Yes, folks, that’s a real headline from the Washington Post on Sunday. COVID Madness™ is a real thing, and many Americans are suffering badly. Many of them have quite simply gone nuts.
What if I wrote to the Post and said, “I don’t agree with my neighbor’s political position. Should I kidnap him?” I’m guessing the august journal would not only refuse to post my missive, but they’d quickly get ahold of someone at Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice and I’d be greeting armed FBI agents at my door in short order.
But in this case, the Post decided to print this gem, a question for advice columnist Damon Young:
Hi Damon: My best friend is an antivaxxer (not only covid, all the vaccines). His wife is, too. They have a 9-month-old baby and they haven’t vaccinated him. I babysit for them every other weekend. Should I take the baby to get his shots without telling them?
– Anonymous
There is so much wrong with this, it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, kidnapping is a serious felony. Law firm Eisner Gorin LLP explains: “While most cases are most often prosecuted under the laws of the 50 states, it can also be a federal crime in certain circumstances, carrying a potential life sentence or even the death penalty.” [Emphasis theirs.]
Second, even the most pro-vaccine fanatics must have at some point seen the “news” that babies and children are almost never at risk of COVID. Yet you would kidnap your neighbors’ infant to get it a treatment it absolutely does not need and could potentially cause harm? This is how far we’ve fallen, folks.
You’ve seen “Them” if you live in a city. Folks jogging in 100-degree heat—with their masks on. People driving around with their car windows closed and their faces covered—while they’re by themselves. Do you ever feel the urge to yell out, “who you gonna catch it from, buddy?!”
To his credit, the advice columnist, Damon Young, shot down the preposterous babynapping idea:
the column
“If someone took my kids, against my will, to get vaccinated? Let’s just say that I was advised, by my editors, for legal-ish reasons, not to say what I’d do.”
the first draft
“Let’s just say that my kids won’t be the only ones getting shot.”https://t.co/1TrqOTuG6v
— Damon Young (@DamonYoungVSB) September 23, 2022
He writes:
But despite the fact that I do agree with you on the necessity of vaccination, and that your friends are acting dangerously, you’ve burrowed so deeply in the rabbit hole of self-righteousness that you’ve come up on the wrong side.
Good for you, Damon. Although the legacy media has been frantically peddling vaccines since the moment they came out, it’s refreshing to see a rare moment of wisdom from one of their outlets.
Although this story might seem just a bizarre anomaly, it’s actually indicative of a larger problem: many people are simply unable or unwilling to give up crazy COVID precautions, and actively wish they could live again like it was 2020. Twitter is littered with terrified folks who still won’t leave their houses or live their lives because they’re terrified the virus is waiting around every corner.
Now, I don’t belittle those with serious health conditions who really are at serious risk of bad outcomes should they get COVID. But so many others just seem flat-out… narcissistic. The world is supposed to shut down again because you’re too mortified to live with risk? Every day we get in our cars, and every day we face the risk of an accident that could kill us. There is no life without risk.
There’s this thread, for instance, where the poster admits to basically giving up on life because those around her aren’t taking enough precautions:
I haven't been to a movie or museum since 2019. The first and last concerts I went to since COVID were in 2021, during the brief window of time where venues were demanding proof of vaccination and universal masking.
— anna phylaxis (@quatoria) September 25, 2022
Or this one, from the account @amandalhu: “Sometimes this pops up in my mind and it knocks the wind out of me: they made kids infect their families. They made kids infect their parents, and grandparents, and friends.”
How about this guy, who tries on many different war-grade masks in an attempt to get a date:
Unusual question for women only.
For my online dating profile (actually not ready, just interested in your opinion, and thought this would be fun), which elasto should I use?
Poll at end.
GVS pic.twitter.com/wkx1hjf5Jo
— Lazarus Long (@LazarusLong13) September 25, 2022
Is he trolling us? It’s hard to tell these days.
Many authorities like Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer and Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci simply can’t let go of the pandemic; they pop up on TV regularly to remind us that the world is about to end. They want to exert their authority and keep enacting overbearing mandates that did little to actually stop the spread of the disease. Meanwhile an untold number of people are terrified of their own shadows, and want to live their life in an imagined cocoon of safety.
If we are ever to get back to normal, we must recognize that many people are experiencing serious mental problems as COVID moves to the endemic phase, and they simply want to live in the past. COVID isn’t gone from our lives, but we must learn to live with it, and not move forward in a constant state of hysteria.
