Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 128

[ecosophia]

We are now in the third year of these open posts. As the phrase "died suddenly" repeats in the mass media like a mantra, statistics for work days lost to illness and all-cause mortality mount up in heavily vaccinated nations, and more and more ugly facts about the official response to Covid spill out into public, we are entering what may well turn out to be the most difficult period of the Covid disaster -- the phase in which denial rises in lockstep with the death rate, and a great many people try not to admit what has been done to them by the people and institutions they trusted. It could get ugly, folks.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The Left never fell down on the job.

The thing about the Left is that they have an explicit dependence on Government for their aims. That they ended up having no problem with the restrictions and the shots isn't so much a bug or a feature but a logical outcome of this– if you depend on someone or something, you'd better fall in line when the person or thing depended upon makes its own demands.

Contrast it with the Right, which at the very least has a distrust in Government that it states. That distrust allows the ability to look at stuff linked to Government (like COVID-19 or the shots) with at least a disinterested eye, able to oppose if/when it makes sense.

– Donald C. Hargraves

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure your views are accurate about the 'actual' left. The 'once upon a time' left. The 'pre-Obama, pre-identity politics replacing leftist politics' left.

The Tony-Blair-Yuppie-TV-dinner-in-a-neutron-bomb-fake-left takeover of the British Left.

At one time the 'left' had an oppositional relationship to government. At one time the left was setting up Black Panther breakfast programs (not to give credit to white leftists but rather community minded black leftists), the left was creating co-operatives, The left was demanding economic justice.

I think 'that' left is what Jeremiah Hosea is talking about. And THAT left never would have fallen in line for experimental injections. No. This was all timed to happen when the American, and British, and European 'left' had been in the main replaced by identity politics. Obama destroyed Occupy Wall Street and soon after that the corporations started funding identity politics.

[(Anonymous)]

The problem with this analysis is that the Left has always had an oppositional relationship to the "government", defined as the political sphere. But, the Modern Left as a creation of the New Deal has always supported bureaucracies; the right has always had a deep degree of skepticism of them. 20th century politics doesn't make any sense unless this weird ambivalent contradictory relationship with government is noticed; but by and large neither the right nor the left was eager to bring attention to this.

The thing is, the left has, ever since the days of FDR, been at the centre of power; it's always been there. Sure, they realized they could support themselves by advancing the causes of some of the people out of power, but the left has never really been opposed to government; it's always been an act. Notice how many of the initiatives the left pushed for increased the power of the government; things like the Civil Rights Act always created new governmental powers.

One of the consequences of the wave of catabolic collapse in the 1970s-1990s was that a lot of the things the privileged left pushed for which didn't advance their own interests were dropped; but it was hidden for a while because no one wanted to admit that they were all for things like racial equality, as long as it didn't threaten their paycheck...

[(Anonymous)]

Okay thanks. One of the reasons I enjoy this forum is there are alwasy people with thoughts that add a huge slice of pie to the table. I guess I'm thinking of Woody Guthrie and not Al Sharpton. lol.

[claire_58]

Guthrie would not recognize today's left. I'm pretty sure there would be some absolutely scathing songs generated if he were here to see all the shenanigans carried on under the banner of "left".

[(Anonymous)]

Historically, the left has claimed to stand for thinks like workers' rights/labor organizing, protecting poor and vulnerable people from the worst problems of unfettered capitalism, and in favor of freedom of speech, religion, and assembly (remember the old, pre-woke ACLU?).

Whether or not those goals are accomplished (or attempted to be accomplished) through government isn't really the point. Let's say one believes in traditional left causes, and also thinks, in traditional left fashion, government intervention is the best way to do it. In that case, the so-called left should have been advocating for workers' rights (and against private employer mandates), by appealing to the rule of law to protect workers from employers' attempts to force medical products on them; in favor of things like re-opening public schools and other public accommodations (domestic violence shelters, clinics, libraries, etc.) upon which poor people depend; against lockdowns that disproportionately harm the poor in favor of "focused protection" of the vulnerable (via government assistance to make such protection possible, presumably); and, if they believed that vaccines were the solution, then advocating for nationalizing the vaccine production operation to prevent corporate windfalls at taxpayer expense.

Doesn't matter whether or not you personally agree, the left stance might very well have been in favor of government intervention, but historically it would have been in favor of traditional left-voting constituencies like labor and people using public services - or at least PRETENDED as much. The response of the current "left" was blatantly pro-corporate and anti-worker (let's help pharma line it's pockets at taxpayer expense while trampling workers' rights!) and anti-public service (let's shut down public services so the PMC can Zoom from the comfort of their homes!).

[(Anonymous)]

and maybe once a social 'movement' builds up a head of steam, over decades, it requires a lot of delicate thught-surgery to determine if the motion is positive or otherwise.