Reversal of attitude

Any political discussion about current events must start by conceding that the terms "conservative" and "liberal" don't have much meaning anymore, especially in today's pandemic-panicked society.

Let's explore this a bit.

It's interesting to see how "those on the left" have become the pro-government disciplinarians willing to force their will upon The People, and "those on the right" have become the anti-government libertarians who want to live their lives free of government controls.

One would think that a "liberal" would loosen the rules, and a "conservative" would tighten the rules.

But today's "liberals" - "the Left" - want more government, and "conservatives" - "the Right" - want less government.

That's the "reversal of attitude".

Looking at modern American history, especially the years during the Vietnam war, this is exactly the opposite of what I'd have expected.

There was a time when liberals fought for freedom against government regulation.  Protests.  Marches.  Demands for less government control.  "My body my choice".  And so forth.  Liberals used to be the "free love" generation.  Not any more.

Liberals now want control over the behavior of everyone and are using "the pandemic" as an excuse.  They demand that everyone changes their behavior so that they, the liberals, can feel safe.

I understand their fear.  Nobody wants to get sick.  The liberal-controlled media and their medical "experts" have scared the bejeezus out of everyone around the world.  "The Pandemic of 2020" has become big news, and the resulting panic caused the almost complete collapse of the world's economies.  All for fear of getting sick.

This is not to say that Covid-19 is "the flu".  It's much more serious than "the flu": more communicable, a longer incubation time, and a much longer recovery time.  But the survival rate for those with reasonably healthy immune systems is extremely high.  Well over 98% of those known to come down with it survived.  And that's only those who tested positive for it.  We don't know how many had a mild case and were not tested, or how many developed antibodies but were entirely asymptomatic.

(Let's not discuss elderly and/or those with immune compromised systems.  That's a discussion for another time.)

We all know that liberals live by their mantra "never let a crisis go to waste".  They use that as the excuse to force some truly ridiculous rules upon the citizenry.  Their latest mantra is "because of the pandemic".

And some of these "new rules" are truly silly and counterproductive.  Like painting arrows on sidewalks so you can only walk one direction on one side of a street, and the other direction on the other side.  Or telling people to walk only on the wet sand at the beach and not the dry sand.  Or drawing circles on park lawns to enforce social distancing.  Or to not swim in the ocean.  Go ahead and google - these are all true.

But don't question liberals.  Those who do are publicly shamed into silence and then are accused of being tantamount to murderers.  Facts that don't fit the narrative are ignored.  Once again, "the science is settled" because liberals say so.  And any conservative who disagrees is a baby killer who wants to starve grandma and then throw her off a cliff.

Everyone who asks the question "show me the facts that prove these restrictions work", and who points to recent studies that show that Covid-19 does not survive on surfaces for several days (those were the original predictions for the virus under ideal conditions) must be evil and must want you to die.  Because "the Left" says so.

Others wonder what will happen when the next virus hits - and it will.  It's inevitable.  Will liberals once again coerce human behavior to try to "prevent" sickness?

To paraphrase a line from a famous movie, "Fear will keep the local communities in line.  Fear of this coronavirus."

Meanwhile, conservatives try to warn against the creeping increase in government power and are thus shut out of the conversation by the media who, rather than "speak truth to power", are hiding truth from The People.

What is the truth?  The truth is that Covid-19 is not the harbinger of the apocalypse.  It is survivable.  This makes it "yet another disease" that mankind will have to live with.

It's just interesting to note that those who want the freedom to do as they wish have become willing to coerce others by means of government into obeying their orders.

How... Orwellian.