Do authoritarians deserve a chance to be treated with grace and forgiveness? The question is circulating regularly these days in the wake of the complete failure of covid pandemic response and the victory of the anti-mandate movement. The answer relies on a series of counter-questions based on logic and predictable outcomes. It's the kind of discussion that covid cultists don't want to have; they just want everyone to forget because they now have something to lose politically
Scott Galloway, Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and member of the World Economic Forum's "Global Leaders Of Tomorrow" list, is one of the cultists that now wants to be given a free pass as he debates the issue on Real Time with Bill Maher.
"I was on the board of my kids' school during COVID. I wanted a harsher lockdown policy. In retrospect: I was wrong. The damage to kids of keeping them out of school longer was greater than the risk. But here's the bottom line: We were doing our best. But let's give a little… pic.twitter.com/8Vt2NujNKl
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) October 28, 2023
The question that we need to ask Galloway is: How forgiving was he when confronted with people who opposed his authoritarianism? Galloway was rabidly pro-mandate. He consistently called for harsher punishments for people refusing to comply and he demanded that the unvaccinated be treated as second tier citizens banned from places of business. As he argued in his blog titled 'Half Of America Has Its Head Up Its Ass. It's Time For A Vaccine Mandate':
“Enough already. Federal law should require any citizen who wants to cash a government check, use public transport, or enter a place of business to show proof of vaccination...”
Galloway cited the ever present inflated CDC data on covid deaths in America as the justification for his authoritarian position. Of course, data was available not long after the spread of covid indicating that the Infection Fatality Rate of the virus was a tiny 0.23% and that 99.8% of the population (including the unvaccinated) had nothing to fear. Not only that, but the CDC has recently and quietly published information showing that around 95% of people who died with covid also had one or more comorbidities and 75% had at least four – Meaning, if you did not have multiple comorbidities your chances of dying from covid were incredibly small.
Do Galloway and those like him deserve a clean slate? No, they don't, and here's why...
No Apologies
We hear many covid authoritarians talk about forgiveness but very few of them actually apologize for their behavior. Galloway calls for “grace”, perhaps trying to appeal to the Christian notion of “turning the other cheek.” He admits he was wrong on the mandates (because the data forces him to), but he doesn't actually apologize for his behavior. In fact, he excuses his behavior and the behavior of leftist politicians as them doing the best they could do given the imperfect information they had at the time. This is a common tactic of misdirection.
As noted above, within months of covid becoming active in the US, the data was already available showing that the virus was not a legitimate threat. So the claim that their information was "the best they had at the time" does not hold water. There was more than enough evidence to warrant opposition to unconstitutional policies (frankly, even if covid had been more deadly it doesn't justify violations of the Bill of Rights). Millions of Americans tried to explain the truth to those panicking over covid, and they chose not to listen, calling us “selfish conspiracy theorists.”
But the greatest trespasses were among those analysts and "influencers" who used covid as an opportunity for political gain, knowing that there was information that debunked government and media spin. The worst people are those that have no intention of making amends because they plan to try again. People who do wrong and refuse to give a legitimate apology are the kinds of people that are likely to commit similar offenses in the future.
Mad With Power
The covidians were primarily from the left side of the political spectrum and wherever leftists were most concentrated is where the most egregious violations of liberty took place. The political left went absolutely mad with power, with a large number of Democrats supporting Orwellian controls to punish people refusing to submit to the mandates.
There were calls to fine the unvaccinated, imprison people who question the vaccine, put the vaccinated on home lockdown and even take away their children. In some states, like New York, there was active legislation put forward to create detention facilities for people that did not comply (covid camps). That is some serious Stalinist behavior and we are still waiting for it to be addressed and for certain political leaders to be punished.
As the old saying goes: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power." We have now seen the character of the political left. We have seen the character of people like Galloway, and they have been found untrustworthy.
It Can And Will Happen Again
The covid event was really a litmus test for authoritarian tendencies in the US. At least half the public failed that test miserably. We may not see another pandemic agenda in our lifetimes, but that doesn't really matter. There will be many other opportunities in the future for ignorant people and sociopathic people to act out on their darker impulses. It is important to make a note of how the individuals around us behave when they think it's safe to be evil, and we must remember who they are. These are not people that should be given “grace” or trust down the road when the next crisis strikes; they have shown themselves to be unworthy of that.
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