There is a Chinese Proverb that states, ” Do not remove a fly from your neighbor’s forehead with a hatchet.”
Don’t tell those who support massive lockdowns and other drastic meausres to stop Covid.
Go onto any Facebook page of a Governor who has locked down his/her state or instituted extreme limits on personal freedoms, and you will find people who are more than happy to use the hatchet on the fly.
An example would be Governor Larry Hogan’s ( So-called Republican from Maryland) Facebook page. After this week’s announcement of instituting rules such as closing restaurants from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., reducing costumer capacity in restaurants, gyms, churches etc. I went on to Mr. Hogan’s website to voice my opinion.
Now, I’m not stupid. Having dealt with the Governor and his followers for nine months now, I know how they are. I know that on his Facebook page there will be those who voice their displeasure in his policies and those who support him and call all those who don’t ” haters.” The supporters heap praise on Mr. Hogan and call him the best governor in the U.S. They tell the rest of us that we don’t care about anyone else, that we want people to die, etc. ( As a side note, I actually voted for Hogan, twice. )
I’ll admit, it pisses me off and sometimes I say things I shouldn’t say about Mr. Hogan and his supporters.
But, the other day I was really trying to be rational. I mentioned that these restrictions are having many more adverse effects on many more people. I pointed out the following:
- Proportionality: Every time a police officer or a soldier defends themselves or stops a criminal, people talk about proportional response, meaning that if someone is shoplifting you don’t shoot him. The response is not equal to the crime. We have gone so far in this country to extend that argument to almost any situation, even when a police officer is attacked. Joe Biden wants the policeman to shoot the attacker in his foot. ( Stupid, I know, but again, JOE BIDEN.)The proportionality of the response to a virus that has a 99.8% recovery rate is lost when you shut down the lives of entire groups of people and deprive them of jobs and freedom. But, say that online and you will hear, ” If it saves just one life…” or ” I had a mother/father/sister/brother etc. who died from Covid so everyone else needs to stop living.” No mention of possible co-morbidity is made.
- Effectiveness: The CDC and the WHO, both agencies that the Covid Cult adores, have said that the masks and social distancing don’t work and in some cases are harmful. Say that and they come back at you with ” it’s a small thing,” or ” you just don’t want to be uncomfortable.” When I addressed the concern of the safety of masks worn while exercising to our county Health Department head after she chastised us who don’t think exercising in a mask is safe, I got no answer. This from a woman who seems perfectly comfortable in calling us, in effect, petulant children. She has obviously forgotten who pays her salary and that she has an obligation to engage with these people. If you talk about how closing a small business doesn’t make sense when Wal-Mart is open, or that closing restaurants at 10 p.m is arbitrary, you are a heretic.
- Incompetency: When I mentioned not only the inaccuracy of Covid tests, and the misuse of the supersensitive PCR test that finds minute, dead, and harmless traces of Covid, I was asked if I could do better. Maybe not, but I expect medical personnel to know what they are doing. ( And, mentioning the waste of money by Hogan on faulty Korean tests got me the “bigot” label because his wife is Korean. Would it had been the same if they had been Russian tests?)
- Collateral Damage: I stated on Hogan’s Facebook page that the following were some of the collateral damages from lockdowns and restrictions: loss of businesses people had spent a lifetime building, loss of jobs for those who can least afford to lose a job, a severe and damaging loss of learning to our children, especially those with special learning needs, loss of life for those who were unable to get into their physician for a check up this summer and who were diagnosed, when they could get in, with advanced diseases such as cancer and who died before treatment could be effective, increase in suicide as people with mental issues or depression couldn’t get help and felt hopeless, increase in damaging anxiety for children and adults, increase in child and spousal abuse cases, and on and on. The response from one Hogan supporter who said she was nurse, “You’re a bigot and the orange blob caused this.” No facts, no consideration of my ideas, nada. AND THIS WAS A NURSE. GOD HELP US. ( if you go to her, expect a splinter to result in an amputated finger)* In case you don’t know, the “orange blob” is Trump. Yeah.
No, we get the videos of the doctor whose patient died from Covid, the nurse crying because she is distressed with so many patients ( which is also up for debate.) etc. Where are the videos of the business owner who is destroyed and whose employees are without a job because of this? Or the parents who can’t work and whose child is falling way behind in school? Or the family member whose mother had undiagnosed cancer that could have been caught without the lockdown? Or the video of the person considering suicide because he/she can’t deal with this?
Nothing.
Don’t even think of asking the Governor if any alternatives were considered or if he/she has the constitutional power to do what he/she did. The first question will get you NO response and the second one will get this response that Hogan gave to a citizen on Twitter. ” Yes, I do.” That’s it. Sounds like the answer parents give a child when the child questions his/her authority, “Because I said so.”
Yes, going on the Governor’s Facebook page is enlightening and enraging all at once. You discover that the Covid Cult there is perfectly happy with killing the fly on your forehead with a hatchet. Quite frankly, I think they would hit us with the hatchet without the fly.