By Kevin Barrett, VT Editor
“You gotta draw the line somewhere!” The expression usually suggests that going beyond a certain point would be unacceptable. If you never draw that line, never say “this far and no further,” you’ll just keep getting pushed farther and farther, revealing your total lack of integrity, even ontological substance.
Personally, I drew the line after 9/11. I wasn’t going to shut up and go along with that. So instead of teaching Islam and Humanities here I am writing for VT and other alternative outlets.
More mundanely, I recently had to deal with a contractor who kept putting off an important job I had paid for. I like the guy and hate to be rude to him. But his endless excuses, not to mention failures to call back, finally forced me to read him the riot act, which was what it took to prod him into action.
So yes, as even Harvey Weinstein might agree, you have to draw the line somewhere. But where? That’s the million dollar question.
Everybody accepts, as Scott Bennett does in today’s False Flag Weekly News, that any sufficiently terrible pandemic would justify emergency measures that restricted civil liberties. For example, imagine that Bill Gates is right and “Pandemic 2” turns out to be vastly worse than COVID. It might have an asymptomatic latency period of three months, during which it might be incredibly, massively contagious, say three times more so than COVID. And it might have a fatality rate of 10% or 50% or 99%. It might threaten to reduce life expectancy to near zero. In the face of such a pandemic, nobody would resist an order to wear N95 masks in indoor public spaces.
Some people think COVID is bad enough to justify extreme emergency measures. One of our viewers responded to today’s FFWN as follows:
Bennett is a tiresome libertarian. Can’t cry fire in crowded theater; quarantine is valid during epidemics.
My response:
Depends on how bad the epidemic is, and how reasonable the quarantine measures are. So let’s think rationally and quantitatively about risk to life.
The Founders might have agreed that anything that radically reduced their life expectancy (less than 40 years) by a subtantial amount, say 5 or 10 years, might necessitate suspending liberties. A hardcore libertarian would say that should still be our baseline: Anything that doesn’t reduce our life expectancy significantly below the Founders’ should not be the cause for suspending civil liberties.
Today our life expectancy is 78 years. With a super-healthy lifestyle (no booze, low calories, low carbs, mega exercise, mega fresh green veggies, lots of vitamin D, melatonin, etc.) you can raise it to about 88 years. The government could force everyone to do those things and gain 10 years HEALTHY average life expectancy.
COVID at the very worst will shave a year or two off life expectancy. The years it takes away are disproportionately old and sick years, not healthy years.
So it would make far more sense for the government to force people to live healthy lifestyles than to force people to mask, distance, contact-trace, vaccinate, etc.
But people are too stupid to think rationally about such things.
I am still waiting for her rebuttal. I am trying to imagine how she will argue that it is desirable for the government to create a huge wave of suicide and alienation by locking people down and destroying the economy, forcing people to wear horrific-looking diaper masks in public places, abolishing religious services thereby removing much of life’s meaning from millions of lives, forcing vaccinations, contact tracing, maybe injectable microchips, who knows, all to gain at most a couple of years of mostly-old-and-sick life expectancy; while that same government should NOT abolish sugar and other processed carbohydrates, limit people to 1200 calories per day, mandate minimum requirements of fresh green vegetables, require vitamin D injections during the six wintery months and minimum solar exposures during the other six, and force people to engage in at least 90 minutes per day of strenuous exercise—measures which would increase average life expectancy by at least 10 years according to anti-aging scientist Josh Mitteldorf.
And maybe they can explain why I’m wrong about where I would draw the line: NO DRACONIAN RESTRICTIONS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES UNLESS THE THREAT IS MUCH GREATER THAN THE THREAT POSED BY ORDINARY NON-OPTIMALLY-HEALTHY LIFESTYLES—IN OTHER WORDS, SOMETHING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE LOSS OF AT LEAST 15 YEARS OF HEALTHY LIFE EXPECTANCY.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror.
He is the host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO; a hard-driving weekly radio show funded by listener subscriptions at Substack and the weekly news roundup FALSE FLAG WEEKLY NEWS (FFWN).
He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications.
Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin; where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host.
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Ian, your line of argument doesn’t make sense. You claim that COVID-19 is a bio-weapon, which it possibly is. But then in dealing with this bio-weapon you suggest adopting the so-called remediation interventions promoted by the same people who allegedly created the bio-weapon, namely the wearing of masks, vaccinations etc.
You may be aware of the “problem-reaction-solution” strategy to entrench control by power hungry/agenda-driven entities and the suggested response by WHO, Bill Gates etc is precisely in line with this approach.
It is common sense that masks inhibit proper functioning of the respiratory system. You can even use an oximeter to measure how, for example, extended use of masks diminish oxygen saturation levels in the blood.
The reality is that vaccines offered by the Pharma industry (particularly Big Pharma) are dangerous and toxic in different forms. Watch the following debate between RK Jr and Alan Dershowitz on the vaccine issue. RK Jr provides convincing research to demonstrate the great health concerns associated with the vaccines in vogue today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfnJi7yLKgE
Finally, using insults, invectives and character assassination methods do not in anyway detract from the substance of truth!
COVID-19 damages the circulatory system and other organs. This insult will systematically reduce your life expectancy and that of others. Too bad a vaccine cannot undo the havoc wrought by this bioweapon. Stock up on healthy foods and take your vitamins.
“Why should anyone think a disloyal government is going to give benevolent advice and leadership after the attack?” This attack on the USA was not conducted by the “government” per se, but by what St. Paul called the “powers that be” (PTB), or what Jesus referred to as the “Synagogue of Satan.” They control the government, but just like the CIA is doing all manner of shit covertly, like running drugs and over-throwing governments, the PTB operate behind the scenes to achieve their goals for the planet.
One of them is population reduction. As Henry Kissinger said in 2016, “Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world…” The bioweapon COVID-19 is a tool that the PTB are using to achieve that objective. Trump certainly knows all about this. That’s why he was vaccinated last November. He certainly isn’t “going to give benevolent advice and leadership” when it comes to COVID-19. Don’t believe a word he says, Elvin.
Exactly Tommy, there is a decades-long ongoing plan to depopulate Africa so it’s natural resources can be strip mined. That is why Ebola and HIV were created and unleashed in Africa.
The anti-vaxx movement is an adjunct of the depopulation agenda, far more people will die from viruses like COVID if a proportion of the population refuses to be vaccinated. We have already seen large numbers of deaths and ruined lives from diseases such as Polio and Measles that were almost eradicated due to vaccination but have come back thanks to the anti-vaxx movement.
It was created at the University of North Carolina by a team of scientists from the US Army, MIT and the Uni of NC. Gordon has written extensively about this, do a search and you will find the key articles.
Wearing a mask is not an infringement on your liberty, it is simple common sense to limit the spread of the virus. Your statement about hypoxia is bullshit, people with breathing difficulties have the option of wearing a face shield instead of a mask, for the vast majority of people who don’t have breathing difficulties, masks present zero problems. There doesn’t need to be any regulation of what sort of masks people wear, anything that blocks your spittle and breath from getting on other people is sufficient, be that a bandana or a surgical mask or a plastic face shield.
The real problem we are facing in this pandemic is all the morons who have bought into the bullshit fed to them by disinfo agents. No-one would oppose being vaccinated if it weren’t for all the anti-vaxx bullshit that has been spread in the last 20 years.
You are correct, wearing a mask IS NOT an infringement on a persons liberty. However, being FORCED to wear a mask by govt. “authorities” IS…
Good comment, John. Here’s an article from October of last year by a very prescient F. William Engdahl that explains how the Fed is totally responsible for the present economic collapse in the USA…
“From 1927 to 1929 the Fed deliberately created then burst a stock bubble using interest rates. Republican President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff act in 1930 to defend American industry, resulting in a trade war that was blamed along with Hoover for the Great Depression that was brought on by an economy bloated with debt and easy money during the Roarin’ Twenties boom. Hoover was blamed and lost re-election to Democrat FDR with his New Deal. Behind all were the actions of the Federal Reserve, the real power. Soon it will be clear if 2020 will be a modern era repeat of the Hoover script, this time with a Democrat whose “New Deal” will likely be green.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/fed-make-trump-new-herbert-hoover/5691459
I don’t want to, but I see the need for it. I have seen, now that I watch, that we all expel saliva as we talk and breath. Have you not seen yourself do it….send drops out that could land on others? Mandating people that cannot maintain distance to be masked is probably necessary.
I treat my sinus and lungs to ethyl alcohol vapors and don’t rely on the masks. Masks are curtesy to others.
Kevin, all of what you write omits a very pertinent detail. COVID-19 is a bioweapon that was directed initially at China and Iran, and now at the USA. According to Gordon Duff, Trump has known about this since last November when “he and his inner circle were vaccinated only days after the virus was deployed against China.” Most likely, he is lying to us about COVID-19.
https://veteranstoday.com/2020/06/03/disclosure-the-pandemic-the-awful-secret-theyve-been-hiding-an-intel-drop
If this is indeed the case, then America’s response to COVID-19, how we have botched it compared to other countries like China and Canada, is part of the cynical plan to reset the nation’s economy, throw millions of people out of work and eventually make them homeless, food-insecure, and desperate enough to accept an authoritarian regime that promises a vaccine, food, a place to live, and most of all, hope. The Trumpsters are playing their part well by not wearing masks, not social distancing, even having COVID-19 parties to pass the virus around. They are insuring that, unlike China and Canada, we will never beat this thing.
When I go outside with my bald head, I put a hat on. When I go into a restaurant, I don’t smoke because other people would find that annoying and it’s against the law. When I wear a mask in public I’m saying that I want to suppress the spread of the virus so we can eventually open the schools and I can go back to being a teacher again. It’s just common sense, Kevin.
Well said Tommy. Common sense seems to be in short supply these days.
I have to agree with the mask to prevent self from sending spit out that could land on others where proximity is close.
I gave my sinus and lungs an ethyl alcohol vapor treatment, having went out and feel great this morning. I can’t imagine people being so unwilling to care for themselves…..sheep…. asto deny putting the highly efficient ethyl alcohol vapor (in manageable amount) into the sinus and lungs, is a low cost low risk treatment.
Wow Ian, all that because he has a reasonable distrust of government? He sure didn’t sound like the mask denying enemy that you went off on.
Good comment Tommy. My reply below was meant to be after Lizzy.
WHY SHOULD IT NOT MANDATE OPTIMALLY HEALTHY LIFESTYLES AND GAIN MORE THAN TEN YEARS OF HIGH QUALITY LIFE EXPECTANCY? Kevin, you forget that we had Prohibition in the 1920s and that was certainly a government mandate for healthy lifestyles, but that only created a black market for illegal booze and furthered the fortunes of the Kosher Nostra bootleggers. When it ended in the 1930s, people celebrated by going out and getting drunk.
COVID-19 is a bioweapon, Kevin. It’s designed to tear this country apart, bankrupt small businesses, put millions of people out of work, and further the nefarious plans of the PTB to create an authoritarian government in the USA, and to depopulate the Earth of useless eaters, like the elderly, the unemployable, and especially people of color who have been dying in record numbers. The fact that Trump knew this was coming all along just shows that he was lying to us, Kevin, as he does constantly. Don’t believe a word he says.
Well said Tommy. We have been attacked by a bioweapon and the only way we are going to overcome it is by vaccination. However, this will only work if everyone is vaccinated, personal choice shouldn’t be a factor at all, if morons want to be selfish and refuse the COVID vaccine then they will have to be forcibly vaccinated for the greater good of everyone. Why should the majority have to suffer because a dumbfuck minority have been fooled into believing nonsense about vaccines? My parents survived the first wave of the pandemic, they may well not survive a second wave, so the sooner we get a vaccine the better, and to hell with what any moron says about not being vaccinated, tie the bastards down and forcibly vaccinate them so innocent people like my parents are not endangered by these morons and their insane views on vaccination.
It’s a simple fact that not only is COVID-19 a bioweapon, but it was designed specifically to attack your folks, and old coots like me, along with the unemployable and people of color. It’s kinda like what the US did to the Plains Indians in the 19th Century, kill off the buffalo, their main source of food, and then give them small-pox infested blankets to finish the job.
That the USA has done such a piss-poor job of dealing with it is also part of the plan. If you can get the Trumpsters to run around without masks and refuse to social distance, we will never beat this thing. Just look at Canada, for crying out loud, they are doing those things and the infection rate goes down and down, unlike the USA. They also have a decent social safety net so folks are not afraid to go to the doctor if they’re sick for fear of bankrupting themselves.
Tommy, you are right that masking is “just common sense.” But common sense is sometimes wrong, and can be corrected by rigorous rational-empirical analysis (and intuition too, but we can leave that aside for now).
Neither you nor any other commenters have addressed my point: If the government should mandate draconian restrictions on civil liberties to save at the very most two (low quality) years of average life expectancy—and that two year estimate is probably grossly exaggerated—WHY SHOULD IT NOT MANDATE OPTIMALLY HEALTHY LIFESTYLES AND GAIN MORE THAN TEN YEARS OF HIGH QUALITY LIFE EXPECTANCY? Someone, please explain!
So Tommy, you compare the government mandating healthy lifestyles to alcohol prohibition. Your argument is not that there is any principled reason not to allow the government to mandate such things, but simply that it doesn’t work, because many people won’t accept it. Fair enough. But that is also true of mandatory vaccination.
Ian wants the government to use whatever degree of force is necessary to force-vaccinate everyone. But the same or greater degree of force – nuking non-compliant towns and neighborhoods, torturing recalcitrants, etc. – could be used to ban alcohol or enforce healthy lifestyles. Yes, there might be widespread violent resistance to any such grotesque violation of civil liberties, just as there will be to mandatory vaccinations if it comes to that (God forbid). But all such speculation avoids the real argument, the argument on principle. Why IN PRINCIPLE is it OK to violate civil liberties and force-vaccinate for relatively small gains, but it is not OK to similarly violate civil liberties for vastly larger gains (by mandating healthy lifestlyles)?
Thus far, you have conceded the argument by implying that IF people accept the loss of their civil liberties by obeying a tyrannical government then any tyrannical government health project that adds even one microsecond of life expectancy is fine with you. If that is not your argument, then where DO you draw the line? I already explained where I do.
And Ian, in your opinion, how many microseconds/months/years of what quality life expectancy have to be saved/added to justify a tyrannical government edict?
Unwarranted? Who, other than the medical profession is to say what is unwarranted during a serious pandemic? Are you a trained epidemiologist? Do you have any relevant medical qualifications? Anyone who rails against wearing a mask or vaccines is either a moron or disinfo stooge. If you can’t be bothered putting a mask on to protect other people, then you’re hopelessly selfish. Due to the efforts of paid disinfo stooges like Richie Allen, David Icke, Sacha Stone, Judy Mikovits, JFK Jr, Andrew Wakefield and many others, as many as 30% of the population in the US and UK say they will refuse the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Well, I hope and pray our governments do the right thing and forcibly vaccinate them because if they don’t, it undermines the tremendous efforts expended to counter this bioweapon attack and we will never beat it. EVERYONE, without exception, has to be vaccinated against this bioweapon or the whole thing is a waste of time and many more people will die. I nearly lost my parents to this pandemic, they were gravely ill and very lucky to survive, at one point, they gave my dad 24hrs to show some sign of recovery, if he didn’t it was off to hospital and only a tiny percentage of those over 70 hospitalised with COVID have survived. I myself was gravely ill too, for two days I was in sepsis but I had to look after my parents regardless. Why should my family be put at risk due to selfish morons who have been gullible enough to fall for a well-funded anti-vaxx campaign? My dad has recovered, but he’s clearly not the same as he was before, he has chronic fatigue, it’s aged him, and probably taken years off his life. If I ever bump into someone like David Icke who has expended great efforts in telling anyone dumb enough to listen that the virus doesn’t exist and it’s all a hoax, I will punch him in the face as hard as I can as a public service to all those who have died or had their lives ruined by COVID.
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