Oh, and that link to a form for turning in people?
It went ‘unavailable‘ PDQ, by the actions of so many patriots who crashed it.
So, “The Spirit of ’76” is still alive in the universe.

Coronavirus is proving some in the US like Soviet-style governance

Pointing out the ridiculous tweet of a Texas judge, my colleague Becket Adams made a rather apt assessment on Sunday.

We have entered a time when a Texas official is happy to call on her fellow citizens to indict those who may be doing nothing wrong. Quite extraordinary. What we’re seeing here is an admittedly less serious but still similar version of Soviet and Nazi-style snitch fetishism.

Yes, those found in breach of the judge’s authority are unlikely to be sent to a gulag or a concentration camp. Still, the socially corrosive rot of this approach is clear. And in a historically enduring sense, it is perhaps best encapsulated by the story of Pavlik Morozov.

Morozov was used by Joseph Stalin’s regime as a banner boy for informing on members of one’s own family, not informing on criminal activity per se but on a failure to kneel to the Soviet regime. Much of Morozov’s story was made-up by the regime, but he was nonetheless used to triumph the coercive power of the state over the power of the family and community. As with this idiotic tweet from a Texas judge claiming to save lives, the Soviets used Morozov as an example of why it was necessary to snitch in order to save the nation. The Nazis did much the same.

The absurdity of the judge’s tweet goes beyond that.

After all, many U.S. citizens don’t actually know which businesses are allowed to be open and in what form. Essential businesses, yes. But what are essential? It’s changing each week. And how many of us know what the “full capacity” of a restaurant is? And even if we do, do we really believe the stakes here demand that our first recourse is to snitch on our fellow citizens?

Well, we might take that attitude. But apparently, quite a few of our fellow citizens do.

Consider the authoritarian triumvirate that has formed even in tiny and very healthy Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Those three officials are threatening prison for citizens who don’t wear masks. Sadly, it’s not just the not-so-sporadic penchant of government officials to be corrupted by their newfound power.

Take the New York Times, for example, which pretended to be nuanced in its editorial on Friday on just this civil liberties issue. But brewing below the surface of the Times‘s argument was its clear deference to those who have assumed the most authoritarian of policies. Then came the salute, in language and intent, to Big Brother. “The coronavirus provides Americans,” the paper of record declared, “with an opportunity to reimagine the scope and nature of our civil liberties and our social contract.”

And the Left laments that so many in the United States are still buying guns?

This isn’t to say there are no public health concerns with coronavirus crowding but nor is it to say that snitching is our only option. I would suggest the far-better crowding concern response is to ask the business owner if they think they might be at capacity and leave it there. The coronavirus is going to be with us in some form, at least until early next year. Snitching on our fellow citizens on the advice of government officials is not a good idea. Indeed, I would suggest it is a distinctly un-American one. And ultimately more dangerous than the virus itself.

This Harris County Judge, the New York Times, the Steamboat Springs triumvirate, and their allies need to do a little refresher reading on the American democratic tradition.