Americans like to think of themselves as a free people, enjoying freedoms that most people around the world can only dream of. To an extent, that’s true. We still enjoy the right to bear arms, the ability to start businesses with relative ease, and freedom of expression and worship that are denied to billions around the world. But as the COVID lockdowns have demonstrated, we’re also only too willing to accept tyrannical government actions without pushing back against those actions at all.
The COVID crisis isn’t really a pandemic or a crisis. COVID isn’t uniquely dangerous or contagious. If you look at US data for total deaths per week, the peak this year was only slightly higher than the 2018 flu season. In fact, the CDC stopped publishing the charts showing weekly deaths recently, probably because it showed that COVID wasn’t uniquely dangerous. And it also stopped breaking out COVID deaths separately, instead lumping them in with flu and pneumonia, probably also because the data would have shown that COVID isn’t all that deadly. Yet Americans have allowed governments to exercise unprecedented control over their daily lives and haven’t pushed back against those actions, all out of fear of this unknown virus.
Government reactions to COVID are a dry run, an attempt to see how Americans will react to government overreach. And, disappointingly, both liberals and many conservatives have reacted with overwhelming support in favor of this government overreach. They’re so desperate to live comfortable, risk-free lives, that they’ll willingly throw away their freedoms for the promise of being free of this virus.
The reality is that we will never be free of this virus, or of any viruses. Governments now know that they can use these viruses as bogeymen to extract anything they want from the citizenry. People are bending over backwards to comply with government mask edicts, despite the fact that COVID is no more deadly than a bad flu. They’re ratting out their fellow citizens to the police, shaming people who point out the logical arguments against mask wearing, and denigrating those who want to live as free men rather than as slaves.
The Virginia flag features the state seal and motto, sic semper tyrannis – thus always to tyrants. Yet rather than crushing tyrants as they deserve, the American people today are all too willing not just to accept the yoke of tyranny, but even to call for more. The tyrants we call our political leaders have learned their lesson from COVID, and know that there will be no effective backlash against their tyranny. So if you thought the reaction to COVID was bad, just wait until the mandatory vaccine orders, or the actions to respond to flu season and future virus outbreaks. Unless the American people suddenly grow a backbone and stand up to government overreach, we can kiss our freedoms goodbye.