A Media Memoir of Faith, Fracture, and the Fight for Truth
Chapter 7: The Parallel Path
The Biden Administration instituted federal mask, vaccine, travel, and testing mandates, forcing federal employees, contractors, and private businesses to choose between compliance and their livelihoods.
The country was still reeling from another round of COVID‑relief spending while energy policies shifted, pipelines closed, drilling leases paused, and border wall construction halted.
Then came the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, chaotic evacuations, painful to watch on screen, and unforgettably reckless. The military shrank as service members who refused the COVID vaccine were forced out. Those who accepted the jab and those who did not became the dividing line between who could work and who could not.
2021 became the year of divergence. Institutions tightened. Communities fractured. And people began building the parallel systems they would eventually rely on.
My family sat comfortably in the rural Hill Country, contracting independently with the Studios at Fischer, homeschooling our son, and having three grocery stores within driving distance, plus Amazon when needed.
The military had trained me for tough times like these. When a winter polar vortex brought power and water outages for weeks, trees froze and cracked like firecrackers. Camping gear, bottled water, extra blankets, and a fireplace became my tools. My family, my warmth.
Independent commentators filled the vacuum left by the would-be gatekeepers. As the country split into competing narratives, The Rubin Report community on Locals became my outlet for conversation, encouragement, and inspiration.
The Daily Wire fought against mandates, winning in the Supreme Court and expanding into entertainment, picking up Disney‑dropped actress Gina Carano for Terror on the Prairie.
Steven Crowder was demonetized on YouTube and moved exclusively to Rumble, all while undergoing chest surgery and welcoming twins by the end of the year.
Joe Rogan continued to host alternative voices like Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough, along with dissenters like Aaron Rodgers, fighting off a Spotify cancellation attempt in the process.
Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald increased the visibility of their mainstream dissent through Substack.
Piers Morgan quit Good Morning Britain after his comments on Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah were misconstrued as racist. His longtime friend Sharon Osbourne followed suit, exiting The Talk when cancel culture came for her.
Jordan Peterson made a comeback after a coma in 2020 linked to benzodiazepine withdrawal, continued in‑depth interviews with everyone from Douglas Murray to Russell Brand, and released his third book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.
This wasn’t an exhaustive list of those I listened to, but the pattern was unmistakable. Independent voices were rising. The platforms that once claimed to champion free speech, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, were now complying with government censorship requests and pressure. It echoed what I had already seen with NBC and FOX, a controlled narrative tightening its grip.
The parallel economy took shape as the counterbalance: Rumble over YouTube, Substack over Twitter, Locals over Patreon, GiveSendGo over GoFundMe.
Donald Trump, fresh off a post‑election impeachment, entered the social media arena by announcing Truth Social.
People were choosing where to place their trust, and they could support the voices they wanted to hear directly.
My independent growth was strengthened. We survived COVID 2020 and SnowVID 2021, the empty store shelves, continued lockdowns and mandates, rising inflation, and supply‑chain disruptions. Border crossings surged as sanctuary cities and states continued to lose residents and businesses to Florida and Texas.
Homeschooling peaked as school shutdowns continued. I helped our son create a gaming channel for YouTube and taught history. My wife handled the heavier homeschool lifting in math, language arts, science, and other subjects. We even took a family trip to see the Ark Encounter in Kentucky.
We had already been homeschooling before the pandemic, having lost institutional trust and perceiving social engineering, babysitting, and administrative money laundering in the public school system. Our homeschool group at the park grew as my wife’s online book sales to new homeschoolers boomed.
This wasn’t crisis, this was opportunity. My mother left behind funds I used to make home improvements, as she had done in her homes before, and pay a couple of years of principal off my mortgage. The Studios at Fischer kept me contracted; editing videos, operating cameras for recordings and livestreams, and participating in a parody Christmas trailer. Life wasn’t locking down. It was opening up.
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