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How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right
(www.theatlantic.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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I can only judge based on my own self and the people around me. Before the lockdown, I was pretty far on the left. I voted Stein in 16 after Bernie got (inevitably) screwed by the DNC. And I have to admit, Trump 1 wasn't a bad time for me economically. But the actual shift happened during the lockdown.
I'm in NJ. I found myself abruptly unable to live my life, unable to see my friends, unable to do anything but live in fear - not of a virus or deaths, but of the laws put in place by Democrats - specifically Phil Murphy. I had a friend die with COVID-19, so I wasn't untouched. But I was unable to mourn that friend because we couldn't hold a wake for him for three years. I didn't have a chance to process what I was feeling, because I was being told that I should be afraid of being next - even though unlike him, I haven't had multiple strokes or a heart attack. I also saw my friends who were teachers be unable to teach properly, denied the ability to do anyone hands-on or stop students from losing focus. Most of.my friends who were teachers before 2021 have changed jobs because it was so disheartening. And when the teachers wanted to go back to the classroom, it was the Union that refused, and who influenced the governor and his people, rather than real classroom teachers.
All I saw was the policy of the Democrats trapping me at every turn. So my feelings turned otherwise. And I still say, no one who claims to be Democrat or caucuses with Democrats will every get my vote or my donation again. I don't care what happens otherwise. I can't hurt them the way I was hurt. But I can do that one thing. So I will. I can't change the massive wealth transfer that happened because the normal people were trapped like animals in cages. But I can vote against the people who put us in the cages. It's a totally worthless gesture, but it's the one that is mine to make. After all, if voting mattered, you and I wouldn't be allowed to do it.
I expect that younger people see the same thing. Their lives were put on pause, their education was stunted, and their few years of freedom were curtailed by Democrats and the American Progressive Left. Why should you support the people who hurt you?
You don't have to worry about the coming bird flu pandemic locking down anything this time.
And the government will tell you that the people who disappear in your social circle never existed, it's you that remember wrongly.
And don't worry about the new uniforms for all government workers includes a gasmask.
It may sound very dystopian, but that's what you get with a totalitarian regime.
While I was imagining how the muskrat, headworm and lil-t regime will handle the next pandemic it reminded me of what we see in Half-Life 2, Ultraviolet (2006), Brazil (1985).
What social circle? I don't have one anymore thanks to losing contact with them over the last few years.
So it's a skill/personality issue then.
I have kept up with friends I made and live across the country from me. If you lost touch with friends that live near you, you either didn't try hard enough to keep touch or they chose to let friendship with you wither away. You have access to technologies that allow you to get text, audio and video in real time with someone on the other side of the world. Losing touch with a friend means one or both of you didn't care enough to do the work to keep it up.
If physical proximity is the only thing keeping your friends around, you didn't have friends, you had acquaintances who you misjudged their participation in the relationship. I've had plenty of "friendships" go this way as well, but the people I care about I make a point to stay engaged with, even if it's not as often as I should.