Let us take a look at the situation from a slightly different perspective: Totalitarian measures implemented in presumably liberal countries due to a viral outbreak. But this didn't come out of nowhere. Brexit in the UK and Trump in the USA became highly polarizing political positions in the years prior to all of this. The populism, real or imagined, of these political movements was openly resisted by the news media, and yet these things still happened. Likely we can attribute that to the decline of corporate media influence in an age of social media growth, the democratization of information distribution.
Frankly, in over five decades of listening to the so-called news, I've never witnessed such an intensive wave of propaganda starting with the shrill wall of Trump hate (I never liked him until they so openly hated him, but now I wish he'd go away) through all the phases of the covid affair. I am neither attempting to create a tangent arguing for or against any political side here. I'm just exploring the growth of irrationality per the theme of the topic. I have spent some years of my life with minimal access to television, and I have to say that it's always a shock to come back in contact with it. Years ago I listened to NPR a lot, but I never liked or listened to conservative radio. I quit YouTube for Rumble, but I have no desire to watch conservative news and political podcasts.
So, let's rewind history and imagine what might have happened if "two weeks to slow the spread" had been actually followed. I've got to tell you I was lucky to be living in the southeastern United States. Despite our "local news" being thinly veiled mouthpieces for national corporate media outlets, this part of the country got back to work pretty quickly, and it seemed like business was booming in some ways. So, if everything had opened up again everywhere, would so many people have been forced to watch "the news" and their wall to wall propaganda wave about people dying? Nobody died of (or with) covid in our neighborhood. People were not falling down in the street like the videos that the news media played again and again.
I'm placing the blame squarely on the corporate news media for lack of transparency disclosing how and why they structure their "news" stories to intentionally push emotional buttons using well-known psychological techniques. I'm placing the blame squarely on the corporate news media for being complicit in the wave of totalitarian measures used to erode human rights around the world by unreservedly advocating government mandates. Irrationality is endemic in our politics and media. Don't blame the social media influencer (as easy as that is to do right now) or the billionaire with personality quirks or the scientists pushed to the fringe for questioning the approved narratives...
"History Will Teach Us Nothing"
by Sting
If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past
Security in human systems, we're told, will always, always last
Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast
Without a breath of real freedom, we're getting nowhere fast
If God is dead and an actor plays his part
His words of fear will find their way to a place in your heart
Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse
Without freedom from the past, things can only get worse
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Our written history is a catalogue of crime
The sordid and the powerful, the architects of time
The mother of invention, the oppression of the mild
The constant fear of scarcity, aggression as its child
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later (sooner or later)
Sooner or later
Convince an enemy, convince him that he's wrong
To win a bloodless battle, where victory is long
A simple act of faith, in reason over might
To blow up his children, will only prove him right
History will teach us nothing
Sooner or later, just like the world first day
Sooner or later, we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later, just like the world first day
Sooner or later, we learn to throw the past away
Sooner or later, we learn to throw the past away
History will teach us nothing
History will teach us nothing
Know your human rights, be what you come here for
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)
Know your human rights, be what you come here for (sooner or later)