By Ian Miller at Brownstone dot org.

Sometimes you learn that people are exactly who you think they are.

And that may never apply more accurately and comprehensively than it does with Anthony Fauci.

Fauci was portrayed, starting in early 2020, as an objective, brilliant, virtually infallible God-like figure.

He was the voice of opposition to President Donald Trump, a clear-eyed force of evidence-driven policy, contrasting with the evil Trump who didn't "listen to the science."

That's not an exaggeration; there were Christmas tree ornaments made depicting Fauci as a Pope, there were shrines put up in people's houses, he was on the cover of various magazines, and he was given a parade of endless, relentlessly glowing media appearances from his fawning, adoring fans. Fans like CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

For most critics it was clear almost immediately that these portrayals and friendly media appearances depicted the exact opposite of reality.

Fauci was a narcissist. Someone who enjoyed the attention, power, and influence he now unexpectedly wielded. He was unimaginably arrogant, unwilling to listen to new evidence if it contradicted what he wanted to believe, as well as someone who apparently thought himself a virtually infallible, God-like figure.

Well, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) over the weekend released a series of diary entries, emails, and inside information from Fauci himself and it turns out that the critics were more dead on than they could have ever imagined.

There are so many humiliating, embarrassing, discrediting revelations from the emails and diary entries that many are still compiling them. Combing through the list of statements that he made privately, in direct contradiction to his public pronouncements, could be a full time job. For weeks.

But let's highlight a few, revisit what he said, and explain what it all means.

One of Fauci's most heinous legacies was the strong push for lockdowns, school closures, and mask mandates. Those three policies were and remain significant contributors to many of the negative outcomes resulting from our response to the Covid pandemic.

School closures set back an entire generation of children.

Lockdowns led to governments printing money to allow people to stay home, setting off a spiral of runaway inflation that is still not under control.

And masks permanently damaged millions of people, from schoolchildren forced to wear them, to hospital workers who are now indefinitely required to mask in healthcare settings unnecessarily, or for those who continue to mask out of irrational fear and effective propaganda.

Many of these policies can be traced directly back to Anthony Fauci. And now we have proof of just how inept and incompetent his recommendations were, and how dishonest he was, as it became clear he'd failed.

Here's one example. In an email to Deborah Birx, another key architect of our failed response, Fauci unwittingly admitted that he was aware lockdowns and closures did not impact the spread of Covid.

"I have been obsessing about the increases in cases that do not seem to be related to openings or closings or massive crowds," he wrote. "I believe that ultimately we will see increases related to all of the above; however, right now we may be looking for the lost keys under the light of the lamppost. There is something inherent here that we are missing and that is insidiously keeping the outbreak alive in the USA, and that is more concerning than anticipated spikes associated with identifiable events."

Surely, this email was written in 2021 or 2022, right? After closures and lockdowns became less common?

Nope. June 18, 2020. That's just a few months after the initial shutdowns. He knew in June 2020 that closures did not lead to decrease in cases, and for quite literally years afterward, he demanded closures and shutdowns continue.

He criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for reopening his state, months later. In September, for example, he said Florida was "asking for troubl...