I was happy to see a Chinese place my family liked to visit survived lockdown and has fully reopened. We took Mom there for a belated Mother’s Day treat.
Before leaving I visited the restroom. A very unhappy looking woman was trying to cope with her crying daughter. An otherwise cute child of no more than four or five.
The little girl’s complaints were barely coherent. She sounded more tired than angry.
I smiled at her mother in a manner meant to be sympathetic. “Sounds like someone needs her afternoon nap.”
“Yes,” the poor woman agreed. “She was up late last night. Had to take her to the hospital.”
“I hope she was all right.”
“Heart problems.” My own heart sank when I heard this.
“I hope she feels better soon,” I murmured as I latched the stall door.
Heart problems.
My weak stomach started to act up. At least I was in the right place.
I felt a mixture of sadness and anger. Why? Why?
Most likely that cute little girl had received her mRNA shot. Just like Elmo on Sesame Street.
The mother had meant well. But her kindly intentions and sincerity may have ruined her child’s life.
The many evils of Big pHarma horrified me when I stumbled upon them back in 2016 in struggling to go off that cocktail supposed to treat the condition an SSRI caused long ago. I spent that year and most of the next researching how those corporations run and why no government agency holds them accountable.
Neither side of the political aisle will take it on. That’s because members of both parties in all three branches are indebted to the mega drug cartel.
The people who run those operations are wealthy monetarily but morally bankrupt. Far worse than some Joe Schmoe cooking meth in his basement out in a rural area. Or some young man in a suit with a briefcase stepping out of a bullet riddled sports car as the urban counterpart.
They are unaccountable for a lot of the damage they do. No liability when it comes to vaccines. As far as other drugs they pay minor fines and laugh at them. Several million dollars is just a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle to them.
They get the governments of “first world” countries to do things their way through campaign contributions and lobbying. Together the American government and Big pHarma force harmful treatments on citizens and force tax payers to finance it. Walter White wishes he had what they have.
Christian conservatives are (almost entirely) clueless as to how horrible and hopeless the situation of our country is. Let alone that this nightmare is global. Naive, starry-eyed simpletons and midwits.
To yearn for the world depicted by Norman Rockwell or Leave It to Beaver reruns is natural enough. Even getting nostalgic makes sense. Oh, for the good old days of the 1950’s or the 1990’s…or just about any time before the world went insane.
What frustrates me is not the yearning for an ideal world that may not have existed in its entirety. I grow impatient with this overwhelming normalcy bias that things will go back to how they were if they aren’t already back to normal.
Above all this Panglossian view of the world we already inhabit—this insistence that our world really is a Norman Rockwell painting or an episode of the Andy Griffith Show—makes me want to yank out chunks of hair and beat my head against a wall.
This unfounded stupid optimism in the Heartland of America when I know in my gut just how bad things are and how much worse they’re sure to get—in a best-case scenario—drives me crazy. Judging from current events things will only get much, much worse. And I believe unleashing all the evils upon us is a judgment from God. Christians—of all people—have no reason to expect blessings from Him upon our nation. Only wrath and judgment.
“Our government makes some mistakes, but they are all honest mistakes. All of our men in office mean well, God bless ‘em.”
During church these sweet, elderly saints will lead us in prayer. “Dear heavenly Father. Thank you that we live in this beautiful country. Such a godly, Christian land. So full of rights and freedoms. So blessed by You materially. May we continue to enjoy these blessings. Thank you for protecting us all through the deadly Rona. Please help our elected officials to govern wisely and well in a manner that will please You.”
I struggle not to groan as I clench my eyes more tightly shut and dig fingernails deeply into the hands clasped before me. Keeping my head bowed through the cognitive dissonance though I shake it a couple times. Somehow we don’t see the same world.
A just world fallacy is part of it. Too many took the Pfizer shots because they think getting these approved by the government is a sign of competence. Not cronyism.
They also cannot conceive of anyone in government—even a Democrat—plotting to poison so many innocent people. Despite calling abortion murder repeatedly they assume those they have called murderers and compared to Nazis are swell people who just want to protect everyone from the deadliest plague ever. And doctors never lie or endanger lives for money. Because that wouldn’t be very nice.
They lack curiosity or imagination so they don’t seek out non mainstream news sources or use platforms like Slug to communicate with people around the world. Otherwise they could have seen the patterns long ago.
How certain individuals (Breggin calls them global predators) who support radical depopulation and transhumanism are behind the lockdowns and the shots. How they and their buddies are gobbling up all the world’s property.
How the mandates and policies are constantly being rammed through which will kill hundreds of millions or billions through bioweapons, wars, famine.
Too many conservatives assume wealth=goodness. Despite what the New Testament warns us. They adore Big Medicine and Big pHarma because of this. And prominent, respectable members work for these institutions so it must be okay.
Just get Trump (the Father of Vaccine) reelected. That will solve everything. A trust fund, ivy league billionaire is a great representative for us commoners. Only a celebrity tycoon can lead a grass roots populist movement after all. Who better than a narcissistic philandering owner of multiple casinos can lead a predominantly Christian movement?
Are there no godly men of the people at the grass roots level to lead us? Why do we always go for the rich and famous?
If people argue “We don’t need a perfect saint,” I wonder what criteria we are supposed to go by. Money, fame and power trump godly character.
I am making godly character an issue because so many of my fellow Christians want to make voting for this man a litmus test of faith.
We need to admit all our candidates are crooks and look elsewhere for heroes. The early Christians did not look to Caesar to be a spiritual leader or see Rome as Christ’s Kingdom.
Instead of looking back to the 1950’s and hankering for June Cleaver vacuuming in pumps and pearls we western Christians need to go back further. Let us look to the early Christians in ancient Rome for role models. Let our minds linger not on middle class twentieth century suburbia but the catacombs and deserts of the third and fourth.
And back further. To that Cross at the top of Golgotha. And that cross He has commanded every one of us to take up in imitation of Himself.
I am sick to my stomach when I think about all of it....you put it into words so well...it was all a lie.