Virtually every government in the world has put in place quarantine/social distancing protocols to combat the spread of coronavirus, and invariably citizens wonder if those protocols are too stringent, or not stringent enough. It’s fair to wonder about those things and long for society to reopen. Perhaps there’s room to argue that certain measures were unnecessary, counter-productive, or too costly.
But as far as I can tell, only in the United States are some people convinced that the lockdown is a hoax/conspiracy/scare story perpetrated by American politicians and/or the American media (hence the armed protesters we’ve seen demanding that governors force hairdressers and restaurants to re-open). Given that every government in the world — both “liberal” and “conservative”– have put in place some version of the lockdown, why is there this idea that this is just a hoax hatched by a few US governors and media personalities?
Check out this list of which countries have put in place lockdowns and social distancing protocols. Even if they aren’t legally binding, virtually every nation has recommended policies of avoiding public places and closing down non-essential businesses. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52103747
If countries as politically diverse as Israel, Iran, Venezuela, New Zealand, Germany, UK, Russia, China, India, etc. ALL agree on the need for lockdowns and social distancing, then maybe this isn’t just scare tactics. In other words: let’s stop having such an American-centric view of the world. Not everything is Democrats vs. Republicans; sometimes there really are things that are just matters of global importance that everyone is (generally) agreed on.
Now, if protesters want to say: “I believe every government in the world is wrong about how serious the coronavirus is, and we are right,” then say that. But don’t say that this is merely a case of American fear-mongering, because that’s not the case. Moreover, even if the United States had practiced ZERO social-distancing, the global economy STILL would be tanking right now because other nations are practicing it (and then of course we’d be facing many, many more deaths here in the US). Even Sweden, who tried to save their economy with less stringent protocols than other nations, is wondering whether their high death toll was worth the lower restrictions.
All this to say: Stop with the lies and conspiracy theories about coronavirus being a plot by American liberals. The truth is literally a world bigger than that.
I’ll add a quick caveat to this: are there scare tactics happening in the midst of this crisis? Sure, on both sides. And there’s no need to take those at face value. But coronavirus is real and a global response to it is justified.
Dandelions spread –
A conspiracy, no doubt!
Other plots afoot.
“But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” (John 2:22)
You write well, Andrew. It is probably not credible that all of the leaders and powerbrokers of the world could conspire together to create the catastrophe we are presently experiencing. And the last three and a half years prove that America’s leaders could not conspire together about anything. They could not even agree on where to eat lunch. But “the whole world lies in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19) who can take men captive “at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). So I would argue that there is a “conspiracy”, a Satanic conspiracy. Whether or not this virus was accidentally or deliberately released by China to infect the world, now that it has become a global pandemic every person with an agenda who has any power to effectively manipulate these circumstances to their benefit is trying to do so. For us “little people” the virus and its devastating effects on our lives is of all-consuming concern, but for those power-brokers who will always live beyond the reach of the virus this global confusion is an opportunity to try to change the ground rules of governments and of cultures and to accumulate more power to themselves. And Satan is actively at work to help them to do so with his primary goal being the destruction of the Plans, Purposes, and People of God.