The shadow of plague and pandemic is ingrained into the human psyche. As a species we have endured countless diseases that have decimated us, in the literal sense. At many points in time this invisible horror has proved to be an existential threat. We had a right to be scared. Not so much with SARS-COV2.
Sure, it’s a bad disease for many people, but not on the level of plague, polio, smallpox or many of the child-ravagers we have seen over the centuries. The response to it is disproportionate.
How has the internet shaped our response to real life events like Covid? Will we be more accepting of a vaccine subscription since we are subscribed to Netflix? Are we OK with permanent ‘contact tracing’ because we give up all our privacy to Facebook anyway? There are lot of psychological issues at play here.
I recently read the book Psychopolitics by philosopher Han Byung-Chul and was blown away by his scathing insights. One thing I think about a lot is that people read 1984 and expect tyranny to be obvious. Han on the other hand says that modern capitalism (i.e. society) doesn’t need to be tough, but instead seductive. We have no need for a surveillance state because a) we tell the authorities everything anyway and b) we are quite willing to tell on our neighbours, exactly like North Koreans.
Recently I quote tweeted someone on a ‘hot topic’ (the most recent cartoon by Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig) and was assaulted by bots or something like them. It really highlighted how the pandemic has revealed fault lines in society. These problems have been building, but they are abundantly clear now.
I said: “I mean they are using coercion at the end of needle point so how exactly is Leunig wrong? Please, do tell.”
Here are my responses to some of the responses.
I am coerced to pay income tax, to register my car, to have a drivers licence, to have CTP etc etc. None of that rises to the level of Tianamen Square. Nor does vaccination requirements in a pandemic.
Coercion is very different from what this person thinks. First, let’s be clear. The government in Australia stripped us of basic freedoms and installed absurd rules (wearing masks outside for example, utterly useless). They are then parcelling back the same freedoms. They are doing this because packed hospitals don’t go over well with voters. The language used is almost derogatory and certainly places the unvaccinated as a ‘undesirable’ or dare I say ‘deplorable’ person.
Now to the points:
Taxes are an agreement with the government whereby you pay money and in return receive services.
Registering your car is not coercion. It’s a rule that makes sense. It has no real impact on the individual, allows the police to follow up if your car is stolen, and so on.
You are not coerced to have a drivers licence, I know plenty of people who don’t have them. For some jobs they are necessary because driving is an actual skill that requires certification.
To the point about Tiananmen Square. Many progs compared the Jan 6 Capitol protest to September 11. I can actually see why they make the comparison (attack on American grounds, something about institutions, etc) even if the death toll/significance is…well, off. Or more to the point, it’s similar to Australians saying that the recent protests in Meblourne are ‘our Jan 6”’. So let me explain this to progs. Leunig is using a visually oppressive regime to show how even if Australia is not OVERTLY using the same tactics, it amounts to similar processes. It is big gov versus the individual, at base level. To dismiss it because tanks are not literally rolling over people is…well, I’ll be honest. It shows you to be a very, very stupid person. I mean, really subpar IQ. Dumb beyond reason.
(Or malicious, your choice.)
Vaccination requirements during a pandemic is somewhat unprecendented. We had polio, smallpox etc forever before a vaccine campaign could be rolled out. To compare the Covid vaxx campaign to anything else in history is again showing a lack of intelligence and insight. I for one think the rollout is simply amazing (US government regulatory bodies aside) but I completely understand hesitancy. And rolling out vaccines in the middle of a respiratory disease pandemic might not be a good idea given mutations, etc. We have not let the dust settle.
Nobody is forcing people at gunpoint, people are tired of the undermining health advice as being communism by religious dumfucks who hate science and the modern world.
It blows my mind that people think they have to be forced at gunpoint for something to be authoritarian. Absurd premise, and absolutely false in the world we live in. The rest of this is strawmanning and something about communism, I don’t think it’s worth responding to.
As Hans says, “It is inefficient to exploit people against their will. Allo-exploitation yields scant returns. Only when freedom is exploited are returns maximized.”
Killing someone is worse than offering medicine.
I hate that somehow progs have been brainwashed to think that passing on the virus is akin to stabbing them. It’s not even akin to drunk-driving and killing a pedestrian. It’s a fucking virus guys, this is what it does. Has this level of myopic safetyism ever been the case before? We never thought this about flu shots and you could always have passed it on to someone who passed it on to a cancer patient who then died of pneumonia. Why do progs insist you are killing people by not wearing a mask? It is simply a false dichotomy. Protect or kill. Be a monster or a saviour.
What progs don’t get is that the medicine isn’t perfect. It can have side effects. And at the end of the day, it is a personal choice that people should not be castigated for. Just because you decide not to get vaccinated does not make you a monster.
Dot you drive on whatever side of the road you want whenever you want? Freedom is always limited
If I drive on the wrong side of the road I am basically 100% guaranteed to get into an accident, and probably die. These odds are nothing like the odds of dying to covid (or even *ahem* long covid, whatever that is) or for that matter vaxx side effects. I don’t think progs have a grasp on proportional statistics. Very stupid people. You hate to see it.
Freedom is also an interesting point. Freedom, as Han/Marx defines it, is nothing other than “self-realization with others”. On the one hand maybe progs say, ‘see you have the get vaxxed to commune with others.’ But no. That is enforced at whim by the government. Freedom is not real if it’s dangled as a carrot. Freedom is not real if you can’t accept other’s self-realization.
Get run over by a tank, then we can talk.
As per my previous point, progs are TOO literal. Way too literal. Plus, they wish harm and death on their enemies. Sick people.
I think that’s it. Covid has broken people and divided society. Perhaps that’s what the elites want. Who knows? Maybe it’s just a sad side effect of too much internet.