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And why do you not state your opinion with regard to the thread topic?

This is probably a waste of time, but I’ll give it a go:

Here’s the central theme of the article:

“Every crisis becomes a religion if it lasts long enough.”

“One factor in that transformation is the Beautiful Theory phenomenon: the power elite insists its remedies are logical and politically correct so they MUST work, even if the actual evidence shows they obviously don’t.”

While I’ve made pretty clear statements of agreement with that, said remedies aren’t what you and I have been arguing about.

Here are some of the examples of my statements of my opinions supporting the article’s theme:

[…]
That those solutions [mask mandate and lockdowns] are helpful is not clear. The real solutions were keeping the economy going - which they largely failed at by state mandates - and to get a safe-enough vaccine.

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[...]

The issue here, is whether the mask-mandate and the lockdowns, for example, make an appreciable change compared to the - as you mentioned - increases in suicides and drug overdoses, as well as the effects a crippled economy, depression, and a variety of other ills.

One can still oppose the lockdowns and mask-mandates as each relatively ineffectual - even more so when compared to their costs - and meanwhile be able to do basic math and see that the disease is a substantial killer, as well as leaving several percent with additional longer-term health issues.

And it was a reasonable thing to try the lockdowns and masking last spring in some areas - but that they were ineffectual seems pretty clear since last May and there is no real excuse for them now.

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[...]
I’m not going to say that the masks cannot, if worn properly, be at least somewhat effective in certain situations and conditions - but for the most part and for most people it is exactly that: a talisman.