This country has been subjected to so many stupid and scandalous actions by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party, it's astonishing they got re-elected even with a minority in 2019.
The nature of the scandals are such that people go to prison for.
But not in Canada they do. In Canada, we have all sorts of toothless 'Acts' such as the 'Conflict of Interest Act' that allow for investigations to take place to the tune of millions in tax dollars only to issue a 'Bad boy. Don't do that again'.
The media has severely under played Trudeau's antics. Of course, they're being bribed subsidized now- so they can't actually do some real journalism and take him to task. He's their sugar daddy.
Sure, there are some who do but as a whole? The news organizations with the biggest teeth are timid and hold water for him. That includes the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, CBC and the once decently conservative National Post.
There's little dignity and honour left in this country.
Trudeau and Morneau commit ethics violations, apologize and move on. A big laugh and spit to the faces of Canadians.
And so it will be with WE. A pair of corrupt politicians scammed their way into taking gifts and paying family members with tax dollars and nothing will be done.
What's most interesting is everything Trump is alleged to have done either never happened or was blown way out of proportion. Trudeau, on the other hand, is exactly what the left claim Trump is: A corrupted criminal.
This a 'new normal' Canadians should be outraged about.
But like they accept tyrants like Doug Ford, removal of civil liberties in the form of lockdowns and mask mandates, their agreeable nature will not only allow for cynicism to set in but may even get possibly one of the most corrupted government in Canadian history elected again.
If there was an ounce of honour in these two, they'd resign for the sake of this country's integrity.
I think the pandemic has made people weary. There's only so much you can tolerate. There's only so much angst to manage in the mental and physical tank.
It must be incredibly frustrating to go into work each day having to put up with Covid protocols (which is slowly grinding people's souls to a slow halt thanks to sociopath politicians obvious to the mental health of the population) and the activism of social justice ravaging boardrooms and break rooms across the continent. Particularly in major corporations who haven't figured out how the left plays the game. First the infiltrate with Bambi eyes and ensnare you with seduction and pull you to their side. Then they use you and eventually turn on you. That makes you a useful idiot.
The vast - vast - majority of people aren't racists. They're not mean or hate diversity. They just want to work and get back to their private lives in peace. But the woke-scolds won't let people do that.
They've politicized every single aspect of our lives. It's become impossible to enjoy anything. You can't go to a concert without some musicians imparting their political views. You can't watch sports without politics infused in it and so on.
It's bound to present a backlash. People need outlets but there are none at the moment.
The best way to deal with this is to stand up to the social justice bullies. If you don't, you get the mayhem you see in places like Portland. That chick in your office sprouting of Di Angelo gibberish? Her views end up with some cuck hurling a mortar at a Federal court house. They're destructive people. Nihilists.
Illiberal and illiterate to such a degree they're a lost generation.
The Sarah Dixon's of this world (the idiot who removed a Quebec petition at Change.org) are poison to everything that is just and right.
The problem with these social media companies is they want to do good but aren't sufficiently intellectually equipped to handle it. These people aren't remotely close to understanding want drives human nature and are ignorant to the point of being dangerous because all they can do is censor whenever they're confronted with differing views - which are often legitimate views that just happen to go against the social justice zeitgeist.
These haven't read Descartes or Aristotle. Worse, they don't want to. They just "know" in their hearts what's 'right" and "moral'.
Another way to handle them is to spot who they are and get rid of them. Don't let them grow like a cancer in your company. Just catch it early and cut it loose. There's a narcissistic, self-entitled edge to them that can threaten the entire well-being of not only the company but the mental health of neutral employees.
Goya stood up to them and Red Bull cut two executives loose. It was the absolute right thing to do.
That's how you handle a cult.
I'm sure there, these days, millions of people just too afraid to voice their opinions across the board. This is where companies have to realize that actually hurts them because it means ideas are being suppressed and this translates into a lack of creativity eventually settling into stagnation.
All you'll be left with is a gutter alley way filled with empty virtue-signalling platitudes and boxes.
Naturally, the usual suspects will lash out and scream, I gather, 'hate speech!' and 'racist!' and 'lack of diversity!' and all that garbage. It's all they know. It's all they've got.
Don't you dare say that! Blacks can't be racist. Besides, 1619 makes clear that the Original Sin of slavery can't ever be forgotten. It must be held like a Sword of Damocles over the heads of all whites for al eternity. It's the greatest shakedown in history.
But eventually a vapid world view collapses under its own light-weight.
So hold the line I say. Find the courage to just stand firm. It just might set you free.
And watch your companies and companies flourish once the harpies fly off on their broom sticks.
For me it all comes down to one thing: We locked down healthy people for the first time in world history. And we didn't do it because we learned anything new about how to deal with novel viruses. We did it because we bought into faulty models predicting millions of deaths.
Once that didn't happen, we should have revered course.
Instead we're doubling down along with mask mandates.
All we're doing is delaying the inevitable and in the process we causing all sorts of shocks and damage to our psyche and economy.
***** That's it for now. Live your life. Every passing day is precious. Don't let them take it from you. Taw-taw.
*****
Wait one more:
The stupidity of it all.
******
The enormous costs of the lockdowns have been discussed here endlessly.
What about other costs?
So far, here are a couple up front consequences of the pandemic.
1) Increased and expanded powers of government. See Doug Ford and other state governors.
2) Friction between citizens. See woman who maced couple.
3) Coercion of behavioural modification through the coercion of the state executed by police. The Quebec government coyly turned businesses into de facto arms of the government to enforce their decree.
This is just there up front observations any person should detect and NOT take lightly.
In any event, I don't think it's about the virus anymore. It's just part of the overall equation of what's going on in 2020. Th riots, the culture war, the obscene media bias, TDS and the pandemic are all inter-related somehow. Within that lies the shallowness of intellectual and political and credentialed classes just plain making worse of a mess.
The voices you should pay close attention to are the progressives who are pulling back closer to a liberal root. For example, Matt Taibbi and other progressive personalities who have the wit and courage to see what many have already observed. They're an important voice in this puzzle and battle we must overcome.
People are angry. In 2016 that manifested itself in the election of Donald Trump. In those four years, the losing party refused to take stock of what went wrong instead choosing the plunge the country into an incredibly acrimonious period based on vicious lies and innuendos. Four years lost to bring the country together. The same political party was lashing out so incoherently like Damien in Church, the lack of self-awareness and odious double-standards so overt to a sober mind.
I find it hard to believe Joe Biden could win. Worse still, the idea he could win with Kamala Harris as his VP. Two long-time swamp creatures experts in navigating through its murky and deeply rotten waters.
In the meantime, moving forward, the coronavirus - it's best to remember - is just part of the political machinery now.
We're not a good trajectory. There's a malaise across the board.
We need to take our sovereignty back.
All these riots and protests we're seeing aren't rooted in a righteous and principled movement but a dizzyingly lost one. What we're seeing unfolding is a an attempt by the far left to establish firm control of their islands with the media fully on board partly because it is Marxist in orientation and partly because they see it as a cynical wedge to challenge and undermine Trump.
The governments of the West are increasingly powerless to quell these revolts but at the same time are all too prepared to further concentrate power as we're seeing with the pandemic to control peaceful and law-abiding citizens.
We're seeing a slow change away from a Federation and more one like how the Visigoths overtook Spain after the fall of Rome. Is this what people want?
Social media giants are increasingly aggressive and hostile against speech and new players in the markets. We see people losing their jobs for having an opinion often dangerously mischaracterized in the media as 'alt-right extremism'. They've created a narrative where a non-existent threat (be it Nazis or even the virus) is about to destroy us while the real threat is on in the streets burning down property and murdering. The shooting has begun. They're in our board rooms as well.
Woke executives are seizing this to see how they can further profit off consumers. When a social media gangs up on a website labeling it 'wrong think' we're ready on a bad path. When credit card companies like Mastercard and Visa cut access to credit for people tagged 'undesirable' this is startling. It can ruin a life merely for having an opinion. The list of this sort of stuff goes on and on.
Let us not speak of what has happened to our institutions of higher learning and public education. They're all but dead now. The rot is deep from within.
I've taken to saying politicians are psychopaths and I judge this on their actions. If a politician expands powers like Ford did, it's not in the interest of the people. He weakened democracy based on a health crisis that's largely under control. Our governments are preparing us for endless cycles of lockdowns.
They extort people now. If you don't do this, we'll shut you down.
So what can you do?
Well.
Stop binge watching for starters. Extricate yourself from the poison in our midst. Stop watching sports and its embrace of propaganda. BLM is not a good organization with a good message. It's a bad organization with a bad message. My saying this, if I mattered, would cost me a lot.
Start focusing on what's going on. The left is forcing you to choose a side. They're banking that your ignorance will lazily lead you into their arms.
Read. Shift your interests to people offering unique and dissenting views on youtube channels and various publications. There's a war against them too (think Twitter shutting accounts of conservatives but leaving truly vile rhetoric from far left racists like Antifa, Farrakhan and Jemele Hill and their ilk) but the more of us who join and listen, the stonier and louder we get.
Boy, this WE charity scandal is all kinds dirty. How Trudeau remains leader of the Liberals; let alone Canada is a mystery. He's been found guilty of four ethics violations already and is under investigation again. Unfortunately, the politicized RCMP won't do anything - again. Neither will the media of course because, well, they're on the take now and have to maintain the hand that feeds it.
Still. Seriously, have some self-dignity already and resign. At some point the Liberals have to protect their image and brand. The identity politics train is running out of track. People, I think, are just getting tired of it and in some sense perhaps even see the division and angst it has caused.
There's a certain sociopathic feel to these two and their never-ending apologies.
Still more loathsome (yes, they can go lower than setting up a scam off the backs of the youth) is they're now about to make a junior Minister take the fall. A woman of course.
The two biggest yappers about women's rights have never thought twice to throw women under the bus to save their sorry asses.
Problem is Screech Chrystia would potentially become temporary PM if Justin leaves. Which he won't.
I used to watch her on The McLoughlin Group and thought to myself she was a waste of space. I had no idea why she was on. I don't think I ever saw her offer single original or thoughtful point. She'd just bop her head and agree like mid-wit.
And then comes allegations of harassment and a toxic environment in the Governor-General's office of Julie Payette.
Boy, the Liberals are paragons of integrity.
That integrity of Canada has been severely strained since 2015.
I implore you to engage and follow the evidence to see if the masks mandates work. Don't just blindly put them on and pretend you're special for being able to change.
There's more at stake than you think.
So pay close attention. The data and science is already not on your side for agreeing to mask mandates. Now the least you can do is do the work yourself. Be CITIZENS.
There's a price to pay for pandering to the lowest common denominator and bending to public opinion.
Low IQ people aren't able to consider context and mid-wits are just as bad.
This is what you get: A scared society. And when people are scared they do crazy things.
I should title that 'Things you won't see in Sweden.'
Other things you wont' see in Sweden is the outrageous unleashing of the police state on people across North America. People have been fined, cuffed, roughed up, and arrested during this pandemic.
On this count alone Sweden shows its superiority to us.
You won't see Swedes looking at one another as if they're a threat to them. Yet, here, through our short-sighted thinking, that's exactly what we've done.
This is why I think public officials are psychopathic incompetents.
Where Dr. Tengell speaks with honesty, maturity and pragmatism, our own Dr. Tam is out shooting off her mouth again doing her part to keep people in fear calling recent spikes as 'worrisome'.
Why? Why constantly scare people? It's obtuse, unacceptable and points to the low grade caliber of our leaders. Doug Ford in particular is just about the biggest tyrannical pumpkin during this pandemic followed closely by Legault and Trudeau. Miscreants looking to latch on to that lever of power for its own sake.
Then there's our dear Dr. Fauci. Hero to the left. He who has made so many missteps it's ever a wonder people still revere him. In a normal time with more sharp witted minds, Fauci is tar and feathered. This man once again says the country needs to stay under a police state (ie lockdown) for two years.
Ok. You want to close it you shnook? We start with you losing your job. Lead by example.
Already the unintended consequences of the lockdowns have reared an ugly head too difficult to fathom with the loss and destruction of lives.
And this miserable man wants to PROLONG THE MISERY?! He’s another one now I think is a psychopath and is acting with malice.
I'm looking at the case of the Czech Republic. They were among the first countries to 'mask up' in March and by May they were pretty much done.
Of course, we don't know to what it extent it worked but there were psychological fall outs that lingered. We're in July now so I don't know if people overcame these after shocks of 'getting used' to wearing a diaper on their mouth.
"...The psychological effect was clear on Monday, as many people continued to wear masks outdoors despite the ending of the regulation. Some said they did not know why they continued to wear them despite it no longer being required.”
“I was in some institutions this morning that don’t allow people in without masks, but I have just become used to it,” said Natasha Manakoski, a 35-year-old architect walking through a square in Prague’s fashionable Vinohrady neighbourhood wearing a black mask, in common with many other pedestrians.
“Maybe I feel a little bit safer with the mask, although it feels better without it....”
This is what’s going to happen here. It’s behavioural modification based on bad science.
"Pub and restaurant-goers are also expected to keep wearing masks when not eating or drinking.
“In reality, the rule has become inconsistently observed lately. The limited reopening of bars and cafes to provide pavement service on 11 May created the anomalous situation of pedestrians wearing masks passing by busy table areas populated by drinkers not wearing them. Parents accompanying their children to parks have increasingly neglected to cover their faces."
I’ve detected a change in tone with Trump. He’s gonna play along about the coronavirus (I’m almost certain he thinks it’s overblown but he has to pander a little here) so as to not ruffle people for no reason. People will interpret as him 'seeing the light' but he's just playing them in my view. Since they're so easy to fool.
The problem we must address somehow in the age of Covid-19 is to somehow find a mechanism to measure a man's or woman's character and intelligence when serving as a politician.
For me, this pandemic has left me disappointed and disgusted with the quality of leadership.
They're cynically using it to further entrench power. They're like Frodo incapable of resisting. The power to erase our liberties was there and they took it. The sons of bitches like Doug Ford took it. Justin Trudeau - surprise - tried and was thankfully pushed back.
Canadians are being ill-served by low character men.
The only saving grace is the people in power. Be it Cuomo or Murphy. Whitmore or De Wine. Ford or Legault.
Largely lack a unified ethos and thus prevents them from enacting more sinister measures - though I think lockdowns are pretty sinister.
They're incompetent people who lack vision or original thought. All they can do is use coercion and copy others.
This is why they seek more power. They lack internal fortitude and an innate ability to lead nations of men.
Our system, in its current form, attack pathological people. Sociopaths and narcissists.
And, if we don't preserve our freedom and cherish it, they will lead us down a path to destruction.
It doesn't take much other than....No, I do not wish to accept this decree.
Remember the '90s? I sure do. Filled with cautious optimism only a Gen Xer can. We went on and became solid citizens. Good parents if I may say so. We were cynics and skeptics. The original gamers tempered with a love of physical activity. We rode bikes. Hung out by dams and in forests. We were independent and thought independent. We were (and remain) the coolest of generations. Not the greatest (because there's only one great generation in the 20th century) but Sinatra-punk cool.
We lived the lives like characters in a Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen song. We loved democracy and freedom and understood commies were ruthless and evil.
In 2020, governments are stealing that which we worked for. They smile with a magical glee waiting to lock down and force social engineering on us.
My advice to all the generations after us: LIVE FREE OR DIE. Do NOT ever take shit from government. They serve the PEOPLE. Not the other way around.
Don't give up your precious freedoms for fear. DO NOT.
Now I am bitter and disappointed at the moment as I look back on a time when I thought I played by the rules no one could take that away from me.
How I was wrong. I was locked downed and nearly lost my business. I can't forgive this.
Imagine being a scientist who has been researching masks for years well before this pandemic hit and having your work ignored and mocked under a deluge of politics and faux-virtue. Imagine years of work only to discover it's inconvenient as popular sloppy research takes centre stage. That's what I've noticed. Anyway. The mask hysteria taps into our worst inner-fears. But this can't happen here. Nope. No way. We're way too intelligent for that. Have you seen how we've handled the pandemic? Sweden should be copying us!
We only publicly shame people on the radio, ignore the science and weaponize businesses to coerce people in a behavioural changing action. But we will NOT use physical harm! We draw the line at that....unless people refuse to comply of course. I find it extremely distressing the governments of Canada and the United States are issuing decrees like emperors without calling in their respective legislatures. An engaged society would not tolerate this behavior. Its an abuse of power for its own sake.
Remember. These decrees are being done while various legislatures aren't in session.
Ford nation my ass. He's a petty tin pot dictator now.
I'm starting to get the feeling psychopaths - not sociopaths - are leading us.
These people DO NOT give a shit about you. Get that through your thick, naive skulls. And you only began to care because they told you to care. You're not following science because you're too lazy and stupid to go and search it out yourself. You'd rather follow orders and go on the internet to science-plain 'viral loads' to others. You may think you're smart but you just reveal yourself to be a mid-wit playing a useful idiot part.
Ask yourself this. Do you actually think they were a mask beyond their little propaganda play before the cameras? Heck, they probably know the masks are bull shit for the most part.
And if someone feels the need to proclaim publicly they're doing it for others, chances are they're a broken person who doesn't care about humanity other than virtue signalling.
I'm at the point in my life now where I'm going to retrench and watch this hysteria pass.
My only concern is how much more of our liberties will they steal because of this virus.
The implementation of mass mandatory mask at this point makes no sense.
None.
Not even on a precautionary level does it make sense. But we've traumatized people so badly they don't want to move on with their lives. And they may have to wait still more if they're relying on a vaccine.
But there's little we can do at the moment. This superstition is in full gear now and it's likely to get worse before it gets better.
It really is tragic people aren't even questioning the fact that this is less temporary and more indefinite. Still more creepy is looking at the avatars of politicians in masks. Something strikes me as plain wrong with that.
And the evidence to which they based their decision is weak and specious.
The media frames the debate as though, surprise, the science behind the mask mandates is signed, sealed and delivered. You'll read vague terms like 'growing body of evidence' often with no links or reference (it just "is" see?) or they refer to a PNAS study or The Lancet. In some places, an obscure (right, me calling someone obscure is indeed rich but hey...) computer scientist named Jeremy Howard has become to the mask movement what Algore the engineer is to climate change.
But the body of evidence sides with the 'recalcitrants'. Those singled out for being uncooperative.
How's that for troubling Gulagish language?
While the media reports on its development, it could be false hope. Oxford experts working on one have said the virus is disappearing too fast and aren't able to test as a result of it.
So what is going on?
In the meantime, the body of evidence does not support mandating masks.
It supports, if you want, at best voluntary action. In the absence of evidence, this is as far as we can go without sacrificing freedom.
If 70%, for example, of people want to wear them or private businesses opt for them as a requirement, I'd have no issue with that.
It's when the government steps in where we should proceed with caution.
The really troubling part is people haven't realized how bad the lockdown were mostly because they think the virus did it when in fact it was government with the support of the population.
If they didn't bother to examine the results, I imagine they will do so even less with masks.
We're not citizens at the moment. We're ruled as subjects.
******
I was thinking about the lockdowns from a philosophical perspective (which inevitable includes the - don't say it! - economic aspect). As repeated (to mind-numbing levels) here, the 'unseen' of this questionable and heavy handed response was going to lead us to a place where the cure was bound to be worse than the disease.
Sure enough, slowly but surely, this is becoming more and ore the case.
Now we're starting to see reports of the trade-off of having locked down.
'If it could save one life' may have cost 200 000 lives in the UK alone.
Is this a good trade-off?
The calculus of the lockdown was to stop the spread and now, along with mandatory masks, an impossible and unreasonable attempt to save every life but the negative trade off can't sustain this hope and claim.
How can it? How can a politician say, 'Hey, for every person saved from Covid-19, it only cost 199 999 lives!'?
It can't. I submit it's in fact immoral to do so and traverses into malice.
If the metric is deaths, you can't only look at only one side of the ledger and not the other. Once we look at the other side, Sweden clearly comes out on top. It's not a competition to see who 'saves' more lives as a means to an end. It's about managing your society without compromising, again, its mental health, economy and freedoms.
This goes along with the other 'unseen' fall outs repeated ad nauseam on this blog and so what's one more time:
-Increased suicides.
-Domestic abuse (child and woman).
-Alcoholism.
-Bankruptcies.
-Double digit negative growth.
-Unemployment greater than the Great Depression. 10 million of those job losses are expected to be permanent.
-Exacerbation of mental illness including OCD and loneliness.
-Mass starvation.
-People not getting treatment for health issues.
-Stockholm Syndrome. It's been taken to such an extreme that in Germany they prevented people from conducting mouth to mouth resuscitation while performing CPR likely causing to still more needless deaths.
We're talking millions and in some cases hundreds of millions impacted.
To say nothing of people not being able to see or bury loved ones.
Or the crime of the elderly of dying of thirst or starvation - as well as the disease - nursing homes. What are we doing to our youth? We're depriving them of enjoying their prime years and filling them with angst. Especially pernicious is the fact they're not in danger.
What about a 16 year-old who won't get their Sweet Sixteen party? The athlete who got recruited at a big school but lost it? People's lives have permanently been altered.
Seems to me if you're truly a humanist this factors into how you view a lockdown, no?
Sweden basically showed a lockdown was unnecessary. People who keep focusing on the deaths in long-term facilities as proof their decision failed are really stretching it.
It really doesn't disprove Sweden erred in their decision especially considering several countries made this miscalculation including the USA and Canada. Sweden is coming out of this with their mental health and freedms in tact.
They're actually following the science and not letting the virus dictate policy. Countries like Germany, the UK, Italy, France, Canada, and the USA are doing the opposite.
******
A quick word on selfishness as noted above.
It's often said people who don't wear masks are 'selfish'.
But people who support lockdowns often will admit it's because it's mostly about them not wanting to get the virus.
I don't need someone lecturing about how they're 'thinking about my health'. I'm old enough to make that decision for me. In any event, this kind of paternalism stinks of patronizing and pompous nonsense.
Like they really give a shit.
So who exactly are the uncooperative and selfish here. People insisting on not following the science on masks to me are the uncooperative ones and the selfish are the ones who think lockdowns are a legitimate way to 'fight' a virus or obtusely want to keep schools closed projecting their fears onto children.
The most concerning part is people are likely falling in line with the masks mandates because they believe a vaccine is imminent. This may or may not be the case. The media is certainly claiming it is. But what if it turns out to be false hope? Back in May Oxford experts worried the virus was disappearing to fast threatening finding a vaccine. This seems to have changed but worth keeping an eye out for.
Very little seems to make sense at the moment. Not sure how Quebec can justify, for example, its mandates on these grounds indefinitely.
As noted in a previous post, I think Sweden did the West a service.
Notice how he admits he doesn't know. Humility is key to sound judgement.
Why don't we have this in North America? Fauci is far from this.
We need to realize considering trade-offs for selected measures is not bad. It's in fact necessary because it's pretty clear the unintended consequences have already shown the cure is worse than the disease so Dr. Tegnell deserves an enormous amount of credit for having the courage to make this calculation. For example, if the measures are mean to 'save every life' how many lives will it cost through Bastiat's 'unseen' via, say, suicides and starvation due to loss of income? Western governments still refuse to look at this and they're repeating this error with the mass mask mandates in my view.
If they succeed they've actually presented us a gift on how not to react. Specifically with draconian measures that perpetuate hysteria. Dr. Tegnell will have steered his country through this crisis having preserved its mental health and freedoms.
I'm disappointed with Canada and the United States (save for some states and maybe one province) which is my neck of the woods. The way we're acting now will determine how we live with the virus and it concerns me we're not taking a more enlightened and realistic approach. We seem to be letting the virus control us.
I'm actually envious and wish Sweden luck. England once defiantly proclaimed, 'Keep Calm and Carry On' but it's Sweden who holds that torch now.
As for Quebec, there's no excuse to keep schools closed on any level. Open them all up right up to Secondary 5. They've paid enough of a price having lost four months this year.
Education by zoom is cheating them.
I'm tired of people claiming they 'follow the science' when we know the science clearly sates the kids are not in danger.
Open the damn schools and stop over thinking and pretending your can manage this virus.
It's here. Be courageous and lead. Don't let it control us.
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good," --C.S. Lewis
Like a person infected with TDS, I won't bother to try and discuss the effectiveness of masks with a believer. It makes them feel too good and safe.
On a voluntary basis, this is not a problem. It's when this person's view prevails and becomes mandated it becomes more pernicious. I want to make this point clear from the onset. I really don't have a problem with masks as a voluntary act. Nor will you be seeing me in the news making a scene. It's not worth the hassle. Though if I do get ticketed I may contest it or just frame it as a badge of honour. You can't fight City Hall in the middle of a mass hysteria. So I'll just quietly readjust my shopping patterns to online shopping if the borders open, hopefully the mask mandate virus won't hit the spots I enjoy going to. I just don't think at this stage in the game it's all that rational and above all, don't think it's justified based on the science. I mean, we're always told how everyone 'follows the science'. I think it's clear they follow the science they want to follow and the rest they expect orders to take over.
Let me be as blunt as possible:
Medical masks are USELESS in a public setting.
And cloth mask research does show some benefits, it's not backed by empirical evidence.
Yet, the belief in its effectiveness (you can just sense people in their minds trying to bend spoons so to speak) has taken another more pernicious turn. In the absence of evidence, go for the emotions.
One woman from some tabloid channel called CNN was blaming the Governor of Texas for the the death of her grandmother because he didn't make masks mandatory earlier. Apparently, this belief can be applied retro-actively. We have zero evidence a mask would have saved lives. The very idea of masks = saved lives is rooted in pure bunk science.
Another fallacy circulating is the reason why schools are closed is because people didn't wear masks.
This one really angers me.
The utter superstitious arrogance of people who have the audacity to make this specious and pseudo-scientific claim don't realize their thoughtless stupidity is akin to child abuse if you ask me.
If they're so into 'following the science' they'd know this virus doesn't impact children like it does other demographics - specifically the elderly. Nor do are they main spreaders of it. They're making the kids pay a price for their ignorance that crosses into malice. Not to mention they project their fears onto them. Such people should be tongue-lashed with a lesson.
Truly despicable morons.
"Mother should have faith in life, hence not be overanxious, and thus not infect the child with her anxiety. Part of her life should be the wish that the child become independent and eventually separate from her. Father's love should be guided by principles and expectations; it should be patient and tolerant, rather than threatening and authoritarian. It should give the growing child an increasing sense of competence and eventually permit him to become his own authority and to dispense with that of father."
Eric Fromm.
Moving on.
And if you care to carefully observe, the way these things are being used, may as well go maskless.
We truly are teaching people to form habits based on specious science.
We don't accept specious logic in other areas, so why should we here?
James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, warns of impetuous mobs or factions "united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
In just, what, five days into this foul mandate and we've had a Keystone Cops inspire arrest and an attack on free speech towards a teacher who was expressing their opinions - some of it conspiratorial in nature - in Montreal. I'm sorry, I see no difference in a teacher who has conspiracies about 5G Networks and one who teachers racist, Propaganda from a Marxist group like BLM. In fact, the latter is far more dangerous because I'm sure that's actually being taught or discussed in class. I doubt this teacher discussed mandatory vaccines (which by the way, is not exclusively the domain of conspiracy theories as Alan Dershowitz publicly calls for them).
This doesn't bother people because most want to just get on with it, but it does for me because it's not about the masks but the about human psychology and its propensity to suspend rational thought if they believe they're doing good.
In the absence of hard, empirical evidence as is the case for masks (sorry Pro-Maskers. The science is on the other side. And as such doesn't back up mandating them), we sort to emotional ploys to submit to authority.
'I'm doing it for others', for example, is oneway to get someone to go along with the notion they're doing good (without considering the potential trade-offs that may question this).
After all, what kind of a selfish person wouldn't want to do it?
We should reject this notion as Madison warned. Go to the evidence. If the evidence says do it, do it. If it doesn't, it doesn't mean you shouldn't. It could very well have some beneficial impacts. The difference is in the voluntary/obligatory calculus.
I don't think the evidence justifies mandating masks though I don't have a problem if people feel strongly enough to to wear them voluntarily.
That's what it means to be free.
You avoid tyranny of the majority or minority by this simple axiom respecting others. But we've just signalled to the government 'yes, take us if you protect us!'
Ah! But you feel that person is potentially doing you harm if they don't comply. So much so you consent to allowing the government to use coercion through the police to force people into soothing your fears. It's my contention that the second you accept this under the guise of security, you lost the plot and are in fact in the wrong because you just created a police state.
Just because you think your cause is just doesn't make it not so. Right now in Quebec and other places, we're in a benign police state that increase at the whim of its leaders. Citizens aren't allowed to move around with personal agency. They must live under the threat of a fine.
The trickery of the Orwellian 'mask is liberty' notion is meant to deflect from this fact. It's not liberty. It's slavery. It's the Sword of Damocles on your neck.
Statistically and scientifically, there's no justification for an indefinite mask mandate. At this point, the government probably now sees a nice gaping hole to exploit should they need it.
People who read history probably view it through the lens of 'we'd never do that because we're so much more evolved'.
This is a mistake. The way you should read it is, how would you fit in this story? One of Dr. Peterson's main over arching message is our inability to confront our proclivity to do harm or evil.
On any level on any degree. For example, censoring someone's opinion may seem harmless if you believe hate speech is real. But hate speech is meaningless on its own as there's only just speech. Once we accept this iron-clad reality, you will will you're not only doing harm to the person (think how you'd feel if you were silenced for you opinion) but the community and nation at large.
When people read history, there's a tendency to read it as if it was just a tale disconnected from the universal laws of human nature that apply to all of us throughout our existence. We read it and think that it can never happen to us or that we could never be so barbaric.
Guess what? We're no more intelligent or more sophisticated or peaceful than at any other point in history. We possess the same penchant ability to succumb to superstition, envy, fears and other vices as those we mock from another age. In fact, I argue we're actually worse because we not only arrogantly fail to grasp this fact but actual have regressed.
If you don't realize you're capable of your own malevolence, you can't keep it in check.
Any kind of acceptance of benign coercion under whatever reason is malevolence. Think of the lockdowns. You believed it was necessary (it was not and it was not because the unintended consequences have been a disaster by an order of magnitude. But we refuse to see the pain of others because we're myopically fearful. There's a lack of empathy for your fellow man that's palpable) and tolerated government encouraging people snitch on one another.
How do you think an authoritarian regime maintains its grip? By just being mean? It relies on a network of snitches who believe they're acting for the greater good.
The concept of the 'greater good' itself can be manipulated for misdeeds.
There's no question the same line of thinking is taking root here. I'm seeing the word 'recalcitrant' being used more and more. It means:
"having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline."
So if you oppose masks on the grounds on the science being weak (and it is), you're uncooperative. I think now you should all reach back into your history books or novels about how such people can be treated by the benevolence of government.
There's something disquietingly ominous now. The virus is capable of unleashing a more vicious virus. One that lurks within our soul always present: Fear.
Poke it right and it has the power to do unspeakable things in the name of security and nation.
Being recalcitrant may not just be good here.
It may preserve our sense of humanity.
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As we dick and fiddle around with masks, Sweden goes on with its life. So envious.
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Mother (government). Protect us from this virus. I kneel before you and await instructions.
Mother will mask you.
She will decide when it's safe come outside.
And when it's time to go inside.
Mother will design your destiny.
Her wings will be your liberty.
Just don't fly too high....
Mother will shoot you.
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The Wall of Masks. Together we march for nation! Repeat after us. Our lives are at stake. We dictate. Don't you dare respond. Blend into this wall. Be the brick Danny. It's temporary. Accept you fate Winston.
We don't learn.
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As many as 96 million Americans may have been infected. They models may prove right on that front but where they missed was with the deaths. Starting to get the feeling part of the hysteria is driven by public health officials and politicians covering their asses.
