Three Plagues

The original plan for the show this week was to talk about the fact that many people seem to be enjoying the panic over the virus. This is a wide-ranging phenomenon that includes people on this side of the great divide. Greg Johnson, for example, thinks the lock downs should continue until forever. Presumably he knows immortality is not in the cards, so he is happy to keep the lock downs in place forever. He’s in good company, as lots of people seem to agree with him and want this to continue.

The lock down camp is not monolithic. Some people are simply enjoying the new lifestyle that has arisen in the last two months. Working at home, home schooling and the simple life has been a revelation to many people. One thing that has been revealed in all of this is that many Americans detest the office life. They hate it with the intensity of a thousand suns. If it means playing along with the virus charade in order to avoid going back to the cubicle farm, they are happy to do it.

There’s also a wing that is genuinely frightened. Here in Lagos, there is a couple that has not been outside since the local tyrant issued the lock down order. They have groceries delivered to them. There have been other deliveries, presumably other supplies they would normally buy at a store. The delivery people leave the items on the porch and when he has retreated to safety, they retrieve the items. Otherwise, they have not been outside in over six weeks now.

Of course, the fear is spread through the media. Something I’ve noticed about the people in the fear camp is they tend to be very left-wing. The couple in hiding are Bernie Bro types. Others are deep into the anti-Trump stuff. This makes some sense as left-wing people tend to be intensely on-line and very trusting of the media. They also have a faith in government that defies reason. They are sure all corporations are evil, but they have a child-like faith in the government.

This is something that normal people are picking up now. Much of what is driving the panic is the anti-Trump lunacy. We forget that these same people were sure that Trump was going to declare himself dictator. They are still sure he is secretly plotting with Boris and Natasha to “undermine our democracy!” Maybe they think the virus is part of the secret plot or some form of divine retribution, but they have conflated their response to Trump with their reaction to the virus.

On this side of the great divide, there is a wing that is driven by their reaction to the people demanding the economy open up. Like all reactionaries, they allow their enemies do all the thinking. If Paul Ramsey is in favor of something, these people will oppose it without giving it much thought. They better hope he does not do a video opposing suicide anytime soon. That is the cost of a negative identity. You put a leash around your neck and hand the other end to those you hate.

Right now, at least, the sum of these various tribes is a majority. Here in Lagos, the local tyrant will end the lock down this weekend. There will be plenty of restrictions, but business can begin to open again. The city and county officials, however, are fighting him and will issue their own orders to continue the lock down. Presumably they are doing this because they think it is popular. For now, at least, most people want to keep the pandemic charade going for the rest of the month.

That’s another element to this. Most people really do think the people in charge will figure out how to pay their bills and keep the food supply going. It really is just a live action role play for them. This is not everyone and maybe no longer a majority, but at some point, reality is going to return to the scene. You cannot shut down the economy like this without real consequences. How will the lock down fans respond when they are suddenly faced with the reality of this thing?

This week I have the usual variety of items in the now standard format. Spreaker has the full show. I am up on Google Play now, so the Android commies can take me along when out disrespecting the country. I am on iTunes, which means the Apple Nazis can listen to me on their Hitler phones. The anarchists can catch me on iHeart Radio. I am now on Deezer, for our European haters and Stitcher for the weirdos. YouTube also has the full podcast. Of course, there is a download link below.


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This Week’s Show

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283 thoughts on “Three Plagues

  1. My library reopened today (las vegas). For curbside service. Order online, get a pickup time, and call a curb number when you get there. Wait inside your car while the librarian takes a bag with your items out to a table at the curb. She looked prepared to search for spilled plutonium, minus the aqualung. There is a class of people that need to be sentenced to two weeks a year at the meat packing pland as punishment for their affectations and to learn what reality is for the first time. If they are vegan, probably are, they can elect to pick lettuce. In the space suit if they chose.

  2. “How will the lock down fans respond when they are finally faced with the reality of this thing?” They will respond by buying into what the anti-Trump politicians say, to wit: Trump mucked up your lives.

  3. Off topic and late to this thread but I was watching television here in France and there was a segment on the $3 trillion bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed. In the report there was a shot from the House chamber where a masked Negress sat in the Speaker’s chair. I wish all the representatives who voted for the 1964 “Civil Rights” Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act could have been time traveled forward to see the results of what they were voting for.

    • Send forward some guys from the early 30’s and we’d be all be singing Horst Wessel Lied , watching biopics of Leni Riefenstahl im Fernsehen and complaining about Japanese tourists.

    • The Confederates saw it all over their state legislatures after the war, Negoes dressed in 18th century cosumed finery and wigs. Then the Negroes saw the Klan.

  4. all good points Mr Z. do have to qualify the camp staying at home and liking it, as they tend to loathe the office (with good reason) but also loathe taking care of homeschooling. then again, most kids are rather teleschooling thru webcam with the same old sjw creep teachers, so parents don’t care and remain mindless. they all continue on the media and internet borgs anyway. it doesn’t help that many nice unaffected areas allow adults walking and jogging, as well as quarantining and chill (because Fauci legit said sex would be okay even while social distancing). so obviously there is a visible bourgeois tribe that enjoys the “new normal”, if only because they’ve kept their comfy lives due to not been “furloughed”… yet. kinda like the fatties in wall-e.

    besides, some among these unaffected bourgeois are legit scared too, in fact the legit scared camp tends to be able to afford it the panic; excepted those with legit proneness to getting sick, which you’d think affect the boomercons but what a surprise – liberal oldies are seemingly more frail. even then, it’s even easier to justify this fake fear and compliance in remaining a home pet if this situation is made artificially cozier. even if the virus is only a bad flu for most, the coziness will limit these people to just cozily accepting the fear on tv. kind of like when in totalitarian countries you get used to seeing the face of the leader everywhere, though something may gnaw in the background… so, for how long this can last without full bubble-burst, who knows…

    speaking of bubbles, the hardcore legit fear people, usually Bernie Bros as you say, have finally fully transitioned into bubble-people; Caring-Americans, they will say; it will sound like Karen-Americans.

    meanwhile my job will probably disappear if homeschooling becomes the norm, but i probably will find something more fulfilling… or at least continue to afford useless material consolations.

  5. Great podcasts Z. Thanks for being that lone voice in the wilderness. Love the stuff about the John Hopkins Institute.

    Provides great ammunition when you confronted by these lunatics. Not that their going to listen, but like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and try to have an adult conversation.

    Had my reservations from the beginning, but after the second week it was obvious the whole thing was a sham. When confronted by friends and family about my wanton disregard for the “Black Death” the response was always, Where the bodies ? You know . The millions and millions of dead bodies ?

    Oh no, next week is when it’s really going to take off and then it was the following week and then the week after . . . .Now whenever they bring up the subject I start reciting in my best Carl Sagan voice , Millions and Millions . . . . . 😁

  6. It Is amazing how some of our closest intellectuals especially those on the dissident right have gone batshit crazy over this virus Scheisse Porn. A recent Cornell graduate has shown me that common sense is genetic. Maybe they are short a few alleles.

  7. Headline on Youtube’s front page: “Trump says US will open without Coronavirus vaccine.” God, I hope so.

  8. Color me naiive, but what has struck me most these last weeks is… why don’t the alarmists know about about “reopening” in Asia, Europe, and pretty much everywhere. The entire civilized world is going back to normal by degrees. Why is it a dealth cult in the US, but not France? It’s a rhetorical question.

  9. I would love to see a breakdown on opinions of the lockdown based on whether you are getting a paycheck during it. That doesn’t explain why a Sailer has chosen to embrace this insanity but it does mean his income stream in the short run isn’t all that different so a deterrent is removed.

    A lot of blacks and Mexicans are on government assistance so their lives probably financially don’t change much. Same for the wealthy, government workers and people who can work from home. That said I am retired and no one I know thinks the lockdown makes sense but I don’t hang with people who get hysterical like girls do.

    I would imagine that small business owners make up a disproportionate amount of the people protesting the lockdows.

    The only group that makes perfect sense to me are the left. They seemlessly went from screaming that we will all die from climate change unless we destroy our economy and eliminate our rights to we will all die from the virus if we don’t destroy our economy and eliminate our rights.

  10. “One thing that has been revealed in all of this is that many Americans detest the office life. They hate it with the intensity of a thousand suns. …”

    It is time for women to stay home and raise the kids. To be a home maker and be proud of it. What is wrong with being fulfilling the role that God gave us. And men should not be so fast to jump into an office job. Let the Karens share the misery with each other.

    Z says that many may be wanting to keep the lockdown for selfish reasons. I say … well … fuck them. Let us open the country up and beat down the government. We should see by now that the government is full of people who HATE YOU. Deal with that evident fact.

  11. Regarding California: honestly, if professional sports, schools and colleges remain closed, it’ll do us a world of good. These things deserve to crash and burn: since they’ve actively harmed white people, their disintegration will only help us.

  12. All these “smart guy” responses from (Johnson, Sailer, etc ) to Coronachan seem to me to be classically Dunning Kruger. Combine that with Peter Principle and it’s a recipe for disaster. Ignorance mixed with arrogance is dangerous enough but then when you add incompetence to the pot you get a really volatile combo. These are traits I would rather see reserved for our opponents on the Left.

  13. I haven’t updated my WuFlu stats in a while, as I’m past bored with this extraordinary popular delusion and the worldwide madness of crowds that has ensued.

    Two things of note: Xi’s pet bug has made it up to Triple A baseball: it has killed 3/4 as many people as the flu in an average year. (305 K/395 K = 0.77) We’ll promote it to the Bigs of seasonal respiratory illnesses when it reaches 90% and can sit at the same table with influenza.

    The other is that I projected 60-80K US deaths at the end of March and said I’ll shut up during the next one if I were wrong. You won’t hear from me on the subject the next time a virus paralyzes society.

    If you’re playing along at home, you will know that this won’t be long. Progressive governors, their enablers and sympathizers are test-driving this crisis. They love the power it has, the feel behind the wheel, the sense of control and responsiveness. They won’t ever be happy again without it.

    These governors never dreamt of having such authority. Now they won’t be able to think about anything else.

    • “They won’t ever be happy again without it.”

      I’m an ex addict, and this quote horrifies me. If they crave power the way I used to crave drugs, nothing will stop them.

    • Some folks in the AZ legislature are attempting to put an initiative on the ballot this Fall limiting/defining the governor’s unlimited executive powers during an declared emergency. If such passes a vote by the people, it becomes part of the State Constitution. We shall see.

  14. One of the problems is that we’re not allowed to say that a life in fact has a price, even though all our actions (driving, buying insurance, building hospitals and water purification systems) make that clear implicitly. Hence inanities like “if it only saves one life.” Anyway, we have data now from places where it’s burned out, like parts of Northern Italy, so we have a much better idea of what burnout would look like in the US. This doesn’t mean that we should let it burn out, especially among the elderly, but it does provide a good baseline. So if we were back to January behavior, we’d have burnout within a couple of months and somewhere between 1M and 2.5M excess deaths, let’s say 1.5M for simplicity, mostly among the old. This compares to 2.5M deaths in a normal year, or 600k deaths for the Spanish flu in a population one third of today’s. So a large number, but not the end of civilization. However, the Karens will scream about the “millions of dead,” and the political reality is that you can’t ignore them. The best we can hope for is a variation of the Swedish system: the elderly will self-isolate, and the rest will go about their lives with masks, hand-washing and distancing. This would lead to burnout through the non-elderly population over some period of time. We’ll see how long it takes us to get there. And Z, you have much better targets for your ire than Johnson, Cochran and Sailer.

    • Within a year or so, we’ll have comprehensive data on excess deaths. Those will then be able to be compared to typical years and running averages. We will then be able to see just how many years of life were lost to the pandemic. I’m thinking not many. This will not be a Spanish flu type pandemic that affected people in their prime of life—late teens and twenties.

  15. My neighbor is/was a writer for the Estrogen Post (or so I’ve heard; lived here for 20 yrs but haven’t exchanged 2 words with him). But he’s a devout leftie—“impeach and remove” sign in his front window during that fiasco, and now “science matters!” hand-lettered sign on display. Also rumored to have a 2nd home in poz-central, Madison WI. Each morning he and the wife have a flamboyant ritual —very feminine — of stepping outside and wrapping their faces in scarves before stumbling around the n’hood.

  16. An interesting fact:
    There was a 97% drop in viral infections BEFORE mass inoculation was introduced in (((1965))).

    What ever happened to body lice?
    That modern plumbing and freshwater delivery is an unappreciated revolution.
    Of course, some canny operators chose to run in front of the parade.

    • Go to any Patel Motel (or sit next to an odorous one on a plane) and you’ll find your body lice. Yet another gift from the subcontinent.

  17. I read about the decision in Wisconsin this morning. As Z has eloquently stated in previous blogs about the ‘binary’ taking over politics in the US. You are either on the left and see things your way or on the right and see things your way. There is a problem with judges at all levels in the US being either on the left or the right. What happened to judges being objective and non-political? The first thing that was brought up in the Wisconsin decision was that the majority of the sitting judges were Republican appointed therefore, there decision was based on screwing the Democrat governor. Look at US Supreme Court even. The Dems appoint judges sympathetic to them and the Repubs appoint judges sympathetic to them. How can any decision at this level be taken seriously since they are not approaching it from a purely legal perspective? You may as well throw out the Constitution because apparently it’s all about interpretation and you know which way each justice will interpret it – left or right. Law should not be based on political affiliation or interpretations of laws based on political affiliation. The fact that they have become that means that the Constitution is just a piece of paper to be used as kindling.

    • The WI law clearly states that Governor can declare a state of emergency for 30 days. After that, he has to get legislative approval to continue. Funny how reading plain language is now political.

  18. I lived in Los Angeles for a few years in the 90’s which include the Northridge Earthquake. The Republican Mayor and Governor pulled out all the stops to get the freeways repaired at the city back to work. It was really impressive how fast stuff got done.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5petm88AC4

    25 years later the Dem Mayor and Governor are purposely destroying the city economy because a few people got a cold.

    • California started its doom in 1989 with its assault weapons ban and was finished by 1996 when Sanchez beat Dornan .

      Part of the state are still Reddish Purple and are OK but this isn’t going to last and those parts are mostly poor.

      The hell of it is, the Mayor of LA. has just destroyed a huge chunk of the States economy for good and Governor Nuisance has to know this. Newsome is way overcautious and risk adverse but Garcetti with his lock down till Armageddon is well I’m not sure what his major malfunction is.

      In any case he is doing huge damage pushing a situation where we lose manufacturing, Hollywood , airlines and a huge chunk of the productive people and the things that make the state prosperous and pleasant even now.

      I appreciate party loyalty, its something some Republicans could learn but you can’t run a social democracy without a good economy as Venezuela has learned.

      The assumption both men share is there will be endless bailouts is risible. I am pretty sure we won’t be getting any more or at most one more and that’s not enough.

      In any case the productive will still leave and the economy will still shrink. Even rich people are willing to flee as NYC learned.

      The Governor should put the screws to him, pronto.

  19. I spend my time at work now helping IT in preparation for people coming back to work.
    6 ft apart and masks is the rule so now we spend our days in madness shuffling desks around with measuring tape in hand.
    How does a normal economy function under these conditions? Say a restaurant guy or entertainment business owner?
    Unless we end the madness and end it all soon even in the blue states, and we won’t, the third plague hitting the Trump deplorables is going to be a doozy.

    • Restaurants will go under if the 6 foot “rule” continues. Why? Because restaurants are a business that needs to provide service during peak demand times, like lunch and dinner. If you have a limited seating area you lose money during those times which can not be made up.

    • I’ve had to step away from all news for part of the week so I could get things done. Between this and the gym being closed, my blood pressure has to be at an all-time level.

    • That moment when the atheist finds out no scientific utopia is in the cards….

    • Germans. Always following orders. “Here, put these hats on”. “Well, alright”.

    • Nice Halloween costumes.

      I’ll be going in the traditional all-black plague doctor get up, thanks.

    • When the white man discovered north america, he was surprised to see the natives performing strange rituals, sacrifice, and slaughter

      Now that the non-whites are coming to our lands, they’re finding us performing strange shaming rituals, wearing noodles on our heads, and killing babies.

    • Is this picture some sort of joke. Please tell me it’s a joke. Or perhaps a protest of sorts? Please….

    • Technology evolves but people never change. The average modern Westerner has as much mystical junk rolling around in their heads as a whole village full of medieval peasants.

    • It looks like there’s no one under 40 in that photo. Germany really is going to be all African and Arab in 10 years, isn’t it? So for the next plague they won’t need noodles – they’ll all have burkas by then.

  20. a family member is the charge nurse at a local hospital. he says the wu flu is very bad if your are old AND have multiple serious co-morbidities. he also confirms that they are classifying having covid when you are hit by a bus is coded death by covid. he can’t watch much news right now because of the ridiculous spin.

    I also an stunned at the number of people who are in full panic. Another health care worker I know has been doing the shopping for old people in our church who are not internet savy. she leaves the groceries in their garage , and they wait for 3 days before bringing them into the house.

    the fact that these tyrants have completely overturned the idea that you have ANY rights is very revealing. between that and complete deep state and law firm complicity in the flynn affair leads me to believe that the situation has been a lot different than we believed for a long time. trump and flynn are just rubes who stumbled into the mafia organization. the GOP is part of the gig.

    I will keep voting trump just to annoy them . their completely over the top reaction to him means that they desperately want him out. That they were willing to give away the game to try to expell him speaks volumes to the value of him being there.

    I have no illusion he will ” fix ” anything, but he must be causing them headaches.

    • I remember when Trump tried to (very slowly) explain in a press conference that strong, direct sunlight has verified antiviral properties. Media was having none of it. “Ohmygod, like, people might stop panicking! Must pivot narrative now!”

      Media then switched to the whole “antiseptic injection” thing to distract viewers from the point of the press conference in the first place. The Asian reporter lady (whom I hate) ran interference. “WELL, if SUNLIGHT and HEAT are bad for the VIRUS, why do we still have outbreaks in hot areas!?!?” What a low IQ/disingenuous question.

      • It’s amazing to me how the media, with the aid of sainted bureaucrats like Fauci, have been able to largely suppress and roll back the common, decades-old, scientifically proven knowledge that UV light destroys virii because ORANGE MAN BAD.

        The fact people have fallen for the media line about UV light shows how scientifically illiterate most people are. Doctors in the Middle Ages probably knew more about science and the scientific method than the average American in the Current Year.

        • I think that coexisting with these people is no longer possible, Howard. This pandemic has accelerated the divergence.

        • So where are the UV ‘handwashing’ stations, like those shown in the excellent, predictive programming series, “Counterparts”?

      • I made my first concession to the WUFlu yesterday. I reversed the usual rotation of my lawn mowing pattern so that I was riding into the sun in the clear and away from it in the shade to take advantage of the sunlight and the free vitamin D boost to my immune system.

        Never let it be said that I do not do my share!

    • My local hospital had a guy who fell off a ladder, bashed in his head, and died in the hospital. Tested positive for Covid – so that’s the cause of death. That’s the moment I realized it’s all lies.

  21. Yesterday, I got a call from a friend who just got out of rehab. I went to his house to catch up and have a few nonalcoholic drinks. When I got there, I discovered that his dad, who is a renowned attorney, was locked (quarantined) in his room by his younger daughter. With his consent!

    Daughter works for cloudperson big media. She’s completely taken over her father’s house, and has quarantined each member of the family in different sections. When her father exited his room to talk to me, she began screaming at him for not wearing a mask. She backed off after she saw me, probably because she didn’t want a scene. Dad informed me that his daughter is losing her mind. He’d tried to kick the malingerer out, but the mother keeps defending her because daughter’s got the whole “dad could die” thing going. Goes to show you that being a genius isn’t everything. The guy has a 150 IQ and he’s letting his petulant daughter run his whole house. I’d imagine this is happening in many corporations and bureaucratic institutions as well.

    Random side note: do you guys think that now is a good time to invest in bigger name Hotel and Recreation stocks, or do you think that the returns will be nonexistent because people are more focused on paying down existing debt and saving than planning vacations? In your judgement, what are good investment opportunities right now? I’m just trying to get something out of all this economic upheaval. On the other hand, a part of me is telling to stay away from the market — shit is going down hard. (I’ve not invested that much, though).

    I feel like people are still going to want some kind vacation, even if it breaks the bank. People want to go somewhere, especially during the summer. That doesn’t ensure H&R will go up, though, and many people will be looking for ways to cut out hotels entirely.

    • I would expect a slow recovery for the vacation/hospitality industry. Amusement parks that have scheduled reopening are doing so at reduced capacity. You can take a beach vacation in certain states, but there will be limits to what else you can do. A number of National Parks are still closed, which is insane. The idea that there is significant Wuhan Flu risk while travelling through Glacier or the Grand Tetons is idiotic.

      A good test is to look online in what are typically popular areas for 4th of July weekend and see hotel availability and prices. Orlando looks mixed, Myrtle Beach looks like they are keeping prices high, but they have a lot of availability. Some of the National Park area traffic comes from bus groups of mostly senior citizens. This business is going to go off a cliff. Families who are uneasy about job stability are going to be more likely to take a smaller, less expensive trip too.

    • The daughter is clearly in dire need of lengthy and repeated applications of the typical Victorian cure for female hysteria.

    • Learn about how various equity price studies work. They will help you understand when to open and close positions in equities and options.

      I wasn’t able to generate regular income with options until I taught myself a bit about the more popular price studies.

      • So where do we start, Wild Geese?
        I liked options, but I’m years behind.

        I’ll never demand “Link?!” in a cheap argument, but might I ask politely- got a link or two? Thanks.

        As C.H. Smith ‘Of Two Minds’ blog says, our future is multiple income streams.

        • Alzaebo-

          Well, if you already have an account at a place like eTrade, Fidelity, or TD Ameritrade you will have access to quite a bit of free online training material. Just bear in mind their overall bias is toward conservative, long-term investing.

          I use TD and its platforms. I have been happy with them. They offer free paper trading so you can practice your techniques without risking your capital. It is a pretty good simulacrum of real-trading.

          I also like Investopedia as a good free start point for learning more about options and price studies and the underlying math.

          Stockcharts.com is another great free resource that is really focused on the mechanics of the different price studies.

          My basic strategy is to use 2 or 3 price studies to determine quality entry points for weekly option sales at conservative strike prices to generate income. I like the fact time works for the option seller, I don’t always like the position size required to produce sufficient income.

          To me, everything depends on getting a good solid entry point.

          Occasionally, I will buy options. I like the fact the max loss is the price paid to buy the options. I don’t like the fact that time works against the option buyer.

    • Look into far-out-of-the-money puts, as cheap, as far out of the money and as late as possible. Not a sure thing, but at times like these their models can misprice the likelihood of big moves. The Fed may not be able to prop up this thing, and then you can make 10x your money. Look at it as gambling or insurance with better odds. Chances are you’ll lose whatever you put in, but with a real likelihood of making a multiple that would offset your losses elsewhere.

      • Thanks for the advice, guys. I’ve got a long way to go, apparently.

        H I: Yeah, I guess it’s like a lotto for people who aren’t retarded. I don’t expect to lose my money, but these market opportunities might not come again. Got any specific examples?

        • I looked for some specifics and those puts have gotten a lot more expensive, so maybe it’s not such a good idea. I’d just generally start looking at out-of-the-money options and place a couple of bets that you’re willing to lose, as education.
          In a market-based system I’d buy puts on financial stocks (like REITs or banks) because they’ll be hit hard by second-order effects, but with the Fed intervening they may bail those guys out so I’d be betting against the Fed. Second-order effects means things like the fact that 10% of rents are unpaid right now, at least in my blue area.
          I wish I knew. I felt a lot more confident a couple of months ago.
          Edit: here are a couple of choices for research. Dec WELL put, Oct BXP put. WELL is a REIT that owns nursing home properties, and BXP owns large office buildings. Both down by half from the peak, but may go down more. These ideas are worth what you paid for them.

          • This is where the price studies become very helpful. Using studies you are comfortable with is a great way to pick the correct point in the price action to buy puts.

        • Well, it is like gambling in the sense that options are also based on statistics and probabilities.

          That said, with a little research, you can give yourself far better odds with options than Vegas will ever give you.

    • Riskedge.com got me interested again.
      They focus on disruptors, and they don’t overload you with bullsh*t.

      You simply need a short watchlist on Yahoo.
      After that it’s 3 minutes and $500 to open a Scottrade account- and after that it’s two buttons, ‘buy’ or ‘sell’.

      Paper trade for now. If you can’t decide, go half and half. Small amounts- play it like a game instead of sweating.

      (Ask Mike Bloomberg. A few charts, move the arrow, a cheap calculator, punch a button- and anybody can have a job.)

      But I’m noodling, still #1 paying off debt and #2 buying some cash. Getting ready to start papertrading.

      Citizen Silly would be the one to ask.
      He’s active with some good, simple resources.
      Me, still only hoping to get back to the nickel slots. Oh, and use the Investor’s Business Daily website.

      • “Citizen Silly would be the one to ask.
        He’s active with some good, simple resources.”

        One wish for the Z-blog?
        A tips and how-to aggregator section so readers can share short lists, tips, insights without having to open their own blogs.

        (Hopefully I’ll be developing such a project next year. Paying off debt is #1, #1, and #1 for now.)

  22. If you want to see some real statistical hocus-pocus, look at the death count of a storm or other natural disaster. Pretty much anyone who dies before during or after the storm/disaster of any cause is just jotted down as a death caused by the storm/disaster.

  23. “…these same people were sure that Trump was going to declare himself dictator.”

    I guess they beat Trump to the punch by making governors into dictators.

    • Federalist. Shrewd observation. The out of bounds Gov’s you referred to are supported by the Karen’s. In MI I see they’d even launched counter protests to the “openers” at the capital. It’s been said a lot here that totalitarianism is more likely to come quicker from the Left, than the right. I think you see an example with the present virus prevention efforts.

    • Yes. They have all the authority they need to install misery – but they have the added benefit of a put option on Trump when their policies result in disaster. The multitude of ways feminization echoes through the system really is remarkable.

  24. The great question of the lockdown hysteria is . . . do we muddle through once again or perhaps actually hit a real and hard bottom this time? Will the financial Ponzi pyramid final collapse and the government gravy train derail? Will the whiners finally start starving to death? Will the incipient tyrants (and their jackboot corp) finally start their goosestepping march to supreme control over the untermenchen? Will we finally get a survival-of-the-fittest cleansing? Or is the future more Karens, soyboys, and poseurs?

    • TPTB have contingency plans for a nation of Karens and soyboys. We don’t. If you’re in the city and you want some semblance of privacy/safety, get out in the next few years. Building a new nation from the earth up is our only shot.

      Proponents of revolution are kidding themselves, at least in the short term. We’ll get our asses kicked even if we do everything perfectly. We need to regroup, restructure, get a few years and miles between the cities and ourselves.

      We’re going to need more testosterone, less brainwashing, and cover. Suburban living is antithetical to all of those.

  25. I also noticed the similar themes among believer normies: over socialized, progressive and drunk on kool aid of liberalism, and/or neurotic. The most vocal are almost always women with some sort of psychological problem (or as we call them: women, amiright?)

    Its kind if like living in a dream. There are people who are seriously convinced there is a earth shattering threat out there just because their glowing screens told them so. Walking through the grocery store ive had people literally juke out of my way out of fear its surreal. It makes me pretty cynical because at some point you realize most people seem to be fit for little more than just being guided through life and told what to think, how to act, and what is right and wrong.

    Actually i know a couple people who caught the virus. One is a high risk with preexisting conditions. Theyre fine and both recovered. because this virus really is pretty mild compared to what we are told on tv.

    After seeing the hysterics most everywhere and realizing there is no end to this until november and it is just more political theatre, im over it. Im just going to live my life as if nothing is happening cos….well nothing really is.

    • What struck me, as I was standing on my masking tape “x” on the sidewalk, waiting my turn to be granted entrance rights to Ace hardware by a Mexican in a mask, was that all hysterics aside, “we” are quite capable of installing measures to restrict movement, track people, ostracize those who defy the rules – no matter how arbitrary, and print infinite manna from the pearly gates of fiat to make it all feel good and run like its always been normal.

      Yet we can’t have borders or toss out invaders because reasons.

      In that moment, my cynicism was the tip of the iceberg. The humiliation is real. The rule of masks is fitting symbol of this war of demoralization.

      And the divide is stark. I am ashamed to wear a mask just for the privilege of buying paint. But when I look at my neighbors, enthusiastic in donning their personalized masks to walk the dog, I have a hard time envisioning some future where we live in harmony with these people and once again, separation seems to be the only viable solution.

      • You can see the masks are becoming the gang colors of two groups. Those who don’t wear them – like yours truly – get nasty looks from the masked ones but we’re also giving and getting nods to and from our fellow mask-free folk. I know what they’re thinking and they know what I’m thinking: This is mostly BS, and I’m not going to play along.

        Then, there are the embarrassed ones, almost always guys who know this is mostly BS but who wear the masks to avoid the looks.

      • Its amazing how easy it is to turn all of society over to hysteria. At least when you control the entire media complex. Might explain the hysteria over any sign of dissent, if we were to gain influence that way we could easily sway millions. Even people who hate us would be on full throated support given the right media leverage. Whether or not thats realistic, They seem to think it is.

        The problem I have with separation is that liberalism, or in this case neo liberalism, cannot tolerate even a sliver of dissent. At least not forever. Things like the amish are allowed for now, but theyve certainly been put on notice and that situation can change on a moments notice.

        Lets say we all created a woke white homeland or something in eastern europe, the rest of the developed world would use infiltration, economic pressure, singing celebrities, hollywood movies, and if necessary outright military force if necessary to bring it to heel and liberalize it and then ultimately rot it from the inside out. I mean at this point the liberal death toll is in the millions. Whats a few million more?

        Separation would be nice, im just not convinced itll ever be allowed under any circumstances. Perhaps living like an ethnocentric diaspora would give us some advantage. Shitty to even think about but whatever happens we cant just passively “get by” like the boers or something cos that is probably the most black pilling possibility imo.

          • “Make the separation as invisible to the rest of the world as possible…”

            I think we need to be realistic about the system we live under. Any attempt to separate, no matter how quietly, will be blasted in public by the media and then portrayed in the most morally evil light possible. Any plan that doesnt take that into account will be caught flat footed.

            Three can keep a secret if two are dead and all of that.

        • Separation is our only shot. Organize under other pretenses, perhaps?

          For the next few years, the left will be busy picking up the pieces and getting the cities/burbs in line. The earlier we move, the better.

          • “Separation is our only shot. Organize under other pretenses, perhaps?

            For the next few years, the left will be busy picking up the pieces and getting the cities/burbs in line. The earlier we move, the better.”

            This is where the alt right became very disappointing during the virus. The big response to the biggest power grab by politicians since 9/11 was to ask for welfare without questioning what is happening. Ideology is choking the right atm and i dont think we should be interested in bid ideas anymore. Anything short of practical, pragmatic planning and execution for whats coming is just shuffling deck chairs on the titanic far as im concerned.

            We cannot run, or hide, and welfare wont save us. Numbers and subverting the moral narrative while taking action for our own benefit with a realistic eye towards the long term is the only hope we have.

            I dont want to be disagreeable, honestly, but i just dont see anything realistic in a plan that leans almost entirely on running or hiding.

          • You’re not being disagreeable, Irish.

            Retreat isn’t final. In fact, I’d argue that a regrouping is necessary for us to even think about further action, whatever that might be (sorry — ain’t got no crystal ball.). The burbs and cities are their worlds; within them, our numbers will continue to dwindle, and those who remain will be increasingly scrutinized. We’re a threat to “public health,” don’t you see.

            Subvert the moral narrative? How? How the hell can you compete with a bunch of frenzied, social justice neurotics on adderall and lithium? They’re obsessed, we’re not; they win, we lose.

            Right now, our position is bad. We are scattered and enmeshed in the affairs of our enemies. Works well for recon, but in the past few months, I think we’ve come to understand them well enough. Yeah, we’re better at the internet, but we’ll lose that too. And someday soon.

            And if it turns out we can’t strike back, at least we’ll be living and dying amongst our own.

          • I was thinking about your comment before, Irish, and it occurred to me that the whole “new communities” thing isn’t entirely reactive, at least not in an immediate sense. It’s more of an assertion that working with and especially for militant progs is deleterious to our families and ourselves.

            Think of all the bitter, liberal women slithering through the public school system. Generally, you don’t want your kids subjected to that. I know because I work in that system. Sure, there are some smart, nonbrainwashed badwhite teachers sprinkled here and there; however, they’re far from a majority.

            You’ve got teachers telling kids that the colonial settlers were contaminating blankets with diseases to kill American Indians. There is zero evidence to support that claim. It’s just something they decided they were going to start telling kids. How fucked up is that? These are our ancestors, and we’re just casually shitting on them in front of children?

            I usually keep my mouth shut at work, but when I overhear another teacher blatantly contaminating kids’ minds, I politely speak up. One day that could cost me. Naturally, then, I think to myself how nice it would be to live in a place where I didn’t have to worry about losing my job for fighting retardation. A place where teachers souls weren’t dripping with subversion and agenda, whether intentional or not.

            A few years after you have your kids, they’re spending just as much time around their teachers and peers (cloud children) as they are around you. You can’t always affect or even know what’s going on with them. Best, then, is to move them and yourself out of reach.

            A strong community — like a strong family — is close to one another. Maybe that’s all I’m saying in the end.

          • Okay i probably misunderstood you. I dont disagree with that generally.

            Reminds me of one of the better things the boers have done in s africa: building isolated communities where they have their own jobs, even their own currency. of course, i only found out about this from a documentary that was critical of it, but its a good model of where to start in a harsher environment than we have.

  26. It’s only the Karens (both male and female) who aren’t getting hurt by this, i.e. their husbands won’t lose their jobs, that are acting insane. For them, it is a game.

    You can bet if Karen’s husband starts talking about losing his job and that they might need to move the family to a cheaper neighborhood, she’ll change her tune on a dime.

    • Is Karen left wing or right wing? The meme on Reddit is that Karen is the woman demanding that we reopen. The selfish “science denier” that want to go to the salon. But you comment paints Karen as the woman who is demanding that we stay at home. I think it is a dumb meme, especially if both left and right start calling all women Karens whenever they disagree with them.

      • I didn’t know that Karen was a left wing meme as well. This suggests that left and right can bond over their dislike of bitchy women.

        However, I see value in Karen’s energy and concern and I hope that we can harness it someday. I think bad moustache guy was adored by most of the ladies.

      • I think that there’s an acronym – AWFLS, maybe – that’s a better fit. (Affluent White Female Liberal Suburban.)

        AWFLS typically are very liberal in their politics but very conservative and demanding in what matters to then. An AWFLS will spout off about how racism is terrible and how Trump is evil, but then will live in a white neighborhood. It’s not inconsistent at all for an AWFLS to push for the lock down while demanding their her favorite hair saloon be allowed to reopen.

    • The Left is far more female-dominated than us; anything that aims at the gynocracy helps

      • I can prove that the DR doesn’t get wimmin.

        Remember Bezo’s cougar girlfriend?
        Not a doubt in my mind that Bezo’s wife set her up with him, and fed her her lines.
        They were in on it together.

  27. I think that I’m going to send Alaska Chaga as a birthday/Christmas gift to my most woke friends and family. They’ll love it because it’s from Alaska and natural. I’ll just smile.

      • Way ahead of you. But I’ve used that one for “friends of ours”. Alaska Chaga is more of a Trojan Horse.

      • If anyone wants to make it a full care package, I’ll throw in some “Darkie” toothpaste.

        • >“Darkie” toothpaste

          Hahaha! I should have a few tubes of that squirreled away somewhere. Before they went soft and became “Darlie”.

          Darkie toothpaste and a pile of offensive T-shirts (e.g. two stick figures, like the ones on pedestrian crossing signs, engaged in anal sex, with a red circle/slash over them, and the caption “Stop AIDS!”) plus illiterate copyright violation T-shirts (Playboy bunny logo with the word “PLAVBOY”, Adidas logo with the letters ABIBAS, etc) were some highlights of my first trip to Asia. Loaded up the suitcase with the damn things. I spent the return flight praying I didn’t get a customs inspector of color at LAX.

  28. it seems to me we are heading toward deflation despite unlimited fed printing… very little of the fed printing is ending up in the hands of the masses (who are losing jobs left and right) and those that have jobs are going to hoard their money & pay down debt instead of spending it, leading to further job losses which will increase fear and make the cycle spiral. It will be worse than the Great Depression. If this is accurate, I assume it will be BEARISH for gold and bitcoin and the dollar will get MUCH STRONGER.

    • Hard to say. Remember, the Fed exchanges one form of currency/debt (dollars) for financial assets which are often currency/debt (bonds), so it doesn’t necessarily need to be inflationary. Now, if the Fed starts buying Treasury bonds directly to finance the deficit, that’s a different story.

      But there are so many factor (velocity of money, pace of debt destruction, other central banks, etc.), it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. Best to spread your bets. Own some treasury bonds, stocks via index funds, gold, real estate if you can. Making one big bet can be great or catastrophic. Best to make multiple bets and stay in the game.

    • I don’t think embracing crass consumerism more than we already have is going to fix it, bro.

      • I used to think the straw man was the most popular logical fallacy, followed closely by the ad hominem. The other thing revealed during this pandemic is the false dichotomy is almost as popular as those two.

        • Apologies, I’m almost brain dead from trying to bring physical stores back into operation and employees back up to speed after a month of near inactivity. Where was the false dichotomy in my comment?

          • Not putting all of your eggs in one basket isn’t consumerism, it’s an attempt to ride out the coming storm.

  29. Everyone has their pet theories. Here’s mine: You know how when a child tries everything he can to get his parent to buy him that toy or that tooth-rotting candy, and the parents keep refusing? Finally the child does the dying swan, just goes limp and forces the parent to drag their dead weight through the grocery store. I think this is what’s happening with progressives. Sure, ostensibly they’re sheltering in place, but like that one overly-dramatic loony woman at a town hall who forces the cops to carry her out, I think they’ve gone limp in the arms of the state because all of their previous tantrum tactics (Russian Collusion, Ukranian Collusion, Tax Returns) didn’t get them what they wanted in terms of getting rid of Trump. And now they’re forcing the adults to carry them. It’ll be even worse when (probably) Trump wins. If Biden selects a female as his VP, some of those box wine aunties might put down the Zinfandel and pick up the pink hats again.

    • Whyever would they have to “put down the Zinfandel” to “pick up the pink hats again”? I don’t see the two as being in any wise mutually incompatible.

        • A bartender on judging women by their drinks:

          Beer: down to earth, likes hunting and cars
          Wine: trying
          Long Island ice tea: suburban
          Whiskey: man-eater
          A complicated mixed drink like daquiris and margueritas: picky pain in the a**

      • Well, if they protest in public in their pink pussy hats they can’t have a box of wine with them(there are open container laws).

    • Don’t knock Zinfandel. (Unless you mean that shitty pink stuff.) Proper (red) Zin is a right treat. Ravenswood Old Hill, Dickerson, Belloni; Rosenblum Samsel “Maggie’s Reserve”; pretty much anything from Mike Dashe; Ridge Lytton Springs, Geyserville, Buchignani. All Californian, of course. But Peter Rosback actually makes a good Oregon zin.

      I know, I’m missing the point. But the above are really nice wines.

      • I enjoy a good Zin, but there’s a lot of cheap trash out there.

        Merlot on the other hand? Well if you’ve seen “Sideways” you know the truth about it.

        I’m partial to a quality Petite Syrah myself

      • I don’t have the alcohol gene, but since the view on three sides is grapevines and orchards, here’s an upvote from Central Valley CA. (Home of Gallo, Ripple, and Thunderbird.)

        • I used to work in a very rough ghetto so I saw it all, the MD 20/20, the fortified wines, etc. But I never saw the ripple that Red Foxx used to mention on Sanford & Son. Also I never saw someone doing the Bukowski thing of drinking canned heat/Sterno. If you even break the seal on a bottle of Saint Ides you’re fifty percent more likely to die in a drive-by. Colt 45 is more of a “break a pool cue over someone’s head” drink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTB6pE7pnOQ

      • Amen. I open a bottle of zin with every steak I grill. And I grill quite a few…

  30. The Z Man wrote,

    “…playing along with the virus charade…”

    …and…

    “…keep the pandemic charade going…”

    Warms my heart to read this, Zman.

    I’ve mostly stopped reading you because you’re so quaintly “anti-conspiracy theory”…. when the fact is, many “conspiracy theories” are conspiracy facts. Until you embrace that you’re missing the side of the barn, but these are encouraging steps in the right direction.

    • Criminal conspiracies are a judicial reality, and people are convicted and sentenced for participation in conspiracies in courts every day.
      That being said, some of the larger conspiracies many are familiar with have an enormous amount of solid evidence…and some don’t.
      It’s important to make a distinction, and many people can’t or won’t.

    • The old nickel goes that you never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. Our esteemed blog host has done an excellent job of how phenomenon of this mass stupidity broke out, and how it propagates. Doubtless he is correct in much of it.

      But I see your side too: there are far, far too many people falling for this that shouldn’t be. I’ve started studying stupidity and generally there seems to be two types: the low IQ variety you see in .vibrants like Maxine Waters … and a mulish stubborn stupidity like that you see from the governor of California and that cunned stunt in Michigan.

      Contrary to our blog host, the latter have access to the best information out there, and there doubtlessly had to be objective, rational experts and advisors telling them this thing was a false alarm at best, and a pant load at worst… and yet… here we are.

      I think there is more than just stupidity going on here.

      • John Smith, the best explanation I have seen (Richard Fernandez, perhaps?) is that politics makes people stubborn in their taking of positions, rather than flexible. Note that Trump, fundamentally a non-politician, zigs and zags as circumstances and new information dictate. Pols usually double down on where they have already positioned themselves, no matter the new information, or swing from one extreme to the other when they do change, along with the historical airbrushing that accompanies the change. Everything is political now, and the real world demands flexibility as we go from an information void on C19 to sketchy and incomplete information. Politicians are not made for the world we live in today, and it shows.

    • Conspiracy theories are catnip to individuals who know too well they have no agency and small stake in controlling their own lives. They believe themselves now holding with a power to see what others cannot see. In truth, the most successful conspiracies are those hidden in plain sight. USG, “journalism”, MSM, academia form an obvious conspiracy to direct the minds of people, but people embrace the grift not because it can’t be understood but rather they want to be seen with the strong horse and not be trampled by one. Our rulers understand democracy. They embrace the conpiracy nutiness–like the magic negro being born in Kenya–because it removes their true grift even further from view.

      • Ah, how naive.
        “–like the magic negro being born in Kenya–”
        The original claim was that the magic negro was a Kenyan.

        The libshits immediately leaped upon this and created the “Birther conspiracy theory”.

        The magic negro wrote a book about his father (or had it written) which dwelt at some length about his hatred for the British because of what they had done in his beloved native Kenya.. Barry had spent lots of ink proclaiming that his putative father was Kenyan.,

        I thought there was an interesting disconnect tucked away in this meme and looked up the Kenyan Constitution (you can too). Kenyan Citizenship is conferred on any individual with either parent being a Kenyan
        Surprise, surprise, Barry the Kenyan is a Kenyan- our first dual nationality President- or second if Washington was considered English,

        The left did what they do, substituted an easily debunked straw man and focused solely on that.
        It’s almost as if there’s a conspiracy….

  31. Perp walk for the chief criminal the “president” who wants to be a dictator. Constitution? Bill of Rights? He doesn’t know or care about them.

    Yet he gets undying support as he violates it and the laws of the land every day while this false flag about Obama fits just for his course as he gets a twice confessed criminal out and one who is legally supposed to get out cannot now do so for “unknown reasons. Such a man you can trust? NOT.

    This was posted over at Chris Muir’s “Day By Day” web comic by some troll styling itself “Night-gaunt49”. I think it encapsulate’s the left’s views of President Trump quite well. I see it as sort of a capsule view of TDS at this time.

  32. “They are still sure he is secretly plotting with Boris and Natasha to “undermine our democracy!”
    ——————————————

    Worst. Cartoon. EVER!!!

    I do not want to see any further references to those poxy cartoon characters, or Rocky or Bullwinkle. Who are those other f*cks? Captain Peachfuzz? Dudley Dooright? Roger Ramjet?

    I see no reason, Z, to expose the younger fellas to this cultural rot that began so long ago.

    I will tolerate no dissention on this issue.

      • I cannot believe the lack of up-votes for my scholarly comment, and the support for yours, VXXC.

        I see I shall have to send a strongly worded letter of complaint to the management!!!

    • A Cannuck who doesn’t like Dudley Do-right of the RMCP? Why, you sir must be that dastardly Snively Whiplash. Moose and squirrel are great; Cmdr. McBragg even greater; and Mr. Peabody the greatest. Ah, the Saturday mornings of my youth were glorious in no small part thanks to these paragons of cartoon animation.

      • Oh gawd… Mr. Peabody and Sherman!!!!

        I think my childhood PTSD is coming back… can anyone spare some Ritalin…?

        • “Penelope, Penelope, the face that stopped a thousand trains.”

          True story. My first romantic dream was the Sunbeam Bread girl. We went to see her grampa at the ice cream shoppe.

          I was 3. I was in love.

          Then, I grew into a young man of 10…
          and discovered that QT tan.

  33. Here in Wisconsin our supreme court just blocked the governor’s stay at home order, about 10 days before it was supposed to end. Its extremely frustrating to watch everyone throw up their arms and complain about being let out of the cage.
    It doesn’t help that our governor described the court decision in these melodramatic terms: “Republican Legislatures have convinced our Supreme Court Justices to throw our state into chaos!”

    Honestly, I think Millennials and Xers are the most hysterical– at least they seem to be enjoying the whole thing. Just one look on our state’s Reddit page is enough to give me a near aneurysm lately (I’ve long since left Reddit, as its filled with spineless lefties, but my state-page was a good source of information and helpful links during the court case).
    Currently on the page, there is a trending meme with the picture of the Jurassic Park gates from the first movie, which reads: “You know what else was opened before it was ready?”

    Zman is correct, many people love this. Its an escape from the drudgery of normal life. Its like a movie to them.

    • The lefties exist almost entirely in the feverish jungle of their hindbrains. Fight or flight, constantly arcing across the forebrain just long enough to stitch together rhetoric to rationalize the primacy of their emotional state.

      Offended or terrified, their feelings become reality.

      Their fear is assuaged only by the collective reinforcement of its validity, so their anxiety quickly moves to codify it as moral righteousness.

      This conversion of their emotions as an instrument of power is cathartic, but this just feeds it back into that lizard as fear that someone is threatening the sanctity of their feelings. The self-licking ice cream cone is the most delicious.

      When they say things like “your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth” or “Living my truth”, this is as close to an honest assessment as they can muster; they do not exist in our reality. Except, unfortunately, they do.

      Wuhan is the kind of perfect tool to strike fear, then elevate that fear to that of righteous sacrifice, then demand conformity to aggregate those emotions into the power of collectivist emotional tyranny, and then invite those who propagate the fear to mandate solutions that just happen to validate the origins of that fear.

      These people seem intent to be eaten by the velociraptor just so their greatest fear can be proved to be true. When the leftist death cult “my truth” does indeed becomes our truth, lotsa people tend to die.

      • Gen X er visiting Northern Wisconsin at the moment, and loving the fact we get to act “normal,” minus the few people looking like bank robbers from an old cowboy movie. Shook hands with the owner of the bait, tackle, jerky and firearms store yesterday. He was in great spirits.

        The other item to note is that most bugmen live in Wisconsin’s few urban areas in Milwaukee or Madison and generate most of the on-line noise. Step outside those areas and it is a different world.

        • Fred, Last year we were planning to move “up north” but circumstances have kept me in a satellite suburb near one of the areas you mentioned, for at least a couple more years.
          Where I am, not much has changed at all. Bars, restaurants, shops, theaters are still closed.
          Enjoy your time up there man, I’m jealous! I have a vacation planned up north this fall– hopefully we won’t see another quarantine by then! Honestly, who knows at this point…

      • Screw, great post man, pure poetry!
        WRT “righteous sacrifice”, I’ve noticed that sanctimony is the motivation behind the “opinions” of liberals, especially the affluent liberal type. (As long as they have nothing to fear from the topic perhaps.) They don’t filter their opinions through a system of logical analysis or rational critique, but balance it on the scales of self-sanctimony– what will make them feel/appear more virtuous and morally superior?
        Rationality, ACTUAL sympathetic emotion (compassion) toward the subject, Reality in general– none of this factors into their opinions in the slightest.

        Watching their opinions evolve on the topic of Covid19 and “the Jogger killing” is proof enough of your thesis. Its always fascinating to watch them scurry to move the goalposts. (“He was JUST jogging!” “He was JUST looking around the property!” “He was JUST casing the place, he didn’t steal anything!” “He may have stolen something, but that doesn’t mean he should have been shot! Those racists whites are STIILL wrong!”)
        Its all just the primping and preening of their own self-image, an ego massage.

        • In regards to COVID19, I don’t think their opinions or actions are even fear based. Their contentment throughout this whole thing is either motivated by the benefit of gibs or leisure (freedom from cubicle), or an outward display of their sanctimony. Those masks they wear, at root, are nothing but badges of accomplishment. “Look at how concerned I am! I am saving the lives of so many grandma’s!”
          I think GymBros too especially like to show off their masks as a way to reveal how “prepared they are” and to show how “their body is their temple.”

          • ren , it is not an exaggeration that the libs I know believe the is “the Andromeda strain” . I know people who have not left their home for 7 weeks.

          • Damn, that’s incredible. How could we become so unimaginably effeminate as a society?

          • As with all of our social pathologies, feminization of the West has been occurring for the past half century. It is only now, however, that these pathologies are reaching unsustainable levels. The bill on Cult Marx is falling due.

        • A lot of people operate that way. It’s a lesson we should learn on our side. Framing in terms of compassion works. For instance the facts are for every white guy that kills a black, there’s two blacks that kill whites. The left knows this so rather than use statistics they amplify individual cases. We should amplify and appeal to emotion and compassion with these cases. Instead we’re always on defense.

          • I agree Mark! I’m tired of always having to start on the backfoot. The Right is always reactionary. We are always caught off guard. Especially as dissidents, we are going to have to use the dark magic of the enemy at some point. You can pride yourself on following the rules of a good ole fashion fist-fight, but at the end of the day, you’ll be dead when nobody else follows the rules, and brings knives and guns.

            I think it may take time, but eventually the goal should be to appeal to a sense of honor, not sympathy. Frame everything as either honorable or cowardly; strong or weak. We need to mock and shame men who don’t follow honor, but instead act pathologially sympathetic (like Matt Walsh in the Jogger case). This is more masculine framing and would replace more feminine trait of “sympathy” and “justice.”
            Compassion would also be more authentic under a system of honor. You are held accountable to a standard and a position, and you try your best to be responsible for yourself in your relation to others.
            Before we could do this we would have to destroy the goddess of Equality and place Hierarchy back on His rightful throne.

          • “Framing in terms of compassion works. For instance the facts are for every white guy that kills a black, there’s two blacks that kill whites.”

            A-number-1.
            I don’t see any way for them to defeat that kind of reframing- even to themselves.

      • The other part of this phenomenon is that they are convinced that if the lockdown is let up, all those evil people are going to run out and infect everyone. In the real world, as things open up, most people are still distancing, wearing masks, and generally being as reasonably considerate of others, in public, as they can. The scairdy-cats are also free to keep hiding under their beds while the rest of us get on with life. But, no, if they feel the need to hide under their beds, then the rest of us must be forced to do so as well.

        • Do you think this level of social shaming would be possible without social-media? And in your opinion do you think their authortarian “concerns” about quarentine-breakers are authentic and fear based?
          I think for most of the liberals its inauthentic social signaling/sanctimony more than fear or concern. Its just another way for them to claim moral and intellectual superiority over a large swathe of the population.

          I dread the inevitable (BS) articles which will claim that covid cases SKY ROCKETED for my state after the quarantine was lifted a full 10 DAYS EARLY! Karens and Cucks will run to their social media to post pictures of IDIOT BIKERS gathering for a barbecue or (gasp!) BARBARIANS going to the bar!

          • Renard (if indeed your question is directed to me), I think social media amplifies all of it. What I find fascinating is the insinuation and assumption, buried in that attitude, that we who choose to emerge from the lockdown are evil, selfish fever-spreaders that hate other people and wish them dead. Those seeing daylight are almost universally careful and considerate of others, as to distancing, washing hands, etc., in my experience.

          • I agree Dutch (it was indended for you). The Left seems to always “see more devils than a vast hell can hold” and is always willing to slander and destroy in the name of “compassion” and “justice.” It wouldn’t be so bad if their opinions didn’t nearly always contradict the truth. And if they didn’t project all their vitriol on the innocent. (how many times do they champion the thug and not the victim ala Jogger, Treyvon etc.)

            My sister-in-law is such a person. She is a self-titled “progressive” and likes to think of herself as a compassionate person. That’s how she would describe herself to others. But in truth, I have never seen a more selfish, self-adsorbed, rude person in my entire life– it boggles the mind. Not to mention she has never lifted a finger to help her own friends, let alone volunteer at a soup kitchen. She just has “the right opinions” though, and apparently that’s good enough.

            I don’t know how such psychological projection is possible. But it seems prevalent on the Left at least.

        • Unfortunately there has been a sea change in our culture over the generations since we were young. As Z-man pointed out, our organizing principle as a society today is “fear”, but there is also a pernicious assumption that one is *obligated* to self sacrifice for the greater good. So we have “mask people” requiring that we not just stay home, but go through “superstitious behaviors” to avoid infection and therefore the spread of such disease to themselves.

          Just the other day, our Congress critter was on the radio for his weekly call in. He is a decent and knowledgeable person—actually someone who belongs in Congress. But of course, he is in the minority. So I was taken back at the discussion that developed.

          He was pressed on the “everyone should wear a mask” diktat we are advised upon by the Fed’s. Contradictory claims from CDC and WHO were read to him. His response, “well it can’t hurt”. However, he was still pressed and finally, he gave up the truth (I said he was a decent man, and is).

          He stated that we needed to all wear masks because is would reassure those in the population who were fearful that they would not be infected by other, non-mask, people! In short, the mask wearing requirement is nothing more than part of a strategy to get people back into the economy.

          • I think Fauci even stated back in Feb or March that masks aren’t effective at all. He claimed masks were more psychological than anything, a way to soothe anxiety.
            Thanks for being our baby-sitter, Doc!

          • Exactly. The tyranny of the few meets the tyranny of muh feelings.

            The fact that we are modifying the behavior of an entire people based on how a minority of people might feel is absurd. But thats just the superficial perspective.

            The sinister thing is that this would not be happening unless it also served a greater purpose that was accretive to the objectives of the cloud.

            How often does seemingly trivial lead to lasting changes that are far from trivial and always result in restrictions on liberty and dissenting thought?

            They use our goodwill to push for one little change after the other to shoehorn much bigger social changes into a new normal.

            “just wear the mask its no big deal and makes people feel better” becomes “no mask, no service”. The PR then messages: no mask = deplorable, anti-science, selfish, unAmerican, etc.

            In the case of masks, however, I like the idea of forcing a visual signal that correlates with the sides. Of course its a double edged sword. So be it. I’m not gonna budge. They can alter their course into the street. Sidewalks are for the unmasked!

      • Twitter: (retweeted at @happyhectares)

        “The specialty of the Left is to upend societies in response to problems that can never have a solution, e.g. “systemic racism”.

        Never, though, have they found one as breathtakingly acute and unconquerable as the Wuhan Red Death. It is the Ring of Power.”

        • Just wait until they go full court press on “climate change”, complete with all new rules to “save us”. The models will be as faulty as those for Covid, but the governments and media will whip most into a frenzy of fear and a need to do something. The Wuhan flu is a good test bed for them to see how hard they can push.
          I noticed that Greta is now also being made a Covid fear activist to supplement her climate queen credentials. Looks like she’s being groomed for an official political future when she’s old enough. (She’s already a politician).

    • Even Elon Musk, of all people, recently said that a huge number of Americans really wanted to panic about something.
      That’s how empty the interior life of at least half the population is.
      A media driven panic actually brought some substance to their lives for the first time in years.
      Unreal.

      • Elon Musk seems like a crazy person, but he sure knows how to stir the pot. Love his word games, “The Boring Company” (tunnels), and “Space-X” (“space-sex”).

        • Elon’s been so based on the WuFlu I may have to consider picking up a Tesla.

          Supposedly the Space X engineering teams have the same demographics NASA had in the 50s and 60s

          • SpaceX is awesome! The in-flight camera work, and landing those boosters on the barges, the videos are pure space porn.

          • I’ve said it before, but as far as I’m concerned, he can get away with just about anything as long as he keeps upping the ante with his space program. He’s done more for space travel and exploration than NASA has in the last 40 years.

      • Hey, Armageddon only happens once. To die during the extinction of the human race makes one special, at least by the lights of their faulty psyches.

      • A fear of agonizing death being used to cancel out the fear of a meaningless life? Damn Dave, who’d have thought Musk such an existentialist. 😉

    • Well, this Xer has no love for the lockdown and its proponents.

      If want to ascend to another level of mental pain, go check out the WuFlu subreddits and all the invective directed at the re-opening process and the people in those locations.

      • Haha thanks man, I don’t know if I can stomach it. Its so painful to see people so wrong, weak and selfish be so opinionated and self-righteous.
        BUTTTTT inevitably boredom and morbid curiosity will get the better of me, and I will check it out in a few hours I’m sure.

      • Reddit is a good source for getting a feel for the newer generations. Unfortunately, it is truly depressing. They (at least the Reddit groupies) will never fill the shoes of their predecessor generations. Yes, it’s a wide brush and I hope a I’m wrong.

  34. There it is. I know Trump supporters who want to continue the lockdown. Trump opponents, though, are monolithic. In both cases, the “continue the lockdown” people are just LARPing. They get to shout about what heroes they are for enduring minor inconveniences, with no thought for what happens when those minor ones become major. It’s disgusting. I mean that literally – Karens of both sexes and all 52 genders are actually growing moist over this.

    • As Z pointed out, eventually the bill will come due. The LARPing virtue signalers are in for a hard lesson in reality.

        • As if just having to live with these people under normal circumstances isn’t a big enough toll.

          • This is OUR land. No secession. Decession. They get to go somewhere else or straight to hell. I’m reminded of the slogan the Algerians used for the French in their 1950’s war “The suitcase or the coffin.” If you don’t have your own land with the control nodes of governance (coinage, courts, education, etc) in the hands of your own people, you get destroyed. The age of the stupidly nice white people is over. Either we lose the nice or we stupidly vanish to the derisive laughter of our murderers.

            A Savage War of Peace, Alistair Horne
            https://www.amazon.com/Savage-War-Peace-1954-1962-Classics/dp/1590172183

          • You don’t secede nicely. That is not an option. You secede on pain of mass violence and warfare. Secession without a credible threat of violence is a non-starter.

        • A lot of the ones I know are government employees or senior citizens on pensions. The lockdown didn’t affect their paycheck. For the government employees, they just got to stay home for a paid vacation.

          • I’ve got a private sector job and am now working from home, which I much prefer to working in my office. But even I fervently desire this fog of madness to lift.

      • How long can this weird, suspended reality continue?

        TBH, I would have thought reality would already have hit by now.

        • After the crash of 2008 and all the quantitative easing, I thought the economy would implode around 2010 and instead we got the longest stock market bull run in history, which I mostly missed out on. It turns out that if you are the world’s superpower you can operate with economic impunity.

          It is impressive how long they’ve kept the wheels on the wagon. But you can’t defy reality forever.

          • I’ve been asking myself if maybe they can just print money forever without consequence…

          • They can so long as we have the biggest military and one of the most productive work forces. TRS goes on and on about MMT and money printer going “bbrrrr” indefinitely, but this can only continue so long as the above two factors hold.

      • you bet it will, jack. the butchers bill will be unprecedented in Africa, Pakistan,Bangladesh, India, and other places where economic destruction will lead to enormous death and suffering. plenty of powerless people will pay a ghastly price for Bill gate minions larping, and our political class going along with it.

      • No. The way it works is, they never get the lesson, they give the lesson. If they were capable of getting, no, taking a lesson, they would never have dug this hole in the first place. They will image other lessons from this, but not that one, then they will inflict those lessons just as they have this one.
        The disease of democratic equality–“our democracy”. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. That is the real virus.

  35. If Paul Ramsey is in favor of something, these people will oppose it without giving it much thought. They better hope he does not do a video opposing suicide anytime soon.

    This strikes me as relevant to yesterday’s comments section…

  36. A lot of people seem to think that the lockdown gives them an excuse to do what they would be doing anyway.

    Let’s no kid ourselves: a lot of people pushing crimethink memes spend their lives sitting stoned at a keyboard in their underwear, covered in Cheeto dust, and masturbating to porn between posting sessions.

    • The TV propaganda is reinforcing that they are doing the right thing too. Globohomo is running ads telling them how brave they are for staying home, stuffing their faces with takeout and delivery food, buying junk and staring at screens.

  37. Greg Johnson is an often brilliant guy who likes to virtue signal.

    As bad of a look as virtue signaling is on conservatives, it’s even uglier on members of the Dissident Right. I generally can look past disagreements but Johnson’s descent into Karenism will mar him forever. What’s worse, as the models fail spectacularly and the deception associated with the threat posed by coronavirus becomes more and more obvious (now we cannot open until there is a vaccine; really?), people like Johnson dig in further. It’s been pathetic to watch.

    • Greg’s a friend, so I can’t get mad at him on this stuff. I don’t think it is virtue signalling. He really thinks this is a great plague. Steve Sailer thinks the same thing. I know lots of people like this.

      • The reason I have to disagree with you on the virtue signaling is this isn’t a one-off. Sometimes Greg reaches out to the Bernie Bros. or whoever in a way that is eerily similar to the cucks getting all hot and bothered over some POC embracing lower marginal tax rates. I can read the National Review for that type emo posing. I’m all for addition but, geez.

        That said, I’m not mad at Johnson, Sailer or anyone else. I’m just very disappointed but it is good to know this about them. I also respect Johnson’s undeniable intellect but this has put an asterisk beside it.

          • environment matters enough that we have to mention it. otherwise all humans would have a common intellect level.

        • it’s simply materialists being who they are. reality is nice logical reasonable and wonderful by itself, until it isn’t. thus all the despair and ensuing Karenism.

          the Christian meanwhile knows how to be strengthened through despair, which is better – unless this tendency is overdone and he becomes a secret materialist through masochism. so, more moderation and reflection can help, else risk libcommie blowback like it happened to the Russian Orthodox a hundred years ago…

      • [Greg Johnson] really thinks this is a great plague. Steve Sailer thinks the same thing. I know lots of people like this.

        When I worked at the San Antonio State (mental) Hospital, back in ’73, we used to refer to patients who were less than totally psychotic as having “good contact” with reality. Associate with many people with “good contact”? IMNHO, nobody who “really thinks this is a great plague” could be said to be in “good contact” with reality.

        • Indeed. The notion that Coronageddon is a “great plague” by any historical measure is objectively false and entirely preposterous.

      • Earlier this week, I asked Sailer in the comments to acknowledge the physical (forget the economic damage, I only brought up the actual physical damages) trade-offs that lock down entails: higher suicide due to unemployment; increased domestic abuse; diabetes and other ailments due to weight gain and lack of activity; depression; and, finally, perhaps the biggest of all, the children who will never be born because fear over the economy.

        Sailer didn’t respond.

        • I stopped reading Sailer when this started. The most shocking thing to me is how the entire HBD community has gone bonkers over this virus. Greg Cochran called me a pinhead for pointing out that the initial models were nonsense. That’s when it was clear a madness had gripped these people.

          • I hadn’t read him in weeks. I just stop by every once in a while to see if anything has changed.

            But, then, I started having issues with Sailer years ago as I noticed that he never moved beyond snickering behind the bully’s back and/or trying to convince David Brooks to get on the Jew hotline and tell his fellow tribesmen to lay off the goys.

          • I guess Sailer thinks we should follow his income stream model. Quarterly begging along with the occasional ,daddy will you buy me this,? Yeah, stevie wants a new big honking super mac so he can blog better.

          • Mr Cochran, whom I’m admittedly not very familiar with, has not acquitted himself well in those comments or on this subject. He’s been wrong several times and typically lashes out when shown data that doesn’t fit his presupposed conclusion.

          • which is why an asterisk should always be included next to IQ averages, so these guys know there’s more to credentialing and knowing their (supposedly) high IQ. thus now Sailer, Cochran and others are believing themselves philosopher-kings, forgetting their boomer-scientistic bias exists. now to many, they have no clothes.

            of course this doesn’t disprove HBD, but on intelligence a lot of assumptions need qualifying it seems… for example, it could be argued that low IQ people are necessary so high IQ people don’t intellectualize themselves to death. imagine if the Right had only been fearful, or at best placid, high-IQ HBD engineers and investors and staticians, and what could have happened if the high-IQ rightwing corona skeptics didn’t have behind their backs the low-IQ white Foxcon/2a crowd? just like the Dems need their brown and antifa shock troops to defend their gentry whites. difference is, the (trad) Right naturally and realistically observes that varying IQ is fine, as “the poor, they will always be with us”; and ergo natural elites are fine too, and that just the ratios and degrees of separation/segregation have to be worked out as God/Providence/whatever wants best for us “stewards of creation”. too many elites and degeneracy and sterility ensue vainly justified in high material-intellectual status; too many grunts and the elites are ground down in trying to pacify them and/or use them to their own ends. race adds a vector to the formula as well, also the law of large numbers and ensuing genetic decay when we became a sterile post-industrial era.

            more inheritance from Anglo-Masonic worldview. the stats/verses become more important than the reality, instead of being one with it. then the elites can justify selling fake reality in the form of media and gadgetry to the masses, it’s just an extension of their elite disengagement. even if it’s all a death spiral, as the sterile roleplay becomes too real.

            thus, if we are to have roleplay, instead we just have to look at the Real Presence, both Word and flesh, mystic and grounded, high and low… of course, agrarians/Catholics/trads could overdo their worldviews too, but the Holy Spirit has proven to be wildly flexible and thus able to get things back to some recognizable shape eventually. which is when seculars say “everything regresses to the mean”… heck even the hypermodern Han can’t quit their bat-eating and plague-generating and save-face-scheming ways. perhaps with Christendom they could tone down negative materialist-naturalistic-pagan tendencies like other groups did, while remaining viable; without the CRISPR clone-babies pandora’s box…

          • Once in a while I’m bored and read a bit of Cochran. He has his echo chamber to reinforce his panic. All non-believers are cast into the void, with a great deal of vitriol. Greg used to be gruff, but he’s off the rails here. It’s a shame for such a man of great intellect. He had a future, but now holds on to an idea regardless of data. Well, Z-man, he did me one favor before his collapse into insanity, he introduced me to your blog. 🙂

          • I have banished all opinion leaders who have descended into virus-madness. It’s not manly for an American man to be scared out of his senses. I doubt Sailor would have joined a waggon train West or landed at Normandy. Geez Louise.

          • It’s interesting that on both sides of the political spectrum, thoughtful people are starting to grasp the true nature of the real divide in modern societies. Consider Greg Cochran and Bill Gates. They both view human beings as objects, which through proper study can be defined by metrics. These metrics, in turn, can be used to generate processes to produce optimum outcomes. Their disagreement is procedural.

          • which is why we cannot be only objects. otherwise any and all “metrics”, specially in a more genetically varied world, can and will be used to create endless processes according to whatever outcomes desired by whoever feels powerful enough over the “objects” – and, learned enough over the “metrics”.

        • Ron Unz has been even worse. He calls anyone who questions the shutdown a virus denier. Sailer is getting hit pretty hard by his readers and he hasn’t done his typical spring fundraising drive yet. At least he has tried transitioning into other news and not solely talking about the virus. The Brunswick hoax seemed to shake him out of the virus trance at least temporarily.

        • Sailer has been a tough read on this. For a pretty even keel blogger, he’s let the fear affect his analysis. I understand he may be in the risk group and none of us are immune from fear. But even in the face of new data and questions like yours, he seems incapable of letting go. I persisted in posting some counter-data, but the comments have kind of devolved as the panic side seems to have won out.

          • People have a tendency to follow their biases. So Sailor groupies/commenters will follow his lead I assume. What I don’t agree with is that a person in a high risk category (as I am) should duplicitously attempt to lead others to behave as benefits himself, rather than state the facts and pursue the truth of the matter. That would be no different than what the grifters we so decry here do. I hope Sailor Is better than that.

          • Sailer’s a good guy, and he’s been huge for our side. (It’s why I still send him money every month.) That’s why this has been so baffling.

            This whole thing was made for Sailer. He should have been applying statistical analysis and breaking about the data showing the silliness of it all. And, yet.

          • The baffling thing is all of them have gone bonkers. Razib Khan physically moved hi family to an isolated place. Greg Cochran was promoting Chinese-style lock downs. I think one possible answer is that when you spend a lot of time studying biology, you begin to confuse the delicate balance of life with fragility. This virus quickly turned into a monster of their own imagining.

            Another possibility is all of these people were either inside the tent with the cool kids and then exiled or never allowed in because of their past heresy. That is tough on most people as mot people want to belong. In the human sciences, high status is working at a university and writing popular books on these topics. This virus was a way fr them to get back into the good graces of the cool kids.

            Of course, it may be that people drawn to HBD are also drawn to doomsday cults.

          • I know a biochemistry PhD professor. Won’t eat medium-well steak because “I might die from it”…

          • I do think that Sailer, Khan and a few others are bitter about not being allowed into the pundit club – and still cling to some weird hope that they can be on respectable panels and speak at conferences. I think that’s a big reason why Sailer won’t move forward; it’s admitting that the dream is dead.

            Not sure if that’s why they’ve gone nuts. They could’ve backed down on a million topics over the years to get back into the club. Why now? Why this?

            You might be on to something with the biology angle. Have a relative who’s a doctor and he’s often mentioned that it’s a frickin’ miracle our bodies work at all, much less can take a hit.

            I chalk up Sailer and Cochran’s behavior to good old fashioned fear. They’re getting to that age where Covid could do some serious damage. That can change your perspective. Khan doesn’t have that excuse.

          • Yeah, I think the age angle is the better one for the older guys. Boomers are not going to handle old age well. I see that in my above ground life. It could also be that the younger guys are following the lead of the older ones.

          • Boomers never aged well. They’ve always clung to their youth, whether by not dressing like adults, not wanting to be family men (even if they have kids), not respecting traditions, etc. They’re the Peter Pan generation.

            Instead of planting trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit, the Boomers are ripping down existing trees for one last Woodstock bonfire.

          • I look forward with interest to the graceful aging of Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers. As I have said many times, all our historical writings show that man is pretty much the same as he was in the time of Jesus, of Homer, of Solomon, Moses and Abraham, all the way back. This generational sniping is exceptionally stupid.

          • Sailer seems to be posting less frequently than he used to. Does he have a touch of the St. Virus dance, or believe he does? Personal problems? I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping he will be well. He’s earned enough credits over the years to win him a place in the HBD Pantheon, unless he chooses to lose his way.

          • No, Sailer’s not such a good guy. Not only has he gone bat-sh1t over the wuflu, but anyone who thinks that there ought to be any sort of rationality on death rates or elder care he’s now equated with a cold-hearted executioner. In today’s post at VDare in tribute to the White couple murdered by a jogger in a cemetery, he snarks: “But they likely had comorbidities such as hypertension, so no big loss (according to numerous paragons of health).”

          • Didn’t see that until you mentioned it. Yes, that’s a dick move on Sailer’s part. He’s starting to crack as readers push back. He’s not used to be made fun of and/or shamed for his lack of analysis.

            I’d just like him to acknowledge the damage – both physical and economic – that the lockdown is doing. A lot of lives are being destroyed for unknown gain, which even if true isn’t much.

          • There’s always been pettiness in that scene. Same in nationalist circles. Small clubs tend to have big egos and bigger drama…

          • Part of the pettiness and drama is that most of those guys are more or less academics, even if they don’t work for a university. Vicious politics due to small stakes kind of thing.

            People working in the real world, toward real goals have reality to temper things and to decide whose right.

          • Personally experienced fear makes a perceived civilizational crisis personal. I can’t remember who to credit for this, but “frightened and angry people rarely show good judgement.” Clinically detached judgement has to be worked at for the non-sociopath and is much harder to achieve when you are worried about your own suffering and death.

          • Demanding that society self-immolate so that you won’t be exposed to a glorified flu bug is the pinnacle of selfishness.

        • >diabetes and other ailments due to weight gain and lack of activity

          Oh, it gets worse than that. My cardiac cath lab colleagues are seeing heart attack damage we typically haven’t seen in more than a decade. Here’s the deal. In most places in the US there is fairly rapid access to a heart catheterization, which means “opening up” the clot blocking the coronary artery (or arteries) that is causing the heart attack. Get chest pain, call 911, get ambulanced or helicoptered to hospital, cath lab opens up the blockage, probably puts in a stent. Outcomes are (were) good in terms of survival, and in terms of return to function.

          The duration of time the artery is blocked is directly associated with how much of the heart muscle is damaged. Recently, because people are afraid to call 911 because they don’t want to catch China Flu at the hospital they sit at home with cardiac chest pain. Last week my friend had a middle-aged woman patient who finally called for help a few DAYS after her heart attack. At that point the muscle damage was so bad she had a large hole between the right and left ventricles (this is NOT normal) and she was basically in hemodynamic collapse.

          This is third-world levels of outcomes. Stuff we generally haven’t seen in the States in years. And it’s happening now because of WuFlu panic. Sure corona-chan can be dangerous to some people. But a freaking anteroseptal myocardial infarction is very dangerous for everyone. Risk assessment has always been difficult, but now with China Flu hysteria sense has gone into the crapper.

          • Residents at the local hospital rotate through my clinic for training. Last week I talked to the doc who took care of the single patient who has died ‘of coronavirus’ in our county.

            He said the fellow was 80 years old and had pneumonia. He had had a positive test prior to decompensating at home and gaining admission to the hospital.

            I asked about sputum culture. Wasn’t done. Respiratory panel? Not necessary. They’ve been told Covid is Covid and not to test further.

            WTF? Old guys don’t get staph pneumonia anymore? Or any other of dozens of pulmonary pathogens that are treatable?

            The answer is, No, they don’t. They die of Covid.

            Oh, gee, forgot to mention. Care for Covid patients is reimbursed at higher rates. Nothing to see here. Just capitalism in action: the demand for Covid deaths is sky-high and supply must meet it.

      • I don’t know any of the leading lights of the DR personally, so I can afford to be revolted by their hysteria, and their doubling down after the curve was obviously flattened weeks ago.
        Sailer was my first intro to the DR more than 10 years ago, and until 2 months ago I read him everyday.
        No more. His bed wetting is too much for me to take. It casts a shadow over his brand that won’t fade soon. The same goes for at least a dozen other writers on this side.
        That kind of unhinged hysteria looks deeply effeminate to me.

      • There are a lot of people whose opinions I respect who are/were all in on the lockdowns, like Sailer. I like to think they are focusing solely on the virus and not on the effects of the lockdown. But that doesn’t explain the acceptance of models predicting a 70% infection rate when no virus has ever done that before. I also think Zman is right that we are in for a world of economic pain. On the current course we have had a health crisis, now an economic crisis with 33 million unemployed and we may be on our way to a financial crisis if the government keeps borrowing $2-3 trillion ever month.

        Buckle up boys.

        • “the acceptance of models predicting a 70% infection rate”

          It doesn’t help that the major Schools of Public Health [1] are hotbeds of progressivism and general anti-whiteness (the code word is “disparity” [2]). I used to be a regular (attendee/presenter) at one of the major epidemiology conferences, but it’s been taken over social justice/representation/disparity types. I know the person under whose watch this was actively engineered (regular straight white guy, as it happens, NOT “your fellow white person”) and he’s a very decent guy with good intentions, but boy it’s been a disaster.

          Taking a class (now on-line) from a big-name School of Public Health and the professor has spent literally 30 minutes each session criticizing work on hydroxycholorquine and remdesivir (which has nothing to do with the class). It boils down to Evil Trump said those words, so they are bad.

          [1] e.g. Hopkins has the Bloomberg School of Public Health (FFS)

          [2] a good rule of thumb [3] is that if someone uses the word “disparity” when the word “difference” would do, then that person is a Good Thinker. “Disparities in uterine cancer fatalities between men and women: evidence of systemic male privilege” The funny thing is that, for people who claim that sex/gender and race are constructs without biological basis, an awful lot of their work is on gender and race.

          [3] triggered! Did you know that “rule of thumb” refers to legalized spousal abuse, where men are encouraged to beat women with a stick, so long as the stick diameter was no more than that of his thumb? Triggered!

        • Yes, I have been genuinely bewildered by the embrace of outlandish predictions by commentators whose opinions I had valued up to this time. I guess it’s a reminder to have some humility about one’s own powers with regard to putting reason ahead of emotion.

      • There’s a difference between being duplicitous and simply mistaken. So Greg is mistaken—perhaps—we shall see when the numbers roll in and a fair accounting can be had. However, regardless of which of the two one is guilty of, their credibility will be reduced and those people can not longer claim leadership of the movement, because they have been shown to be wrong at the critical junctions.

    • Greg…Johnson? Sure you’re not talking Greg Cochran? Cochran’s certainly been doom and gloom about the Covid situation.

    • The reaction to Covid is the perfect example of late stage civilizational collapse characterized by fragmented identities that form and reform as politics rationalizes new interpretations of the latest fad. This distorts every event because a whole list of barely related beliefs get glued together as critical to each particular identity. The magic of the half-understood and of wishful thinking have a much broader appeal and are thus more useful at keeping the choir in their pews. Reason plays second fiddle to the passion for group identity and cohesion.

      • yep, the craziest thing about this is it’s not just the west, the whole world has bought into this.

      • These days, I’m more worried about the reconsolidation than the collapse. I think that when the economy is totally shot, freedom will become a luxury that most of us lose.

        • At that point it’s no longer freedom. It’s a free-for-all. USGov can handle a few flareups but I doubt if it can handle a few hundred.

          I think you’re right about the reconsolidation. When the quarantine gets lifted spirits will be lifted but for how long? All of the long-term problem we’ve added to what was already ClownWorld will steadily grind away making people more and more angry and desperate. All of the people in the best position to play pied piper are the worst sorts.

          • I’m both. Recently escaped from a 30% white part of California and returned to a 97% white part of New England so I’ll remain.

      • Oh they can pretzel the NAP to meaning whatever floats their boat today. Really, living at all is a violation of the NAP. “You waved your arms in California and caused bad weather in Florida, You have violated the NAP and must be punsihed!”

    • The immunity to facts and common sense among most of the intellectual class is a source of never ending incredulity. The “experts” are now acknowledging the reality that there may never be a vaccine and that Cv19 may become a permanent feature of modern life. Will that leave Johnson, Sailer, and Cochran arguing for a permanent lockdown of society? Frankly, I have come to despise the word “safe” and the corollary phrase “saving lives”.

      • Yeah, I have a feeling they’re never letting go of this. If that happens, what then?

    • because his IQ is high, a lot of other smart people are inclined to believe him. If it not for being so smart, may of the same smart people supporting him would be more skeptical or dismissive, but because he is so smart, many are willing to go along. If Greg is correct that herd immunity is far away, then why not reopen in order to hasten the immunity rather than drag it out for a year and inconvenience healthy people?

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