The saddest spectacle is good girls and boys bleating morosely “we’ve done everything we were told. When can we go back to normal?”
When you stop doing what you are told, you little fool. That’s when you can have your life back. Because you’ll have to take it back yourself.
The most stunning realization in the past 18 months was how infantilized people have become. They do what they are told and then are stunned to find out that the orders weren’t given for their benefit but to con them.
With experience from the former USSR in mind applied to the situation here in the West, where does “taking your life back” become “open revolt”?
How far can people go, exactly, before accusations of insurrection are cast as they were on Capitol Hill followed by an abuse of process to keep everyone in prison?
I’m at an indoor kids’ event right now. 100% of children are wearing masks. Except mine. There’s absolutely nothing preventing the other parents from torturing their 5-year-olds. But nobody dares.
My kid hasn’t worn a mask once to the activities, stores, museums, library, church, etc. Not once. 100% of other kids are always masked. This is not the government’s fault. This is on the parents.
I’m here with a friend who doesn’t believe in masks, vaccines, etc. But her kids are masked because “what if somebody says something.” People aren’t afraid of prison. They are afraid that somebody will disapprove of them. They are willing to harm their children to avoid that.
“where does “taking your life back” become “open revolt””
It starts small with a change in attitude. No longer assume that rules (big or small) are made for any good or rational reason (least of all the benefit of anyone except some faction of the government or private interests acting through the government).
That being the case, there is no special need to follow rules that lack any surface sense.
Be aware that being caught is possible (though when things degrade to the level they are now in the US, often enforcement is lax since those doing the enforcing feel humiliated and/or stupid doing so).
Governments all over the world have worked long and hard to erode any trust or confidence they may have once had and that will be one of the consequences.
When I went out today there was no slightest effort at actually enforcing new restrictions on public transport occupancy and a fair amount of people without masks and/or pulled down over their chin (at least a fourth).
When I’ve been in stores there’s no effort at enforcing new limits (they’re posted on the door and no one pays any attention).
Some politician even explained that they’re not going to introduce vaccination status controls as exist in some countries because no business would actually follow them.
A colleague went to Bulgaria for vacation in the summer and found out there are probably more fake vaccinated cases there than real cases.
That’s the ground level beginning.
Thank you! That’s exactly what I’m saying. People are expecting something big and defining to happen to change things in either direction. But that’s not how it works. Turn off the news, stop listening to the lies, stop following what the new rules are, walk away from stupid conversations, chuckle condescendingly and do your own thing.
The same with wokeness. We don’t need to establish new universities or anything that grand. All you have to do is look at the wokesters like they are frumpy, uncool, pathetic.
“People are expecting something big and defining to happen to change things in either direction. But that’s not how it works. ”
Where I live, a rebellion is possible. The reason I posted is because I am trying to figure out how far I can go without accidentally tripping off one of the systems that suppress people.
So, it is possible that my question, and the reason for it, may have been misunderstood. Thankyou anyway though 🙂
“how far I can go without accidentally tripping off one of the systems that suppress people”
Well there’s no rebellion without that. Better to have plans on how to deal with it than trying to avoid it or hoping it doesn’t happen (cause it will). There’s also no rebellion without a big chunk of the population that has replaced the governing set of rules with an internal set.
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“Well there’s no rebellion without that.”
To clarify – on the path to rebellion, I want to understand which people are suppressed and why, so that I can predict which ones will still be at liberty when the standing government is openly challenged.
“It starts small with a change in attitude.” There’s also no rebellion without a big chunk of the population that has replaced the governing set of rules with an internal set.”
Thankyou for saying this. I think I know what to look for now 🙂
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I had an encouraging experience recently, when I went to the theater with my son to see a comedian we like. The theater has a strict mask mandate, and I would not have bought tickets for the event, but the tickets I had were replacements for an earlier show that had been canceled due to Covid hysteria. The tickets had cost an arm and a leg and weren’t refundable, and at least the place didn’t have a vaccine mandate (unlike most venues around here), so we went. There were guards posted at every entrance to ensure that no one sneaked in without a mask, but even though the theater’s policy is that every patron must wear a mask at all times while inside the building, as soon as everyone sat down most of the audience removed their masks. It was a sold-out event, so it was wall-to-wall people, and everyone was laughing (which we all know is an extremely dangerous virus-spreading activity), but almost no one was masked. This was NOT a conservative crowd by any stretch of the imagination — I might have been the only person in the place who voted for Donald Trump — but the masks came off and people were laughing like hyenas and having a good time. Score one for sanity!
A conservative literary critic and college professor
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