Humans are wired to prioritize danger over every other signal; the oldest part of our brain responds with fear without going through our higher functioning (modern) brain. This made sense long ago when survival was difficult and everything in your environment seemed out to kill you.
Most of us aren’t in that position anymore. We live comfortable, non-threatening lives. But our brains still react when properly stimulated. And that lizard brain wants safety; it wants solutions. And because your thinking brain has been over-ridden, fear makes you accept solutions gratefully, even if careful consideration might cause you to doubt. The Left understands that and in fact, it underpins most of their agenda.
A side problem is that fear is addictive. I still see people wearing masks in their cars while driving alone. It can feel comforting to be “doing something” even if the “something” is meaningless.
The China Virus
In the Rahm Emanuel view, the Left never wants to let a crisis go to waste. They delighted in Neal Ferguson’s model that said in Britain alone, 500,000 people would die and National Health would be overwhelmed. This caused the international lockdown and other mandates which devastated the economy, especially for those on the lower end of the economy. The fear of possible death in the future caused the world to accept the Left’s solution. Even Ferguson has admitted he screwed up. And not for the first time. He’s almost always been wrong, causing huge damage to society.
Jay Schnitzer, an expert in vascular biology and a former scientific director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego, tells me: “I’m normally reluctant to say this about a scientist, but he dances on the edge of being a publicity-seeking charlatan.”
Vaccine mandates were to protect us from getting and transmitting the virus, but as it turns out, it does neither. As these vaccines “may” make the disease less awful for the recipient, it makes no sense to force people to get them. But the government always seeks to increase its power and by funding the pharmaceutical companies, (our government is paying them for the vaccines), Biden and his friends seek to control drug companies. Our government is really reluctant to abandon the ”special powers” they assumed during the outbreak and controlling drug companies is part of it.
Climate Change
This old trope started with a new ice age when I was a kid; then they moved on to global warming. As the data didn’t support that, the phrase was modified to climate change. We can all agree—climate changes. Why and how it changes is what isn’t completely clear. And even if they are right, the actions of just a few countries can’t fix anything while China and India continue to pollute.
The trick to this method of seizing power (and destroying the wealth of others, while keeping their own power and money intact), is to make the deadline sufficiently vague, but close enough to panic everyone. Many people I speak with are really scared of an extinction event on the planet and yet, there is really no evidence of this. Many climate scientists who say that not only is the climate not really going to be affected by the expensive and life-changing solutions proffered by the Left; our ingenuity has already improved things and will continue to do so.
When someone is scared and another person offers a solution, they are likely to jump on it because the fear overrides their logical thinking. But in the case of Green New Deals and the like, (and let’s not forget the Inflation Reduction Act which was just a subset of the rejected Green New Deal), we have to stop and do a thoughtful cost analysis. To make it simple, the data isn’t there and the plans they have won’t make a difference.
In fact, all the recent ploys are leaving people with either astronomical power bills or the inability to rely on heating this winter, as in Europe. Even if we built enough wind farms and solar panel installations to power us, they are dependent on weather. And we know we can’t rely on that. But that’s all they offer us.
Want reliable, affordable and yes, safe, power? Nuclear power has come a long way and is now all of the above. Innovations provide the answer and in terms of upkeep, cost of build and impact of that build on the environment, nuclear is the non-CO2 emitting solution we all can get behind. But do you ever hear about that? No, because that solution doesn’t let the Left increase their power over all of us.
Push Back
We need to make an effort to push back over their fear-based solutions and get our brains in gear. We can do this. During Covid, the best innovations came about by private individuals working to solve pesky problems. Remember oil spills, which were going to destroy all sea life. Private innovators, (some sponsored by actor, Kevin Costner), created an oil-eating bacteria which quickly and thoroughly cleans up spills.
We can do this. But we need to get government out of the equation. Elections matter and one is coming up. Don’t consider whether you personally like a candidate. Look at what he/she stands for and if available, look at their track record. Vote in your interests because soon, we may have no more choice in the matter.
Even if we move away from a one-party government we still have corporations, unions and other power wielding organizations that need to change as well. We really have an uphill struggle along with a change in mindsets.