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From Social Distancing to Social(ist) Conditioning
We are being conditioned and acclimated to having to stand in long lines for food.
We are being conditioned to finding, after an hour of waiting in line, that the shelves are empty.
We are being acclimated to rationing (my grocery store this week finally had a tiny section of toilet paper. It was an off-brand I’d never heard of, and the sign on the shelf said “ONE PER CUSTOMER”).
We are being conditioned to view other people, even friends, neighbors, and loved ones, as threats. Neighbors are turning on each other. The Mayor of New York is encouraging people to “report” each other for not following government guidelines, helpfully providing an official phone number and demonstrating how to photograph them in the act. The act of standing less than six feet away from another human being. The act of showing one’s face in the open air in a public place.
We are being made to believe wearing a mask makes us Good Citizens, thoughtful people always thinking of the well-being of others. They’re not mandatory everywhere – yet- but in the cities where they’re optional, people are being conditioned to view the mask-free as selfish, ignoble outliers who don’t care about their fellow man. Yet it wasn’t that long ago that they told us wearing a mask doesn’t help at all. They even told us it gives a false sense of security. What has changed? Or maybe the question should be Cui bono?
* * * * *
The masks make us anonymous. They make it impossible to share a smile with another person. They add to the general air of suspicion, anxiety, and uncertainty, and they add to an overall impression of dystopia. They erase our individuality and make each of us into just another part of The Group. This makes their exhortations about “The Greater Good” fall right into place.
And they’ve thought of everything. They’ve dealt with the inevitable American spirit of individual liberty and the hardy souls who will say, “To heck with the virus. I’ll take my chances,” by telling us that the mask isn’t just for our own safety, but the safety of others. And just in case that isn’t strong enough, they add the heartrending bit about “our elderly loved ones.” So now, if you don’t wear a mask you’re killing grandma. This is now Social Engineering works.
We’re being made to believe that shutting down the economy including every place of business and social gathering is necessary “for our safety.” Why wasn’t this necessary during the Avian Flu pandemic of 1957? Or the Swine Flu or SARS or West Nile or Zika? They’re trying to paint anyone who sees through the hysteria and takes a stand for freedom, whether by protesting or even just making a comment in dissent, as a bunch of nutjobs (and their parents are probably first cousins, and of course they support Trump because their average IQ is that of a houseplant). I mean they just aren’t as educated, intelligent, and discerning as those who believe the entire world economy needs to stay shut down and the Bill of Rights suspended (it’s for our SAFETY!”).
I’m not saying this flu isn’t more contagious than others have been. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be aware and be careful. But I am saying that if you’re someone who’s so scared that you gave me a dirty look at the grocery store for momentarily pulling my mask down so I could breathe, then you can stay HOME. I sure won’t stop you. But your fear (not to mention fatuous gullibility) doesn’t allow you to tread on my Bill of Rights.
It’s impossible not to see parallels to the totalitarian regimes of history. The devaluing of individual freedoms. The individual being subsumed by The Group. I applaud those who are seeing all this for what it is, and protesting and speaking out. It’s way past time we all speak out as our own @rodin did in Sacramento, and that we stand up and say, “This is America. We don’t do that here.”
It doesn’t have to be a grand plan of the left to become reality.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/paper-non-symptomatic-patient-transmitting-coronavirus-wrong#
Dr. Fraudpants strikes again.
Here’s an example of screwing up.
They won’t refuse if the progs give them no other choice. Some urban planners get pants-wetting excited about banning personal vehicles.
And with Leftist Incrementalism (frog in the boiling water, that’s us!), we shouldn’t even be surprised if they try that. Personal vehicles were always frowned upon in the Soviet Union because they knew the degree of individual freedom they give people.
This is how I see it. I don’t think there was any kind of master plan or coordination here (that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible that the Chinese made this virus on purpose, we don’t know). But I do think there are factions on the left in national governments and in the Globalist New World Order people who seized upon the situation and are using it. The thing that has made my jaw drop is the number of Americans who have so willingly stood by and allowed our Bill of Rights to be ignored. If nothing else, at least this thing has been an eye-opener.
And now the headlines are popping up (Daily Mail) — US has deadliest 24 hours as restrictions are easing.
How I hate these leftists. Let me count the ways. Nah, it would take too long.
People are dying the day they’re exposed?
The Democrats are truly the Helicopter Mom party. I don’t need or want to be treated like a child. Some people apparently do.
I think the public accepted the hypotheticals of what the virus might do because it was a new virus and because China had not been forthcoming in December and January about what they were learning from the initial outbreak — it forced the U.S., along with counties surrounding China, the Europeans, the Australians and other nations to improvise their responses on the fly. As long as there were no real numbers and overall data to work with locally, the public was OK with buying in on short-term restrictions.
Now we’re into Phase II, where the local data is becoming more and more available, including the fact that COVID-19 spreads best in temperatures between roughly 39 and 53 degrees. Those are numbers more and more of the U.S. are moving out of for the next several months (we’re in Day 3 of four days of 100-plus temperatures in here Texas), and you’re starting to see states begin trying to open back up as the weather warms, while others continue to lay the hammer down on their public, and in both types of states, there are people demanding reopeings now, and others saying we can’t reopen as long as coronavirus is any sort of threat to anybody.
One side or the other is going to win over the bulk of the public in the next 30-45 days, even if the metrics both sides are judging each other by are different (i.e. — if you’re a person or media outlet thinking any new COVID case is a Def Con-1 emergency, than any cases in states doing targeted reopenings will be a sign of the apocalypse). But to me, it seems like if you do targeted reopenings, keep the most vulnerable isolated and there is no spike in coronavirus deaths, the people in states still under hardcore limits are really going to start getting angry by Memorial Day that they’re being denied the freedom those in other states are again able to enjoy.
You’re the first person in this thread to use the word “plan.”
The thing that had made my jaw drop the most is people that are hard-core libertarians suddenly screaming for an authoritarian government-run centrally-planned economy because of a virus with a 99% survival rate.
It just goes to show how easy it is for people to slip into socialism when you think it will protect you from something that you personally fear.
So the scientists involved were in such a rush to publish their conclusion that they couldn’t be bothered to make a phone call to the allegedly asymptomatic prole to check their facts. Science at work!
Is that Chicago? That little Napoleon needs to be exiled to an Elba after she’s tarred and feathered. She’s a prime example of “when you give someone power, you find out who they are.” Nasty witch.
It is implied. Sorry for not saying “consperisy”
But, y’all want to be running on your limbic systems, go for it
Same. What RA describes in this post I have not seen with my own eyes. There are some who are way to one extreme about the dangers. Then there are some who are way to one extreme about what the so called lockdowns are about.
The government didn’t create a shortage of toilet paper. The market did. The market.
Let’s see what things look like 1 year from now. Let’s have a May 3rd, virtual get together and talk about what fundamental underpinnings of society were irrevocably changed by our response to COVID-19. $5 says the answer is: not much.
I never thought I’d live to see the day that could be said about America.
I went shopping a few days ago at Menards and wore a mask, like the sign said I should. Wearing masks according to government-encouraged policy is pretty low on the list of items of fascist government overreach that I am concerned about. Maybe to conservatives it’s a symbol of other stuff, but I thought we learned from Rush Limbaugh that it’s the left that places more importance on symbolism than substance.
I don’t use Lowes as much as I used to, as that chain seems to make a lot of bad choices about what to keep in stock. It also has the worst web site of the three big box hardware stores in our area. However, a trip to Lowes is in my near future, too, as I am interested in a product line that is carried only by Lowes. I may wear my N95 mask. It’s funny, though, because the day I went to Menards I had trouble getting that mask to stay on right. By the time I got back to the car it was about ready to slip off my nose. I guess it served its purpose of keeping me from spewing water particles wherever I breathed inside the store. I could wear my N95 respirator, but I think it is not encouraged to wear those in public, as it would demonstrate that I am depriving the medical system of one. That respirator forms a good seal around my mouth and nose. It can work its way loose, too, but I’ve learned from someone on Ricochet (@omegapaladin, maybe?) how to test it, and anyway, with most of my normal motions it’s not a problem.
What’s ambiguous is how she is intending to use the word unambiguous. But she says “there should be nothing unambiguous about that”, which explains why it is ambiguous.
I don’t see the possibility as a master plan. But neither do I see it as a non-possible eventual outcome. Big changes often (maybe usually?) start with little steps.
We aren’t a country filled with Americans! We are a country filled with Russians, germans, mexicans, chinese, koreans, vietnamese, cubans, french, italians, colombians, Brazilians, Venezuelans, and who knows what else!
Sure, at the beginning of this country, a certain amount of individuality and self reliance was required to make it here, but not anymore.
We have imported people uncomfortable with questioning authority. Should we be surprised questioning authority is being bred out of the American population?
I’ve seen plenty of Republicans and a fair number of conservatives advocating and/or supporting many or all aspects of these lockdowns. However, as far as I can tell, those whom I think we’d agree could be described as hard-core libertarians have generally opposed most aspects of these lockdowns. Do you have some specific individuals in mind, A-Squared?
What’s laughable / scary is she is currently releasing actual criminals from jail while promising to lock up people in jail for going outside of their homes.
Mayor Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker are vying to see who can be the biggest tyrant.
Got you all beat. I have a $2 bill.
I do, but the people I’m thinking of specifically are not on Ricochet.
The shortages were precipitated by the purple prose and fearmongering in the media. They made people think it’s the Zombie Apocalypse. I wish I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but I have. I took the photo at the top of this post at my grocery store. And here is the meat department:
As to seeing how things look in one year, I’ve already had a preview. My main card publisher has been shut down since before Easter, and so have all the stores who buy from them, and the customers who go to the stores have been locked down in their houses. My publisher told me to stop work on my Spring 2021 release, which means my income for that quarter of 2021 will show it. It means that for 2021, I’ll have no cards for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, or Graduation.
And they told me that since nobody was doing business in spring this year, most of the stores have returned everything they bought. It means any royalties I had from those sales will be recalled. I don’t even want to know what my quarterly income will look like in July, but I already have a pretty good idea about 2021, and if they cancel my Christmas release, it’s probably hello homeless shelter. The deadlines for Christmas 2022 art would normally be in August or September. Even if the shutdowns ended today, the lasting psychological effects will be with us for a while. Will people go back to going out to buy what I make?
I’m happy for anyone who hasn’t seen all this with their own eyes, and I sure wish I were one of them.
No, this whole thing is not a big master plan on the left. But embedded in the responses could be the left not letting a crisis go to waste . . .
Waiting in lines? Bare shelves? Restrictions on activities? Case tracking?
How did Ricochet get to be such a hotbed of paranoid conspiracy theories? Nobody can think of a reason for all this other than dark, sinister forces? Ya know, like a deadly virus?
No, like a virus with a 99% recovery rate which has caused everyone to lose their minds.
Yeah, it doesn’t work that way.