The Limits of Tyrants

Whitmer, state's chief medical official at odds over school mask mandate. Our state’s “medical officer” recommended a statewide mask mandate for schools; Whitmer declined.

Whitmer has declared that she plans to leave school mask guidelines up to individual county health departments and local school districts, despite recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement universal mask mandates throughout the nation’s schools. Khaldun indicated that she would have preferred to accept the CDC recommendation.

Normally Whitmer loves mandates so why not impose another mandate now? Simple answer: (insert shocked face) politics! More specifically, polling data.

First of all, anytime a politician blames their decisions on “the science” you can rest assured that we are talking political science, which is a “science” in the same way women’s and gender studies are a “science.” Which is to say a pseudoscience discipline that ends in either “data” or “studies” and does not comply with the scientific method, lacks supporting evidence, and cannot be tested in practice or in principle. Perfect for politicians.

Apparently the science of political polling indicated to our governor-up-for-election-next-year that a significant number of parents opposed masking their kids for another school year.

So she off-loaded that unpopular decision to local officials. These neo-authoritarians enjoy exercising their newfound petty tyrannical powers even more than those further up the chain.

But don’t worry Michigan, Whitmer’s Director of Health and Human Services , Elizabeth Hertel, hasn’t ruled anything out:

Hertel stated she would not “rule out” new restrictions, and noted another round of statewide mandates and closures could be imminent. “That’s a determination that needs to be made as the virus continues to spread across the state," Hertel said.

Translation: enjoy your freedom until such time our polling indicates that “the science” of popular sentiment shows that you are fearful enough to allow us to impose unconstitutional rules again.

It is not without purpose I post this link to a Spiked article about Australia. It is a warning, mostly for the Millennials and Gen Zs: the earth really can open under your feet and allow you to fall into a void. Once you find yourself there good luck with crawling and clawing your way out:

People who once thought they’d won the lottery of life by being born in Australia now wake in fright every day to the sudden realisation that they are living in a 21st-century penal colony. The country they once loved has been replaced by something they barely recognise.

The restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic are just the start of it. People have been confined to their houses, prevented from going to school or work, denied the freedom to cross state borders even to see a dying relative, and coerced to take a vaccine in order hopefully to regain the freedoms that were once their birthright.

Worse, these restrictions are being imposed by authoritarians who have seemingly come from nowhere and now dominate all of Australia’s positions of power, from the government to big business. These people are unlike any ruling elite Australia has ever known.

Stay home and SHUT UP! We’ve got a 2nd 3rd 4th…104th wave!

His laments for his country are not unknown to us.

Sadly, there are few signs of dissent, let alone rebellion, among the populace. Polling companies are finding that modern Australians approve of being locked down by the government and even admire the grim, tough-talking leaders who impose these restrictions on them.

The mystery is, how did we get here? What happened to the culture that built this thriving nation on a harsh continent from scratch, that encouraged young men to fight so gallantly in other people’s wars, and that cherished freedom with such unbridled vigour? In short, and in the traditional vernacular, how did Australians go from being deadset champions to a nation of piss-weak wimps?

I once thought it could never happen here; I’m still guardedly optimistic – if you can call a thin thread of hope optimism. My delusion of America as a united country with a spine of steel is long gone but I do hope there is a regressive gene passed on to current generations that might activate a strand of DNA to rebellion before the final meltdown occurs. Something that will serve to awake the Woke Generation™ to their impending doom before they have been completely consumed, as we will be long gone.

Please pardon Grandma’s FrenchBut she’s been protesting face masks stomping on her face since 2020.