The End of An Error

(Hopefully) Saying goodbye to more than just the Biden administration

I think about this quote a lot.

Heck, I post it a lot, but I think about it even more often.

Normally, I think of it in the context of government-and-citizens, but the quote is often true in other types of relationships as well. I’m sure nearly everybody has had to deal with a power-mad employer, “that one” bossy friend, or a controlling significant other. And inevitably in such relationships, the abuse continues until the injustice is resisted with either words or blows, or with both.

This guy knows something about that:

Left: Biff Tannen | Right: Also Biff Tannen

There is perhaps no better illustration of this line of thinking than the covid years. Yes, the governments of the world imposed their tyranny (and we’ll get to that in a minute), but there were plenty of “private” tyrants as well. Businesses that demanded unproven covid measures, social media companies that censored legal speech, citizens who called tiplines to rat out their neighbors, employers who demanded experimental injections in order to continue working — the tyranny was suffocating. (Indeed, that’s why many of us are here in the first place.)

On and on it went, long after the fear was warranted, until the people stood up and said “no more”. And mostly, the covid measures have been lifted. (Though some colleges still have vaccination requirements, which blows my mind!) Mostly, life has “gotten back to normal”. But it really hasn’t, has it?

From the very beginning of the Biden administration, the government has seemingly been hell-bent on squeezing the life out of Americans and testing the limits of our endurance. Immediately opening the border to millions of people obviously creates numerous problems (where do they live?) — but especially when taxpayers are ALSO expected to foot the bill.

Although Biden ended the war in Afghanistan (in perhaps the worst way possible), he ensured the Military Industrial Complex wouldn’t miss a beat by sending billions of dollars in ‘aid’ to Ukraine, then later to both Israel and the place Israel is bombing — Gaza.

And while a certain amount of inflation was ‘baked in’ during the Trump administration due to covid spending, Biden ramped it up another notch by using the “emergency” spending as a new baseline for “normal” spending. (An old Obama trick — that’s what he did after TARP.)

But this isn’t just a problem with the Biden administration. Regular people have been suffering from progressive (and neocon) policies for decades in some places. (Hopefully the 2024 election will be a turning point for these policies as well — which I’ll talk about in part II.) Over and over again, state and local governments put the rights of regular people last and vastly overspend their budgets (knowing federal bailouts will keep them afloat).

Let’s look at the homeless problem as an example. For years, the ‘solution’ to the homeless was buying them a bus ticket out of town. At some point, the ‘caring’ tyrants of the West Coast decided there had to be another way — ultimately settling on “extremely expensive enablement”. (And not just for homelessness)

So problems predictably spiraled out of control, with even the police being powerless to do anything about it. This intro into “Fight for the Soul of Seattle” says it best:

This video is about Seattle, but it could just as easily be about Portland or San Francisco or any West Coast city. Attractive places that used to be “forward-thinking” and on the forefront of issues such as gay marriage or ecological conservation. Back then, that was a positive thing because private people convincing others to voluntarily change their views or actions is how life is supposed to work. But these issues (predictably) found themselves before local governments, who just couldn’t wait to signal their virtue.

But a funny thing happens when government (and their giant sledgehammer of force) makes new laws — the worst people are often the first to take advantage of them. So while “A person should be accepted for who they are” sounds nice, when translated to the law-making process, we end up with ridiculous rules like “Men can be housed in the women’s prison if they say they are women.” (With predictable results.) Parents are watching their daughters run against (and lose to) boys competing with girls — and are expected to cheer in the name of “equality”.

When government makes a law that says “You can steal up to $950 for free”, it’s not a surprise that the people who want to steal feel empowered to do so. And as others see there are literally no consequences for stealing, they feel it’s safe to do the same. This persists until the people speak out.

For my whole life, America has been full of an optimistic energy about the future. But decades of teaching children that America is the problem has taken its toll — why would people who hate the system be optimistic about living in it?

And for many other (older) people, Covid really sapped that optimistic energy, as it was laid bare for all to see that POLITICS will ultimately determine what you see, what you hear, and even what you’re allowed to say. During covid we learned:

Government will lie to you about a virus, then lie to you about the “cure”.

Government will deem you “non-essential” and close your business — and your kid’s school.

Government will prevent you from seeing your loved ones in the hospital.

Government will collude with media to push certain narratives while hiding others — even high-level stuff like the health of the president.

Government will cover up crimes — even sex trafficking of minors — if it’s beneficial to do so. (And not just here in America.)

Government will censor you if you complain about any of the above.

Thus, the covid years opened the Great Rift, and now we’re guarded when talking to new people because we’re unsure which side of the Rift they’re on. This means the energy in the air isn’t optimistic, it’s suspicious — sort of like the old communist countries in which citizens were terrified of speaking their minds because of who might hear.

Because Americans are being squeezed from all sides, they have less time and energy into building their communities and re-establishing some of that (essential for society) optimistic positive energy.

Instead, we’re faced with apathy and resentment with society. Workers who no longer care about doing a good job have have no company loyalty because they know the company they work for won’t be loyal to them — so what’s the point? Thus, everybody keeps their head down and hopes to dodge the worst of the decline:

But organizing society for the benefit of lawbreakers and expecting regular people to happily take up the slack isn’t a realistic path forward. At some point, the people are going to have to stand up and resist.

In part II, we’ll discuss why that point may be sooner than we think.

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