We must never again surrender society to fear (and to those who profit from fear)
Crony capitalism has quite a lot to do with our current societal insanity. In a world where government partners with business and business partners with government, particularly in some key parts of the economy like the news media, “dysfunction” is the inevitable result.
Consider what we learned in the The Twitter Files. Basically the federal government forced social media companies, which were usually more than happy to comply, to censor the words (and by extension thoughts) of Americans. In the USA the government is not granted this privilege. Indeed freedom from censorship is one of the key pillars of American life. Yet in a blink, the government in the name of “Covid awareness”, or because of “disinformation”, or “misinformation”, or the new one “malinformation” (which is factually correct information that goes against the officially mandated narrative) rolled right over the First Amendment. (And many Americans were OK with this, tragically.)
The covid disaster was a massive boon for (big government) people in power. This must always be remembered. It was a political land grab. It was a chance to further centralize what is supposed to be a largely decentralized system in the United States. Suddenly government was using all sorts of new powers it awarded itself overnight. States and the feds changed election laws with little or no debate. Checks were sent out in a sort of a trial run of universal basic income which in turn spurred to a significant degree much of the inflation we are now witness to. Suddenly we were supposed care about what the United Nations had to say, as if they had any authority in this country. There were a million changes, and mostly for the worse.
Additionally the covid disaster proved a massive opportunity for many giant pharma companies (many partnered directly with the US government) that made billions and billions while people sat shuttered in their homes drinking booze and developing depression. The giant corporate stores stayed open. The mom and pops were forced to shut. The big teachers unions used their allies in government to keep schools closed even though covid posed almost no threat to children.
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