A Requiem on Facts - 2020 in Review Pt. 1

"Nothing is easy when nothing is true..."

If you’ve ever heard me share my “origin story” you know that it’s a pretty common story for many. I was watching a 2007 presidential debate and this guy I had never heard of before, in the middle of the “War on Terror,” states plainly that the reason the terrorists hate America is because “our” government is over there and has been bombing them for decades. And this was in the middle of the “War on Terror.” Every candidate on the stage took umbrage with that and “Mayor 9/11,”Rudy Giuliani. went so far as to demand this heretic take it back. The man who was brave enough to make that statement, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, said that even the CIA agreed and used the term “blowback” to describe the phenomena. That FACT was ignored but Congressman Paul stuck to his guns. That wasn’t the first time I noticed politicians, rulers, and/or experts making up their own “facts” but having these “leaders” blatantly ignore the truth on a national stage was such a pivotal moment in my life that it stuck with me. Now I see this ignorance several times a day. It is the default.

In March of this year, 2020, it was clear to me that the overwhelming majority of the American public’s response to the government mandates in relation to Covid 19 was, “tyranny accepted.” After March 15th most of the world was on “house arrest.” Prior to this, in December 2019 and January 2020, I had done episodes with Mises.org editor Ryan McMaken in which we highlighted the decentralized canton system of Switzerland as the model of liberty for the future. I put out an announcement on Twitter that if anyone following me lived in Switzerland I wanted to talk to them about that structure and what daily life was like. On March 19th I spoke to a listener who lives in Zurich and he informed me that the COUNTRY was on a hard lockdown from March 17th through April 17th. So much for my “utopia” of decentralization within a country.

On March 27th, a few days before I heard the term used in public, I referred to CV19 as the “Invisible Enemy” on an episode of my podcast with Vin Armani. At that point I started comparing the government’s response to that of 9/11 and stated that CV19 would be more damaging to individual liberty, and the culture in general. Almost ten months later most people agree.

Sticking with comments made on that March 27th episode, Vin and I talked about how the corporate media was filled with “reports” of asymptomatic “super-spreaders” and that they were the biggest threat to the public. I read that message as “your neighbor may show no signs of being sick BUT it’s better to be SAFE.” “Safety” would become the word “de l'année.” Those of us who asked for evidence of these “typhoid Marys” were met with accusations of “science denial,” a term easily co-opted from the “climate change” cult.

At this point, information that would turn out to be complete bunk was becoming so “viral” so fast, it was obvious that even local and state politicians found themselves “reacting.” I mentioned in the article I wrote, “I Made A Lot of Mistakes This Year,” that most of these mistakes were committed while reacting to information. All of this misinformation released to the public at once gave birth to the “Karen Meme.” People became snitches. Factions were created. People’s attitude towards the government’s mandates in relation to the virus seemed to be drawn down party lives. The Karen Meme soon burned out as it became the norm and not the outlier. Memes BECAME reality. It was at this time I started to notice apathy and defeat in people’s language and actions. It happened very quickly. The language that was being used was bleak.

We’ll start looking at some of that language in Part 2.