Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Has the entire world taken crazy pills?
Are the “progressives” just saying whatever shit crosses their minds, and counting on the Amen chorus to nod along, even though it makes no sense in human language ever?

I mean, I remember when “progressives” while still disingenuous and unable to carry an economic argument in a bucket, could make superficial sense or at least appeal to the emotions of those who didn’t think things through.

Take Obama’s song and dance about how our constitution only guarantees negative rights, and he wanted to give people “positive” rights like a right to housing, education and medical treatment.

If you don’t think about it, that “pie in the sky by and by” makes perfect sense, right? Everyone getting the basics free would be great. Think about how much time/mental effort/anguish it would save everyone.

It’s only when you think about it, and look at the economics—which your average “progressive politics fan” never does—that you realize that while it would be great if everyone could have all that for free, given the fact it doesn’t grow on trees, comes from the labor of others and is NEVER unlimited, trying to give it free to everyone means several things all of them bad: in education, it means not only dumbing down coercion, because not everyone is suited to university education, or wants to go to university. In the end the free education is worth what you pay for it, and ends up not being useful for anything, because why should it be, since everyone has to take it and it’s free. In fact, you can already see this in the free and mandatory education we have now. Go look at an 8th grade book from the early century. Our graduates of 12th grade would have trouble READING it. Medicine? Already with Obamacare, we’re getting the tyranny of “best practices” and “evidence based medicine” both of which mean “we have to follow what works for most people” and “We have to follow the latest, probably irreproducible study.” The first one is fine, except for taking away doctor’s judgement, if you have a fairly standard problem, and your body works in a fairly standard way. But the second? Well, most studies can’t be reproduced. But they’re still “evidence.” And the doctors have to follow them.
On top of that, the only way to have “free” medicine is to pay doctors a lot less, which means the current training is untenable. And making people work for a set wage they can’t negotiate? that’s called…. oh, yeah, slavery. Also, even with all that? they’re going to have a shortage of trained professionals. And medicine. And facilities. So, yeah, death panels and rationing.

As for free housing and food? Hello Soviet Union. You can have a closet in someone’s house. There is no bathroom, because it stopped working and no one will fix it. And, well, in winter there are turnips. They’re free!

But SUPERFICIALLY that bullshit made perfect sense, right? If you didn’t know economics, or history and PARTICULARLY if you were in my profession, where promising you those things for free took a ton of the pressure off.

But now? TO WHOM are they making sense now? WHAT the hell sense does this make? How stupid do you have to be you don’t see the problem?

One of Biden’s “science advisors” picks is recommending a six week lockdown to “eliminate the virus” and “revive the economy.”

Oh, I can get sort of why they want to lock up the entire country. Not the reasons they’re saying. but people have been escaping from in front of the boob tube and the indoctrination is slipping. They want you back in front of it so they can preach how they totally didn’t commit fraud, and Donald Trump is guilty of some kind of crime and should be imprisoned forever. I get that. Big Brother only works if you listen to every broadcast.

BUT how come people aren’t seeing through this shit at a cursory glance?
Even the f*cking WHO says that lockdowns do nothing. If I could deduce that the virus was not all that lethal back in February from the F*cking numbers in the F*cking cruise ship, how come people haven’t tumbled to it even now. In face, why are people putting up with their F*cking states locking down again.

Besides, how long have people been alive in this world? If the common cold (which this virus is a variety of, btw) can be eliminated with lock downs, how did it ever get going when most of humanity was isolated compared to us? How come no dictatorial regime ever cured the common cold by locking down their population?

Sure, you can slow down hospital overcrowding for a new virus, which is how the 15 day—still ongoing six months later—lockdown was sold in March, right? But that’s in an entirely novel virus situation, which this ain’t. We’ve found that other Covid viruses confer some immunity. We’ve also found the virus has probably been here for a year, which means it will recur every winter with other Corona Viruses. Sure, it sucks. But the only way it kills the WHOLE population is if we hide under our beds and collapse our civilization.

The flue kills probably 300 to 400k people on bad years—it’s hard to tell—without the funny numbers of COVID-19, and we’ve never hid in our homes and locked up.

This shit came back when the weather got cold, as we all knew it would. The hospitals are NOT OVERLOADED. The only hospitals that ever got that overloaded were in Italy, because they ahve “free!” medical care, and their capacity and quality is for sh*t as always when it’s free.

So locking down is “scientific” the way Marxism is scientific. “It sounds good and gives us power, and makes you listen to our psy-ops via TV 24/7.

What? You think I’m cynical?

Maybe so, but I still find it impossible to take seriously a virus that communicates in churches but not pot dispensaries, in a restaurant, but not in Wal-mart, in a small construction material store but not home depot; to productive individuals, but not to the homeless who get to camp next to each other all over the now deserted cities; at the funeral of your own family, but not in the funerals of politicians where other politicians gather from all over and no one wears masks, at Trump rallies, but not at Slow Joe’s Faux victory party. Etc. etc. etc.
I also find it hard to believe we need to lock down to stop this virus, when Zeke Emanuel is promising the US developed vaccine first to third worlders. (Which btw, have suffered almost nothing from this virus, another thing that makes you go “uh” and wonder how much our numbers are massaged, no?)

(On the homeless seeming immunity to this: I guess the progressives have rediscovered what Medieval people believed: a good layer of dirt and a good stink protect against viruses. Or maybe all of us should be on prophylactic doses of meth?)

NONE OF THIS IS SCIENCE OF ANY KIND. HOWEVER THE THING THAT HAS ME GOING WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE is the idea that six weeks (which we all know mean four years. I mean, we’re still in two weeks of lockdown) will cause the economy to recover.

In WHAT WORLD STOPPING ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND TAKING DOWN STORES AND RESTAURANTS IS PART OF RECOVERY? WHO IS BUYING THIS? HOW MUCH METH ARE THEY TAKING?

Oh, I do get what they want to do. As my boss at instapundit puts it, they’ll turn us all into beggars, because beggars are easy to please.

They think coming out of the next lockdown (a year, two? three?) they can face a tabula rasa economy and rebuild it according to their delusions and green pieties. And actually, being completely virgin of any economic knowledge and animated over all by will to power, they might think that they “scientifically” will build paradise on Earth. And if the kulaks and deplorables have all starved, and the rest are weak and destitute, even easier.

BUT my question is: how can any thinking human being believe this incoherent sh*t and think it is in any way helpful?
ARE people by and large taking meth now, that they don’t see the consequences of this?
I mean, the left isn’t even pretending anymore. You have to be rock bottom stupid or a psychopath to still support them.

And yet I suspect a lot of people I know who are “default left” are nodding along with this shit and if, G-d forbid, we get these people in charge, will be surprised at what happens and all too ready to blame the “right wing” wreckers and saboteurs when this disingenuous bullshit blows up in their faces.

It’s like I’m watching the devolution of intelligence and even the ABILITY to dissemble on the left, so that by next week they’ll be saying “We’re just going to take your children, and roast them with potatoes.”

And the population will be crying in joy and telling us we’re haters for not wanting this.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how much longer I can take of this, before I start bitchslapping idiots in public.

I don’t deal well with irrationality. Why must I live surrounded by it?

 

Reprinted from According to Hoyt for November 14, 2020