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36 sats \ 29 replies \ @joda 6 Mar \ on: Covid Showed Us Who Really Rules America | Mises Institute libertarian
"It was only after non-elite political opposition began to look uncontrollable that some state institutions began to relent. "
I think this is a good thing. It means resistance still works, and everyday people still hold the real power. Some progressive populations will respect authority and that's fine too.
The fact that the protestors weren't beaten, jailed, etc, means things are working okay. It's not perfect, but it is a dynamic balance.
Australia and New Zealand arrested people who didn’t follow COVID protocols. Many were sent to internment camps.
Gun control enables government excess and abuse
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Law enforcement can’t target everyone.
Local police can’t stop a riot. You saw this in Minneapolis where rioters burned down a police station
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I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to stop those riots. Whether they could have is an open question.
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I'll look up the internment camp stuff; that sounds horrific.
That was a big part of my saying that we got off relatively lightly. It was especially ugly because of how many indigenous folks were rounded up into camps.
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Where do you get your news?
I am surprised you didn’t know about what happened in Australia 🇦🇺.
Do you believe your local politicians on most matters because they have your best interests at heart?
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People were arrested for in person gatherings and not getting the spike protein.
We shouldn’t be surprised by this policy
In Australia voting is mandatory. You cannot choose to abstain.
Australia 🇦🇺 denied entry to Novak. He wasted his time flying there for the Australian open. The COVID regime wanted to embarrass a tennis celebrity publicly
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The fact that the protestors weren't beaten, jailed, etc, means things are working okay.
I wouldn't go that far, but it certainly could be worse.
What the tyrannical Covid measures demonstrated is that we need a layer of protection that reacts quicker than the courts. It's insane that governors can institute whatever illegal decrees they feel like and we just have to wait for months or years and hope the courts eventually come to the right conclusions.
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Remember 14 days to flatten the curve?
14 days became 14 months and longer
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I guess I don't look back at it as "tyranny". Because the "enforcers" were just as confused as the rest of us, and I think local governments had everyone's best interests at heart, compliance was mostly self-governed. We were out doing all kinds of stuff during "lockdown" and no one gave us any shit.
It was really the businesses who had it hard. It was truly scary to think that your business could not operate for an indefinite length of time, AND people would DIE if they were in enclosed spaces together.
I think it's pretty extreme to think the US governments were acting like a Communist dictatorship. Mistakes were made, but millions of people died too. I'm glad people protested, but I also didn't feel like my civil liberties were being completely suppressed. I can easily imagine a MUCH worse scenario.
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Best interests at heart?
Policy should not be based on matters of the heart.
Best intentions pave the road to hell.
Unelected bureaucrats are the most venal and power hungry people.
Local politicians ignored their constituents and abused their emergency powers.
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Commercial activity was restricted. Businesses were forced to close unless you received a wealthy donor exemption.
Regular people were forced to eat at home while governors ate at swanky restaurants like French laundry
Sounds like communist party behavior
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Compliance was self governed?
There were many people who opposed covid restrictions and mandates but complied nevertheless under threat of being fined or arrested or incarcerated.
Compliance does not mean voluntary support or agreement
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This depends on where you were and what stage of the pandemic we're talking about. In much of Red America, there weren't government mandates immediately and they were lifted somewhat quickly. However, many people followed Covid guidance on their own accord.
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Not in my state and county where restrictions remained thru the beginning of 2022.
Vaccine passport to eat in restaurants or attend a large sporting event.
Mask mandates were lifted in 2022
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Yeah, you probably had it the worst. Maybe NY.
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California was bad especially SF and LA. It was probably fine in small rural areas.
San Diego was slightly better: no mask mandate in 2021.
All the kids had to wear masks when classroom instruction resumed. This was demanded by teachers. God forbid if a teacher gets sick. Students might actually learn!
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I think the government teachers may have dealt themselves a fatal blow during covid.
Most covid fatalities were senior citizens.
The average age was 80 years.
The lockdowns were overkill. The definition of essential businesses was arbitrary. If a virus is so deadly people don’t have to be reminded.
YouTube and Twitter suppressed dissent.
Vaccine and booster mandates were invasive. COVID jabs were not adequately tested for safety and efficacy.
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It depends where you were, but millions of Americans lost their jobs or their businesses because of non-scientific extrajudicial decrees. That is tyranny. Just because something could have been worse, doesn't mean it was acceptable.
I'm not using "tyranny" as a buzzword. The point is that many governors acted outside of their constitutional authority and there was no recourse for their victims. In a free society, our liberties are presumed and any infringements on them require due process. Whether or not they had our best interests at heart is completely irrelevant to whether the way they exercised power was tyrannical.
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It was tyranny. And illegal and unconstitutional. And immoral
At least you didn’t use Nazi or Hitler. Those insults are reserved for conservatives
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Plenty of people were inside together and didn’t die.
Maybe they got sick but they didn’t die.
Do you know anyone who died from covid? How old? Diabetic? Obese? Hypertension?
Many nursing home residents died from covid. Nursing home residents are also old and frail. Lots of sick seniors. Nursing home is your last home. No one moves to a townhouse from a nursing home.
Nursing home residents are on Medicaid which means they are poor.
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Yes in our fields we experienced hundreds of COVID deaths, mostly old, though some children and some 50s-60s. Sometimes but not always with abnormal health conditions.
I also have some experience with assisted living. Assisted living is relatively expensive, depending on the area.
I don't believe vaccines should be mandated. Almost all of the people who we saw die from COVID were not vaccinated, but that doesn't at all make me think the government should make these decisions for people.
Some people will die who wouldn't have, had they been vaccinated. Maybe some vaccine will turn out to be lethal. It shouldn't give any obligation for a just government to restrict civil liberties.
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Assisted living facility is different from a nursing home?
Nursing home residents are on Medicaid and often run by the county or state
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Do you get covid booster every 3 months?
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This should have been covid policy: protect vulnerable people
By protecting everyone, vulnerable people received less protection
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