The damage that Democrats inflicted on children-children!- is unforgivable. Thanks for keeping this out front. They need to be held accountable for what they did.
Politics drove a lot of the push to keep schools closed. But the teacher unions pushed it for personal reasons beyond politics. It’s far easier to get paid for lecturing via Zoom than have to deal with a live classroom full of children. The policies they pushed for decades have turned many schools into toxic messes, especially in the cities. What could be better for them than to get paid without dealing with the consequences of their ideas? Win-win. Work in pajamas, and get held up as heroes helping to defeat Trump.
My own 2 grandchildren, now 7 and 9, are still dealing with some of the ramifications you described. I disagreed with Dems in general before COVID; now I despise them.
"...you could make the case that during the pandemic, nothing was so pernicious as the mainstream media’s perverse efforts to normalize toxic political tribalism and tabloid-like terror headlines, working within a defined ecosystem to impress a narrative upon the population while devoting remaining resources on the wrongness of the rival faith."
Great writing!
I only wish you didn't include that clipping from Jennifer Rubin—I may have developed a gag reflex where just seeing her name or face makes me want to puke.
The brazen lying and hysterical fear-mongering, the absolute shamelessness in making any claim regardless of truth or accuracy, the ruthless slanders and character assassinations, the deranged jihad against Trump just because the neocons lost their spot at the head of the Republican feeding trough (and let a bunch of unwashed rubes and hillbillies into their gated country club), all of it wrapped in a layer of arrogant sanctimony and dripping with a blazing hatred and condescension very poorly disguised as enlightened concern—she might just be the most loathsome of all our supposed "journalists", which is saying a lot.
But your underlying premise is absolutely correct: every display of madness in the past decade—Covid, George Floyd, open borders, open prisons, the Social Justice Cultural Revolution etc—are all part of the same endless tantrum thrown by the elite managers of Our Democracy™, who would rather destroy America than let it slip out of their control.
Democrats these days seem to always escape from having to accept responsibility for their destructive policies and behaviors. They claim that they never did support the lockdowns, closures and mandates during covid. Thanks Brad for doing the work to pull up the actual evidence. They are not only guilty of all the unnecessary harm they caused, but today they lie about it. We need to hold their feet to the fire, force feed them their dose of responsibility like they force jabbed all of us with a fake and untested vaccine. We need to repeat REMEMBER WHAT THEY DID TO US DURING COVID!"
I am thinking we need a branding label of "COVID COMMUNIST"
Colonel Kilgore says, "Charlie don't surf!" I grew up in Southern California, not far from the Spawn Ranch. Do you think Kamala is having sex with them all and giving them LSD? What an image...
The "pandemic" worked in the Dems' favor since the kids were online where they could get indoctrinated into the "gender" woo that Obama sold his soul to before he left office. Michelle mentioned this in her speech -- those horrible parents who won't allow their kids to be themselves, i.e. rush them to the nearest evil "gender affirming care" specialist to cut their genitals off, sterilize them, and make them sick for the rest of their lives.
Thanks Brad, nice work! My children were already grown and out of the house by the time the pandemic hit. My wife was a school teacher in Seattle, had the children been young, she would have been able to be home with them obviously. But I had many associates who were not so lucky. The needless interruptions to their lives was a result of the policies of keeping schools closed. It was a crazy time which the Dems want to blame on Trump. I didn't used to be a conspiracy person, but what great timing for the pandemic while Trump was in office. No proof, just interesting timing to release a virus into the wild. Oh sorry, it was PANGOLINS yeah, that's it... Pangolins.
“The DNC’s Pandemic Revisionism” Are we not living in an era of media-corrupted politics where almost everything the Democrats are claiming is revisionist? For the electorate it seems to come down to what their media feeds repeat or ignore. Confoundedly, the higher levels of education achieved seems to increase the level of either gullibility, or some other psychological mechanism that causes the adoption of so much that just isn’t so. I was also naive in my assumptions about human intellect. Today, given my exposure to so much lack of honesty, truth and critical thinking, I wonder how the hell we have advanced this far as a nation.
Tocqueville was perplexed when he first observed our success. He tried to make sense out of it, while also noting some cracks he expected that did not show… but that he suspected might be held together by some magical and previously unknown factors. Maybe it was magic, because today the cracks are wide and deep and we are all at risk of falling in.
Obviously the pandemic was a study in left-wing authoritarianism, an historical "perfect storm" moment that gave expression to a worldview that, years in the making, valued safetyism, credentialism, government-in-loco-parentis, and expressions of compassion that were arguably driven by those in the grip of a neurosis fueled by the constant need for the social credit of superior morality.
But notwithstanding all of the evidence into how:
-- the collective wisdom and policies changed on a dime to serve political ends, much of which was known at the time because it was argued for by reasonable voices that in most contexts would -- by sensible folks at least -- be considered "expert,"
-- and considering the scientifically backed insights being placed into the record in real time,
-- AND even accounting for a legacy media comprised of the very people for whom political gamesmanship mattered more than openness to reasonable debate,
All of that being observed and acknowledged, the questions remains:
"WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKING JOY??! WHAT HAVE YOU TO SAY ABOUT THAT??!!"
Is it really worth diving into the minutiae of authoritarian impulses and corrupt actors and helicopter governing when we're finally defeating the Trump Virus of Darkness and Hate?
Can't we recognize that Tim Walz is the kind of guy who, if he heard you had a Covid infection, would hitch that virus up to his snow plow and tow it the fuck out of there? AND be there to comfort you with massage oils and scented candles as your calf muscles cramp up in orgasmic appreciation of his selfless act? What the fuck about that, BRAAADD?
Sure, the pandemic provided the Left its most robust and deranged opportunity to resist Trump, to virtue signal its superior morals by nobly denying themselves -- and the rest of us -- of a functioning society we take for granted. But isn't it tough times that test our mettle so we can come out better on the other side?
And wasn't it Kamala Harris, who knows a thing or two about viruses, who prosecuted the case against Covid and led us out of the wilderness of lockdowns so that we could enjoy this moment and the opportunity it affords us? A moment toward which the arc of history has bent in fulfillment of its greatest-yet achievement: The election of Harris as the first and greatest president of these United States. Let's not do a forensic analysis of the pandemic response, when all that matters is the JOY of right now.
Consider: Without the pandemic, our economy might have continued to grow and Trump would've been elected to another term as president. You could even see the restrictions on our social movements, rising prices, and loss of jobs as the lab experiment we needed for MAGA to show us who they are as they tried to take over the Capitol, hang Mike Pence, and install Trump as permanent monarch.
We might have had to deal with that now if things hadn't gone the way they did. But lucky for us they brought zip ties and guillotines and ropes and we're all here as living witnesses to history. We locked them away so that JOY could flourish throughout the land. And WE AIN'T GOIN' BACK!
Actually, in response to what you said I went and looked at her Twitter feed, both then and current. As with most things, it's not completely black and white. Still, I think overall she's done more harm than good.
I see a silver-lining there, people are going to start questioning government more when they start hurting their children. Many parents saw for the first time with the remote teaching who is teaching their children and what they are teaching. It also begs the question,why pay property taxes when the schools are closed? Why pay taxes that go to teachers who don't want to teach (or at least their union which they support says that)? Why believe the media that this is fine and "children are resilient" when you see the kids suffering? If you manage to set up an alternative to government school should you send your kids back into the arms to those people? This may be a blessing in disguise, people wrestling back education from the government because the government stopped delivering entirely - many accepted awful teachers and awful schools for the benefit of not having to organize education and to be able to go work. I think the government overreached. This will hurt the Democrats in the long term.
Silly me, and here I thought the teachers were just selfishly wanting to avoid being exposed/have longer vacation. I should've figured the politics was more deeply embedded. Sigh.
This gets personal with me. the NYT (Apoorva) pretty much tried to get my youngest HS closed (New Trier). the really sad part is that a bunch of he parents cooperated with her.
The damage that Democrats inflicted on children-children!- is unforgivable. Thanks for keeping this out front. They need to be held accountable for what they did.
Politics drove a lot of the push to keep schools closed. But the teacher unions pushed it for personal reasons beyond politics. It’s far easier to get paid for lecturing via Zoom than have to deal with a live classroom full of children. The policies they pushed for decades have turned many schools into toxic messes, especially in the cities. What could be better for them than to get paid without dealing with the consequences of their ideas? Win-win. Work in pajamas, and get held up as heroes helping to defeat Trump.
My own 2 grandchildren, now 7 and 9, are still dealing with some of the ramifications you described. I disagreed with Dems in general before COVID; now I despise them.
Same. 100% on target
"...you could make the case that during the pandemic, nothing was so pernicious as the mainstream media’s perverse efforts to normalize toxic political tribalism and tabloid-like terror headlines, working within a defined ecosystem to impress a narrative upon the population while devoting remaining resources on the wrongness of the rival faith."
Great writing!
I only wish you didn't include that clipping from Jennifer Rubin—I may have developed a gag reflex where just seeing her name or face makes me want to puke.
The brazen lying and hysterical fear-mongering, the absolute shamelessness in making any claim regardless of truth or accuracy, the ruthless slanders and character assassinations, the deranged jihad against Trump just because the neocons lost their spot at the head of the Republican feeding trough (and let a bunch of unwashed rubes and hillbillies into their gated country club), all of it wrapped in a layer of arrogant sanctimony and dripping with a blazing hatred and condescension very poorly disguised as enlightened concern—she might just be the most loathsome of all our supposed "journalists", which is saying a lot.
But your underlying premise is absolutely correct: every display of madness in the past decade—Covid, George Floyd, open borders, open prisons, the Social Justice Cultural Revolution etc—are all part of the same endless tantrum thrown by the elite managers of Our Democracy™, who would rather destroy America than let it slip out of their control.
Democrats these days seem to always escape from having to accept responsibility for their destructive policies and behaviors. They claim that they never did support the lockdowns, closures and mandates during covid. Thanks Brad for doing the work to pull up the actual evidence. They are not only guilty of all the unnecessary harm they caused, but today they lie about it. We need to hold their feet to the fire, force feed them their dose of responsibility like they force jabbed all of us with a fake and untested vaccine. We need to repeat REMEMBER WHAT THEY DID TO US DURING COVID!"
I am thinking we need a branding label of "COVID COMMUNIST"
Tim Walz is a certifiably unglued. https://shorturl.at/TPFWD
Harris supporters remind me of the Manson Family. https://tinyurl.com/thcrs3z
Colonel Kilgore says, "Charlie don't surf!" I grew up in Southern California, not far from the Spawn Ranch. Do you think Kamala is having sex with them all and giving them LSD? What an image...
It is precisely this issue that made me no longer a democrat. I’ve voted democratic my entire life. Never again.
The "pandemic" worked in the Dems' favor since the kids were online where they could get indoctrinated into the "gender" woo that Obama sold his soul to before he left office. Michelle mentioned this in her speech -- those horrible parents who won't allow their kids to be themselves, i.e. rush them to the nearest evil "gender affirming care" specialist to cut their genitals off, sterilize them, and make them sick for the rest of their lives.
Thanks Brad, nice work! My children were already grown and out of the house by the time the pandemic hit. My wife was a school teacher in Seattle, had the children been young, she would have been able to be home with them obviously. But I had many associates who were not so lucky. The needless interruptions to their lives was a result of the policies of keeping schools closed. It was a crazy time which the Dems want to blame on Trump. I didn't used to be a conspiracy person, but what great timing for the pandemic while Trump was in office. No proof, just interesting timing to release a virus into the wild. Oh sorry, it was PANGOLINS yeah, that's it... Pangolins.
That’s it; that’s the answer. Yeah. John Lovitz invented the response before the first lies. Pure genius
“The DNC’s Pandemic Revisionism” Are we not living in an era of media-corrupted politics where almost everything the Democrats are claiming is revisionist? For the electorate it seems to come down to what their media feeds repeat or ignore. Confoundedly, the higher levels of education achieved seems to increase the level of either gullibility, or some other psychological mechanism that causes the adoption of so much that just isn’t so. I was also naive in my assumptions about human intellect. Today, given my exposure to so much lack of honesty, truth and critical thinking, I wonder how the hell we have advanced this far as a nation.
Tocqueville was perplexed when he first observed our success. He tried to make sense out of it, while also noting some cracks he expected that did not show… but that he suspected might be held together by some magical and previously unknown factors. Maybe it was magic, because today the cracks are wide and deep and we are all at risk of falling in.
Obviously the pandemic was a study in left-wing authoritarianism, an historical "perfect storm" moment that gave expression to a worldview that, years in the making, valued safetyism, credentialism, government-in-loco-parentis, and expressions of compassion that were arguably driven by those in the grip of a neurosis fueled by the constant need for the social credit of superior morality.
But notwithstanding all of the evidence into how:
-- the collective wisdom and policies changed on a dime to serve political ends, much of which was known at the time because it was argued for by reasonable voices that in most contexts would -- by sensible folks at least -- be considered "expert,"
-- and considering the scientifically backed insights being placed into the record in real time,
-- AND even accounting for a legacy media comprised of the very people for whom political gamesmanship mattered more than openness to reasonable debate,
All of that being observed and acknowledged, the questions remains:
"WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKING JOY??! WHAT HAVE YOU TO SAY ABOUT THAT??!!"
Is it really worth diving into the minutiae of authoritarian impulses and corrupt actors and helicopter governing when we're finally defeating the Trump Virus of Darkness and Hate?
Can't we recognize that Tim Walz is the kind of guy who, if he heard you had a Covid infection, would hitch that virus up to his snow plow and tow it the fuck out of there? AND be there to comfort you with massage oils and scented candles as your calf muscles cramp up in orgasmic appreciation of his selfless act? What the fuck about that, BRAAADD?
Sure, the pandemic provided the Left its most robust and deranged opportunity to resist Trump, to virtue signal its superior morals by nobly denying themselves -- and the rest of us -- of a functioning society we take for granted. But isn't it tough times that test our mettle so we can come out better on the other side?
And wasn't it Kamala Harris, who knows a thing or two about viruses, who prosecuted the case against Covid and led us out of the wilderness of lockdowns so that we could enjoy this moment and the opportunity it affords us? A moment toward which the arc of history has bent in fulfillment of its greatest-yet achievement: The election of Harris as the first and greatest president of these United States. Let's not do a forensic analysis of the pandemic response, when all that matters is the JOY of right now.
Consider: Without the pandemic, our economy might have continued to grow and Trump would've been elected to another term as president. You could even see the restrictions on our social movements, rising prices, and loss of jobs as the lab experiment we needed for MAGA to show us who they are as they tried to take over the Capitol, hang Mike Pence, and install Trump as permanent monarch.
We might have had to deal with that now if things hadn't gone the way they did. But lucky for us they brought zip ties and guillotines and ropes and we're all here as living witnesses to history. We locked them away so that JOY could flourish throughout the land. And WE AIN'T GOIN' BACK!
THANK YOU, JOE!
'Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist and leading voice against the pandemic response...'
Wait, what? She's the notorious ardent mask advocate who single-handedly caused a scandal over the Cochrane review update on masking recently.
Perhaps I'm misreading 'leading voice against the pandemic response'...?
Holy shit. Probably one of worst errors I've made. Thank you for pointing this out, changed it.
Actually, in response to what you said I went and looked at her Twitter feed, both then and current. As with most things, it's not completely black and white. Still, I think overall she's done more harm than good.
I see a silver-lining there, people are going to start questioning government more when they start hurting their children. Many parents saw for the first time with the remote teaching who is teaching their children and what they are teaching. It also begs the question,why pay property taxes when the schools are closed? Why pay taxes that go to teachers who don't want to teach (or at least their union which they support says that)? Why believe the media that this is fine and "children are resilient" when you see the kids suffering? If you manage to set up an alternative to government school should you send your kids back into the arms to those people? This may be a blessing in disguise, people wrestling back education from the government because the government stopped delivering entirely - many accepted awful teachers and awful schools for the benefit of not having to organize education and to be able to go work. I think the government overreached. This will hurt the Democrats in the long term.
Silly me, and here I thought the teachers were just selfishly wanting to avoid being exposed/have longer vacation. I should've figured the politics was more deeply embedded. Sigh.
The stupidest voting cohort in American history.
Powerfully said, all of it extremely painful to contemplate even now.....thanks for the Park MacDougald link....
This gets personal with me. the NYT (Apoorva) pretty much tried to get my youngest HS closed (New Trier). the really sad part is that a bunch of he parents cooperated with her.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.