In spring and summer 2020, governments closed many places: schools, parks, churches and restaurants and other small businesses. It was pure theater. But New Jersey’s governor decreed that such community gardens as those I managed could remain open. It would have been bad PR to deprive poor people of the ability to grow food. Community gardening resembled the BLM riots: exchanging “droplets” was nothing to be concerned about, as long as those exchanging them were doing something PC.
Hear, hear! Long Pandemic! I’ll raise me pint to that one come Good Friday!
“Simply saying “The Pandemic” foreclosed reasonable discussion of how many people …”
I’d shorten that to “foreclosed reasonable discussion (and still does).” We were desperately short of reasonable discussion in our society as it was, but now, as you have pointed out so eloquently, any attempt at making sense of what happened, and is happening, is just swatted away with “pandemic” “because of COVID” “we didn’t know” “you can’t be too safe” and so on…
On a different, but related point, I have often wondered how on earth many if not most people will willingly surrender their agency to credentialed professionals who have repeatedly demonstrably failed to solve or mitigate the “problem” they have been hired to figure out.
Way, way, way before “COVID”, I have asked some of my credulous tree care customers why they would continue to seek out medical attention from the same people who have not only not “solved” the original symptom, but now have blessed them with “side effects”. I ask them if they would continue to hire me (a tree guy) or a plumber or electrician if each and every time they called us, the tree problem got worse, the basement was still flooded and the house dimmed every time you plugged in their toaster. I usually get blank looks of something like “yeah, I see what you mean”…… there must be something deeply ingrained in or genetically part of our being that urges us to surrender to patently incompetent, and often irresponsible and evil people….
The first indication that the storm on the horizon was going to be of unprecedented magnitude was my wife’s use of the word. Usually level headed, despite working for Pf, once it was announced to be a pandemic, she uncharacteristically relaid the fact to me in a panicked voice. I responded by telling her that only meant it covered more geography and that it said nothing about how dangerous the disease was. This calmed her down, but she knew this to be true. Why did she need to be reminded of it?
I use a different P word to describe the past 4 years, the panic.
Thank you Mark. Your piece reminds me of a poor old man in Wales who went down to his allotment during the imprisonment and dared to chat to others who were there. He had an enormous fine. That callousness sums it all up I think. Never forget, never forgive.
I may have to stop reading your beautiful essays, Mark. So darn accurate and focused that the lid flies off my pot of simmering rage! I always (during) referred to ‘the Scamdemic.’ Now, when I must speak of those years, I use the phrase, ‘during The Nonsense.’ It doesn’t come close to expressing my contempt but is probably appropriate for an old Southern woman. (I did have relatives that still referred to the Civil War as ‘The Unpleasantness’, so…)
I remember walking through big-box stores unmasked and meeting everyone’s glares with a big, lipsticked smile. Whenever another ‘free-face’ was spotted, though strangers, we stopped and hugged. I was often verbally abused, a direct example of Scamdemic-Alibi to behave badly.
One note: it’s the Democrat party. There’s nothing democratic about it. Keep writing. I don’t ever want to forget the abuse.
You left out “Plandemic” though “Scamdemic” was included, so you get an “A”
Darlene got a “C” as in “Cut down that tree!” or an “F” as in “Failure” or “no more Forest”.
I maybe only got a “B” because I nearly lost employment for seeing the scam early and poking fun of it. Some of my dear coworker friends also got formal reprimands for not masking properly or making light of the obvious fraud. We survived, but it was stressful with institutions threatening us and throwing their legal might against us. What a world - people were threatened, beaten, locked up, jailed, fined and poisoned over a scam. Influencers and “TheScientologists” pocketed billions, and there are still Darlenes out there clinging to the narrative. God help us.
My trigger word now isn't "pandemic" as much as "covid." "Due to 'covid'" this. "Due to 'covid'" that. "Due to 'covid' we don't have to do our jobs and you have to suck it."
The problem was never a virus. The problem was always the abysmal ethical state of huge swaths of humanity. They might not kick puppies or push old ladies down stairs, but most people exist resentful of the fact that they're expected to be independent adults: rational, productive, thoughtful, and self-motivated. Intellectually they self-arrest somewhere under ten years old and they spend the rest of their lives faking it, terrified of discovery. "Covid" was a godsend to such people. It absolutely did give them an alibi, but it was for much worse than just misbehavior. Think of what underlies their enthusiastic embrace of infantilism, of not having to work or pay debts; of having an excuse to avoid social contacts they were too cowardly and hypocritical to say they didn't really enjoy: Those are people without a *self.*
At first I was amazed by their collective failure to break down the doors of hospitals and nursing homes and *insist* on protecting the people they claimed to love. Now I think it was naive to expect anything else. People whose first reaction to a lockdown announcement was, "It's cool; I wasn't planning to go anywhere, anyway" are people incapable of love for anything or anyone, because they don't love themselves enough to fight for their freedom.
The plandemic was a moral pop quiz and nearly everyone failed it, in the process revealing themselves to be something far worse than puppy kickers and granny pushers. They're abject moral and intellectual cowards. They've learned nothing and they will absolutely do the same thing again in a heartbeat, because for the first time in their lives their vices were proclaimed as virtues.
"The Pandemic" WAS a true pandemic ... However, it wasn't a virus pandemic. I didn't know anyone that died from the virus or even got very sick. "The Pandemic" was a pandemic of the ignorant and gullible masses falling prey to the evil and manipulative profit seekers. Nothing more than that. Some of the ignorant and gullible also played the part of the evil and manipulative. That was "The Pandemic" that I saw for three years.
Just when you begin to think “we’ll, there’s not much more to be written about the covidrama" (my preferred descriptor of the scamdemic), here you come and write another bullseye piece that was needing to be written and needs to be reflected upon and shared widely. The obviousness of the propagandizement couldn’t have been clearer in 2020. In March of 2020, I instantly connected it to the November election, but I had no idea that so many authoritarian targets were being hit with a single arrow, slung by the powers behind the power. Honestly, a part of me indulged for brief moments in the historical drama, a memorable “we’re all in this together” unity where the invading army is so dangerous that everybody, rich and poor, white, black, and brown would have to stand and fight together to survive. Like WWII must have felt, or when the aliens finally invade! Snapping out of it thanks to the putrid smell of bullshit emanating from the White House lectern, the evident truth of what was happening was a buzzkill to any excitement that had arisen in my heart. The grift of Covid took on epic proportions providing epic profits to a few select economic and industrial powerhouses. The P word may have been pronounced as “pandemic,”but it really stood for Power and Profits.
There was no pandemic and there never has been a pandemic or even an epidemic of a transmitted disease, both are completely fictitious phenomena ... just like a few other alleged phenomena such as self-immolations, suicide bombings and mass school shootings.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
― H.L. Mencken
I highly recommend Mike Stone's website, www.viroliegy.com (Exposing the lies of Germ Theory and virology using their own sources) and substack, mikestone.substack.com for analysis of the various epidemic-style events in the historical record which are exposed as being something completely different from what they have been purported to be ... essentially no different from this "pandemic".
I’ve said this before so forgive me for being redundant but the key to understanding the scam we were all subjected to is to consider that until Covid it had never been appropriate to scare people during a mass or singular casualty event. The operative words were always, “stay calm.”
But, at no time were we given the impression our trusted institutions had any intention of reassuring us. Quite the opposite.
Even after months had gone by they acted like they didn’t have the first clue about how 9th grade biology worked. No meaningful demographic information concerning the afflicted.
Just case counts! Case counts! Case counts! Hospitals are overwhelmed! Covid lives on surfaces! Covid doesn’t live on surfaces! Masks are useless! Masks are essential! Maybe wear two masks! Melting lungs! More ventilators, stat! On and on the fear mongering went.
Meanwhile, more and more of our betters were caught in the act of not caring a whit about the rules for thee. Curious, no?
The shots were dangled as the way out. “Covid won’t end until all are vaccinated.” So people clamored to the needle and were angry at those who balked.
Turned out that was bullshit too. The shots were not sterilizing, were not ‘one and done’, did not prevent reinfection. Huh? One wonders what the shots were for at all, no?
Yet by this time people were triggered. Thinking with the fight or flight reptilian brain. Logic. What’s logic?
Through it all there was no sense of “remain calm we’ve got this.” And, THAT is the biggest tell the whole thing was faked for mass manipulation to redefine our silly notions of freedom, liberty, independence, and personal sovereignty.
Wow - does this hit home. I just gave my plot up yesterday. Bittersweet because I enjoy gardening so much but I couldn’t bear the community part anymore. Very PC group. During the “pandemic” gardeners were wearing masks while digging their beds, making sure to keep their distance from me - the reckless one who chose to breathe fresh air and feel the sun and breeze on my face. I’ll never forget the queen bee of the garden threatening to report a father who allowed his small child to play in the playground adjoining our garden. The constant open chatter about shots, boosters and angry politics. So much fear about catching the virus - openly and loudly discussed because they didn’t stand near each other. Had to keep your distance afterall. I started to neglect my spot because I couldn’t stand being around them anymore. My sweatpeas weren’t bringing me joy anymore, my vegetables weren’t a pleasure to harvest. Garden wasn’t done doing it for me anymore. Obviously that time is over but there are side effects. I felt no sense of community in my garden anymore and actually in my town as well. Appreciate the community I find here - thank goodness for you all!
Yes...an obvious operation, the set-up for it coming several weeks before the scum actually ordered the lockdown and the majority went along. That made them -- the majority -- part of a club, the club that was alive when the PANDEMIC™ hit. And doesn't everyone want to be a part of a club -- any club??
I said then and I continue to say now, especially in Comments sections and even to the likes of Peter McCullough over at LinkedIn whenever he or anyone uses that word, "There was a pandemic?"
The PANDEMIC™. Just another story that the mob bought hook, line, and sinker. People like stories. They especially like stories where they get to play a part. Those are the best ones for those among us who seek power over all. Just tell 'em story. No matter how absurd because they have proven through the ages that you can actually tell them 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈.
Hear, hear! Long Pandemic! I’ll raise me pint to that one come Good Friday!
“Simply saying “The Pandemic” foreclosed reasonable discussion of how many people …”
I’d shorten that to “foreclosed reasonable discussion (and still does).” We were desperately short of reasonable discussion in our society as it was, but now, as you have pointed out so eloquently, any attempt at making sense of what happened, and is happening, is just swatted away with “pandemic” “because of COVID” “we didn’t know” “you can’t be too safe” and so on…
On a different, but related point, I have often wondered how on earth many if not most people will willingly surrender their agency to credentialed professionals who have repeatedly demonstrably failed to solve or mitigate the “problem” they have been hired to figure out.
Way, way, way before “COVID”, I have asked some of my credulous tree care customers why they would continue to seek out medical attention from the same people who have not only not “solved” the original symptom, but now have blessed them with “side effects”. I ask them if they would continue to hire me (a tree guy) or a plumber or electrician if each and every time they called us, the tree problem got worse, the basement was still flooded and the house dimmed every time you plugged in their toaster. I usually get blank looks of something like “yeah, I see what you mean”…… there must be something deeply ingrained in or genetically part of our being that urges us to surrender to patently incompetent, and often irresponsible and evil people….
I dunno….I’m a gonna get to work…
Cheers, Mark!
The first indication that the storm on the horizon was going to be of unprecedented magnitude was my wife’s use of the word. Usually level headed, despite working for Pf, once it was announced to be a pandemic, she uncharacteristically relaid the fact to me in a panicked voice. I responded by telling her that only meant it covered more geography and that it said nothing about how dangerous the disease was. This calmed her down, but she knew this to be true. Why did she need to be reminded of it?
I use a different P word to describe the past 4 years, the panic.
Thank you Mark. Your piece reminds me of a poor old man in Wales who went down to his allotment during the imprisonment and dared to chat to others who were there. He had an enormous fine. That callousness sums it all up I think. Never forget, never forgive.
I may have to stop reading your beautiful essays, Mark. So darn accurate and focused that the lid flies off my pot of simmering rage! I always (during) referred to ‘the Scamdemic.’ Now, when I must speak of those years, I use the phrase, ‘during The Nonsense.’ It doesn’t come close to expressing my contempt but is probably appropriate for an old Southern woman. (I did have relatives that still referred to the Civil War as ‘The Unpleasantness’, so…)
I remember walking through big-box stores unmasked and meeting everyone’s glares with a big, lipsticked smile. Whenever another ‘free-face’ was spotted, though strangers, we stopped and hugged. I was often verbally abused, a direct example of Scamdemic-Alibi to behave badly.
One note: it’s the Democrat party. There’s nothing democratic about it. Keep writing. I don’t ever want to forget the abuse.
Astute!
You left out “Plandemic” though “Scamdemic” was included, so you get an “A”
Darlene got a “C” as in “Cut down that tree!” or an “F” as in “Failure” or “no more Forest”.
I maybe only got a “B” because I nearly lost employment for seeing the scam early and poking fun of it. Some of my dear coworker friends also got formal reprimands for not masking properly or making light of the obvious fraud. We survived, but it was stressful with institutions threatening us and throwing their legal might against us. What a world - people were threatened, beaten, locked up, jailed, fined and poisoned over a scam. Influencers and “TheScientologists” pocketed billions, and there are still Darlenes out there clinging to the narrative. God help us.
My trigger word now isn't "pandemic" as much as "covid." "Due to 'covid'" this. "Due to 'covid'" that. "Due to 'covid' we don't have to do our jobs and you have to suck it."
The problem was never a virus. The problem was always the abysmal ethical state of huge swaths of humanity. They might not kick puppies or push old ladies down stairs, but most people exist resentful of the fact that they're expected to be independent adults: rational, productive, thoughtful, and self-motivated. Intellectually they self-arrest somewhere under ten years old and they spend the rest of their lives faking it, terrified of discovery. "Covid" was a godsend to such people. It absolutely did give them an alibi, but it was for much worse than just misbehavior. Think of what underlies their enthusiastic embrace of infantilism, of not having to work or pay debts; of having an excuse to avoid social contacts they were too cowardly and hypocritical to say they didn't really enjoy: Those are people without a *self.*
At first I was amazed by their collective failure to break down the doors of hospitals and nursing homes and *insist* on protecting the people they claimed to love. Now I think it was naive to expect anything else. People whose first reaction to a lockdown announcement was, "It's cool; I wasn't planning to go anywhere, anyway" are people incapable of love for anything or anyone, because they don't love themselves enough to fight for their freedom.
The plandemic was a moral pop quiz and nearly everyone failed it, in the process revealing themselves to be something far worse than puppy kickers and granny pushers. They're abject moral and intellectual cowards. They've learned nothing and they will absolutely do the same thing again in a heartbeat, because for the first time in their lives their vices were proclaimed as virtues.
"The Pandemic" WAS a true pandemic ... However, it wasn't a virus pandemic. I didn't know anyone that died from the virus or even got very sick. "The Pandemic" was a pandemic of the ignorant and gullible masses falling prey to the evil and manipulative profit seekers. Nothing more than that. Some of the ignorant and gullible also played the part of the evil and manipulative. That was "The Pandemic" that I saw for three years.
Just when you begin to think “we’ll, there’s not much more to be written about the covidrama" (my preferred descriptor of the scamdemic), here you come and write another bullseye piece that was needing to be written and needs to be reflected upon and shared widely. The obviousness of the propagandizement couldn’t have been clearer in 2020. In March of 2020, I instantly connected it to the November election, but I had no idea that so many authoritarian targets were being hit with a single arrow, slung by the powers behind the power. Honestly, a part of me indulged for brief moments in the historical drama, a memorable “we’re all in this together” unity where the invading army is so dangerous that everybody, rich and poor, white, black, and brown would have to stand and fight together to survive. Like WWII must have felt, or when the aliens finally invade! Snapping out of it thanks to the putrid smell of bullshit emanating from the White House lectern, the evident truth of what was happening was a buzzkill to any excitement that had arisen in my heart. The grift of Covid took on epic proportions providing epic profits to a few select economic and industrial powerhouses. The P word may have been pronounced as “pandemic,”but it really stood for Power and Profits.
Long pandemic - LOL.
There was no pandemic and there never has been a pandemic or even an epidemic of a transmitted disease, both are completely fictitious phenomena ... just like a few other alleged phenomena such as self-immolations, suicide bombings and mass school shootings.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
― H.L. Mencken
I highly recommend Mike Stone's website, www.viroliegy.com (Exposing the lies of Germ Theory and virology using their own sources) and substack, mikestone.substack.com for analysis of the various epidemic-style events in the historical record which are exposed as being something completely different from what they have been purported to be ... essentially no different from this "pandemic".
I’ve said this before so forgive me for being redundant but the key to understanding the scam we were all subjected to is to consider that until Covid it had never been appropriate to scare people during a mass or singular casualty event. The operative words were always, “stay calm.”
But, at no time were we given the impression our trusted institutions had any intention of reassuring us. Quite the opposite.
Even after months had gone by they acted like they didn’t have the first clue about how 9th grade biology worked. No meaningful demographic information concerning the afflicted.
Just case counts! Case counts! Case counts! Hospitals are overwhelmed! Covid lives on surfaces! Covid doesn’t live on surfaces! Masks are useless! Masks are essential! Maybe wear two masks! Melting lungs! More ventilators, stat! On and on the fear mongering went.
Meanwhile, more and more of our betters were caught in the act of not caring a whit about the rules for thee. Curious, no?
The shots were dangled as the way out. “Covid won’t end until all are vaccinated.” So people clamored to the needle and were angry at those who balked.
Turned out that was bullshit too. The shots were not sterilizing, were not ‘one and done’, did not prevent reinfection. Huh? One wonders what the shots were for at all, no?
Yet by this time people were triggered. Thinking with the fight or flight reptilian brain. Logic. What’s logic?
Through it all there was no sense of “remain calm we’ve got this.” And, THAT is the biggest tell the whole thing was faked for mass manipulation to redefine our silly notions of freedom, liberty, independence, and personal sovereignty.
I refuse to use the P word and call the whole thing what it truly was: THE DEBACLE.
Wow - does this hit home. I just gave my plot up yesterday. Bittersweet because I enjoy gardening so much but I couldn’t bear the community part anymore. Very PC group. During the “pandemic” gardeners were wearing masks while digging their beds, making sure to keep their distance from me - the reckless one who chose to breathe fresh air and feel the sun and breeze on my face. I’ll never forget the queen bee of the garden threatening to report a father who allowed his small child to play in the playground adjoining our garden. The constant open chatter about shots, boosters and angry politics. So much fear about catching the virus - openly and loudly discussed because they didn’t stand near each other. Had to keep your distance afterall. I started to neglect my spot because I couldn’t stand being around them anymore. My sweatpeas weren’t bringing me joy anymore, my vegetables weren’t a pleasure to harvest. Garden wasn’t done doing it for me anymore. Obviously that time is over but there are side effects. I felt no sense of community in my garden anymore and actually in my town as well. Appreciate the community I find here - thank goodness for you all!
"PANDEMIC"
"A pandemic (/pænˈdɛmɪk/ pan-DEM-ik) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region."
It seems to me that "pandemic" describes perfectly our bloated gargantuan, virus like Federal government much better than the IQ test called Covid-19.
Yes...an obvious operation, the set-up for it coming several weeks before the scum actually ordered the lockdown and the majority went along. That made them -- the majority -- part of a club, the club that was alive when the PANDEMIC™ hit. And doesn't everyone want to be a part of a club -- any club??
I said then and I continue to say now, especially in Comments sections and even to the likes of Peter McCullough over at LinkedIn whenever he or anyone uses that word, "There was a pandemic?"
The PANDEMIC™. Just another story that the mob bought hook, line, and sinker. People like stories. They especially like stories where they get to play a part. Those are the best ones for those among us who seek power over all. Just tell 'em story. No matter how absurd because they have proven through the ages that you can actually tell them 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈.
Long Pandemic.
Good one!
I still hear people claiming they're suffering from Long Covid, yet do not wonder why...
Scamdemic is a good word. I usually say, "The Covid Bullshit." If anyone wants to know why, they've not yet asked.