Mistrust, disgust, and getting on with life anyhow

So two “very smart people” walk into a bar the Oval Office.

Bear with me. This is the biggest joke ever.

So in they walk and they say to the prez, “Hey, prez. There’s this guy in England with a long, long history of overblown and hilariously wrong predictions of health disasters. He says 2.2 million Americans are going to die of Covid-19 if we do nothing, and a million will still go even if we do. No better scientists have backed up his work.

“What say you recommend shutting down the entire country, and especially its small-business economy, based on this one dude’s word?”

And now for the punchline. Get ready …

Well, why bother? You already know the punchline. You’re living it.

In terms of both economic and long-term government-caused health disasters, definitely the biggest joke ever.

—–

We now know the two very smart people Trump said persuaded him last March were Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx — whose word we’re still supposed to take as gospel to this day.

And the British dude with the cavalier attitude toward truth was Neil “Lockdown” Ferguson, whose history of dead-wrongness is detailed here.

We even know that, based on his own behavior with his blonde leftist married bimbo mistress, Prof Neil wasn’t dumb enough to believe his own propaganda. Said mistress didn’t believe hers, either.

Hey, social distancing is only for you peasants; the elite have higher priorities, like getting laid.

BTW, Neil “Lockdown Hypocrite” Ferguson is not to be confused with historian Niall Campbell Ferguson, who’s more generally on the side of the angels — and not the angels of death and destruction.

—–

That’s all it takes to wreck a world: One creep with credentials and a laughable track record; two credulous “experts” not bothering to ask questions or apply basic epidemiological principles; and one man in power who blows with the wind more quickly than an aspen leaf. Oh, and 50 or so would-be dictators waiting for this perfect opportunity.

And millions to panic and obey.

—–

So here we are — the butt of one of history’s largest and least funny jokes.

I don’t know whether this is a “Plandemic,” as some are calling it — a virus engineered from start to finish as a global (and generously U.S.-funded) power grab. My own perhaps overly trusting and charitable view is that it was an authentic bat virus that simply escaped the Wuhan lab where it was being studied.

Who knows, though? Certainly not me.

I dread seeing people fall into the standard web of conspiracy theories, where the conspiracy itself becomes the focus and people forget to actually, you know, resist the evil.

The one thing we know for sure is that governments can, in the short term, get away with absolutely anything — any damn thing at all — if they and their media minions can whip the populace into a big enough panic.

But we already knew that from 9/11. And for that matter, from virtually all of history.

It’s only the short term. Eventually, some critical mass of people does wake up. But by then all the “emergency” laws, powers, diktats, policies, handouts, bailouts, and technologies have been rushed into place. Thus an entirely new layer of tyranny becomes permanent. We the People can then object all we want, but to little avail.

We adapt to the “new normal” until at some point the political and economic “normal” becomes intolerable. Then another old familiar cycle repeats itself again — overthrow the old bosses, replace them with the new bosses and hope that for a few decades the new ones might be a tad better.

Yeah. Good luck on that.

—–

At the same time I grit my teeth and roll my eyes at the steady flow of conspiracy claims, I tell my friends I now believe each and every conspiracy theory I hear about the damn virus.

My statement may not be literally true, and I’m for sure not going to plunge all my mindpower into researching the latest equivalent of pizzagate or lizard-brained alien theory.

There is no point seeking for some Grand Unified Field Theory of why the world is so completely effed.

But the world has gone so far over the cultural insanity line, and every “fact” reported in the media is either so speculative or such outright, deliberate, politically driven BS that reality as fed to us from outside sources — if you can still call it reality — is about as believable as Alice’s Wonderland.

But not as entertaining.

No, I don’t let my life get sucked into whatever the lastest conspiracy theory is and I hope you don’t, either. But since “facts” have become false, reality has become fantasy, money can be created out of thin air, freedom is slavery, principles are as maleable as clay, “science” is something to be believed entirely on faith, and today’s truth is tomorrow’s repudiated let’s-just-not-mention-that-again claim … you might as well believe whatever turns your crank.

Then get on with Life.

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But as always, getting on with Life is more complicated than just popping a tab on a brew and watching the lurid lives of murderous tiger persons, courtesy of Netflix.

It involves building for an unknown (but certainly even crazier-than-now) future. Being practical. Taking steps, however small. Building or creating local networks. Keeping an eye on real truths and a heart on real principles and a focus on practical actions. It means knowing what you will and won’t put up with. Increasingly, it means being tribal.

Charles Hugh Smith, always a beacon of common sense in this mad world, has a thing or two to say about effective thought, planning, and action today.

Smith is 100 percent right that prattling pundits, even good honest ones, are better at analyzing problems than at recommending solutions. That’s partly because any moron can analyze a problem to his heart’s content (and this post opened with several morons named Ferguson, Fauci, and Birx who did just that). It doesn’t matter in the least whether you’re right or wrong in your analysis. It only matters that you get clicks on your article. Or lots of buzz on Twitter. Or government funding for your program. Or laws passed in your favor. Or lucrative speaking engagements. Or the perks of being viewed as an “expert.”

So you’re wrong and people suffer and die because of that? Who cares? Nobody will remember by this time next year. Besides, most of those miserable or dead people were just hoi palloi, anyhow. They weren’t your classmates from Harvard. They didn’t belong to your country club. They didn’t live in Georgetown or Palo Alto or Beverly Hills. They didn’t have your impressive credentials or your billionaire supporters. They weren’t employed by prestigious institutes or publications. They weren’t connected like you. A lot of them probably even v*ted for Donald Trump. Eew.

No, analysis of problems is cheap and easy and these days the consequences of being wrong usually fall on other people who really don’t count, anyhow.

But actual, workable, non-disastrous solutions are not only harder; they’re individualized.

Fear the guy who tells you he’s got the one-and-only solution. Fear him just as much as you fear the guy who tells you he’s got the one-and-only true analysis of the problem.

But Smith has some ideas worth your time and thought.

Live. Think. Plan. Do. Be flexible. And resist. But — as always — resist effectively.

It’s harder but more important than ever in a world gone completely nuts.