Category: Vid O’ The Day

Take a minute to get through the accent. I wouldn’t say ‘education’ per se is the problem. An indoctrination of a partisan agenda feeding the normal fallen human condition is.

What if democracy is merely the politic or superstructure of a particular cultural stage? Simple mass literacy in that case, continuing advances in teaching and learning in secondary and post-secondary levels will necessarily upset democracy in the places where it first appeared. Secondary education and especially higher education will introduce the notion of inequality into the mental and ideological organization of developed societies. After a brief period of hesitation and scruples the more highly educated end up believing they are truly superior.

In developed countries, a new class is emerging that comprises roughly 20% of the population in terms of sheer numbers, but controls about half of each nation’s wealth. This new class has more and more trouble putting up with the constraints of universal suffrage. It is a surprising return to the world of Aristotle, in which oligarchy may replace democracy at the very moment when democracy is beginning to take hold in Eurasia, it is weakening in those places where it was born.

These are indeed curious democracies, in which the political system pits elitism against populism and vice-versa. And although universal suffrage persists in theory, the elites of right and left close ranks to block any reorientation of economic policies that would lead to greater equality.

The common understanding among the elite, reflection of a common superior language among them prevents any correcting of the political system facade when universal suffrage would suggest the possibility of crisis.

Emmanuel Todd, After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order, (2001)

BLUF:

The United States makes up less than 5% of the global population, yet we Americans hold nearly 50% of civilian guns worldwide.
With all these guns, you’d expect America to be at the top of the charts in gun violence and deaths, right?

When you dive into the statistics, past the fear and the headlines, you find that the U.S. doesn’t even crack the top 10 globally for gun violence or deaths per capita.
“The U.S. has the 32nd-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 3.96 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019.”

Most gun violence in our nation isn’t scattered randomly across the vast landscapes of America.
No, it’s concentrated in just 2% of our counties.Over half of all our murders happen in these small pockets.

This isn’t just about advocating for the right to bear arms. It’s about advocating for the right to live in a society that tackles the root causes of its problems

’15 Days To Slow the Spread’: On the Fourth Anniversary, a Reminder to Never Give Politicians That Power Again

In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our lives—without making us safer.

Four years ago, government officials told us, “Stay home!” We have “15 days to slow the spread.”

Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at our freedoms.

I have long been wary of politicians, but even I was surprised at how authoritarian many were eager to be.

Some demanded police to go after people surfing. They took down the rims of basketball hoops. Children’s playgrounds were taped up like crime scenes. They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes.

In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our lives, without making us safer.

They complied with teachers unions’ demand to keep schools closed. Kids’ learning has been set back by years.

Politicians destroyed jobs by closing businesses. Some shutdown orders were ridiculous. Landscaping businesses and private campgrounds were forced to shut down.

Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden sharply increased government spending. Trump’s $2.2 trillion “stimulus” package, followed by Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” led to so much money printing that inflation doubled and then tripled.

This week, the fourth-year anniversary of “15 days to stop the spread,” my new video looks back at politicians’ incompetence.

First, government probably killed people with its endless red tape.

At least the Trump administration broke Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules to speed vaccine approvals. But FDA rules kept perfectly good American COVID-19 test kits off the market because they hadn’t gone through its multiyear approval process.

Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer banned “public and private gatherings of any size.” Residents were told they could not see friends or relatives.

Many of her rules seemed random. She banned motorboats and jet skis, but allowed kayaks and canoes. She closed small businesses, but exempted big-box stores if they blocked off aisles offering plant nurseries and paint. Why?

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “six-foot rule” under Trump was arbitrary, says former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb. COVID travels in aerosols that flow much farther than six feet.

When some Americans became fed up and protested, they were vilified for “threatening the public.” Some were fined. A few were arrested.

It’s clear now that restrictive rules were not the best way to protect people.

Sweden took a near opposite approach. They mostly left people alone.

Swedish officials encouraged the elderly and other at-risk people to stay home.

But beyond that, they let life carry on as normal. Sweden didn’t impose lockdowns, school closures, or mask mandates.

They followed standard pre-COVID wisdom that the best protection is what epidemiologists call “herd” or “collective” immunity. Once a critical mass of people are infected and recover, collective immunity will reduce the total number of infections.

Arrogant American politicians and media “experts” sneered at Sweden’s approach.

NBC “reported” on what it called, “Sweden’s failed experiment. How their dangerous Covid gamble went wrong.”

CBS confidently stated, “Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID.”

Time magazine headlined: “Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster.”

But the media’s experts were just wrong. Swedish health officials were right.

Yes, at the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden suffered high numbers of COVID deaths, but as predicted, over time, herd immunity protected people. Sweden’s excess death rate was the lowest in Europe.

Sweden’s economy got through the pandemic much healthier than other countries. Because Swedish schools never closed, Swedish students didn’t suffer the learning losses that American kids did.

Four years later, have media blowhards who were wrong apologized? Corrected their stories? No.

Have American politicians apologized and begged forgiveness for their arrogance, for destroying jobs, restricting our freedom, and needlessly pushing us around? No.

Let’s not give politicians power like that again.

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