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What Will Historians Make of Our Annus Horribilis?
Townhall.com ^ | December 31, 2020 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 12/31/2020 3:46:38 AM PST by Kaslin

The year 2020 is now commonly dubbed the annus horribilis -- "the horrible year." The last 10 months certainly have been awful.

But then so was 1968, when both Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. The Tet Offensive escalated the Vietnam War and tore America apart. Race and anti-war riots rocked our major cities. Protesters fought with police at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A new influenza virus, H3N2 (the "Hong Kong flu"), killed some 100,000 Americans.

But an even worse 2020 saw the COVID-19 outbreak reach global pandemic proportions by March. Chinese officials mislead the world about the origins of the disease -- without apologies.

Authorities here in the U.S. were sometimes contradictory in declaring quarantines either effective or superfluous. Masks were discouraged and then mandated. Researchers initially did not know how exactly the virus spread, only that it could be lethal to those over 65 or with comorbidities.

Initial forecasts of 1 million to 2 million Americans dying from the virus unduly panicked the population. But earlier assurances that the death toll wouldn't reach 100,000 falsely reassured them.

By April, a historic, booming economy was in an abrupt recession. Much of the country went into quarantine on the theory of "flattening the curve" of infection for three to four weeks. Instead, weeks turned into months. Soon, many people believed that the economic wreckage and emotional damage from the lockdowns would eventually overshadow the toll of the virus itself.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 1619project; america; cancelculture; coronavirus; history
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1 posted on 12/31/2020 3:46:38 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

If they’re lucky, they will forget our horrible anuses.


2 posted on 12/31/2020 3:50:04 AM PST by DannyTN (i)
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To: Kaslin

In true Pravda fashion they will pretend it has been a great year when American en masse righted the wrong of 2016 and deposed dictator Trump.


3 posted on 12/31/2020 3:55:30 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

I wonder what gives VDH the belief this mad gang of dems will continue the Presidents economic strategies that helped us so much.


4 posted on 12/31/2020 4:05:09 AM PST by Track9 (English language instruction in china is sponsored by the CCP to facilitate espionage. )
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To: Track9

30 million illegal aliens will immediately be given citizenship and just as quickly receive all the “freebies.” The border will be thrown wide open and every sub 90 IQ Central American wil cone here to sit in their ever expanding asses and suck off you evil white people.

They will vote democrat as will the 4-5 children they produce and so in and so on.

Sorry to be Debbie downer but the USA can NOT recover from this. Election cheating has been sanctioned. If somehow Georgia’s senators win it won’t matter. The democrats will create states from Puerto Rico and DC, both bastions of corruption.

The communists have won without firing a shot


5 posted on 12/31/2020 4:15:02 AM PST by Josa
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To: Kaslin

I am praying that this pestilence that beset us will be put down and ridded and that years as good or better than the last four lie ahead. I am not in reference to the fake flu scamdemic that has also shot people.


6 posted on 12/31/2020 4:16:29 AM PST by Recompennation
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To: Kaslin

Chinese officials mislead the world about the origins of the disease — without apologies.

“mislead” how kind! no apologies, and if they did would we soy ok lets hold hands and sing kume by ya? pukes are at it again with milk toast we dont want offend editorials


7 posted on 12/31/2020 4:20:10 AM PST by ronnie raygun ( Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.")
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To: Kaslin

Horrible year, huh? I’m amazed at how may simpletons there are out there who think that we’ll be putting 2020 behind us with a flip of the calendar. 2020 is going to metastasize in 2021...


8 posted on 12/31/2020 4:46:38 AM PST by TalBlack (We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: TalBlack

You couldn’t be more right. 2020 is the scorpion course of the 2021 mamba pit meal.


9 posted on 12/31/2020 4:49:57 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: Kaslin
No one disputes that the 2020 campaign and election were abnormal. Whether they were unfair or illegitimate will likely be readjudicated in the 2022 midterm and 2024 general elections.

Disappointing article by VDH. He's gone back to being the weak, hand-wringing pundit he was before Trump's election gave him a little spine. A man as smart as VDH really cannot comprehend the blatant evidence of voter fraud by the dems? Or is he worried about losing his gigs on Fox? He's become a good spokesman for the lily-livered GOPe.

Surly he understands that if the dems are allowed to complete this election theft, there will be no more contested elections. No more surprise wins by a conservative. The left will simply steal what they want to maintain power. He knows this, but he is too timid to state it openly.

10 posted on 12/31/2020 4:57:41 AM PST by Blennos ( )
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To: RinaseaofDs

Well put. I usually find VDH instructive but he’s a Pollyanna on the near future. The people who will really run this country after this stolen election are hard core leftists who learned from Obama’s failures that you push, and push hard to achieve radical goals while you are in office and have the chance. If I had one big problem with Trump, it was personnel - he never should have let people like Christie pick disloyal ones for key posts, like FBI. The Dems won’t make this mistake - everything they get is from government and harvested from the pockets of taxpayers. Americans can get as angry as they want in the next four years - it may not matter and it may come to the point as in old Communist Russia where they described lines for the crappy food that was available - “everyone was grumbling but none too loudly”>


11 posted on 12/31/2020 5:02:45 AM PST by laconic
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To: Kaslin

‘Someone’ decided that 2020 is the year that launches the end of the Republic, subjugating we the people via fear and authoritarian mandates.


12 posted on 12/31/2020 5:05:54 AM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Kaslin
No one disputes that the 2020 campaign and election were abnormal. Whether they were unfair or illegitimate will likely be readjudicated in the 2022 midterm and 2024 general elections. By then, the people will have had time to digest the bizarre events of the annus horribilis -- and with their votes make the necessary compensations.

This guy actually thinks elections are going to be a means of changing things, after THIS election?!

13 posted on 12/31/2020 5:28:49 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: kearnyirish2

Yes, there’s a winner here.


14 posted on 12/31/2020 5:31:40 AM PST by zek157
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To: Kaslin

Let’s just hope 2021 isn’t an annus more horribilis.


15 posted on 12/31/2020 5:32:51 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Kaslin

Worst.
VDH.
Ever.


16 posted on 12/31/2020 5:35:41 AM PST by Lazamataz (America is a carcass, to be plundered.)
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To: RinaseaofDs

Any year that Trump is President is a good year.


17 posted on 12/31/2020 5:41:29 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Kaslin

Anus horribilis...I thought it was going to be about Obama.


18 posted on 12/31/2020 5:47:43 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Kaslin

Anus horribilis...I thought it was going to be about Obama.


19 posted on 12/31/2020 5:47:48 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Kaslin
This has been, by far, the worst year of my life in many cases, but that says more about how good my life has been up to this than how bad this year has been.

I have never had to go hungry. I have never had to leave my home with my belongings on my back and no shoes. I have been able to work. I have been able to pay my bills. I have been able to take vacations.

And for that, I am exceedingly grateful because I recognize just how fortunate I am.

That said, the most pain I have encountered is having to watch over the course of this year what I perceive to be the beginning of the death throes of this country due to the destruction of the Constitution and rule of law, and the corrupted election process and political action/inaction that not only enabled and encouraged it, but deliberately looked the other way in the face of obvious and overwhelming evidence of widespread and coordinated election fraud. That includes leftist legal actions, mostly successful leading up the election that accommodated this fraud.

The second most "pain" has been to watch the sheep-like acquiescence of formerly independent Americans to allow the subjugation of their rights on the pretense of a pandemic that is being treated as if it were far more deadly than it is.

As Benjamin Franklin once famously said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

And we have shown ourselves (to enemies of this Republic, both foreign and domestic) who have been watching eagerly for this) that we are those kind of people as a nation.

Most distressing, we have not only revealed ourselves in this fashion to domestic tyrants who will exploit this, we have also revealed it to unfriendly eyes around the world who wish us ill. Does anyone think we have seen the end of this in that light, that those hostile eyes watching have not taken notice of what worked, and how well it worked?

I don't.

20 posted on 12/31/2020 5:53:59 AM PST by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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