Mark reflects on current Covid-19 thinking and discussions.

Author:  Mark Seymour.

Date: 1 January 2021.

Original URL: https://www.facebook.com/MarkSeymourOfficial

Article Text

(Thanks to Michelangelo for the pic.)

History is moving fast. Trump took a round of sooky la la golf and the streets of Manhattan erupted with a roar not heard since the end of WW2.

Democracies grappled with the optics of the face mask.
Some leaders were more sensitive to personal freedom than others.

And so we reached the end of 2020..

and nothing was more democratic than the plague. It recognised neither class nor privilege.

But if there was one thing that rose to the surface in 2020,

It was the near triumph of stupid.

If a lie worked for a while then self-destruction became acceptable. It was all in the percentages. If a rumour felt good, no matter how much statistical or biological evidence indicated it was complete bullshit, if you ‘believed’ in it man..

Then it was true.

And so, you might die.. but hey.. you’ll go down proud.

‘I never took the vax!!’

The earth feels flat.. right?

Someone asked me just now… why doesn’t Gladys make masks compulsory?

She seems like a decent enough person. But see, that’s the thing about the political right. It’s got that seam running through it.. you have to give comfort to the nut jobs.. the sovereign citizens amongst us. They have rights too baby.

Trump called the democratic mechanism corrupt. And as it turns out, millions still believe he’s right. They’ve gone over the numbers exhaustively.. but.. nadah.. it doesn’t matter.

It’s the vibe man. So.. over the cliff we go..

You can chuckle at a conspiracy theory all you like. Call it pure untethered paranoia. Until millions buy into it. Then it turns into shrewd politics.. the art of the possible, whatever works.

If you’re going to create a shit storm, you’ve got to have a reason.. right? Power is a good one. Or running a country single handed.. Afterall, even a conspiracy theory is a plan and you gotta have a plan. Even at this late hour..

But this is where it gets really nasty.

Defending personal freedom is not a plan on how to deal with hundreds of thousands of dead people..

The bold, the bad and the beautiful.

The plague has not respect.

This is no time to be squeamish.

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