2022 The Year of Discontent

I had several titles for this article. Top of the list initially was, “Lying Bastards” but that may be insensitive to bastards.

Here we are halfway through the first month of the new year and around the world leaders are doubling down on their respective populations with mandates and restrictions that despite being about pandemic management have the sinister atmosphere of authoritorian control.

It doesn’t really matter which side of the vaccine debate you subscribe to the evidence, actual and anecdotal is disproving the effectiveness or reasons behind the rinse and repeat stance of respective governments.

The opening salvo of the new year initially was that Omicron is less severe and may be the way out of the pandemic. The backlash to this was mixed and interesting. Some welcomed this as it meant their was a way out of the last two years of crap. Others were appalled that the crisis might be ending. The others including a great many politicians and that strange segment of society that thrive on doom and gloom.

Australia is perhaps a good example of differing views, particularly as the narrative pushed falls apart. It would be too much to detail the last two weeks in Australia but suffice to say it is diverse in the way state leaders have decided to treat the virus.

One state is letting it rip, another is following suit. A third is doing a blend but without releasing the control and power they have accumulated during the pandemic. One is an absolute despot and his narrative is so last year with the virus it would be comical except for his way of dealing with the virus. Another is lagging a bit but winding up the rehtoric. The other two states are just wishy washy and cannot decide if the iron fist is the way to go.

The one appalling thing is how all of these politicians are keen to segregate society. More disturbing is how a percentage of the population think this is a wonderful idea. Language is key to this and repeatdly describing unvaccinated people as scum, or the need to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated (McGowan), wanting to piss them off, promising to make their lives harder and harder until they submit. This is not the language of a real leader, this is the language of despots and tyrants angry that a percentage of population does not agree and follow without question.

I never thought I would be alive during one of the more turbulent times in human history where the concept of humanity was redefined to suit an agenda.

Feel free too condemn me for my views on this. I’ve felt the bile rise in my throat at the outright aggression and hatred that has been created to divide entire communities based on if you have had a vaccination.

The arguments on both sides hold both facts and falsehoods, temperence and intolerance, acceptance and hatred. All this shows is that everyone has an opinion. What is distrubing is the rehtoric spewed by leaders as they vilify people for simply not following their orders.

I anticipate that 2022 is going to be the year of discontent as more and more of the gloabal population resist and rebel against the controls being imposed on them. I do wonder when the media are going to read the room and finally report things the way they are and dispense with slanted opinions, distorted facts, and more often than not these days the crime of ommission. The media have shown themselves to be the whores they are in their race for profit through sensationalism and biased reporting these past two years.

In some ways the world we inhabit currently is distinctly Orwellian.