Most people think of COVID-19 as a respiratory virus, although some scientists argue that it is a disease of the cardiovascular system. I maintain that it’s primarily a neurological disorder.
In short, Covid has broken our brains.
Or perhaps I should say, irrational fear of the virus has broken our brains.
The main super-spreaders are the corporate media, aka Fake News. Honestly, I never understood why so many people were panicking over something that, for most, is basically like a bad flu (and for many, not even that). Then I got stuck in an airport and had to listen to CNN for a couple of hours.
The sheer volume of fear-mongering disinformation--“panic porn,” as it has so aptly been labeled—was almost overwhelming. If I listened to nothing but that all day, I’d probably be hysterical, too. I also wouldn’t have any idea what is actually going on.
Case in point: In a recent survey, 41% of Democrats said a person who contracts Covid has a 50% chance of winding up in the hospital, while another 12% think the risk is 20% or higher.
The actual number? Less than 1%.
Republicans didn’t fare too well in the survey, either. But at least they’re significantly better informed than their “progressive” neighbors—which no doubt explains why they’re less fearful.
Remember when even the political left used to believe (or at least claim to believe) that “knowledge is power”? Ah, the good old days. Before they decided that1984andBrave New Worldare textbooks rather than dire warnings disguised as dystopian novels.
In any case, these survey results show that Covid has rendered us incapable of thinking rationally. This is apparent at both the macro (societal) and micro (individual) levels.
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At the macro level, consider the illogic surrounding the current debate over “vaccines.” We’re told we must all submit to the jab so we don’t get or spread Covid. Yet, as the Director of CDC recently admitted, inoculated people can still get and spread Covid. In fact, there is evidence that, because the shots serve primarily to suppress symptoms, “the vaccinated” can unknowingly become asymptomatic spreaders.
Given that reality, what is the logic behind mandates? Even if your “vaccine” protects you to some degree from serious illness and death—and that does seem to be the case, so far, although we should keep our eyes on the data coming out of Israel and the UK—it does little or nothing to protect anyone else. It might even make you a net danger to others.
The jab also has many potentially serious side effects which, even if relatively rare, are not non-existent. Note that Covid deaths and hospitalizations are also relatively rare, if the word “rare” has any statistical meaning. Isn’t something that happens less than 1% of the time rare, by definition?
A rational person might conclude, then, that getting the shot should be purely a personal decision, based on one’s health, risk factors, religious beliefs, etc.
Unfortunately, rational people now seem to be rarer than Covid hospitalizations.
At the individual level, broken brain syndrome manifests itself in nonsensical behaviors like wearing a mask while walking in the park or sitting alone in a car—or an office.
True story: The other day, I overheard a colleague in the hallway talking to a student about logical reasoning. Of course, they were both wearing masks, which I can sort of understand. I don’t believe masks do anything, and the (real) science backs me up, but I can see how masks might make people feel a little more protected when they’re in close proximity to another person.
As a professional rhetorician who wrote a book on critical thinking, I also found nothing to disagree with in what my colleague was saying. Theoretically, at least, they knew what they were talking about.
Later, however, I happened to pass by their office, where they were sitting by themself with the door open—still fully masked. (For the grammar nazis, I’m using “they” and “them” generically to protect this individual’s identity.)
Here’s someone who has studied logic for years, including at the graduate level, who teaches it for a living, yet can’t seem to apply it in the real world. I wanted to ask, “Whom do you think you’re protecting by wearing a mask while sitting alone in your office? From what? What air do you imagine you’re breathing? Do you know how coronavirus spreads?”
What we know, and have known for a while, is that the virus is aerosolized when infected people exhale. In other words, it becomes airborne, meaning “borne by the air”—the same air we all breathe when we’re together in an enclosed space.
Even if masks stopped those aerosolized particles from entering directly into your nose or mouth—which they don’t, because the particles are much smaller than the holes in the fabric—assuming your mask has any gaps at all around the edges (as nearly all store-bought masks do), then you’re taking in some of those aerosolized particles simply by breathing. The mask accomplishes very little if anything.
Note that the reasoning here is eminently logical—essentially, syllogistic. It begins with a scientific fact, adds an observable truth, and reaches an inescapable conclusion:
Coronavirus particles, if present, inhabit the ambient air. Masks do not block all the air. Therefore, masks do not block all coronavirus particles.
We might also add that, with a virus, if masks don’t block all particles, they might as well not block any, since studies show that one virus particle can cause infection.
Unfortunately, that sort of critical thinking is practically nonexistent these days. Years of government school, followed by Marxist indoctrination in college, have rendered most people incapable of applying logic. The few relatively unimpaired brains that still existed, prior to March 2020, have now mostly been broken by the Covid panic.
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