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A Mistrust That’s Been Brewing For A Half-Century

 

The divisions in American society keep building, despite all the talk of tolerance and unity.  Divisions between the genders, as well as between the gendered and nongendered.  Divisions between the races.  Between the different legal classes of immigrants.  Between the religious and the secular, the Ivy League-educated and the Midwestern farmer, and between those thriving on the global economy and those tied to and dependent on their local communities.  But now, yet another division has been added: between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

Never before has someone who has refused a particular medical treatment been so ostracized and condemned.  And yet, the division has gone beyond just the difference between those who have received the shot and those who haven’t.  The vaccinated/unvaccinated division now comprises a distinct political subset all its own.

The battle lines between vaccinated and unvaccinated mirror other combative fronts within society. The mistrust of the unvaccinated toward the aims and methods of the vaccine advocates reflects the mistrust of urban minorities toward the police.  The harsh and condemning invectives hurled by the vaccine-pushers against the unvaccinated reflect those hurled by secularists against religious believers.  The unvaccinated don’t just pose a health risk to COVID; they constitute a subversive group that threatens the very fabric of democracy.

In viewing the unvaccinated in the same light as it sees terrorists, the political left seems surprised, even shocked, at the emergence of this allegedly dangerous group. But it shouldn’t be surprised.  The mistrust that the unvaccinated now harbor toward the vaccine-pushers is a direct result of the seeds of mistrust planted by the political left a half-century ago.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the political left waged an endless war on the alleged corruption of government and the leadership elite.  The 1960s political revolution preached mistrust of government and all governing establishments.  In the 1970s, the social and cultural revolution turned against all the nongovernmental institutions in society.  The family, the neighborhood, the church, the employer – all were corrupt and in need of either drastic reform or abandonment.  Consequently, by the time the 21st century arrived, the political left had succeeded in cultivating the seedlings of mistrust throughout American society.

Now that the left has succeeded in discrediting nearly every American social and cultural institution, it has turned full circle back to where it began – the federal government.  Except now, the left wants Americans to place all their trust in the bureaucracies of central government.  Now that little if any trust remains toward any social institution, the left wants all Americans to give their unquestioned loyalty and trust to the one institution at which the left first aimed its campaign of mistrust.

It is no wonder that wide reaches of American society refuse to trust the vaccination messages of the political left.  Those liberal elites who call farmers and factory workers and rural residents the “deplorables” of society now insist that vaccinations are essential to life and membership in democratic society.  Even though they once derided people as “deplorables,” the liberal elite now say they want to save and protect them.  Is it no wonder that mistrust exists?

Maybe the “deplorables” can’t resist all the laws and regulations coming out of Washington; maybe they can’t stop the cancel culture; maybe they can’t keep from being fired for their religious beliefs – but they can at least prevent a needle from being put into their arm.  Maybe…the choice to not vaccinate is the only real choice they have left against a political elite that has previously shown no regard of them.

Patrick M. Garry, vaccinated, is a professor of law with a Ph.D. in constitutional history at the University of South Dakota Law School

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8 comments

  • Dr. Garry has hit the nail on the head. Marxists have infiltrated our entire society and government, from top to bottom, spreading their cancerous (un)belief liberally wherever they go. Ironically, their goal has been all along not to question authority so as to improve the systems we live with and rely on, but to undermine them entirely, with the endgame being replacement with… themselves, and their nihilistic and anti-human beliefs.

    We are very, very clearly now seeing (well, those of us with the eyes to see) that this trashing of our essential societal and cultural beliefs, and governmental systems supposedly protecting those beliefs, is directly leading to the collapse of our society and culture. That the Marxists believe we’ll wholeheartedly accept their nihilism and anti-humanism in order to have something to cling to during this collapse is both incredibly naive and, I’m just going to say it – stupid.
    There are 3 other facets (at least) that make this all the more ironic…

    One, that the real backers of the Marxists and their intended destruction are Bankers and Corporatists and Big Government types. The Globalists. Therefore, the Marxists, like the rest of us, are just being used by the biggest bullies the world has ever experienced.

    Two, the Marxists, being used like tools for the destruction of systems the Globalists do not want in their way any longer, will be cast aside once the intended goals are reached. As history as taught us – if we’re wise enough to study it, even superficially – those who help others gain power are “useful idiots” (or “useful innocents”, or “useful fools” – https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/08/22/useful-idiot/) and become “helpful sacrifices” (not finding an attribution now, unfortunately, though I have previously) – they will be sacrificed as, and when, it suits those they helped get/amass power.

    Three, Marxists tend to directly attack religion – as Marxism is, itself, a religion, they can’t stand competition! So, they attack religion with religion. More importantly, though, religion and religious beliefs provide at least a basis of beliefs in a higher power, God, if you will. And a person with a belief in a higher power, higher than those powers and peoples here on Earth, means they can’t be nearly as easily manipulated as one who doesn’t. I think that’s why, in the End Times, there will be a single world religion – to manipulate as many as possible into believing the false signs, wonders and miracles wrought by the Antichrist.

  • Notice how the left hated the vaccine when Trump was still in office, but “woke up” to the power it had to control people right after Biden took the oath…

    • Yup! That’s part & parcel of the deception, also. Just like the deception that so many, too many, still cling to that there are 2 separate political parties in the USA. They’ll use whatever means possible, and create ones too, to forward their agenda. Stay alert. God bless.

  • Since at least 1913 and the establishment of the income tax and the Federal Reserve Bank, which is private and NOT Federal.

    • Yup! I’m retired, so I read a lot… I’ve come across a number of things that point to this all starting much, much earlier than that. At the founding of our nation (USA), and much farther back than that.
      I don’t know if we’re truly in the “End Times” spoken of in Revelation, Matthew 24, Luke 21, Daniel, and elsewhere, or not – no-one does, and no-one can, not even Jesus Christ knows, only God (which, btw, means JC is not God) – but, it’s certainly looking like it. But, whether we are or not shouldn’t alter our belief in God – it should hopefully strengthen it. Take care. God bless.

  • A very thought-provoking article. But lacking historical context. Mistrust in authority was not invented in the 1960s. Historically, authority has “earned” mistrust with actions considered arrogant, corrupt, out-of-touch, abusive, totalitarian, etc. The civil war between the North American colonists seeking to separate from mother England and its tyrannical king is an example from the 1700s; that is called the American Revolution. Another rebellion against authority was the American Civil War of the 1860s, which would have been called the Southern Revolution had the Confederacy won. The French Revolution, another example. The decades-long Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War between Red & White Russia, another example. The centuries of battles between nobility and monarchs that led to the Magna Carta and the revolution in English governance is another example. Then there was Martin Luther and the Protestant revolt against what they considered the corrupt authority of the Pope; and before that lots of monarchs rebelling against papal authority, such as Henry VIII. To imply that mistrust in authority is a recent invention is also to ignore the Biblical record. Christianity itself was born in rebellion to authority. Almost seems built into the human DNA.

    As another comment noted: Marxism is a form of religion, like Atheism a god-less religion in the Judaeo-Christian sense. Maybe Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, et al. are the communist gods. Even the god-less need something to believe in, and religious-like rituals. For the god-less, the ritual of vaccination and “the jab” is becoming synonymous with baptism. The Unvaxxed = the Un-Baptised, or maybe what some Hindus would call the Unclean Caste. Vaxxing is part of the new god-less religion. Once they get submission on the vaxx front, then any edict, diktat or mandate from an authority no matter how absurd will be obeyed. Doesn’t hurt that Big Pharma and CDC/NIH (virus, vaccine patents) get rich in the process. All part of the elaborate Democrat party plan for establishing a permanent, communist-style one-party state with Soviet-style absolute power and control over a populace jabbed into submission. Jabbed, as in nudged. The Church of the Holy State with its baptism by jabbing/vaxxing is a branch of the ruling Democrat party. Vaxxing is now a political religion, now that the COVID virus is evolving into a milder and less lethal endemic virus (a hybrid of flu & cold).

    • Well Joelg5 sort of started out well, repeating a version of the “dialectical materialism” and cyclical conflict between the aristocracy and proletariat. Marx and Engels had a better explanation though it breaks down quickly under close examination.

      But then he sharply turns and concludes something which is nonsense, hoping that people will not notice. We know that just because people accept the science and so the need for a vaccine – that has ZERO connection to people obeying any other mandate.

      We accepted polio vaccines, small pox, meningitis, etc etc etc. Did any of those cause us to accept the government taking total power? NO. Why would it? Many people that are vaccinated still are very skeptical of government power – I am very worried that the GOP will try to seize power and repeal the Constitution for instance.

      And where is ANY evidence that the Democratic Party has any intention of establishing a one party State? There is none of course. Now, who “joked” about violating the Constitution and staying on as President for more than two terms? Could it have been the fat boy, trump?

      Actually, if we look closely Joelg5 starts to look like one of the people who want to reverse a valid election, who want to install trump as our Dear Leader. Joelg5 looks like a fascist from here.

  • As a guy who was born in 1956 – I was a teenager during large parts of the 1970s and remember that time very clearly. Is the distrust of the Government due to the leftists of the 1960s? Certainly the Baby Boom meant that a large percentage of the population had the normal teenager rebellion, but so much of it was connected to the draft for an unpopular war. During that time I was in Army Junior ROTC in high school and later Air Force ROTC in college – while in some colleges people burned ROTC buildings. But the distrust of the Government goes much further back, as the author points out. It sounded different but it was there.

    My ancestors fought in the Civil War in the Army of Northern Virginia, in Georgia and Alabama regiments. So there was distrust of the central government there. That distrust is a constant feature of our society.

    And today no one is promoting the Federal government to make all of our rules, the Democratic Party is loyal to the Constitution and the separation of powers. Mr Garry is just lying about that subject. By sane people do support the idea of taking a safe vaccine for a very transmissible virus – and the Federal government is doing it’s job of publicizing the vaccines.

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