When will our intolerance for despotism go viral?
By Greg Strange
web posted April 20, 2020
Do you ever feel like you’re living in some kind of alternate reality? How could you not? The United States of America, the most powerful and dynamic country in world history, along with most Western countries, is almost totally shut down because of . . . a virus! That’s right, the country is not shut down because of, say, a foreign invasion, or a large-scale terrorist attack, or an electromagnetic pulse attack. Nor is it shut down because of an asteroid strike, or the eruption of a supervolcano, or even a swarm of anthropogenic global warming-induced hurricanes.
No, it’s shut down because of a virus which almost exclusively kills only the elderly and/or those whose health is already seriously compromised. So, it’s sort of like with the flu, except somewhat worse. But it is not the bubonic plague or some other killer disease which, if contracted, will almost certainly terminate you. The overwhelming majority will survive just fine and many won’t even know they have it.
But because of this coronavirus, the greatest country on earth is closed until further notice.
If you are not among the zombies who have unquestioningly gone along with all of this, you had to know from the get-go, at least intuitively if not intellectually, that such a shutdown was inconceivable and would only result in a catastrophe far worse than the virus itself. While we are encouraged by overweening authorities to snitch on each other for not adhering to the endless and sometimes ludicrous rules designed to keep us all apart, economic ruination is waiting in the wings to potentially finish off the great American experiment. Then, it’s Katy bar the door from the leftist authoritarians who will want to save us with socialist solutions.
Bolstering the commonsensical notion that the national shutdown was a worse idea than New Coke, a study out of Stanford suggests that far more people may have had the virus than previously thought, which if true, indicates that it is also far less deadly than previously thought. And that would call into question the wisdom of a national shutdown which is going to have its own catastrophic effects which could take years or even decades to get over.
Look, if the one and only singular thing that matters is the immediate and near-term death toll, then the shutdown was probably a good idea. But, if any and everything else also matters, then it was possibly the worst idea in history (with the possible exception of Marxism, which, bizarrely, refuses to die).
It all begs the question: What kind of an America would shut itself down over a mostly nonlethal virus? And the answer is, an America whose citizenry is so degraded and soft that it would be utterly unrecognizable to the generation of our grandparents.
There can be no doubt that widespread affluence and comfort, combined with decades of leftist indoctrination, has brought us to this point. We used to be a mostly hardy people who accepted the difficult vicissitudes of life without undue complaint. But we went from God, guns and guts to nanny state entitlements, therapeutic mollycoddling and everybody gets a participation trophy. Try taming a continent that way! The only things getting pioneered now are previously unheard of genders and new ways to crap on the Constitution and the wisdom of the Founders.
So, what passes for leadership now is, for instance, the endlessly televised palaver of New York Governor Cuomo, who said that “if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” Really? It was all worth it for one life? If that’s where we’re at, if our tolerance for risk and death is that low, then just go ahead and turn the whole country into one big thumb-sucking, college-style safe space and we can all curl up into the fetal position and cower in fear. And go ahead all you tinhorn, would-be despot governors and mayors. Wield power over us to your hearts’ content! We bow at your feet!
What a pathetic fate for a once great nation. But there is some glimmer of hope as there is starting to be some pushback around the country. There were the recent protests in Michigan, for example, against the governor and her microscopically focused tyranny pertaining to virtually everything in life. It’s not exactly heady, revolutionary stuff, but at least it’s something to indicate that our tolerance for petty authoritarianism has its limits.
Even better, the state of Texas has announced it will be reopening for business, albeit in a gradual, carefully phased way, and with all the usual distancing protocols.
Another good thing was that in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis recently began the process of slowly reopening some public spaces which included some, but not all, beaches. Even then, those beaches were open only during limited hours with all sorts of rules and prohibitions that were being enforced by police on site. But this lukewarm loosening of what amounts to house arrest for millions of Floridians wasn’t viewed in a positive light by some. Take Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner, Omari Hardy, for instance. Appalled by the tiny allowance of freedom, he tweeted this: “When a person in power doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things that hurt the public.”
Is this guy, this Omari, serious? Here are a few things that leftists who claim to "believe in science” believe: that a man can become a woman; that a woman can become a man; that there are 57 or more genders; that life does not begin at conception; that fossil fuels can be replaced by windmills and solar panels; that college and healthcare can be free without bankrupting a country; that masculinity is inherently toxic; that whiteness is inherently toxic.
So much for the credibility of those who “believe in science.”
The Omari’s of the country would keep you locked down and under the boot of government until science cures every conceivable ill – if you let them. Untold damage has already been done to the economy and to our national psyche. If any semblance of our former greatness is going to be preserved, the country better be opened back up, and fast. And if the despot wannabes try to drag it out indefinitely, there better be a mass uprising, and fast.
The clock is ticking on our economy, on our liberty, on our very viability as a civilization. 
Greg Strange can be reached at gpstrange30341@yahoo.com. (c) 2020 Greg Strange.