The cost of squelching normal discourse
Yesterday, Steve Karp, M.D. presented the facts of COVID as we know them, right here on American Thinker. His list included all the mind-boggling contradictions we've been fed for the last 17 months. My immediate reaction (besides thinking it was a very complete list) was that if we had been able to have open, uncensored, lively scientific and public debate from the start, we wouldn't be in such a muddle at this point. Furthermore, most likely, several hundred thousand more people would still be alive.
By shutting down discourse, the tech giants, government bureaucracy, and news media have done us all a criminal disservice. Their power to cancel scientific inquiry and keep Americans in the dark about the virus dictated a "reality" sculpted only for political ends. It created confusion, chaos, and fear, which is now becoming nakedly apparent as we watch the demise of Fauciism.
Fauci's proscriptions were perpetuated everywhere, not just on the big tech platforms and in the news. Local-oriented sites like Nextdoor, where neighbors tried to get into discussions among themselves about the realities of COVID, prohibited any posts that questioned the defined orthodoxy. They were up-front about it, even to the point of asking whether you were following the "rules" about COVID before you put your post up.
Not many people took the time to dig deeper into the mire of information for themselves. Around here, the reality of living in a leftist haven has dictated strict adherence to the accepted storyline. I live in LibLand, California, where following the leader (as long as that leader is as far left or even farther left than oneself) is normal. We mavericks must hide in plain sight or suffer unknown consequences. In my neighborhood, we still have a preponderance of the "Love is Love, Science is Real, all human beings are legal" lawn signs from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), not to mention the ubiquitous bow-down signs advertising for BLM.
No matter that SPLC funds go toward an anti-American screed such as a "hate map" identifying patriots, Christians, and pro-Israeli organizations as hate groups. No matter that BLM has self-identified as a Marxist organization, promoting anti-family policies and the defund the police movement. As all Marxist dogma eventually does, their story fell apart as soon as we learned that one of the founders had ventured out to buy herself a bunch of very capitalist-oriented homes. I guess she was just one-upping Bernie.
I always wonder, when I pass my neighbors' lawns sprouting these signs (and I have to say, 80% of their "lawns" are unkempt), what exactly they are doing, besides giving lip service, to help their fellow man? Signs are just such a lazy sop to one's guilty feelings!
COVID has given plenary powers to every governor, and some, like pretty boy Newsom, have abused that power from the start. If there had been open discourse, this might not have happened. Even the nursing home fiasco (here, and in New York, New Jersey, and Michigan, too) might never have occurred if the techies and newsies hadn't squelched all protest from the families of those affected. Might these governors have learned something from their more liberty-oriented counterparts, like Ron DeSantis in Florida? Wouldn't some sharing of information have helped? But, alas, the leftish states want nothing to do with what the rightish states have done.
I remember wondering, way back in the beginning, why, after Trump had provided New York City with so much capacity to treat sick people, it wasn't used. He brought in ventilators, he set up field hospitals, he sent a hospital ship. I remember well turning to my husband — both of us ex–New Yorkers — and asking why Cuomo was not using what he was given. It was blatantly obvious that sending his sick to nursing homes would only make things worse. But not a single newsreader, faced with the very same imagery, even asked that question. Might it have been because the answer would be that they could give Trump no quarter, no credit for wisdom, and no support that might sway the populace in his favor?
My only conclusion with all of this is that, as with all leftist movements, they (the higher-ups in all three hierarchies, government, tech, and media) weighed the information and the potential consequences of all their actions and came to the conclusion that sacrificing a few hundred thousand souls was the right thing to do. At least they got rid of Trump. Now all they need to do is admit that that was a mistake, too.

Image: Be silent by Sammy Williams on Unsplash.
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