as a result. Anyway…

Morson writes:

Melody Lyons, a Catholic mother of eight who runs a popular Catholic blog and Instagram account, has posted several Covid-related criticisms invoking the Holocaust. In August, Ms. Lyons wrote that Hitler “was a neurotic germaphobe” and was able to “convince a nation to submit to his neurosis” by appealing to “the noble goal of ‘public health,’” leading to forced sterilizations and restrictions on the “unclean.” She also claimed that Nazi Germany developed tuberculosis vaccines on child subjects who were “dissected and then murdered.” This is, of course, not true. While there were horrific medical experimentations on children during the Holocaust, some involving tuberculosis, there was no vaccine developed in this way.

I’ll respond to each assertion seriatim. In the first, Morson writes:

Melody Lyons, a Catholic mother of eight who runs a popular Catholic blog and Instagram account, has posted several Covid-related criticisms invoking the Holocaust.

This is somewhat true. I am a Catholic mother of 8 and I have posted critically about Covid-related health orders. Though I have compared mandates to some abuses of the Nazis regime, I have not “invoked the Holocaust,” at least not in the senses or moral or even actual equivalence. People are not being murdered en masse in government camps in the US and no one is claiming they are.

What I have done is to highlight similarities between current orders in modern society and the orders of historical totalitarian regimes. There is much wisdom in examining history to avoid repeating its errors and horrors. Americans used to agree on that, and I hope we can vanquish the popular leftist tactic of intimidation that insists that this is verboten.

Here is one example of a comparison that should be considered:

May 1942: The German government bans Jews from public transport

November 2021: The German government bans the unvaccinated from public transport

The left will call you racist, insensitive, and a host of other insults for comparing those two events, even though a grade school child would quickly (and innocently) discern the similarities. Don’t talk about. Don’t investigate it. Don’t even think about it. What an absolutely absurd and harmful demand, not to mention contrary to the Catholic faith, which exhorts us to use our God-given reason to examine our actions in the light of faith.

“HITLER WAS A NEUROTIC GERMAPHOBE” AND OTHER ACCURATE STATEMENTS

Morson’s next assertion is a little more interesting:

In August, Ms. Lyons wrote that Hitler “was a neurotic germaphobe” and was able to “convince a nation to submit to his neurosis” by appealing to “the noble goal of ‘public health,’” leading to forced sterilizations and restrictions on the “unclean.”

This is all absolutely true. Although shared out of context, none of my words are false. If you want to read the quotes as I originally wrote them, please see that post HERE. The details do matter and I’m glad Morson chose to highlight them.

Hitler manipulated the public fear of tuberculosis to implement abusive public health mandates such as forced sterilization, mandatory x-rays, travel restrictions, prohibition on marriage, etc. He used TB strategically, but he also passionately believed in the filthiness and contagiousness of his enemies. Much like the true believers of current US public health measures, many fervent German citizens under Hitler’s regime believed that the end (protection from the unclean) justified the means (human rights abuses).

THE “V” WORD

Morson continues with her criticism:

She also claimed that Nazi Germany developed tuberculosis vaccines on child subjects who were “dissected and then murdered.” This is, of course, not true.

It is true that Nazi scientists used children in their vaccine development experiments. It is true that they surgically cut out certain organs to be inspected and tested in a lab (dissection). It is true that they subsequently killed these innocent children - by hanging - to cover up their crimes (murder). Morson’s objection comes across (oddly enough) like an attempt to soften the atrocities of the Nazi horror. Perhaps her eagerness to try to fit my words into her narrative of fabrication resulted in some sloppy work?

Morson concludes the paragraph:

While there were horrific medical experimentations on children during the Holocaust, some involving tuberculosis, there was no vaccine developed in this way.

Wrong. There were vaccines developed using experimentation on both children and adults. The research done on people was well-documented and she links evidence of that in her own article. These vaccines were, in fact, horrible failures. I never claimed that “safe and effective” vaccines were developed from children, but simply that the Nazis did develop TB vaccines by torturing and murdering innocent children. In truth, in the post from which Morson attempts to draw evidence against me, I specifically wrote…

“Many died from those experimental injections.⁣”

The left would prefer that no one draw a comparison between mandated low-efficacy, high risk, experimental vaccines of different eras. No one is suggesting that we interfere with a person’s right to choose to receive a vaccine. It is only the left that wishes to violate conscience and bodily autonomy by making such injections mandatory. The words of the inventor of RNA vaccine technology bear repeating:

Ask yourself if you want your own child to be part of the most radical medical experiment in human history.

Morson does not want you to ask. She wants you to mindlessly obey the same cowards who murder children for profit and recklessly strip free people of their God given liberties.

THE LEFT SUPPORTS FORCED INJECTIONS

The fact that Morson supports mandatory injections places her in an awkward position with regard to immutable moral law and history. I understand why she would go to such lengths to suppress those who see similarities with Nazi tactics. Nobody wants to be associated, even remotely, with the progression of Nazi horrors.

But there is little fundamental moral difference between forcing unwanted mass sterilizations or forcing mass bodily injections. And let’s not quibble over terms. If opposition to a mandatory order is met with punishment, then the order is coercive and forced. The primacy of conscience and bodily integrity must be defended even when we don’t agree with the way our neighbors manage their health care.

Morson attempts to persuade using emotion and logical fallacies, but the fact remains… She supports forced injections. Her article is an effort to separate the idea of vaccine mandates from association with Nazi abuses. Sorry to break it to her, but her beliefs share the same decayed moral roots. If she’s uncomfortable in that space, let that be a catalyst for a deeper examination of conscience.

COMPARISON IS NOT IMMORAL

Later in the article, Morson (or her editor) highlights in bold a quote from a Catholic priest, Father Satish Joseph, pastor at Immaculate Conception and St. Helen’s in Dayton, Ohio. Regarding the holocaust/mandate comparison, he says:

There is a level of immorality in comparing the two. One destroyed lives; the vaccine is to save lives.

I will offer a quick rebuttal, which is all the attention this unfortunate and irresponsible statement deserves. The only reason I address it at all is because our minds have been collectively shaken out of order and we aren’t thinking well these days. But on these important matters, we must speak and clarify.

Father Joseph claims:

“There is a level of immorality in comparing the two.”

Why? It is not immoral to make comparisons or to engage in study. Comparing historical evidence with the present is not a moral issue. It is prudence, concern for others, and common sense which compels us to measure current policy against historical policies. Father’s statement is shockingly ignorant.

Why aren’t we permitted to ask questions? To exercise vigorous scientific, historical, religious, and cultural debate? Who gets to decide which thoughts we are permitted to have, which comparisons we are authorized to make? Let us continue to ask the questions, make the comparisons, and act as responsible citizens and people of informed faith.

Father continues:

“One destroyed lives; the vaccine is to save lives.”

This is a Red Herring. The comparison is not between vaccines and the Holocaust. The comparison is between American public health mandates and the German public health mandates. Whether not one believes that an injection “saves lives” has no bearing on the fact that governments are punishing their citizens for not choosing it.

When leftists demand that we stop making comparisons, they demand that we stop thinking and questioning so that will have license to do as they please without consequence. They would prefer not to be associated with such historical evil, and I don't blame them. But I will not stop using my intellect to contrast and compare where appropriate. Don't fall for their lies. There is nothing inherently insensitive or anti-Semitic about carefully examining the tragedies of history to make sure they never ever happen again.

I stand by everything I said in my original post. I continue to recognize similarities between current events and historical human rights abuses. The strong-arm tactics that Morson attempts to employ may ultimately impact emotion, physical freedom, and decision making, but they cannot change the immutable truths and laws of God. The truth is that the current mandates are indeed similar to the deadly and perverse health orders of tyrants and totalitarian regimes through history. I refuse to be silent on this matter.