Flu Klux Klan
The Flu Klux Klan is my joking term for the "never let an opportunity (to steal power) go to waste" crowd. They see everything through the lens of progressivism. They were the first to leap on the COVID Shutdown and will be the last to let up. While some are sincere, there are many that just want to hold the baby (economy) under water until the bubbles stop -- and as long as the economy was still alive (and Trump might get re-elected), they are prepared to burn the whole economy down for their political ends. After all, creating a dependency class of unemployed and clueless followers is what they wanted all along.
Anything we can do?
Before leaving California, I was asked is there anything we can do to convince our politicians/voters that Shelter in Place helps?
I explained, "no". You can't teach anyone, anything. You can give information to people, and they can choose to learn. The old joke about how many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb applies. Answer: one, but the lightbulb has to really want to change.
If progressives/liberals/bay-area types wanted to learn, they would have already, and would be moderates or conservatives. Progressivism by nature is an extreme view of the world that distrusts everyone but themselves for knowing what others should do in the name of progress. So the fact that they haven't learned yet means the odds are good that aren't likely to learn in the near future. Their ego for change and telling others what to do, exceeds their desires to learn/self-improve. And their addiction to telling others what to do under the cover of moral superiority is a heady lure.
So even if you can teach one, or a thousand, the sheer numbers of them around here, will prevent you from getting things done in the near term. Accept it, or move away... or do both.
Thus, the way to fix it? Wait for other states that still have open minds and intellectual diversity to try it. They will lead the way.
- Texas has been mostly open (and is opening), many other states never closed. If they don't suddenly get crushed under COVID, then it's possible that even ass-hatted authoritarians like Gain Newsom (and his flock of angry followers), will learn. But Progressives are not going to consider that they might be wrong, unless they have overwhelming evidence. (And even then it may be hard).
- And if ANY place, anywhere, screws it up by not social distancing well enough, or gets a cluster outbreak -- they will use it as confirmation bias to prove that they were right all along, and go back to ruining the economy and destroying as many lives as they can (all in the name of compassion, and moral high-horsing). It's their addiction.
As a friend put it snarkastically: "5,000 people choke to death on solid food each year -- if you care about human lives we should require that all food be pureed and drinken out of bottle. If you won't do that, you obviously care about profits and convenience more than the lives of others!" That's the rationalization the left uses to prove they're right about anything. If you try to argue the costs of that policy, they will just accuse you of not caring, being a FauxNews watcher, or of being a Trumpanzee.
Which brings up a quote,
❝ If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." ❞
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Which reminds me another quote,
❝ Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. ❞
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It helps to remember that those quotes are nearly 100 years old. So the lure of progressive intolerance to growth is nothing new. Their religion or identity is based on the truth that they are only telling other people what to do for their own good. So to progressives, the most intrusion in our lives is the most progress -- they will always be the first to turn towards authoritarianism, and the last to turn away from it.
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