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Vaccine Passports and What’s Next
Forget COVID for a moment. If we accept a vaccine passport system, this is what we are agreeing to:
– We need a permission slip from the government to carry out normal life activities: working, shopping, travelling, socializing.
– The government may revoke this permission at any time by changing the criteria for it.
Raise your hand if you think that the government will use this new power in a limited and judicious way.
We’ve already seen videos from some countries and locations in the United States where people have to show their pass to get into a mall or restaurant. We’ve seen people fired from their jobs for refusing to show that they had the shot.
It started with a paper that means you’re “fully vaccinated,” but, in Israel for example, the government decided that everyone needed a booster, so it revoked the existing passports. Everyone was out in the cold again unless they took whatever additional steps were required.
Where might this lead? I notice that in most of the world the term they use is “green pass,” which does not explicitly refer to vaccinations. I note also that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a tendency to call things “public health issues.”
For example, the CDC considers gun violence a public health issue. What if the government decides that anyone who owns a gun can’t get a green pass? Or if it can’t do that, it might rule that everyone has to attend an anti-gun training session. Or that anyone who publicly advocates for the Second Amendment is a threat to public health, so they can’t get a green pass.
Now it’s calling racism a public health issue. Suppose it decides that we have to attend a critical race theory class, or we can’t get a green pass. Or that, since speech is violence now, anyone who questions the CRT training can’t get a pass. Just imagine what it will be tempted to do if it has that power.
Actually, we don’t have to imagine it; we already know what happens when the left decides that something is necessary for the public good. Look at the indoctrination on campuses. Look at what corporate human resources departments are doing.
No green pass if you spread “misinformation.” No green pass if you misgender someone. It’ll be cancel culture with the force of law.
I see no reason to believe this this will stop with COVID shots once it gets this power. We’ll have a full-blown social credit system.
Published in Domestic Policy
California has for decades prohibited people from bringing in fruits and vegetables, and has had these inspection stations at the borders to enforce that prohibition. I had to stop for one on Interstate 40 when I drove to California a few months ago. The purpose of the prohibition is to protect the enormous California agricultural industry (a huge percentage of which is fruits and vegetables), ostensibly against invasive diseases and bugs that may be carried on imported fruits and vegetables.
Hmm. Rather, I think it’s a way for the people manning these stations to earn a little off-the-books income.
“I see you have an illegal cabbage . . .”
“My mistake, officer. I had no idea that there was a cabbage in my vehicle. Perhaps we can just . . . :: waves a double-sawbuck meaningfully :: . . . ignore it this time?”
This has been in place for decades, hasn’t it? I remember when the case was that California had a unique agricultural environment that non-indigenous plants would take over. Maybe they’ve expanded the inspections ridiculously, but it started out before Cali turned left.
It could be one of those governmental agencies with prehistoric ability to adapt and survive … like a cockroach.
And grow into Godzilla.
You guys are so funny, the stated reason is to protect California agriculture from accidentally introduced insects or diseases that could be harmful. (Edited for: Oops, didn’t see Full Size Tabby covered this.) You should be asking is, “Are the people illegally entering the state from Mexico required to go through an Agriculture Inspection Station?”