Lockdowns, Mandates and Misinformation: Oh My!

 

Jon Reisman

News/ Ministry of Truth/ “misinformation” items:

Johns Hopkins Study Showing Lockdowns had Miniscule Public Health Benefits Buried by Legacy Media

Cloth Masks offer little to no protection Against Omni variant

OK Boomers: Addled Karen Rockers Want Joe Rogan and “Misinformation” Muzzled

The left has control of the White House, Congress, the narrative via the legacy corporate media (including the paper of record (New York Times), the paper of the swamp and Big Tech (Washington Post), NBC, CBS, ABC and the Associated Press), academia (except for Hillsdale College and a few heterodox economics departments), the deep state (including the Departments of State, Justice, and Defense (thanks to Obama era culling of the officer corps and Brandon administration vaccine mandates coupled with surveillance of social media for problematic “white supremacist” and domestic terrorist sympathies) and the public health bureaucracy (Fauci, NIH and the CDC)), deep blue states (New York, New Jersey, Illinois, the left Coast) and cities, Soros funded prosecutors and the entire racial spoils affirmative action Diversity, Equity and Inclusion empire.  
The right “controls” Fox New, some red states (Texas, Florida, South Dakota) and apparently the publisher of this newspaper and a small but vocal minority of mentally ill academics, white supremacists and domestic terrorists.
The “misinformation” leaking through conservative media and poisoning minds against the dominant leftist narrative is intolerable to the left and must be muzzled. Dangerous and antiquated notions of freedom stand in the way. Answer: Hate speech and “misinformation” (anything that questions and/or contradicts the dominant leftist narrative) must be censored. The First Amendment must be reinterpreted by judges who recognize the “living” constitution to make it so. Wrong thinking must be punished and erased. If that proves too difficult, the number of “right thinkers” on the Supreme Court and in other positions of power and authority must be increased by any means necessary. The continued existence and sustainability of the planet and the left requires it.
And so a comprehensive study from “once” highly respected and touted public health experts at Johns Hopkins (until they dared to question the dominant leftist narrative) which shows the lockdowns were incredibly ineffective at saving lives while leaving unstated the obvious conclusion that they were incredibly effective in destroying freedom is ignored and/or labelled as “misinformation”.  European and red state efforts to end the pandemic power grabs are also ignored or spun as dangerous “anti-science” reactionary murderous recklessness.
Cloth mask mandates are revealed as ineffective leftist fashion and control fetishes. Karens Neil Young and Joni Mitchell want Spotify to muzzle Joe Rogan because he is asking too many uncomfortable questions. Young apparently has forgotten his old CSNY bandmate’s famous lyrics:

For What It’s Worth (Stephen Stills/Buffalo Springfield)
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Jon Reisman is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias. His views are his own. Mr. Reisman welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].

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