I'm not sure why I have to keep bringing this up for every "crisis" but...if you people that hate freedom would quit using every crisis as an excuse to institute even more tyranny (like you did with the last crisis) then those of us who love freedom wouldn't be fighting you on this.
You could say "hey gang, this virus is bad...we should all socially distance" and we'd be like..."that sounds reasonable, we can do that temporarily then get back on with things as they were before". The crisis would pass, things would go back to normal.
But instead it's "hey dissenters, stay at home or we'll arrest you...also we need to institute a new normal where drones are flying around monitoring everyone and we're spending $1 trillion a week while deciding who can work and who cannot"...to the response of "fuck your crisis...we don't believe anything you say".
Remember that for the next crisis...because you'll care oh so much about people in the next crisis too and we will yet again not follow along with your ideas about how "everybody should do X".
This is actually a great formulation of my thoughts from another direction.
I often come into conflict with folks approaching from the "conservative" side whose logic seems to be;
if - crisis is being used to consolidate power
then - crisis is made up bullshit
Sorry, but this logic does not hold water. Rahm Emanuel's infamous chestnut is perhaps the most flagrant illustration that the powers that be will, in fact, use ANY crisis, conjured or terrifyingly real to further their designs.
Elwar, I accept your thesis that the forces of neoliberal globalism have squandered their credibility through repeated exploitation of crises. I further accept that this complicates our response.
Do you accept that some of these crises may, in fact, be real??
I accept that those that support freedom need to downplay the crisis out of necessity. I also accept that those that support tyranny need to unnecessarily overhype the crisis.
Hence, you go up and down your Facebook page and see the same people posting low COVID death numbers who also post links to how maybe Iran didn't do <insert bad thing the US claims they did to push for WW3>.
The same people screaming about millions of possible deaths are the same ones that say that the PATRIOT Act was a perfectly reasonable response that is still necessary 20 years after 19 individuals orchestrated an attack.
People would not need to downplay the numbers if they knew that those that want to control their lives were going to try to use the crisis to control their lives. People who want to control your life would not be overhyping the numbers if they had some dogs they could torture to keep their appetite satiated for power.
Now...if people who
truly are all about this COVID thing being an actual
true threat that they believe in their hearts is going to end humanity (and they get past the fact that they don't really care about humanity going away)...then they should propose free market solutions that would give people more freedom while fighting the virus.
Propose ways to save lives and save us from a deadly virus while at the same time decentralizing power and empowering individuals. If you care...this is what you do.
"Propose ways to save lives and save us from a deadly virus while at the same time decentralizing power and empowering individuals. If you care...this is what you do."