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As I have said before, early on, when not a lot was known publicly, and you saw images of people falling dead in the street in Communist China, and towns being shut off and quarantined, I was willing to go along with strong measures.

But around the end of March to middle of April, it was obvious to me it wasn't something that was like Bubonic Plague where 40-50% of people could die.

Part of this that is disturbing to me is the willingness of people to sit in front of the television at night allowing that filth to flow uncritically into their minds like a poison, that is an unsettling thing.

But the part that really bothers me is the way that a more fundamental rot of our society has come to the fore.

It is this obsession with...personal safety.

It has infused every single area of our lives: The State of Fear.

Michael Crichton wrote a novel "State of Fear" which dealt with the concept of Climate Change Alarmists who used the power of Fear as a tool to achieve their environmental and political goals.

Michael Crichton certainly wasn't like George Orwell writing "1984", or Ayn Rand writing "Atlas Shrugged", both novels about things that could be seen at the time they were being written, but had a long way to go before they could be thought to sound like current events. No more. Now, reading both "1984" and "Atlas Shrugged" BOTH sound very much like the current state of things.

But Michael Crichton was alive while the full court press for global warming/climate change fear-mongering was in full swing, so it is accurate. Fear being used as a tool, and changing the population by indoctrinating the young, threatening industry with boycott, divestment, or sanctions (setting up protection rackets to profit from the threats) and personal attacks on those who disagree or speak out against them.

And it has metastasized through our culture, destroying personal freedom. There is a massive movement out there to protect you from yourself. Everything from legislation to limit behavior, building codes and consumer regulations (that inhibit industry to protect consumers from things that may be exceedingly rare) to sugary drinks or alcohol taxed in an attempt for a nanny state to discourage consumption and remove freedom of choice in matters.

People are so damn whipsawed by the relentless government, entertainment, and media that tells them one day that drinking wine is bad, and with a completely straight face, say the next day that it is good for you. There are people who listen to that crap and are always doing this or that because some news outlet or...Google...says you should or shouldn't do it for this reason or that reason.

There are people who, if they could do it, would wrap themselves in bubble wrap to prevent a skinned elbow, and force others to do it as well. For their own good.

It brings to mind that utterly famous quote by C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."

This constant state of fear is corrosive and destructive, and in nearly all cases, deliberately so.

People in fear will do things normal people in normal circumstances would not agree to. And there are people out there who understand and believe this in the most malignant of ways and nefarious of purposes.

your last sentence key focus, correct

now tie that into fear hysteria 24/7/365 from all majpr media, on purpose

and the fact they run this lie belief that not wearing a mask means you sont care, or want others to die, or that you’re killing others not wearing a mask

and the frigging vaxxers who believe they have a moral claim on others to be vaccinated, not for their own health, but for THEIR health

they don’t give a crap if you are damaged or die from the vaccine because its never been about YOUR health

you see because you have a moral or socieral obligation to be injured or die for others - they totally believe that

you dont get personal choice because their health fears trump your personal medical choices

and its even more control over people they could ever hope to achieve otherwise

Maybe that's what I missed early on. I never "saw images of people falling dead in the street in Communist China" at all. If you DID see anything like that, and reacted to it by letting your government run roughshod over you, then count yourself among the sheep who bought the totalitarian government propaganda -- hook, line and sinker.

When you live your life according to principles instead of childish emotion, you don't fall for this crap very easily. Some of us were "lone voices in the wilderness" even here on FR last year. Even at the very start of this fiasco when not a lot was known publicly, there were too many cases where the measures imposed were ludicrous and irrational by any objective measure. For example, I said from the start that it made no sense to shut down businesses and impose all kinds of pathetic mask mandates while the New York City subway system -- arguably the worst place on the planet in terms of transmission risk for diseases -- was still operating.

Some of us knew that "fifteen days to flatten the curve" was never going to end. I warned my business associates accordingly at the time: "Forget about fifteen days. If you accept this bullsh!t for even 15 minutes, you are never going to be doing 'business as usual' again."

I hope it was all worth it, folks. Now put your mask -- or is it three masks? -- on and wait for your instructions from Chairman Xao Bai Den.