Back in 2020, when the first lockdowns hit, I said to my twin brother that this was going to go down in history as a pivotal moment. A new era was about to start, as I had predicted for years, and often talked about, all be it to deaf ears. The sign that I had been looking for had appeared, namely a monumental event hoisted upon us by a coordinated attempt to fashion a new normal. What lay before us was a battle of sorts, and its outcome would determine the trajectory of history for decades to come.
My brother, always the sensible one, found my views eccentric. He could see nothing sinister in what was going on. He very much doubted that the lockdown was anything but a sensible response to an existential threat. As a professional business advisor he felt it prudent to go along with all recommendations and mandates, and even go the extra mile and implement stricter rules than what was being suggested from politicians, journalists and health authorities. He quickly became an advocate for the new normal.
But the new normal never materialized. Anyone who took my brother's advice knows now that none of it was necessary. Much of it was harmful, and all of it was costly. I don't know to what extent my brother's reputation suffered from his bad advice, but I assume that his clients are no longer as impressed by his advice as they were up until the virus scare. His credibility has no doubt taken a hit.
A similar story can be told about a teacher at my son's school who prides himself on being something of a philosopher. Left leaning, with libertarian tendencies, the man has cast himself as an expert on fascist tendencies; how to identify them and how to fight them. But when push came to shove, he crafted a letter to all the parents recommending that all children be vaccinated. He didn't see the distinctly fascist nature of the virus scare. Needless to say, the man has lost much of his credibility due to this ill conceived letter.
Noam Chomsky, who is a philosopher of international standing, also left leaning and anti-fascist, made a similar mistake when he recommended self isolation of all unvaccinated people. He too had trouble identifying fascism when confronted by it, and he too has lost much credibility.
School boards and universities have similarly lost much credibility due to their mindless acceptance of the #Science. Vaccines were recommended and mandated. Masks were worn, and social distancing and self isolation was practiced. None of it was necessary, and all of it was harmful.
Astonishingly, hospitals in Portugal still require people to put on a mask before entering their premises. This is despite the fact that masks do not work, and can in some cases be harmful due to the way they capture fungus and bacteria right in front of our airways. An insistence on mask wearing is irrational and anti-scientific, and this irrationality is for some reason particularly strong precisely where you least want to see irrational behaviour.
Health bureaucrats seem to be particularly susceptible to magic thinking, and doctors and nurses don't seem to be any wiser. Why else have they gone along with the crazy stuff that is being insisted upon even to this day? It turns out that when their credibility were on the line, they all failed.
Our institutions are crumbling. People are loosing faith in journalists and politicians. A majority of people in the US now believe that journalists are more likely to deceive us than inform us. People's faith in politicians is at an all time low. By the looks of it, we're entering a new era, and it will be interesting to see what will rise from the ashes of the old one.
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| Parrots |
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