Malo Periculosam, Libertatem Quam Quietam Servitutem

Abner! There are people outside! Congregating!
Having fun! They're not wearing masks!
And they're not six feet apart! Do they want people to die?
Call the police!

It surprises me that even here in conservative rural Idaho, people are giving in to the hysteria. At the local Walmart, all the employees are wearing masks and gloves, and benches have been removed so that people -- apparently even family members that live together -- are forced to "social distance." Other stores are putting up plastic sheets and plexiglass barriers and using masking tape to mark the magical 72-inch barrier on the floors with an X. One store in our town that recently reopened won't let you enter without a mask (which, as a reminder, does nothing if it's not an N-95) and gloves. A little playground the next town over is taped off, with a notice posted outlining the governor's C-19 orders -- one of which says that outside recreation near your home is encouraged.

A few heroic local businesses have defied the orders and remained open. I won't name them, because I'm not going to give the Stasi snitches any ammunition.

Those business owners are heroic because they thought for themselves. They didn't let their fear-driven lizard brains hijack their critical thinking process. They didn't choose the economic suicide that our authoritarian leaders wanted to force them into.

And now those of us who were skeptical of this massive overreach all along are being proved right. With tests rolling out in New York, we're finding that millions have C-19 antibodies, which means that millions had the disease with no symptoms. That means the vast majority of people who get the virus recover from it completely or never get sick at all. That also means the mortality rate will drop dramatically.

The sky was never falling. This was never the black plague -- just another seasonal viral outbreak no worse than the flu. None of the draconian shutdowns and house arrests were ever necessary. If anything, they made the situation worse by slowing the spread of herd immunity.

Moreover, we continue to see that a drug cocktail containing hydroxychloroquine works. The media has only downplayed and demonized it because Donald Trump suggested it as a potential treatment. The New York Times and other "respected" media outlets went out of their way to find people who suffered severe side effects (this just in -- all drugs have side effects) when they just as easily could have examined why the FDA was approving the drug's use on an experimental basis for hospitalized patients. They went out of their way to speculate that Trump was making loads of money from a stock holding by pushing the drug, when the tiniest bit of research would have shown (1) that Trump held a stock indirectly through a fund valued at a grand total of $1,500 or less, and (2) that the drug is a generic that's been around for decades, which means there's virtually no money to be made from it.

This is the mindset of those with Trump Derangement Syndrome. They'd rather politicize a virus than let people get better. These are people who, if Trump told them breathing is good for you, would hold their breath until they pass out. That is the utter spiteful childishness we're dealing with here.

And we know that the numbers have been inflated, to the point that almost any death could be attributed to C-19. The vast majority of the dead have been elderly and had co-morbidities.

But if you tell people any of this, they treat you like you're Satan. And that's probably because they don't want to be made to feel like a fool for having panicked in the first place.

But then there are the safety Nazis who would cower in fear no matter what you told them, and all the Gladys Kravitzes of the world who peer out their window just looking for a neighbor to snitch on. These are the people making 2020 look like a rerun of 2001. Better safe than sorry, they said back then when the Patriot Act was enacted, "Homeland" Security was created, and the TSA was put in place to molest children in wheelchairs and old people with prosthetic limbs. This is the price we have to pay to be safe. Do you want the terrorists to kill us? Even if it saves one life, it's worth it.  

Home of the brave, my ass.

The only thing that's changed between 2001 and 2020 is what the lizard-brains use for their emotional blackmail. Now the same old baby boomers that so many millennials wanted dead are the reason we have to remain locked down in our homes. The same Grandma you couldn't be bothered to call three months ago is now your justification for making everyone on the planet a prisoner over a bug that's not even going to harm most people. If it saves one elderly person, it's worth it. Do you want them all to die?

Well, here's the thing. People die every day. More people die of heart disease and cancer than they do C-19. More people have died from the common flu than from C-19. Are you going to shut down the planet over the flu? Are you going to go out in your hazmat suit every time a bug is going around?

I admit, I already knew the overwhelming majority of people were idiotic sheep who do what TV and their leaders tell them to do. It was only an annoyance before. Now they've destroyed the economy and handed over our freedoms that we're not likely to ever get back. When you have to get your temperature scanned every time you enter a public place, it's the sheeple who will say it's for the good of everyone. When the government can track your every move to see if you've come in contact with an infected person and then put you in an involuntary quarantine, it's the sheeple who will say do you want people to die? When vaccines become mandatory, under penalty of house arrest, fines, or imprisonment, it's the sheeple who will say do you want to get everyone sick? And don't think it won't happen, because this is exactly how we ended up with the Patriot Act, "Homeland" Security, and the TSA. All because a bunch of terrified sheep were propagandized into accepting encroachments on their liberties for the sake of safety.

Well, a wise man a few centuries ago had something to say about that mindset.

America was not founded by a bunch of terrified sheep. It was founded by people who preferred the inherent unknown dangers of liberty over the slavery of guaranteed security. As Thomas Jefferson put it:

Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem.

From people swarming to the beaches to pastors holding church services to organized protests aimed at overreaching elected leaders, Americans are beginning to push back against the lockdowns -- and that's a good thing. Notice, though, that in every story that deals with those pushing back against the lockdowns, we're reminded that they're doing so "despite coronavirus concerns." Or the media will point out that the protesters are being called "morons" and "covidiots," which is your cue to do the same. Because if you're no longer scared out of your wits, the media's narrative can no longer control you. Think about it. The media could just as well frame these articles by pointing out that some are thankful for the pushback. It could serve as an opportunity to have a discussion about how these lockdowns have gone way too far. But no. That's not part of the agenda. The agenda is to keep you afraid, to point fingers at the current administration, and to get you to support petty, power-tripping tyrants who dump tons of sand in a skate park to stop kids from having fun, or who ban the sale of seeds (because seeds carry Cooties-19?). Government knows best. Don't you dare think for yourself.

Rebellion against tyranny is the spirit that created America. So you can go out and live your life and accept the risks that come with living that life, or you can hide inside your house forever and demand that others do the same because you're afraid, all while you repeat your mantra of what about Grandma? to try to shame others into compliance.

We all have a choice to make. Which will it be?