Someone I know on the other side of the political aisle sent this to me.
https://www.tiktok.com/@supermantodd132/video/6994429118423026950?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowHnAvd2N9zp0%2B8PbLdgMkOFFE3X3YI7j3igwxVNhaCwykDQHn%2F7d3E4RbO1O7L3uWGgA%3D&checksum=ff942ec53f716e193c655125046923dc625db944f00ee1680a56314f0b1a762f&clips_cover_ab=v2&enable_clips=1&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAJyb1Twm4sDtKW8-ER3IGQfjNJMiy3I6xJidvLnrd4xi4mzs_22LBBGrWgMZkeVMc&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6994429118423026950&share_link_id=7F68C5BF-1121-448B-BC37-1E2328B9D3A1&source=h5_m×tamp=1628563561&tt_from=sms&u_code=db78hmalcbi4fl&user_id=6800567033995871238&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=sms&_r=1
By the time I got most of the way done watching it I was fed up.
This asshole’s thesis, and the thesis of a lot of people on the Left, regarding America and COVID is this:
If only Americans had simply given up their freedoms willingly, had only we immediately acquiesced to every government suggestion and mandate, if Americans were less interested in their individual rights and more focused on the good of the collective and be willing to sacrifice their happiness for the collective good, fewer people would have died and America would not be an embarrassment to the rest of the world.
Never mind the changing and contradictory narratives and mandates.
Never mind that lockdowns destroyed the livelihoods of people who don’t have the privilege of being able to work from home via VPN and teleconferencing.
Never mind that our children have been so damaged by lockdowns that more have committed suicide than died of COVID.
Never mind that alcoholism and drug abuse skyrocketed and more young people overdosed than died of COVID.
Never mind that COVID spending has driven record, economy shattering, inflation that is going to crush the working and middle classes.
Never mind that restrictions and mandates in other countries weren’t any more effective in reducing per-capita COVID deaths, and America is not a radical outlier in COVID deaths per 100,000 people, especially considering the number of major cities we have which is where the worst spread has occurred.
Never mind that our kids fell a year behind in school or more.
Never mind all the unintended terrible social side effects we’ve experienced.
No, the problem is that Americans are just stupid, selfish, boorish assholes who just can bring themselves to consider the common good for a year and obsequiously obey restrictions on their lifestyle of shotgunning Bud Lites while screaming “freedom, fuck yeah, ‘Murica!”
This belief is little more than using COVID to justify your hatred of America and advocating for totalitarianism, no matter how ineffective or inept it might be.
I’m just fucking tired of this.
Benjamin Franklin said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
He was right then and he’s right now.
These fucking people need a helicopter ride.
His learning disability has lead to madness.
A one-way helicopter ride?
All I can say is…. wow.
I have this conversation regularly with a friend, who is firmly on the right side of the political aisle, but is terrified of catching COVID. So, every time I question the “medical” experts, I get an earful about how the virus is not some kind of conspiracy.
Yes, I know that. The virus is real, and people are getting sick/dying because of it.
However, the reaction to the virus warrants questions. The response by the government (Federal, State, and Local) is questionable. The information coming out from the “experts” must be questioned. That is the “conspiracy” theory.
I am not resisting mask wearing and social distancing because I am Mr. Freedom at all costs. I am resisting it because it is meaningless. One in a million people are actually wearing their masks correctly, and putting a plexi shield between me and the cashier is just stupid if they are going to touch everything I am purchasing.
And, let’s consider the testing. Since when has testing the healthy become the norm? I have lived through several pandemics, and I do not recall having to test everyone who was in the same ZIP code of an infected individual. Why now?
Add to that the focus on “cases” not on hospitalizations or deaths. Why? Because the virus is doing EXACTLY what every other virus has done in the past. At first, it kills or sickens those that are susceptible, then it stops sickening/killing people. SARS did that, H1N1 did it, the Spanish Flu did it, heck, even Ebola does it.
Conspiracy theories are not about the virus itself, they are about the government response.
CBMTTek: yep.
“ZOMG! CASES!”. So, homie, what is a “case”?
Of those, how many, if any, are actually I’ll?
Of those, how many are appreciably (more than sniffles & cough) sick?
Of those, are any hospitalized? How many? And, hospitalized, why?
Lotsa numbers that we’re not seeing. Simply handwaving freakoutery.
And, as I pointed out before, the CDC adamantly resists publishing or discussing numbers. In every interview I see, CDC bigwigs speak of handwaving generalities, but never any numbers.
What a racist this guy is! Denouncing and blaming the BLM protests as just expressions of “freedom” and not a fight for our lives! Disparaging all the black and POC who are the largest group(s) of unvaccinated people! This is the type of subtle yet blatant racism the only white privledge allows! /sarc howd i do?
Like all “good” conspiracies this has a kernel of truth and is imaginable but the backflip he does to victim blame is nuts. He literally is saying China releases deadly virus to kill people as trial run for worse virus but its the USA’s fault for the death and spread… Wow. According to him the people who released it arent at fault for spreading it, the people who dont want to live under despotic rule as a response to it are to blame. Wow must be said again…
Couple problems here. First, most of the proles are math morons. They can’t grok percentages and what it means to them. Nor can they handle scale. So at the peak, the City had 3000 some odd deaths – in a city of 4 million. That’s a rounding error almost. The county 1 mile north of me? 32. In a county of 600K or so. That’s insignificant.
Second is that TPTB have lied, second guessed, and backpedaled so much there’s no telling what’s what these days.
Still, there are the gullible.
I was chatting with an older couple at church last Sunday about COVID. I pointed out that I new probably 1/2 dozen geezers in various shape that had it and shrugged it off. These two were utterly convinced that having had the virus, then getting the jab made you even more resistant to new strains – something patently, observably, false these days. Still, they would brook no argument, facts be damned.
So I no longer talk about this whatsoever unless I know the person.
TechieDude! I had thought that you knew better than to enter into theological discussions!
At this point, “facts” whatever they might actually be, do not matter. What appears to matter, is one’s fidelity to The Church Of Fauxi. (Or, at least, THIS weeks version of “Da Truff!”)
If he’s so convinced we did it wrong, I guess it’s time he learned about Sweden…