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These People Know This is America, Right?
Recent observations and exchanges on Twitter have demonstrated to me that many people, often progressive “elites,” are completely astonished and outraged that a large number of Americans don’t like to be told what to do by the government. This seemingly visceral reaction is not really dependent on what those instructions are. They will grudgingly go along with it for a while if convinced there is an urgent need to do so, but that doesn’t mean they will like it, or comply blindly and unquestionably. Now to me, Americans distrust of government and dislike of governmental overreach is a perk, not a bug, but man does it upset busybody elite leftists who feel like they are superior to the average citizen and, by extension, so is the government they enable and support.
A journalist recently tweeted about a barbershop in Mobile, AL, that dared to open his own business without governmental permission. In fact, the owner chose to pay a $500 fine for violating the order to close and was shown cutting hair wearing a mask and gloves, seeming to still take his customers’ health and safety seriously. Oh lord, that was not enough for the hysterical responses to this story.
It became obvious to me that the problem most of these people had with the situation had little to do with the health of the barber or his customers. It was primarily along the lines of: “How dare he not obey the instructions of the all-knowing government and stay home like he was told!” Oh yeah, they also referred to his American flag mask as a MAGA mask because “Orange man bad” or whatever. Forget the fact that it is his business, as in “they should mind their own.” There were also complaints in the story that the police were nowhere to be seen and conspiratorially mentioned that the owner was known to have a good relationship with law enforcement. How dare he?!
I’m not necessarily making a pro or con position on the opening of this barbershop. Seems to me it should be his decision to try to figure out how to operate his business safely and his customers’ decisions on their individual risk. I do however support the rebellious, independent spirit of Americans (even the ones highlighted in “Tiger King”). That characteristic is in large part what allowed us to become a nation in the first place! Blind obedience of government is anti-American, no matter how angry it makes our progressive “betters.” Maybe we should start referring to them as Tories or Loyalists….
Published in General
“Pets.”
“Subjects, not Citizens.”
Fear is a powerful motivator. Both sides use it and now the national shutdown has cost more than the Iraq War boondoggle. Politicians and frightened Americans have created a mess and the last 20 years has been a disaster.
The thread on homeschooling brought to my mind the Parental Rights organization and the tremendous work they are doing to get a constitutional amendment passed to protect parents’ rights to direct their children’s education and healthcare. I’m bringing this up here because every time I mention the Parental Rights amendment work, here and in my other life, people always respond the same way: they say, “No, we can’t do that because there was this case of brutal child abuse that I know of or read about!”
We have plenty of laws on the books against anyone assaulting anyone else. Those laws would not be overruled by asserting and protecting parental rights. So why do people react that way to the idea of protecting parents’ rights to bring up their own children however they see fit?
I suddenly had an epiphany just now.
We have a simple statement in our heads that does more to protect innocent defendants in courtrooms than anything else we do: “Better to let ten guilty men go free than lock up one innocent person.” This is an American mantra. I don’t know where it came from, but it is a powerful check on government.
We need to encapsulate this principle in some other easy-to-remember statement that is more broadly applicable to other violations of our rights.
I say that because that is exactly what has been happening with the lockdown. Our objection to it is bubbling under the surface, but we don’t have a single-sentence way to combat what we know is unjust. We are basically punishing all businesses because a few aren’t taking the steps they need to take to protect their employees and customers.
The ten-guilty-men-go-free notion is actually a statement of risk. It works. We need to come up with a second succinct and powerful statement to keep in our quiver of arguments that would be applicable outside the criminal court.
The willingness of so many Americans to allow the Bill of Rights to be suspended, even temporarily, and no matter what the reason (“But it’s to keep us SAFE!”) has been a shocking eye-opener. And the mindset that they’re being good little soldiers (sheep) while doing it, and that anyone not falling in line is an inbred yahoo, just not enlightened or educated (on the dumpster fire that is my local Next Door, I swear if I see one more commenter saying “Educate yourself,” coming from an idiot who obviously gets all information from CNN, I will scream).
I’m not saying the virus was some kind of purposeful plot. But I AM saying that there are bad actors seizing upon it for their own nefarious ends. Aside from the Democrats who think they can spin it to hurt Trump in the election, there are Globalist New World Order leftists who know that an undercurrent of fear and anxiety makes people more amenable to totalitarian measures.
Thank God for those brave souls who are seeing through it and showing them that this is America, and we don’t do that here.
That was my exact comment on the barbershop story (reporter appeared to be a brit from his byline) Man, people DID NOT like that.
Oh yeah, brings to mind another pet peave I have. The throwing around of the word “heroes” really gets on my nerves. Walmart workers are heroes, nurses are heroes, Amazon warehouse workers ensuring you get your monthly order of pet food and a puzzle are heroes, actresses daring to not wear makeup during “quarantine” interviews are heroic, media members who cause a scene being rude and fighting with the president are of course heroes, hell…..just people not rebelling against a stupid government regulation that doesn’t allow mowing the grass or buying seeds for their garden are heroes! Well, if everyone is a freaking hero then no one is.
I have a friend who works at the local Walmart. Ran into him while I was there the other day, and he said “People keep coming up to me and saying ‘Thank you for working,'” and he thought it was dumb. “I’m just doing my job!”
Ditto a thousand times!
It is funny. Fishing, boating, getting a haircut, buying garden supplies, going to Church — all acts of crazed irresponsible rebels who probably display confederate flags and probably have the wrong number of chromosomes. Getting abortions, buying lottery tickets, buying marijuana, buying alcohol — all acts of fine upstanding salt of the earth citizens who are doing the right, patriotic things.
At my workplace’s virtual happy hour last week, the one thing everyone agreed on was that we all wanted to get haircuts.
I’m watching Babylon Berlin. (It’s excellent.)
Last night a character says “Do you know the greatest motivator? Fear. Find out what a man fears, and you can get him to do anything.”
AOC’s diatribe against those who want America to go back to work should be preserved as a classic progressive inability to understand America.
She said ‘only in America’ would there be an expectation that people go back to work. She called for a boycott of work by low income workers.
This shows how the progressive ‘elites’ have no understanding that the basic working class provides the foundation on which the next levels stand in order to provide America’s standard of living.
These should be highlights in the coming political season.
This is where I’m having trouble understanding the issue. The people cowering in the closets of their homes are upset that a barbershop opened. Is the government forcing them to go and get a haircut? People need to assess risk in their own way. If they feel comfortable getting a haircut then they should. The people hiding in their basements wearing their Burqas to ward off the virus should be allowed to stay home. Too many people will not be happy until more people are broke and waiting in six hour lines at the food bank.
Yeah, the best part to me was when she exclaimed (and I’m paraphrasing) that only in America could the President describe liberty as going back to work. Apparently her definition of liberty is nothing more than people getting free stuff from the government with some unknown, unacknowledged (and unappreciated) others doing the work necessary to supply the free stuff.
Gasp! You could get the ’rona at a food bank! Home delivery only!
(Yes, there are actually “experts” who think we should shut down grocery stores and require everyone to order their groceries delivered to their homes. This is why “experts” are held in such low esteem.)
A few years ago, hardcore lefty Tom Nichols was bemoaning “the death of expertise.” I think the real problem is that we haven’t killed them all off yet.
Governor Cuomo said those complaining about not being allowed to work should get essential jobs
I thought the answer was to learn to code. Everyone but journalists, that is.
And that none of you was wearing pants.
They know, and it breaks their hearts.
One thing SWMBO told me is that yeah, they can reopen in GA and other places, but what about the employee who is concerned about going back? She claims that such a person would lose unemployment benefits, etc. Don’t know if that’s correct, but it is one point to consider.
He had to ask the government for permission to open his business in the first place, why would this be any different?
Worked on Winston Smith in 1984.
That’s a whole other argument……the government licensing barbers is ridiculous as well
I guess in one sense the issue is, when can people access risk for themselves instead of waiting like children for permission from their parents the government.
Coding is actually hard. I have coded, I have to code for my job, but it is hard.
Room 101.
Edit: @repmodad beat me to it.
Coding is easy. *GOOD* coding is hard.
Its called a Television Program for a reason. Mass media has been programming people for many decades and now everyone gets to see the results when Fear Factor goes for an international audience.
Code-19, COVID-19, its all so confusing….
That is a good question, and why we should not have government deciding who stays open and who is shut down. Had this been treated like every other virus in history, that wouldn’t be an issue. If you are in the beauty business, you work closely on people’s bodies.
You may need to find another line of work. It happened to a med tech I knew who became convinced she was full of germs and couldn’t get clean enough. She had to change professions. Life is tough, there isn’t anything more special about an employee than an employer. Those who were never shut down, like grocery store clerks didn’t really have that choice without quitting.