‘People need to change
… permanently’

First-time visitors to Southern California are often struck by the similarities with Australia — the brown-grassed hills of summer, big blue skies, the suburban landscapes of stand-alone homes and, of course, the invasive eucalypts, which are everywhere and, just like here, prime fuel for the wildfires that rake the Golden State with ever more frequent infernos.

Now there are two more parallels to add to the list: a COVID-19 death toll far, far lower than initial official predictions and the ongoing, unquestioning fealty of the political class to the doomsaying  public health authorities who made them.

In the clip above, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson nails a third similarity: the suppression of even the most reasonable dissent from the approved narrative. It is, he notes, as if the US with the active assistance of Big Tech has been infected not only with the Wuhan virus but also the authoritarian intolerance of the Bejing regime which exported that plague to the world.

On this side of the Pacific, with parliaments suspended and unchallenged bureaucrats decreeing public policy on the run, there is no shortage of indications the same mindset applies. Take this, for example, from Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy:

“Even if we release restrictions in the future, people need to change the way they interact permanently.”

The Wuhan virus is bad. The presumptions of those who would remake society to their will and preference are terrifying.

— roger franklin