A getaway with Team Reason: What I learned
A small confab of like-minded troublemakers gathered this weekend. Here are my insights.
First off the bat: traveling with 4 kids (3 of them under 5) is no mean feat. None of this would be possible without the stellar planning abilities and mommy-skills of my incredible wife Jenny (@jennyerikson). Know that Jenny can hold a Covid debate with the best of them—it’s a blessing to endure California chaos with her!
We were invited to a small getaway in Texas to meet some of our Covid co-conspirators. There was no formal seminar/webinar/conference — just a gathering of families and friends working through their own pandemic problems, fighting the good fight, and sharing some dinner and drinks.
Some insights:
While we find a lot of allies on the right, the crowd at the front of the fight is a very mixed crew, politically. The opposition to Covid policies cuts across Red and Blue allegiances.
Everyone has a rough story from the pandemic. It’s one thing to hold a religious debate on something like evolution - the outcome and truth of such a topic has very little impact on day-to-day living. The outcome of COVID policies has DRAMATICALLY impacted EVERYONE on a day-to-day basis.
Because of these lockdowns and school policies - there’s hell to pay. The people I met are organizing their lives to continually fight lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates anywhere they can. They plan to hold people accountable.
The general feeling is—we are winning.
- We’ve already won on lockdowns—I don’t know very many jurisdictions willing to re-engage that NPI.
- We’ve mostly won on schools and kids — even strong school closure advocates admit that the Virginia election was a groundswell against kids getting kicked out of school. The debate still rages but we have the upper hand.
- We’re winning on masks—everyone knows its rather performative and it’s the last tool politicos are using to prop up they’re feel-good motif of “doing something”.
- We’re winning on vaccine mandates. The 5th Circuit ruling slows everything down. We’ll see how this comes out.However, there’s a feeling it could all start back up again.
The great @AJKayWriter was there and I had to pry baby Harley away from her :)
We both flew American Airlines back and forth across the country this weekend and found an analogy to the pandemic itself: Arbitrary performative nonsense based on someone’s mood it seems:
I’ll have some more thoughts as the week comes up on us here. For now just know—you are not alone.
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Masks has turned almost everyone into an “enforcer” at their place of employment. The amount of people to whom this “power” has gone to their heads is telling. Peppa Pig has an episode where the teacher asks each of the children what they want to be when they grow up and they all have a different field but the reason is the same “to tell people what to do.” Covid has given many people’s empty lives some meaning. Ignore them and they flip out. For those that must fly, I understand compliance. Everywhere else, these people need to be ignored. Use the self checkout line, have cash and leave it on the counter if they refuse to serve you. Make them call 911 on the criminal who paid for their merchandise. They key is to remain calm. I know that is a big ask. But the calmer you are, the madder they get. DO NOT COMPLY!
flight attendants who are miltiant maskholes, appear to be "those" who were not paid attention to as children. Maybe they should go get some therapy.... We arent interested in their aggression, or their opinion. Masks are useless, virtue signaling, garbage piling nonsense...