There were some good reasons we were scared, indeed, petrified, of the Chinese Virus. But we panicked mostly because we were set up to do so.

First, there had been weeks of reporting describing the crazed goings-on in Wuhan. Wuhan suddenly materialized on the viewscreens of our lives: a large city that no one had ever heard of. The actions of the  communist government made it appear that an apocalypse had begun. Bridges cordoned off, roads blocked, streets emptied. Culminating in those poor souls being boarded up by the authorities in their apartment and left to die.

Then, for what at the time were reasons unknown, the virus attacked a region in Europe. No one, it seemed, could fathom why, why there, which was scary in itself. But later we learned that the Chinese had allowed flights from Wuhan to Northern Italy, where, it turns out, around a hundred thousand Chinese from Wuhan labor in Chinese-owned factories.

The Italian hospitals filled up. Italy seemed overwhelmed. People were being turned away and left to die. The Italian government completely shut down the entire country, something which never had been done before, ever. 

We can be forgiven for thinking all of this would happen here, in America.

(We were wrong. In fact, two otherwise very similar regions in Italy had very different outcomes because of differing responses. Part of the problem was the limited numbers of ICU beds available in Italy’s socialized medical facilities. This problem never occurred in the U.S.: everyone who needed a ventilator got one, everyone who needed an ICU bed received one.)

We could have resisted the urge to panic. Already in early March it was clear the situation in Northern Italy was anomalous: the average age of those killed by the virus was 80, and Taiwan and South Korea had both contained its spread.

But when the thrice-damned British Imperial College scientist Neil Ferguson came out with his nightmarish predictions of an overwhelming pandemic, we went full Chicken Little. (Ferguson has retracted his fake predictions: here and here). We could have believed other scientists, such as those of Oxford University. Or even in our own common sense.

We didn’t do so.

We didn’t do so because we’d been programmed to panic. Primed and made ready to believe anything and everything. To believe the fantastical. To embrace it.

Heck, even Sean Ono Lennon thinks we’re being programmed.

Of course, we are talking about a kind of collective “us” here, a collective narrative, a public consensus. The kind that used to obtain, back when, when the media was not an instrument of the radical Left.

At the present time, this “we” still encompasses many; it includes the radicals, the radicalized, and a large mass still under the influence of the mad media. In regard to the Chinese virus, the collective “we” included many others as well who for a time bought into the narrative. In other words, us.

The programmers have been busy making us, or enough of us, believe not that truth is optional, but that there is no truth, in the manner Pilate iterated. There is only the convenience of the moment.

Who can doubt that we are being taught the truth no longer exists?

Examples are legion. Let’s take one. A president denounces white supremacy dozens of times. But the “truth” – the fake truth de jour – is that he has not.

How convenient!

Another beauty: many American cities were recently devastated by riots. But the “truth” is that the rioters were “mostly peaceful.”

How convenient!

It’s not that the collective “we” are dumb. “We” have been made to be dumb. And they are trying to make us ever more dumb.

They require that we believe their fake “truth.” If we don’t, we are deplorables. At best. Some now call for our physical destruction.

In other countries, similar things have occurred. Perhaps even worse. They are actively jailing people who express incorrect feelings.

But that is not the main reason many of us succumb. There is a limit to the number of times one, or at least many, of us can say “no.” The tidal wave of propaganda does eventually affect many, and to no surprise. If anyone can be broken in a torture chamber, many can be broken by a giant bullhorn/echo chamber if the exposure lasts long enough.

And it is not the fault of many who succumb. Many of us have good friends who just have been swept away. 

The other part of it is that it’s all phrased in a doublespeak do-gooder manner. It’s always pro-something. Like “pro-choice.” Or free-something. Like free health care.

So if you go along, you are helping the agenda, and you feel good about it.

And anyone that doesn’t is a bad person.

One can see how this readily lends itself to collectivism. Since we are all agreed, we are all on the march. Anyone not on the march is an enemy.

So when we were told to be scared we were primed and ready.

The story would not be complete without considering the enormity of what was proposed and the novelty to most people of the subject matter.

Rarely has someone been forced to act out someone else’s fears. But this is what happened. We were all constrained to act as if the sky were falling. No dissenting views allowed.

When you act something out, it gains a life of its own. When you see others do it, it gets scarier and more real. Let’s not forget, being scared is fun for some people. Roller coaster rides. Horror movies.

And this acting out was and remains collective, which tickles all the fancy of every Karen, and Karens are legion. Many are governors.

Organizing this kind of thing, we tend to forget, is a lot of fun for people.  Some people, at least. The Karen governors, for one. A do-gooding power trip.

Constitutional rights? Hah! This is for your own good. Ingrate!

The difficulty in counter-argument is that we are indeed dealing with a virus. It has killed some people, as do many viruses, including the flu. It is true that the further away people are from one another, the lesser the chance that one will infect the other. It is true that many things are possible regarding viruses, such as that an asymptomatic carrier might conceivably infect someone (although it is extremely unlikely and is not the driver of outbreaks).

It’s safer, the Quarantine Karens say, to wear a mask, to “socially” distance. Then they say it’s imperative.

Safer, in a way, but only in an exaggerated and half-blind manner, and most certainly not imperative. The rationality is never questioned (“my science beats your science”). And most especially, the negative aspects, including the negative effects on one’s health, are ignored. They don’t exist for Quarantine Karens.

Look, either we pull out of this or we will be sucked in to it like into a black hole. (Half of Great Britain is being locked down again; Germany is doing much the same; all this with a decreasing death rate.)

We’ve got to pull out now, because they’ve got something ready and it’s coming down the pike. (They had to come up with something new because the vaccine is nearly ready and even without the vaccine we have fabulous treatments (like the one that restored the stricken president in a few days).

They’re saying the lockdowns and restrictions are here forever – not because of the Chinese virus – but because of … wait for this … the flu.

During a speech at the U.S. Army’s annual conference, Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said that measures implemented across the country will remain in place …  [h]e also suggested that the restrictions should remain in place for the general public.

“I would say we don’t back off of the COVID-19 standards because it will also reduce the impact of flu and other illnesses,” he added.

The panic must stop.

Tadas Klimas is a former FBI agent, awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement (NIMA). He is also a former law professor and former Chief Legal Counsel to the Speaker of the Lithuanian parliament Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of images from