The year 2020 will long be remembered for many reasons. Whether it remains in the mind as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the year of questionable election results, or the year of Black Lives Matter and riots in the streets, there is, as they say, something for everyone. But perhaps the greatest legacy of this infamous year will be the shift towards tyranny and the destruction of freedoms.
Will we look back on 2020 as the year that it all started to go wrong for those who respect the idea that we have inalienable freedoms that should not be subject to government whim and control? This is not purely a U.S.-centric issue; across the world, rights are being trampled in the name of “good governance.” From the U.K. and Europe to the Americas, there appears a concerted globalist effort to get free people used to the idea that their lives can and will be subject to state intervention. And it’s only going to get worse.
Rules For Thee But Not For Me
Gavin Newsom
This Thanksgiving, we were told that families and friends could not gather together to celebrate the most American of holidays. Yet the same politicians who slam the public for “breaking COVID rules” continue their lives, flaunting the very regulations they have set upon the people.
Governor Gavin Newsom, dining at a $600 -a-plate restaurant with members of the California Medical Association, all maskless, offers scant apology for his own rule-breaking. Nancy Pelosi, maskless in a hair salon, belittles those in the public eye who do not wear a mask even when outdoors. You see, these rules and restrictions of freedom are not for them; they are for you and your family – the small people who have no recourse against the mounting hypocrisy.
And the restrictions don’t end there. The ability to put food on the table is under attack. Businesses involved in voluntary transactions with individuals are forced to close or face hefty fines and even imprisonment. You are expected to pay your mortgage, bills, and feed your family on a subsistence check from the government, that said government refuses to pass without stuffing billions of dollars of pork for their favorite Marxist-inspired causes.
The Freedom Pass
And what of the U.K.? The country has been in various states of lockdown for almost a year, with bars and restaurants shutting doors forever, millions of souls struggling to make a pittance as the Boris Johnson government deems their companies “unsafe.” And a fresh tyranny brewing on the stove.
Latest reports suggest that PM Johnson is toying with the idea of a “freedom pass,” and as with most government-concocted schemes, its very name is misleading. The freedom pass would enable people to go to bars, return to work, and walk around without a mask – but what is the cost? The bearer of the pass must submit to twice-weekly testing.
Let’s recall for a moment that the tests currently being used are incredibly poor at actually detecting COVID-19. The Lancet suggests that false-positives could be as high as 33%. It is all too reminiscent of East Germany and requests for supposedly free citizens to produce their papers. But there is a more precise historical precursor: South Africa’s DomPass.
This was an internal passport that was used to restrict black people from even entering an area reserved for whites. If the offender could not produce their papers, they were immediately taken into custody and removed to a more rural location. It was the very definition of discrimination, and sadly it looks set to make a 2020 return with Johnson’s Freedom Pass.
But where are the warriors who would usually be on hand to expose, to question, and to fight for freedoms? Where are the journalists who, in past times, would have pulled at every thread to unravel the web of disinformation behind these restrictions? Sadly, it appears they have sided against the people and joined forces with the controllers in espousing contradiction after contradiction without batting an eyelash. As ever, history has valuable lessons to teach.
Russian Roulette For Journalists
The Russian writer, playwright, and journalist Isaac Babel once said of his life under the Stalinists: “Today a man only talks freely to his wife – at night, with the blankets pulled over his head.” Babel was initially a grandee, lauded everywhere in Russia, and given special status. But it was not to last.
Despite having family in France and being permitted to travel there regularly, Babel appeared not to consider the heavy-handed state to be a threat to him personally. In some ways, we can see that he trusted in the government that the favorable situation would continue indefinitely because of his exalted status. This is something our journalists who practice political mendacity would do well to consider today. Just because you are exalted right now doesn’t mean a fickle and pernicious government has an obligation to treat you thusly in the future.
In 1939, Babel was arrested and taken away. He was tortured and beaten into confessing his “crimes” and naming his close friends as conspirators with him. After eight months behind bars, he was executed. His last recorded words were:
“I am innocent. I have never been a spy. I never allowed any action against the Soviet Union. I accused myself falsely. I was forced to make false accusations against myself and others… I am asking for only one thing – let me finish my work.”
When modern journalists play political games, they do themselves and us a major disservice. Who will be there to speak for them and to demand their freedom if no one knows the truth of a situation? By covering up, obfuscating, and denying in the name of political preference, they risk a lot more than just their jobs.
It seems we have not come so far from the days of yellow journalism, but let’s hope we are still a long way off the tyranny that was so prevalent and pernicious in 20th century Russia. But with 2020, who knows?
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Read more from Mark Angelides.
