“Woke up to the scam” is a bad way to describe what happened to those who later realized the Covid narrative was bunk. And “I was lied to” is not an excuse.
Even if there was a cadre of schemers perpetrating an intentional scam (and there wasn’t), nearly everyone actually amplifying the lies were folks who fell for the lies.
And nearly everyone hearing the lies were hearing them from folks who had fallen for the lies, and were repeating them with honest intent.
That doesn’t excuse any of them.
(1) It was their responsibility — especially if they had a large audience or formal leadership responsibilities — to check the data themselves, especially given the societal damage and civil liberties at stake.
(2) It was their responsibility to THINK! Even without data, common sense should have told anyone that you can’t slow aerosol-spread viruses, that lockdowns won’t work, that masks are a joke, that you can’t freeze an economy, and so on. They turned off their thinking brain.
(3) It was their responsibility to wonder whether humans have a tendency to panic, and rush off cliffs. That’s the very reason for the Precautionary Principle — to protect us from ourselves.
(4) If they had had a true commitment to civil liberties, believing those lies would not have justified civil liberties violating interventions in the first place.
“I only demanded we burn Judy, the witch, because I was lied to. I woke up to the lie afterwards, and I am SO angry at being lied to!!”
Their response should be, “I woke up, and am shocked at how I fell so low, and contributed to the very problem I am now committed to fixing.”
But none say that.
Civil rights were blatantly being violated and most people didn't care. They weren't lied to or scammed about *this*; they just fully had supported their wicked norms before covid19 even happened. Indeed, many on our own "side" might approve of forcibly vaccinating someone or in medical censorship if the "vaccine" worked, and even in spite of involuntarily subjecting someone to "slight" risk of harm including of death.
I’m not convinced there wasn’t a conspiracy behind this. I think “plandemic” is still applicable.