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.”

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  1. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    A-Squared (View Comment):
    COVID will massively accelerate that trend. An overwhelming majority of the population has now accepted that if you say the word “health”, government magically gets unlimited powers. That genie will not be put back in the bottle.

    The word “safety” works almost as well.

    • #241
  2. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    A-Squared (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    A-Squared (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):

    By that metric, we are all sheep. “We” “let” the government tell us all sorts of things that “we” don’t think they should. You are sheep. I am a sheep. We are all just bricks in the wall.

    only if you wear your seatbelt.

     

    So wait a moment. I wear mine because it is good to do so. You are saying that the only way not to be a sheep is to not wear your seatbelt even though it is a good idea, because otherwise you are a sheep.

    It was a joke. Lighten up Francis.

    Not when you are busy insulting most of the American People, Hoss. 

    • #242
  3. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    While you might not want to hear this, the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill. That falls on the government. 

    I like to hear people say that, because it gives me a chance to mention that the government does a lot to ensure that the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill.

    • #243
  4. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Spin (View Comment):

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):

    A-Squared (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):
    As to your second sentence, refer back to my point. Which I’ll restate again: the passage of seat belt laws did not condition us to believe that we should wear our seat belt for safety reasons.

    They didn’t condition us to believe that we should wear them for safety reasons, they just conditioned us to wearing them. As long as the sheep do what the government tells them to do when they tell them to do it, the government doesn’t really care what they believe.

    Besides, I thought your point was

    Spin (View Comment):
    I made the point that seat belt laws are not an example of steady slide into socialism

    That is where we disagree.

    I guess I did make that point, though it wasn’t my primary point.

    I reject the notion that people are sheep because they wear their seat belts.

    I accept the notion that people are sheep because they let the government tell us we *have* to wear our seatbelts.

     

    By that metric, we are all sheep. “We” “let” the government tell us all sorts of things that “we” don’t think they should. You are sheep. I am a sheep. We are all just bricks in the wall.

    You can justify almost anything in the name of other peoples “safety”.  Pretty sure that’s why we have  a Constitution to limit the governments powers.

     

    • #244
  5. DrewInWisconsin is done with t… Member
    DrewInWisconsin is done with t…
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Have you ever noticed that when the left speaks of donating to charity, they are always talking about donating to government programs?

    • #245
  6. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    While you might not want to hear this, the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill. That falls on the government.

    I like to hear people say that, because it gives me a chance to mention that the government does a lot to ensure that the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill.

    Oh?

    Please, enlighten me. I’d love to hear your solutions on how the private sector would do it. I spent 25 years in community mental health. I eagerly await blowing your arguments out of the water. 

    • #246
  7. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    A-Squared (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):
    I reject the notion that people are sheep because they wear their seat belts.

    Most people are sheep because most people are sheep.

    We are headed inexorably towards socialism. We have been doing so for nearly 90 years, the two parties only differ on how quickly we should move towards socialism.

    COVID will massively accelerate that trend. An overwhelming majority of the population has now accepted that if you say the word “health”, government magically gets unlimited powers. That genie will not be put back in the bottle.

    I really hope you’re wrong about this, but I fear you may be right. A major test will be if/when a “second wave” hits and governors/mayors want to put people back into lockdowns. Will people go along with it as easily as they did this time around? In my opinion, that’s the big question.

    • #247
  8. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    DrewInWisconsin is done with t… (View Comment):

    Have you ever noticed that when the left speaks of donating to charity, they are always talking about donating to government programs?

    Also noticed that when the LEFT are talking about giving the LEFT are talking about OTHERS giving to the LEFT’s causes.

    • #248
  9. DrewInWisconsin is done with t… Member
    DrewInWisconsin is done with t…
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Weeping (View Comment):

    A major test will be if/when a “second wave” hits and governors/mayors want to put people back into lockdowns. Will people go along with it as easily as they did this time around? In my opinion, that’s the big question.

    My gut says “no.” If we knew then what we know now, we wouldn’t have allowed it then, either.

    The Democrat Media has been reporting huge numbers of people supporting the lockdown. I want to know who they’re polling and where. It’s like they’re only polling people named Karen.

    • #249
  10. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    While you might not want to hear this, the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill. That falls on the government.

    I like to hear people say that, because it gives me a chance to mention that the government does a lot to ensure that the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill.

    Oh?

    Please, enlighten me. I’d love to hear your solutions on how the private sector would do it. I spent 25 years in community mental health. I eagerly await blowing your arguments out of the water.

    I don’t have any solutions (I am opposed to solutions in general) and I don’t know. But if there are any ways it could work, our governments will make sure they will not work. Marvin Olasky and others have shown how private welfare programs disappeared when replaced by public ones, sometimes because they were displaced and sometimes because of outright hostility from government.

    • #250
  11. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    DrewInWisconsin is done with t… (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    A major test will be if/when a “second wave” hits and governors/mayors want to put people back into lockdowns. Will people go along with it as easily as they did this time around? In my opinion, that’s the big question.

    My gut says “no.” If we knew then what we know now, we wouldn’t have allowed it then, either.

    The Democrat Media has been reporting huge numbers of people supporting the lockdown. I want to know who they’re polling and where. It’s like they’re only polling people named Karen.

    I would easily agree with you except for one thing – the media and its reaction. I think that’s been a major factor in the current reaction, and I’m not sure that it won’t continue to be if/when a “second wave” occurs. And I fully expect the media’s reaction then to be at least as bad as it has been this go-round – maybe worse. 

    • #251
  12. A-Squared Inactive
    A-Squared
    @ASquared

    Weeping (View Comment):

    I would easily agree with you except for one thing – the media and its reaction. I think that’s been a major factor in the current reaction, and I’m not sure that it won’t continue to be if/when a “second wave” occurs. And I fully expect the media’s reaction then to be at least as bad as it has been this go-round – maybe worse. 

    I know I live in a very blue suburb in a very blue state, but people around here are already freaking out about the possibility of IL opening up months from now.

    These people are perfectly happy to literally destroy the entire country’s economy to avoid a 1% chance of dying, and since most of them are under the age of 50, it’s probably a 0.1% chance of dying.

    • #252
  13. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    While you might not want to hear this, the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill. That falls on the government.

    I like to hear people say that, because it gives me a chance to mention that the government does a lot to ensure that the private sector and charities are not up to taking care of the severe and persistently mentally ill.

    Oh?

    Please, enlighten me. I’d love to hear your solutions on how the private sector would do it. I spent 25 years in community mental health. I eagerly await blowing your arguments out of the water.

    I don’t have any solutions (I am opposed to solutions in general) and I don’t know. But if there are any ways it could work, our governments will make sure they will not work. Marvin Olasky and others have shown how private welfare programs disappeared when replaced by public ones, sometimes because they were displaced and sometimes because of outright hostility from government.

    Ah, so you have none.

    You say our governments make sure that private solutions for the SPMI population don’t work. How about you prove that statement and we can go a few rounds on that?

    I am just waiting to hear how charity is going to pick up the average $300/month medication cost for the estimated 2.6 million Americans who have schizophrenia. It’s only $780,000,000 a month. That does not include all the case mgt. and other housing and support costs. I am sure the private charities will just step right up! 

    I am not saying the current system does a great or good job, even. I am saying it is better than nothing. I have worked with the private sector, and big companies don’t give a fig about people with schizophrenia. Neither, do the voters, really. 

     

    • #253
  14. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Housebroken (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):

    Now…there’s a difference here. There is a great deal of consensus that wearing a seatbelt is the right thing to do, that it saves your life. So we do it.

    But there didn’t used to be a consensus about seat belts. Not before the law was passed in – when was it, the early 80s? Before that, nobody wore them. There were cars that didn’t even have them. You young whippersnappers just don’t remember the world the way it used to be. I swear we’re going to reach a point where people will think it’s ok to jump off a cliff because “If it were bad for me, there’d be a law against it.”

    I would add this: Before they were mandatory in all new vehicles, they were an available option. I don’t know the numbers, but I do know that not everybody paid for the option – I think I did buy the option, been too long.

    I think the necessity of having legislation ensuring the Big Auto makers would have seat belts in every car has been proven correct over the long haul. When they were an option, they were considered by many car buyers as too expensive.  I believe laws have been saved.

    But then that ability to corner all Americans into a mandatory this, or mandatory that, has really gone overboard. So the philosophy of “keep government small” also seems to be a necessity – and good for those like you who are aware of this and who push for it.

    We now have kids over the age of 7 who due to legalisms need to be in “kid seats” that will possibly do them harm should there be a car accident. But the manufacturer of those seats is certainly happy.

    America  operates according to a pendulum style of behavior. We rarely get a happy medium: for some time period, we’ re all this way to no regulation at all, or else all to the “we must have a regulation over everything, no matter how unreasonable.”

    • #254
  15. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    I’m checking out, it’s gotten too nasty.  Y’all have a nice time.  

    • #255
  16. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Ah, so you have none.

    Listen, if you want to talk to a strawman, you need to talk to someone else.

     

     

    • #256
  17. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Ah, so you have none.

    Listen, if you want to talk to a strawman, you need to talk to someone else.

     

     

    I want to defend the noble and necessary work I spent a quarter of a century of my life in. 

     

    • #257
  18. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Ah, so you have none.

    Listen, if you want to talk to a strawman, you need to talk to someone else.

     

     

    I want to defend the noble and necessary work I spent a quarter of a century of my life in.

     

    That is a problem that I can’t help you with, though I wish I could. Perhaps if you had more confidence that it was a noble and necessary work, you wouldn’t feel so defensive about it. I would like you to have more confidence in what you’ve been doing, and if I knew how to help you with that, I’d apply those skills elsewhere, too.  

    • #258
  19. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Ah, so you have none.

    Listen, if you want to talk to a strawman, you need to talk to someone else.

     

     

    I want to defend the noble and necessary work I spent a quarter of a century of my life in.

     

    That is a problem that I can’t help you with, though I wish I could. Perhaps if you had more confidence that it was a noble and necessary work, you wouldn’t feel so defensive about it. I would like you to have more confidence in what you’ve been doing, and if I knew how to help you with that, I’d apply those skills elsewhere, too.

    It is not defensive to defend something being attacked, which clearly it is. But, you cannot back your statements up, just be snarky. 

    As for confidence? Well, I have enough confidence that I post with my real identity, so I think that shows I am pretty confident in both who I am and what I have done. 

    Cheers,

    Bryan

     

    • #259
  20. Sisyphus (Rolling Stone) Member
    Sisyphus (Rolling Stone)
    @Sisyphus

    A-Squared (View Comment):

    Spin (View Comment):

    By that metric, we are all sheep. “We” “let” the government tell us all sorts of things that “we” don’t think they should. You are sheep. I am a sheep. We are all just bricks in the wall.

    only if you wear your seatbelt.

     

    I’ve seen a body that’s been thrown from a car. Not interested in being that guy.

    • #260
  21. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Spin (View Comment):

    I’m checking out, it’s gotten too nasty.

    Gee, how did that happen.

    • #261
  22. jeannebodine, Verbose Bon Viva… Member
    jeannebodine, Verbose Bon Viva…
    @jeannebodine

    My sister spent 25 years as a public health nurse with the Public Health Department of Arlington County. It was not an experience that fostered any confidence in public health.

    She was dedicated, 50% of her co-workers did little or nothing except check in on a patient or two and then spend the rest of the day doing whatever.  My sister spent most of her time treading water with the same patients with chronic needs: diabetes, heart disease. She saw some patients for 10-12 years with no change, no improvement. The department rarely accepted new patients because they didn’t have the resources.

    Useless paperwork, lack of necessary supplies, riding herd on do-nothing nursing aides and administrative duties took up most of her day. She was lucky to see 2-3 people a day. My sister spent thousands of dollars of her own money on these patients: medicine, food, clothing, etc. She told me once that the most discouraging thing was that she never had a success story. I have no idea how she lasted that long other than the fact her patients became like family members.

    I had a friend that worked for a very short time at the Philadelphia Department of Health. She lasted less than 6 months. Almost the entire department reported in the morning in, clocked in and left for the rest of day until it was time to clock out. Co-workers had other jobs, ran small businesses, raised families while collecting full salary and benefits. Yes, it was and is that bad.

    I’m sure there are some county health departments that are more successful but I still don’t think government can do anything competently and cost-effectively.

     

    • #262
  23. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    DrewInWisconsin is done with t… (View Comment):

    A-Squared (View Comment):
    COVID will massively accelerate that trend. An overwhelming majority of the population has now accepted that if you say the word “health”, government magically gets unlimited powers. That genie will not be put back in the bottle.

    Governmental bodies across the country large and small have learned that they have an enormous control over their citizens. They learned that people will willingly cede their freedoms if they can be made to fear. I expect they’ll try something like this again.

    Probably in the fall.

    • #263
  24. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    We now have kids over the age of 7 who due to legalisms need to be in “kid seats” that will possibly do them harm should there be a car accident. But the manufacturer of those seats is certainly happy.

    According to some of the recommendations/laws/regulations I’ve seen, I would have been in a car seat ’til I was in high school had they been in effect when I was growing up. 

    • #264
  25. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Weeping (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    We now have kids over the age of 7 who due to legalisms need to be in “kid seats” that will possibly do them harm should there be a car accident. But the manufacturer of those seats is certainly happy.

    According to some of the recommendations/laws/regulations I’ve seen, I would have been in a car seat ’til I was in high school had they been in effect when I was growing up.

    The Left does try to infantilize people, no doubt to acclimate them to needing someone to take care of them and eventually looking to the government for that role. That’s why Obama came up with Julia, for whom the Government took the place of a husband, and why he had people staying on their parents’ insurance until age 26. When my dad was 26, he was married with two children and a mortgage.

    • #265
  26. Judge Mental, Secret Chimp Member
    Judge Mental, Secret Chimp
    @JudgeMental

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    We now have kids over the age of 7 who due to legalisms need to be in “kid seats” that will possibly do them harm should there be a car accident. But the manufacturer of those seats is certainly happy.

    According to some of the recommendations/laws/regulations I’ve seen, I would have been in a car seat ’til I was in high school had they been in effect when I was growing up.

    The Left does try to infantilize people, no doubt to acclimate them to needing someone to take care of them and eventually looking to the government for that role. That’s why Obama came up with Julia, for whom the Government took the place of a husband, and why he had people staying on their parents’ insurance until age 26. When my dad was 26, he was married with two children and a mortgage.

    At the same time they’re doing that, they refer to 12 to 14 year-old girls having abortions as women.

    • #266
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