Beating A Dead Horse
“All through the day
I me mine, I me mine, I me mine
All through the night
I me mine, I me mine, I me mine…” The Beatles – “I Me Mine”
I am getting so tired of those in the media writing about how their individual freedoms are being threatened by the government because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That horse is long dead. Please stop beating it.
The latest is John Ziegler, writing on the web site MEDIAite about how “the government” has been able to “suspend” much of our liberties because of Covid.
In a supremely stupid opinion piece entitled “Why Freedom Lost So Decisively to the Fear of Covid,” Ziegler notes that he is a “philosophical libertarian,” whatever the hell that is. By the way, Libertarianism is just Conservatism, only more selfish and cruel.
MEDIAite is a web site that employs a number of Conservative and Libertarian writers – with a Liberal or two thrown in for good measure.
In his piece, Ziegler states: “Last year, The New York Times used Memorial Day to treat the 100,000 — the number is now officially over 600,000 — who had already died as if their deaths were somehow analogous to those who were killed in combat. Ironically, as the news media suddenly does a dramatic turn on the previously dismissed theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab, there may now actually be some credibility to looking at the death toll somewhat in that manner, but they have been completely uninterested in the subject of what this war against the virus has done to our basic freedoms.”
So, if I’m reading you correctly John, the media cares more about the 600,000 people who died from Covid than the fact that you have to get a vaccine and wear a mask?
Oh, poor baby.
First of all, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the death toll as of May 26, 2021 was 589,547. But since the CDC is part of the government, I guess they can’t be trusted to tell us the truth, huh John?
According to John, Americans are too stupid to truly understand the pandemic. If they only understood how rare it is to actually contract Covid-19, they wouldn’t let the government so easily manipulate them into shutting down their businesses and wearing masks everywhere for no reason.
“If every American truly understood how rare it is to actually test positive for Covid (well over a year into this, only 10% of our population has), that only 2% of those who test positive die of any cause while having the virus, and that the median age of those who die with Covid is almost 79, the level of fear would be dramatically reduced,” he writes.
As Ronald Reagan used to say, “Well, there you go again.”
Only 10% of the population has contracted Covid, so what’s the big deal? Besides only old people get it anyway. And the media has been “scaring” people with the “raw death numbers” which you got wrong by the way, earlier in your piece.
So John, are you really this stupid?
The CDC notes that 33,018,965 have contracted Covid-19 as of May 26. That may only be 10% of the country’s population, but isn’t that a pretty significant amount of people? Where you hoping for maybe, what, 50% of the population?
And how about worldwide? Hasn’t Covid affected a significant amount of people all over the globe? Or, do you only care about the U.S. and nowhere else? That was a rhetorical question, I already know the answer.
According to John, if the pandemic had hit just 10 years earlier, our government’s response to it would have been much different.
“I am completely convinced that if this pandemic had hit us just 10 years earlier that our response would have been radically different, and far more rational,” he writes. “Ten years earlier, those over 70 would have been people with a memory of World War II and they would have scoffed at the concept of ending our way of life in the attempt to stop a virus over which we have little control. Today, many of those in the target demo of the virus are spoiled and selfish “baby boomers” who, as a generation, have never been forced to make real sacrifices in their lives.”
Huh?
I guess he’s right about one thing, if the pandemic had hit in 2010, President Obama would have had a more rational response to it that Trump did. We wouldn’t have been told to inject bleach and to shove high intensity lights up out butts to kill the virus.
Apparently John has not read enough World War II history to realize that during the war, many companies were conscripted to retool their manufacturing to make stuff for the war effort. And effort that was expensive and probably not what the business owners planned on doing when they started their businesses.
Apparently he has not read his own article enough as well. Because after saying that Covid-19 generally only affects those 79 and over, he tells us that “…those in the target demo of the virus are spoiled and selfish ‘baby boomers’…”
So which is it, 79 year olds or 60 year olds John?
And Baby Boomers “as a generation” have never been forced to make real sacrifices?
The Baby Boom generation is defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. In those years, no one had to make any real sacrifices. There was only the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Oil Crisis of 1973, raging inflation, economic recession, to name a few. I’m sure none of these things had any affect on how we lived in those days.
My favorite part of John’s little essay is the last paragraph. As you may have noticed, he’s very fond of run-on sentences.
“When you think about the expansive coalition which has greatly benefited from the pandemic it is far easier to understand when there is no great political uprising against the damage we have done to our country’s essence,” he writes. “Business leaders and those with money in the stock and real estate markets have significantly profited, the news media has gotten plenty of drama, ratings and content, Democrats have won an election and effectively transformed the United States into a socialist country, many teachers just got fully paid for 15 months, during which they rarely worked full-time, parents who can work from home have been able to spend more time with their kids, people who love to live in fear, or envy those who used have better lives than they do, have never been happier.”
Isn’t it amazing how in only five short months Democrats have been able to transform the U.S. into a Socialist country? That’s some superpower there.
Apparently the government telling you to wear a mask and get a vaccination takes away your freedoms. It’s a tragedy for those who believe in individual freedom (better known as selfishness).
Thankfully, it didn’t have any effect on John’s First Amendment right. Otherwise how would we have known that he was so uncomfortable doing his part to keep others safe from the worst pandemic in 100 years.