It seems unbelievable that this virus could continue interfering with our lives in such a Kafkaesque fashion nearly a year after vaccinations began.
If it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated, then should my virtuous self be allowed to go about my business without a mask?
If the vaccine is so effective, with hospitalization probabilities near zero for people in my age group who are vaccinated, then how can it be that the scolds continue to hold so much power over me?
The answer of course is that the section of our ruling class (a notion that, broadly defined, expands far beyond our legislatures) that wants to take away our freedoms and control our lives found, in Tony Fauci, the perfect device for mass oppression.
Shut things down, smother people’s faces with masks, make grandparents die alone — all in the name of science. Of course, a power grab in the name of science is something that the Left has been attempting for years in the name of climate change.
The similarities between the apocalyptic rhetoric about COVID and that about climate change, often spouted by the same people, should not evade the attention of conservatives.
As terrible as the virus has been, nobody has claimed that it will destroy the earth as we know it. The same cannot be said for the climate.
I do not intend to dispute anything about climate science in this space, but it is striking how extreme the statements of mainstream progressive politicians have been about the consequences of doing nothing on climate.
In 2009, for example, Al Gore told us, “Some of the models suggest to Dr. (Wieslav) Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years.”
Such an eventuality, of course, would flood many of the world’s population centers. If that were to happen, it would not be an exaggeration to state, as Gore did in his Nobel acceptance speech, that “We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here.”
In that speech, Gore went as far as to compare those who oppose his preferred policies to, yes, those who enabled Adolf Hitler.
“Despite a growing number of honorable exceptions,” said the former vice president, “too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: ‘They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.’ ”
If you do not agree with the Left’s policy actions, you are analogous to the enablers of a mass murderer. And the alarmism does not stop with Gore.
Look at Joe Biden’s recent talk in Glasgow: “Climate change is already ravaging the world. We’ve heard from many speakers. It’s not a hypothetical; it’s not a hypothetical threat. It’s destroying people’s lives and livelihoods and doing it every single day.”
If you don’t wear a mask, you are killing people; folks will get in your face and bully you into submission. In the minds of these people, what should be done if you drive a car, or heat your house with oil, consume meat from a flatulent cow, or hop on an airplane?
If we can shut down the economy and force people to isolate [themselves] because of a virus that threatens a small percentage of humanity, what can we do when the entire Earth is threatened?
My fear is that the Left has found in the totalitarian Fauci state the playbook that takes this entire COVID farce to the next level.
If we can shut down everything, even churches, for 30 days to “stop the spread,” why not shut the entire economy down for half a year to save the planet?
And between now and then, widespread public shaming of anyone who dares to contribute to climate change in any way seems as inevitable as the phases of the moon.
Read rest at National Review
