Posted on 12/30/2020 9:20:52 AM PST by Kaslin
Normalcy doesn’t proceed naturally from the moral universe we’ve generated over the past several months. We much change our minds to change our circumstances.
Amid the latest wave of COVID-19, those who believe in the necessity of lockdowns and masks are insisting the non-compliant minority is “the reason we can’t get back to normal.” That makes sense as long as you don’t take into account the history of COVID restrictions and their loose relationship with both the science and the metrics of the pandemic.
Most of the statewide mask mandates went into effect in the summer, for instance, when cases were at or near their lowest point. Teachers unions in major cities across the country fought reopening plans all through the summer, with Fairfax County, Va. teachers insisting on near-complete suppression of COVID’s local spread to reopen. The New York Times now insists, against available data, that even those who receive a highly effective vaccine for COVID-19 “still need to wear a mask.”
These restrictions and the attitude that drives them have little to do with the ever-shifting prevalence of COVID-19. We blame restrictions on the current COVID wave, or the threat of new waves, when what’s really happened is a paradigm shift in which normal behavior has been redefined as homicidally reckless.
Those who get COVID or accidentally spread it can be blamed and shamed and put on trial by the mob for “criminal” irresponsibility, even though the vast majority of those who contract the virus will recover. Not only is such a culture of fear and guilt crippling us socially, mentally, and economically, but it is keeping “normal” out of reach.
Just as COVID restrictions aren’t neatly tied to the virus’ spread due to this redefinition of social responsibility, neither will COVID restrictions be likely to fade away in proportion to declining infection rates. The uncomfortable truth is it doesn’t matter how many people get vaccinated or how few cases are reported each day; as long as people shame others and themselves for catching or unknowingly spreading COVID, “normal life” will have difficulty returning.
If a portion of the populace continues to live in fear that something they do might harm someone else, we’ll also face a long-term loss of liberty as we shift responsibility for our wellness, beyond COVID infections, from ourselves to other members of society and ultimately the government.
The problematic moral leap we’ve made regarding “protecting others” and “loving our neighbor” may not be immediately apparent, since currently we associate this rhetoric with the novel pandemic. But a simple thought experiment brings it to light.
Imagine if every bout of influenza, rotavirus, or pneumonia you ever had were tracked and traced the way health officials want to track COVID, capturing 100 percent of people you infected. You very likely could discover your infection “killed” someone somewhere down the line, maybe even several people.
The fear and guilt from realizing this would be petrifying. The process of informing close contacts you may have “exposed” would be utterly demoralizing. Under this mentality, how could those fortunate enough to be able to work from home and have groceries delivered possibly leave their houses with a clean conscience? And how could those who work outside the home avoid accumulating such heavy guilt?
Yet this is the view impressed upon us in the COVID era: if you dare violate any COVID edict, you may be a “grandma killer.” It paralyzes us with fear and sucks the joy out of life.
By contrast, the most workable understanding of responsibility, which we’ve mostly operated on until March of this year, is that an individual is responsible for his own welfare and any people under his care (i.e., his family). This encourages him to make more precise risk calculations based on unique individual circumstances instead of ham-handed government diktats, and frees him to go out and do things that directly benefit his family. If everyone is making their own risk calculations for themselves and their immediate loved ones, we don’t have to live in constant fear.
Within this framework, normal activities tend to bring a sense of fulfillment and joy instead of guilt and shame for unknown trouble we might have caused—things like going to work at a “non-essential” job to feed one’s family, gathering with believers to feed one’s soul, or simply giving a friend a much-needed embrace.
Try as we might to mitigate risks, bad things can and will happen. We have to choose how to deal with that: by living freely and without fear, or by letting fear pull us farther into dystopian social structures.
When responsibility is shifted to everyone else from vulnerable people and those who care for them directly, who can modify their behavior to mitigate real and present risks, it is ultimately the government who is held responsible for constraining their behavior. In Washington state, for example, residents aren’t allowed to have visitors over the holidays, churches aren’t allowed to sing together, dining in restaurants is prohibited, and people aren’t allowed to show their whole face in public indoor settings.
When COVID eventually fades from the headlines, this shift in responsibility could very well remain to constrain key liberties. We’ve already experienced a taste of it in recent years, as those on the left complain that some speech makes people feel “unsafe,” and that you are responsible for keeping them from feeling that way. We see signs of it in talk about “climate justice,” in which we’re all supposedly responsible for destroying the planet, leading to talk of emission-slashing lockdowns.
The morality employed during the pandemic could apply to many other things, from banning cigarettes and liquor, to forcing fast food restaurants to stop serving fattening foods and sugary sodas, to mandating a daily exercise regime a la “1984.” Think of all the lives we could save by “making some sacrifices,” right? If we want to “protect others,” then coercion from the state becomes a factor in nearly every aspect of life.
Normalcy doesn’t proceed naturally from the moral universe we’ve created over the past several months, even setting aside the heartbreaking destruction of jobs and businesses, the crushing blow to children’s welfare and academic success, and the deterioration of mental health the lockdowns caused.
We should appreciate the efforts of people who wear masks or stay home out of sincere concern for others, regardless of our convictions about such measures. We should love our neighbors and be considerate of their health.
At the same time, we must also return responsibility to individuals for their own wellbeing, understanding that sometimes tragedy strikes, and death and heartache are part of life. There is no “normal” until we do.
We can’t let these TYRANTS continue to use this virus to destroy our freedoms!
Al Sharpton in the houze!
Reality check.
COVID-19 is airborne.
That means, “in the air, everywhere”.
It is ENDEMIC.
We will ALL get exposed..over and over.
MANY of us will “test positive”, mostly without symptoms.
SOME of us will be “symptomatic”, and a subset will be really sick.
And (unfortunately) a FEW of us will die.
This is NOT the Bubonic plague.
This is NOT the Spanish Influenza.
Tear off that face diaper.
Breathe deeply. Inhale some COVID.
Build up your immune system.
And LIVE!
OK,there's a new virus to be added to list of thousands of viruses and bacteria.
My attitude toward such microbes is pretty much the same as George Carlin's in his youtube video called "germs".he uses foul language but makes very,very valid points.
Meanwhile those who KNOWINGLY spread AIDS are being exempted from criminal prosecution in states now. Laws were repealed.
Informed consent? What’s that???
Can we at least hang Andrew Cuomo as the worst mass murderer in American history?
How many animals have it? I’ve seen accounts of cats and dogs with it. What about birds?
In the late sixties there was a whale at Sea World that caught the flu that was going around.
Hell, they think not wearing a mask is tantamount to murder. Non-mask wearers are the new smokers.
I think it is time for me to throw away my masks!
Exactly!
Where the hell is pneumonia influenza or the common cold and all the other bugs are done around for hundreds of years now?
And life there’s always the dichotomy of risk versus reward
For example let’s take this stupid Covid vaccine , which is very risky with very little reward
Jumping out of an airplane with a parachute?
Cliff diving ?
Hang gliding?
Now there’s some serious risk
I recently had a family member give me a hard time because I blew my nose. Sure scientific evidence that I had COVID-19!!
I explained that it is Cold and Flu season and that the Common Cold was a common illness at this time of year and it would not be at all uncommon for me to have the Common Cold.
Post of the year.
Sweden and Belarus did just that and have reaped the rewards.
Helpful information to the world about easily available safe drugs that they knew were helpful; Remdesivir, Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine.
It was covered up! Dismissed by the World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control. And again the main stream media and the social media sites worked their butts off to dispute the information. Removing videos shared by the medical people wanting to help. And locking up the pages where people would try to post the evidence of treatments and/or cures!
It happened to me in May 2020 – I posted a video of doctors meeting on the steps of the US Supreme Court to share their experience of the use of the drug called Hydroxychloroquine. I received 30 days in Face Book jail for posting the video and trying to help get this info out there. The same video was posted by Donald Trump Jr. and it was blocked and banned from Twitter. You tube also took the video down.
Medical experts trying to get info out there to help and they're stopped by an agenda that we haven't figured out quite yet! In Minnesota it was reported that our governor Walz notified pharmacies, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Costco and told them NOT to fill prescriptions for this drug prescribed BY DOCTORS FOR THEIR PATIENTS! Ordered by governors! A drug that has been out there and being used for over 60 years and could have saved how many thousands of lives? AYFKM??? What was the agenda and who was writing it?
Next – a life saving compound also being hidden!
There's a simple compound which can be taken to reduce the risk of struggling with the virus. And once again it's something that is being covered up when it should be getting out there everywhere in the world. It includes Vitamin D3, Zinc, Magnesium. Published medical evaluation has shown that keeping these few items up in your system can reduce the chance of getting any virus infection by up to 80%…… YES 80% and that includes Covid-19! And the cost?…. About 10 cents per day total!
Please someone, tell me why this information hasn’t been made available all over the world.
How many hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved?
I was chased out my local 7-11 yesterday by four people f word flying into the the parking lot. There was a possible racial aspect to the episode but regardless. This shit is gonna get real in ‘21. These people would have had no problem getting extremely violent over my nonconformity.
Tear off that face diaper.Won't happen.
Breathe deeply.
Inhale some COVID.
Build up your immune system.
And LIVE!
The MSM branch of the Deep State is too powerful.
I have been saying since March that the worst part of this whole thing is that we are being conditioned to look at everyone as someone who can kill us. Tragic thing to do to our society.
Until all the vaccines have been given out.
I got super annoyed when at the onset of all this panic Ben Carson was on TV calling me in his ever so calm monotone way a possible murderer of my older parents for not complying with all Fauci’s and Gate’s directives. My noncompliance to communist humiliation rituals has cost me friends and family relationships on the skids big time over this. I can see this exacerbating to the point of full on violence over a freaking worthless mask in 2021 along with camps for dissenters.
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