The past two years of “two weeks to slow the spread” have been difficult, to say the least. For many of us, our careers have been turned upside down, our families have been split as loved ones have treated COVIDism as an opportunity to live out a veritable Jonestown fantasy, and the world that we loved—however flawed it may have been—is effectively gone.
Personally, I live in a place that should be called Lockdown Hell, which is a province that I used to call Ontario. It has not been the worst lockdown zone on earth, but it has been in the same neighborhood. We have firmly planted a new caste system of vaccine segregation in my province. It has become so absurd to the point that unvaccinated fathers who accompany their wives to the delivery room are not allowed to leave the room for the duration of their visit, and the hospital will not feed them unless they present proof of injection. I wish I were kidding.
However, despite this, I cannot shake a hesitantly hopeful optimism about what is to come. To say that living in such an insane region has been maddening or exhausting would be the understatement of the year—I have oscillated between hope and despair so often that I may as well have followed Mike Lindell and his failed Trumpian prophecies.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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In all seriousness, it has been rough, very rough. But I believe (I think) that it is coming to an end.
The main reason I believe this is because I have seen a stark shift in the mentality and habits of the “normies” as of late.
If you are not familiar with what a “normie” is, then you might be a normie! Joking aside, a normie is just what it sounds like—a normal person. That is to say, it is a person who operates within the general norms of society. Normies are not necessarily bad people, and they are not necessarily good people either—they are just normal.
One thing that is certain about normies is that they are not ideological, for ideology is abnormal. This is not to say that normies don’t fall for ideologies that are espoused by ideologues, but they are not themselves ideologues.
Normies are not much different than casual sports fans—this is not a knock on sports, which I love—in that they simply go with the flow or jump on the bandwagon. When the team is in the news and it is fashionable to wear the jersey to work, then the casual sports fan will do as much. “I have always been a fan” he will say, “we have to support our boys!”
But then, curiously, when the team has traded away its stars and the team begins to lose, the casual sports fan stops wearing the jersey and basically stops caring. This doesn’t mean that he dislikes the team, or that he regrets supporting the team—he doesn’t really think about his reasons for or against the team at all.
It was fun supporting the team on their way to the Cup, and there are fond memories to be called upon for nostalgic sentiment, but the normie sports fan couldn’t even tell you the name of the new coach now that the team is no longer winning.
The relentlessly committed ideological fans are still obsessed with the team and have as much zeal as ever, but they are now unattractive to the normie fan who has since stopped taking the thing so seriously. In fact, their hardline approach is now off-putting, and the normies do not want to even be associated with the jersey-wearing fanatics anymore, lest they come off as a whacked-out zealot.
I believe the same sort of phenomenon is happening with the normies regarding the virus/lockdowns, etc. I do not mean to say that the normies are all “awake” or that they are prepared to burn their masks and vaccine certificates. There are places where this is clearly not the case, like where I live. However, there is a notable “over it” feeling that is spreading faster than false-positive infections.
Ontario recently reported “record” cases—the number is irrelevant. The point is that this happened in the days leading up to Christmas, but I can tell you for a fact that almost everyone had an “old normal” Christmas, except for a few zealots. Some family members were excommunicated from their families for not disclosing vaccine status. The fact that this has happened at all is a travesty, but it is not as common as it would be if the normies were actually zealots.
For some reason, our politicians and bureaucrats—but I repeat myself—simply did not lock down for Christmas. I was a bit surprised. Interestingly, the public outcry was not strongly in support of locking down for Christmas either, which was telling. The zealots who wanted to rid the world of all germs just a year ago have become the minority voice, and they are starting to look crazier and crazier to normal normies.
Political commentators and even public health czars have begun to echo this changing normie sentiment as well. To be sure, it is not as if the Faucian morons have all of a sudden become reasonable people who will admit to being wrong, but there are cracks in the dam nonetheless.
Mainstream outlets are beginning to talk about “living with COVID”—what a novel concept. And even the sacred vaccine is now not being touted as a panacea by everyone and their dog.
One author for Yahoo! Finance—hardly a right-wing outlet—wrote: “The Omicron wave is exposing the limits of COVID-19 restrictions, which are clearly failing. These include ferociously debated vaccine passports and masking policies that have done little, if anything, to tame skyrocketing numbers.”
This was heresy just a few short months, maybe weeks, ago. But it is now okay to say the quiet part out loud. There are numerous other outlets saying similar things.
Now, this does not mean that we are out of the woods, or that we still do not have to fight like crazy for every ounce of sanity in our communities—but it does point to a shifting narrative.
If the normies are fatigued by COVID-19 zealotry, and they just want to live relatively normal lives again, then we must take this as a positive. It is not necessary to debunk every myth that has circulated for the past 21 months to every curious soul who is lifting their head above the covidian fog. We simply have to capture any momentum we can and begin living freely and sanely again.
Living like a free man and a happy person is attractive to those who are tired of COVID brutalism and maddening mandates. The Kool-Aid has become sour for many, and they want to move on as much as the next person.
2022 will not be perfect, but it may just be a bit better. COVIDism is a strange and unattractive cult that cannot hold all its members forever.
It is easy to be cynical, but cynicism is a cheap substitute for wisdom. Yes, most things go wrong most of the time—you miss most of the shots you take, and in life you often hear “no” more often than “yes.” But good things happen as well, no matter how rare.
Here is hoping that in the New Year the normies continue to inch toward the Old Normal and the covidian zealots continue to be exposed for the nutjobs they are.
[Image Credit: Pixabay]