Tag: hypocrisy

The ACLU, Prior to COVID, Denounced Mandates and Coercive Measures to Fight Pandemics

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) surprised even many of its harshest critics this week when it strongly defended coercive programs and other mandates from the state in the name of fighting COVID. “Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties,” its Twitter account announced, adding that “vaccine requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure to the public.”

If you were surprised to see the ACLU heralding the civil liberties imperatives of “vaccine mandates” and “vaccine requirements” — whereby the government coerces adults to inject medicine into their own bodies that they do not want — the New York Times op-ed which the group promoted, written by two of its senior lawyers, was even more extreme. The article begins with this rhetorical question: “Do vaccine mandates violate civil liberties?” Noting that “some who have refused vaccination claim as much,” the ACLU lawyers say: “we disagree.” The op-ed then examines various civil liberties objections to mandates and state coercion — little things like, you know, bodily autonomy and freedom to choose — and the ACLU officials then invoke one authoritarian cliche after the next (“these rights are not absolute”) to sweep aside such civil liberties concerns:

[W]hen it comes to Covid-19, all considerations point in the same direction. . . . In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. . . . .

[Many claim that] vaccines are a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity. That may sound ominous, because we all have the fundamental right to bodily integrity and to make our own health care decisions. But these rights are not absolute. They do not include the right to inflict harm on others. . . . While vaccine mandates are not always permissible, they rarely run afoul of civil liberties when they involve highly infectious and devastating diseases like Covid-19. . . .

While limited exceptions are necessary, most people can be required to be vaccinated. . . . . Where a vaccine is not medically contraindicated, however, avoiding a deadly threat to the public health typically outweighs personal autonomy and individual freedom.

The op-ed sounds like it was written by an NSA official justifying the need for mass surveillance (yes, fine, your privacy is important but it is not absolute; your privacy rights are outweighed by public safety; we are spying on you for your own good). And the op-ed appropriately ends with this perfect Orwellian flourish: “We care deeply about civil liberties and civil rights for all — which is precisely why we support vaccine mandates.”

What makes the ACLU’s position so remarkable — besides the inherent shock of a civil liberties organization championing state mandates overriding individual choice — is that, very recently, the same group warned of the grave dangers of the very mindset it is now pushing. In 2008, the ACLU published a comprehensive report on pandemics which had one primary purpose: to denounce as dangerous and unnecessary attempts by the state to mandate, coerce, and control in the name of protecting the public from pandemics.

The title of the ACLU report, resurfaced by David Shane, reveals its primary point: “Pandemic Preparedness: The Need for a Public Health – Not a Law Enforcement/National Security – Approach.” To read this report is to feel that one is reading the anti-ACLU — or at least the actual ACLU prior to its Trump-era transformation. From start to finish, it reads as a warning of the perils of precisely the mindset which today’s ACLU is now advocating for COVID.

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Elizabeth Warren Parties Maskless With Deb Haaland And Real American Indians

Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared to join real American Indians Saturday when she partied maskless in defiance of New Mexico’s mask mandate at Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s wedding.

Photos obtained and published by the Washington Free Beacon show Warren with the first American Indian cabinet secretary at a tribal resort in a state where Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has reimposed indoor mask requirements regardless of vaccination status.

“The re-implemented mask requirement applies to all individuals aged 2 and older in all indoor public settings — except when eating or drinking,” Grisham’s office wrote in an Aug. 17 press release with the policy expiration date set for Sept. 15.

A spokesman for the Interior Department wrote in an emailed statement to The Federalist “guests were required to be vaccinated and wear masks,” to be “consistent with CDC guidance and New Mexico’s public health orders.”

But Saturday’s maskless celebrations, illustrated by photos from the Free Beacon, mark the latest episode of Democrats skirting restrictive COVID protocols imposed by their own statist politicians within liberal enclaves of the country.

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The Covid Debate Isn’t A Medical Issue, It’s A Social One

If you’ve been told in the last 15 months or so that you and your family are selfish, careless people for going about your business or normal lives without considering how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting everyone else, you’re not alone.

If you’ve been lectured ad nauseam by news outlets, social media platforms, elected officials, etc. on the importance of following guidelines meant to supposedly protect us, you’re also not alone. There’s just one problem – the Covid policy debate isn’t a medical issue, it’s a social one.

By now, most of us are pretty well aware of Covid’s effects on our lives. Even as variants develop and the so-called science of pandemic expert-turned state-approved celebrity Dr. Anthony Fauci fluctuates, to our mainstream culture, the pandemic is not over. For the average citizen and their family, this news is disheartening, but to the elite, it couldn’t be less of a problem.

Covid Has No Meaningful Effect Whatsoever on the Elite

Since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s been made clear to us tragically common people that for politicians, media figures, celebrities, and the other privileged few, the pandemic is merely an inconvenience more than anything else.

We’re lectured with wagging fingers that not getting vaccinated is the most entitled and self-absorbed action we could possibly conceive. Meanwhile… 

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot says that the city might be “forced” to reinstate some of the nation’s strictest policy measures to curb the spread of possible new variants. Just weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people descended on Chicago’s Grant Park for the annual Lollapalooza festival. The event, where the price of just a day’s admission is $130, had an estimated 350,000 attendees, yet no city officials expressed concern over the possibility of the event causing a surge in Chicago’s Covid cases (while simultaneously, South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was quickly labeled a superspreader event and its attendees lambasted). 

There’s no basis for moral posturing from elites when their lives haven’t essentially changed. 

In the aftermath of the festival, city officials seemed pleased as punch to declare that there was no evidence to suggest that the four-day gathering resulted in an increase in cases. Then, just three days later, it was reported that 200 positive Covid tests had been linked to the festival. While 200 out of an estimated 350,000 isn’t a superspreader, it’s also not nothing. 

If you’re asking yourself why these two events with nothing in common could be depicted so differently in the media, take a moment to think about it. Who’s more likely to blindly support progressive policies, swarms of young Millennials and Gen Zers (who can afford to pay thousands of dollars to attend a four-day festival), or a group of bikers who publicly display symbols of American pride?

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Another Famous “Socialist” Just Purchased a Million Dollar Home and His Defense Is Incredibly Weak

If you’ve never heard of Hasan Piker, he’s the nephew of The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur who’s made a name for himself as a political Twitch streamer. If you hop on to his channel while he’s on, he’ll either be reacting to YouTube videos or delivering such stunning political commentary such as how America deserved 9/11 or that the man who took Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s eye was a “brave f***king soldier.”

Piker is, like most young first-world leftists, a socialist. As original a concept as this is, what’s even more common about him is that Piker’s popularity has made him wealthy with no small help from the innovation made possible by the capitalist system. This led to Piker doing exactly what young wealthy socialists do; he purchased a very expensive home.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Piker purchased a home in West Hollywood worth $2.74 million in the Beverly Grove neighborhood. Like other champaign socialists, this multi-million dollar home fits right in with his for-the-people, eat-the-rich preaching.

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The shot that was NOT heard ‘round the World

More than seven months have passed since an unarmed protester named Ashli Babbitt was shot dead inside the US Capitol while attempting to climb through an opening in a glass door.

Seven months after her death, her killer – a police officer who apparently shot her without warning, and certainly without having made any effort to stop her short of putting a fatal bullet through her chest – has never been publicly identified, let alone charged or disciplined.

During those same seven months – during which every self-respecting liberal demanded a criminal penalty for the policeman who killed George Floyd – Ashli Babbitt, the victim of an equally questionable police killing, has been the target of an orgy of media character assassination.

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