March 13, 2020: My Last Day in the Office

Revisiting My Social Media Posts From 4 Years Ago, As the COVID Narrative Was Becoming a Full-Blown Hoax

Mar 13, 2024

As a Christian and an anarchist, I saw right away that things weren’t going well.

I’m not claiming I knew all the extreme lapses of IQ and ethics that would befall the predominant COVID-19 political narrative for four years. But I could tell immediately that it was harmful, as I left work with my company-issued laptop on Friday, March 13, 2020.

drawing of thousands of people in a mob, all facing one solitary person who says to the mob, "Yes, you are all wrong." — Yes, I was *that guy*. Still am.

I’d never return to that office. Which is too bad, because I liked getting out of the house five days a week and actually going someplace to be productive. There was a welcome rhythm and a physicality to the routine.

And the change wasn’t because of an extraordinarily deadly “novel” disease — the respiratory ailment was/is rather middling, as such things go — but because of a panicky reaction to it by a shallow president and a cabal of petty tyrants at the federal, state and local levels.

#StopTheGreatSuppression

I read about the authoritarian tactics favored by most governments around the world in early 2020. By February, I was already sharing articles on Facebook along with my own thoughts on the corona-fascism.

Some of the best early analysis came from those fluent in Austrian economics, as they had been debunking econometrics modeling for decades. They saw the same flaws in disease-data modeling, and also remained steadfast in their principles about decentralized, peaceful actions (especially with so many unknowns to consider):

My Facebook post from Feb. 27, 2020, linking to the Mises Institute article, 'Does the Coronavirus Make the Case for World Government?' I excerpted a portion of the article, "These are the sorts of things that authoritarian politicians want all the time. Crises simply provide an opportunity to ratchet up their power and also to accustom the public to being ordered around and taking cues from centralized government sources. . . . [But], pandemics call for decentralization of treatment. . . . Liberty is better, not perfect. And governments, including the Chinese government, are clueless as always." I then added my own thoughts as follows: The real pandemic is the "never let a good crisis go to waste" mentality of authoritarians and their cheerleaders. And that attitude will be a problem long after the Coronavirus outbreak is contained. — This article is still available at Mises.org.

In early March, I was among those posting warnings about consistently incompetent and overspent governments pretending to be saviors:

My Facebook post from Mar. 4, 2020, linking to the Mises Institute article, 'Governments Are Using the Coronavirus to Distract from Their Own Failures.' I excerpted a portion of the article, "I trust the scientific community and global collaboration networks, but don’t forget this: the coronavirus card will be used as an excuse to cut growth and employment estimates, blame an outside enemy, and present the government as the solution by throwing billions into more debt-fueled spending." I then added my own thoughts as follows: The coronavirus outbreak and response have a lot of moving parts. But that quote from the conclusion of this article is as close to a constant as you'll find. — This article is still available at Mises.org.

And I discouraged the hysteria driven by governments and government-friendly media:

My Facebook post from Mar. 7, 2020, linking to a Los Angeles CBS Local article, 'Businesses Destroyed, Lives Upended -- Not By Virus, But By Panic.' I excerpted a portion of the article, "It shouldn't be the lead story every day . . . It’s a moderate flu season. If you put corona and the flu together, it’s still a moderate flu season." I then added my own thoughts as follows: Be more careful and more attentive during flu season (with or without news of COVID-19), but don't be more panicky. — This article unfortunately is no longer available at its March 2020 link.

But by the second week of March, corona-fascism had ramped up, and with it, the anxiety of many people. My employer did a “work from home” test run early in the week. Pleased with the results — and likely clued in to the pending government tactics through corporate connections — they told us to take home our laptops and any other accessories we needed on or before the close of business on Friday, March 13.

We’d be out of the office “indefinitely.”

The Great Suppression — as economist Gene Epstein is credited with calling it, so cited by Jeffrey Tucker and Chris Hattingh, among others — was in full swing.

As the nonsense dragged into April, I would begin using #StopTheGreatSuppression on COVID-19-related posts on social media.

I added #SteepenTheCurve (my retort to the misguided “flatten the curve” sloganeering) and #COVIDHoax (since it was clear a deception was taking place, perpetrated by officials who should’ve known better).

Eventually, I urged everyone #DoNotComply, and made tactic-specific tags #TinFoilMask (a play on the tinfoil hats that people supposedly wear when they believe absurdities) and both #FactsBeforeVax and #InformedConsent (when the ridiculous gene-therapy injections entered the news cycles).

Fanatical religion

But before I crossed the bridge several weeks later into loudly using hashtags, there was still the middle of March to deal with. And the glaring signs of low-IQ, low-ethics, shallow-but-intense religious behavior permeated the corona-fascism.

The day after my last office shift, I was sharing anti-government articles (as I often do) but now with an eye toward the terrible, enthusiastic complying with it:

My Facebook post from Mar. 14, 2020, linking to a Foundation for Economics Education article, 'You May Think You Like Socialism, But You’re Probably Not a Socialist at Heart' I excerpted a portion of the article, "Instead of letting markets determine what people want, the socialists wish to impose their views on what choices you should have. If you don’t want to live in a boring, monotonous world of limited choices or one in which your government makes your choices for you, then you shouldn’t like socialism." I then added my own thoughts as follows: Here's the thing, though: There are many submissive people out there who *want* to submit to the dominance of the authoritarian strongman/woman, and who like getting told what to do and when to do it. Following orders makes them feel comfortable. Being part of a controlled collective makes them feel not only secure, but validated! I think the writer underestimates how psychologically weak many people are, either as their norm, or at least often enough to be bullied into practical submission eventually. Also, the writer is too statist for me. But it's an interesting point to explore. — This article is still available at FEE.org.

A few remote workdays later, I openly cheered for the people who were going out in public, especially since I was one of them:

My Facebook post from Mar. 19, 2020, linking to a Reuters article, 'Meet the Americans still going out and gathering in large groups.' I then added my own thoughts as follows: Good for these people for going about their business! I'm regularly saddened by how many people are desperate to follow orders, especially when those orders are arbitrary and nonsense. Simply follow basic courtesy -- wash your hands, don't cough or sneeze on people or property (the inside of your elbow is the best place to quell a cough or sneeze), and pay attention to your surroundings -- and I have no problem with you going about your lives and livelihoods in groups. Of course, the tone of this article is that there's something nefarious about not listening to the government's often conflicting and arbitrary nonsense. But that's expected, because most of Big Media folks seem to be desperate order-followers. — This article unfortunately is no longer available at its March 2020 link.

And after my first full week of corona-fascism, I was not shy about drawing some comparisons to some of the worst societally supported atrocities in history; this would become even more poignant as the #COVIDHoax wore on:

My Facebook post from Mar. 21, 2020, first sharing my thoughts as follows: All of you desperate order-followers -- who actually believe, despite evidence to the contrary, that government suppression of people's lives and livelihoods is a net benefit -- would've made wonderfully dutiful citizens of Germany in the 1930s, or very proficient informants for the Soviets. Below that is a re-post of a post by Don Cooper from the same date. It reads: "This virus thing has demonstrated how so much human suffering was tolerated for so long during WWII and 50 years of communism. People have the ability to delude themselves into believing the government cares about them and knows whats best and that everything is okay. Sure some people have disappeared, sure they moved all the Jews into a ghetto, sure there are detainment camps but its in the best interest of society. More pie and milk? — Name and avatar of author of shared post is shown with permission.

By Saturday, March 21, 2020, churches in New Jersey were closed (more on that in a future post). But there was little need for them, really.

Because the most popular, fanatical religion in the U.S. — the devotion to imposed order from monopoly-violence institutions — was in session, and some of the most fervent worshipers were “Christian” congregants and clergy.

I absolutely abhor the Satanic religion of government, and I witnessed how jealous a god the Government God is. Its adherents don’t tolerate any un-State-icized faiths.

Yep, I had become a very conspicuous #GNBC (good neighbor, bad citizen)!

Your turn to share!

What you think of my personal recollections on this 4th anniversary of my last “normal” workday?

What do you remember about March 2020? Since that time, in what ways have you stayed the same? In what ways have you changed?

Did you expect things to be better or worse than they actually turned out to be?

Anything else on your mind as you reflect on the events from four years ago?

Let me know in the Comments …

Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen

Discussion about this post