Governors Reinstate Lockdowns To Combat Recovering Economy | The Babylon BeeU.S.—Governors across the country have reinstated lockdowns mere weeks after slowly starting to lift them, citing a "concerning spike" in jobs and the economy.
Worried that the increase in jobs, prosperity, and happiness would hurt them in November, they reacted to the economic upturn quickly, shutting down businesses and locking people back in their homes.
"We can't let this economic spike continue," said California Governor Gavin Newsom. "That would go against SCIENCE. The SCIENTISTS say that locking down an entire population is the best way to prevent dangerous economic spikes."
"Also, we wanted to mention that this message was brought to you by PlumpJack Estate Winery. Use code NEWSOM for 10% off your next tasting!"
The governors noticed that people were happier with their lives, glad they could go back to work and reopen their businesses, and having fun outside. Unable to tolerate this kind of freedom and general satisfaction with life in the age of Trump, they scrambled to lock back down.
"We're seeing a concerning rise in the number of people disregarding the government and going on with their lives," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "If you're outside enjoying yourself or contributing to the economy, I'll get you, my pretty! And your seeds too!"
They have really pulled out all the stops on this piece of fear porn: Bloomberg
Bloomberg thinks we need to be forced into our homes, despite this fact: COVID-19 Provisional Counts - Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic CharacteristicsA laissez-faire approach naively trusting everyone to be responsible has been shown to be ineffective, as there will always be a proportion who will breach the terms of the isolation,” said Jeremy Lim, adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
But other countries facing sustained spread like Australia and the U.S. are not broadly enacting the policy despite its proven track record. Their unwillingness -- or inability -- to do so underscores the challenges faced by liberal democracies whose populations are less likely to tolerate measures that require individual sacrifice for the greater good.
It's fascinating to watch this develop. People have been trained to believe what they are told, true or not, logical or not, smell-test-pass or not. They dutifully obey. How many of you ever imagined that this would be the way we react to a crisis?
This is the way Australia has reacted to the crisis:
Officials are using a combination of stepped-up checks and fines of A$4,957 ($3,550) to convince infected people to stay home, while repeat offenders risk a A$20,000 penalty in court. More than 500 military personnel are helping the police conduct checks on 4,000 households every day to ensure those who are supposed to be staying home are there.
To be very honest, I didn't believe back in March that things would go as sideways as they have. My wife likes to remind me that I had stated back then that this would probably boil over in a couple of weeks; I remind her that I said that before the government decided to throw the mains on society and the economy. Once that happened and the scope of the disaster made itself known, I have revised my position to one of very nervous concern about how this is going to shake out over the course of several months, with the overall ramifications not becoming known for perhaps a year at least.
In terms of expecting people to roll over, no, it did not surprise me. The Cathedral has gotten very, very good at controlling the narrative and have been practicing their craft for decades. The past four years have made this abundantly clear. But if you look back at history, and you reject the spontaneous occurrence view of history, sitting down, shutting up, and going along with what has been told is essentially the default position people take. WWI and WWII were highly unpopular wars among the American people, until circumstances changed to make the populace crave the state's protection and immediate involvement. The Great Depression was so bad that people clamored for the government to do something, anything to get us out of it, no matter how useless or actually harmful those actions were. The specter of "terrorism" has proven to be an extremely effective motivator at eliciting submission in the name of security.
Surprising as it may be or not, that's how human societies tend to work; hierarchies are inescapable and Pareto's Law is all that matters. The 80% will fall in line to the 20% simply because well the 80% don't know any better and don't care to know any better.
What really, really surprised me was not the reaction of the "normies;" some people are so predictable in their reactions and positions that's it's infuriating beyond words. There aren't enough red pills in the world for these people. No, what really got me down was who emerged as being firmly in that camp. I think lot of normally skeptical, contrarian people have been scared absolutely shitless, either out of concern for their own safety/health, the safety/health of others immediately close to them, or some combination of both. They have made the assessment that they have too much to lose and will go along until it's officially OK per the authorities. it is safe and I honestly do not fault them for it.
Stuff like this has been popping up for a while, "thought leader" types bemoaning that western countries aren't "able" to handle COVID like more totalitarian ones, salivating over countries like China's response to the disease like it sets an example for all of us to follow.
So essentially you are an adherent to situational ethics. Got it.
Yesterday the mask drama at the Rec continued. While sitting and waiting for DB to finish her pool time I was whiling away the time on my phone. Not wearing a mask. An SIU employee (not a student) told me to wear a mask. I checked my FitBit and my pulse was still hammering along at 135 bpm (90% of Maximum Heart Rate). I told him that and said I didn't want to play games with CO2 rebreathing. He insisted so I put it on and told him if I passed out to be sure to call the EMT's.
More covid madness manifested itself today. I was lifting in a converted racquetball court with 3 power racks, some free standing squat stands, and 2 platforms. I was alone while warming up and then 3 young women came in to lift. Then a little later, 2 guys. Shortly thereafter, a masked student employee walked by and said the capacity for that room was 2 people and the last ones to arrive needed to do stuff elsewhere. The last 2 guys left. Me and the girls stayed put. The area was 40' x 20'. Keeping 6' apart was no issue for the 6 of us.
Hi Rip, don't know if this was covered earlier, but these massive fines are handed out for heinous crimes like being more than 3 miles from home, ot not wearing a mask (which the chief health officer actually advised he did NOT recommend wearing a mask a couple of months ago)
As it stands, we are not allowed to leave our homes unless it's for work, seek or give medical aid, buy groceries or our alotted 1 hour of exercise time. Groceries and exercise have to be within 5km of home (3.1 miles).
Work can be outside of this radius, but you must carry a "permitted worker form" signed by your employer, detailing your job and it's location.
Face covering must be worn any time you leave your home.
These restrictions came into place early August, in a city of 4.9 million, I think there were around 130 deaths.
But we won the world's most livable city a few times, so that's nice.