Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Global Hysteria Update

In another update to the story of how much worse the COVID hysteria is outside the US, the video above from Montreal YouTuber David Freiheit of the Viva Frei channel outlines arrests and fines being imposed on Quebec citizens for violating an 8 PM - 5 AM COVID curfew. What interests me is that, as in the UK, local law enforcement is doing this.

In the US, both police unions and police command structures have been near unanimous in announcing they enforce legislatively enacted statutes, not temporary executive orders or health regulations. As a result, governors have had to call on resurces under their direct control, such as state highway patrols, and health departments have had to rely on food inspectors, to do enforcement of COVID orders, which limits their reach.

The next question is one that I don't see asked seriouisly very often. which is what effect a curfew is intended to have on the pandemic. The germs presumably spread 24/7, and people are less active at night anyhow, since they aren't racoons. The speculation I see is that it's meant to limit people going to bars. If so, I assume this is actually a disguised ban on fornication, which goes along with a disguised implicit ban on most liturgy in churches, which is also near universal.

Well, if you close the churches, how else can you control fornication? Seems reasonable to me.

But I'm less concerned with the "ain't it awful" part of the story than the question of why this is happening. If governments feel they have to control both liturgy and fornication, which it's hard to avoid thinking, then we're talking about a superstitious response to what's in effect an invisible crisis. And let's face it, the bogeyman isn't COVID.

The US Congress is focused on impeaching Trump after he's left office. We must assume this is a substitute for what, up to modern times, would be the headsman's block. Ths was prefigured by the Kathy Griffin meme at the tme of his election. But given its intent as cearly expressed by advocates of the move, it's meant specifically to end his public career, which strikes me as not an impeachment, which is constitutional (and would be if he were still in office), but a bill of attainder, which is not. But whatever becomes of that particular action, it's limited to the US and a particular figure, Donald Trump. But since Trump will be out of office before any impeachment move can be made to remove him, this stikes me as an action as superstitious as banning fornication or controlling liturgy.

But again, this superstitious panic is a worldwide phenomenon, and as I've covred it here, it's worse at least in Canada and the UK. It says something for US institutions that at least so far, there've been no $1500 fines for being out after 8 PM here.

What's the source of the panic? It can't be COVID, that's an invisible cover for another invisible enemy.