Modern life not from government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for January 12, 2022)

The conveniences of the modern world are all around us all the time, but I don't think I'll ever take them for granted.

One of my grandmothers grew up in this area during the Dust Bowl days. Her big family was crowded into a two-room, dirt-floored shack without indoor plumbing or electricity. They traveled by horse-drawn wagon and their water was dipped from a cistern; they didn't even have a windmill. They picked cotton by hand, dragging the heavy sacks behind them. She grew up living basically the same life as someone born in this region a hundred years earlier could have lived.

The Great Depression probably didn't even affect her family, at least it never figured into any of the stories she told about growing up.

When I was a kid, the old shack was still standing and I visited it with her a couple of times.

Their life wasn't easy, but it was good enough.

So maybe it's understandable that I can still marvel at things like indoor plumbing with running water and flush toilets and at electricity.

It's not as though I've ever had to live without those things, but I realize how few of the people who have ever been alive had them.

Anything which has been around such a short time can go away easier than you suppose. There's little chance they'll go away in our lifetime, but over the long term, the chances are fairly high.  If something happens and these modern conveniences go away, the radical socialists who use the environment as their excuse would quickly realize how bad this would be for the environment. Truthfully, I think they already know, they just don't care as long as it kills off most humans.

I'm not content to be dependent on modern conveniences. I enjoy making fire without lighters or matches, but the ability to make fire with primitive methods makes me value the ease of using a lighter even more highly. It's the same with every skill.

I'm grateful to all the researchers, experimenters, and workers who have given us the good things of the modern world. Some others would also like credit.

Government would like you to believe it brought about this modern world's peace, prosperity, and safety. Yet the truth is, when these things are the norm it's in spite of political government, not because of it. Appreciate the heroes, not the freeloaders.

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Covid wrap-up

Covid is a coronavirus, which means it is a cold virus. This is why it's not the flu (which is caused by influenza viruses, not coronaviruses). Arguing that Covid is or is not "like the regular flu" makes as much sense as arguing over whether a whale is or is not like a regular elephant. It's silly and makes the arguers look ignorant.

I doubt Covid was created and released intentionally (but it might have been) even though I consider it plausible-- even likely-- that it came from a government lab. 

I don't believe there was ever any meeting of all the ruling political criminals of the planet where they plotted together to use this as an excuse to grip the populations tighter and ratchet up the tyranny and authoritarianism. I think they just seize any opportunity that they can, without even thinking about it and without needing to discuss it among themselves. It's their nature as political criminals, no conspiracy needed.

Mandates-- beyond the mandator's private property-- are never within anyone's rights to impose. No emergency can justify them. Liberty matters more to me than safety (protection of life). I oppose anything that violates liberty.

The politicized experts lied. Over and over again. As usual.

I lost almost all confidence in doctors and health experts over the past couple of years. I lost respect for many others, too. From scientists and skeptics to celebrities I had previously thought were smart. The government-supremacism that some harbor came bubbling to the surface, then overflowed during this time. If you decry the "anti-science" and "conspiracy theories" of the other side without acknowledging your own, well... too bad for you.

Masks do cause a decrease in oxygen-- I did the tests on myself. Whether or not they reduce disease transmission is irrelevant to the question as to whether it's OK to impose a mask mandate. It's not. Wear one if it makes you feel better, but leave others alone to wear them or not. If you're scared to be around maskless (or "unvaccinated") people, you have the right to stay home.

The Covid shots seem unnecessary and not particularly effective, regardless of whether or not they are safe. That's the same thing I think about the yearly flu shots, and why I have never gotten one. Just not worth it to me. If you want to get a shot that you hope will make you safer, go ahead, that's your business. Just don't try to force others to take the shot, too. And don't impose or support segregation based on whether someone has the shot or not.

After going through Covid myself, I know-- for me-- it was worse than any other cold I've had... for about 6 hours on the second day, during which time it felt like a bad flu. The rest of the time it felt like a cold but without the nasal congestion and leakage, which to me is the worst part of having a cold. Even though those 6 hours were bad, with the flu I feel that bad for 3 days straight. So, it was better than the flu, by far. (I haven't actually had the flu in a decade or more, but I used to get it every year without fail.) The cough lasted a few weeks, but eventually faded away. It's mostly gone now, and hasn't bothered me for the past week or so. It was NOT worth the shutdowns and lockdowns and economic devastation to try to avoid catching (or spreading) this illness. It was not worth the fearmongering and the mental anguish that was triggered by government and the corporate media in the less-resilient members of the population.

"Long (-Haul) Covid" seems to me to merely be confirmation bias. You'll see what you're looking for. If you're a generally sickly person who has a history of health problems, after Covid you'll be diagnosed with Long Covid when nothing has really changed (you and the doctors will just have a label to put on it now). You might undergo more tests which could discover "new" (or previously undiscovered) problems which can be blamed on Covid. If you're generally a healthy person, you'll probably have the same experience with Covid that you do with other respiratory illnesses. When I've caught the flu, it usually takes me a couple of months to feel normal again-- I recovered from Covid in less than half that time.

Yes, there will probably be new variants for us to catch from now to eternity, until a real cure for coronaviruses is found. But what does it matter? That's the case with other colds and flus, and probably lots of other illnesses as well. Life goes on if you let it.

There's only one local business that asked me to put on a mask (about 6 months ago, maybe more). I didn't put one on but immediately left instead, and I haven't been back. And I probably won't go back. I'm done with the Covid stupidity, and have been for a long time.

There's no credible justification for any lockdowns, mandates, or segregation. Stop tolerating it, or ignore the "rules". Refuse to comply with the control freaks and political criminals. They are not on your side.

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