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Have We Reached the End of Reason in Policymaking?
Townhall.com ^ | August 18, 2021 | Young Voices Contributors

Posted on 08/18/2021 6:54:48 AM PDT by Kaslin

Editor's Note: This piece was authored by Justin Begley.

With renewed mask mandates and guidelines in place, our policymakers are showing Americans their abandonment of reason. In fact, we are currently living in an age where reason is no longer a virtue, but a vice.

In our culture of confusion, elected policymakers, influenced by unelected government bureaucrats, have abandoned their duty to institute policies that actually help Americans, choosing instead to make policy performatively — that is, to impress (or appease) a small minority.

They make policy, not on the basis of reason and scientific evidence, but on the basis of a post-truth ideology where objective truth exists but is disregarded as unimportant. We see this in the redefining of “science” as whatever experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky say — regardless of if their statements are factual — rather than maintaining a systematic study of the world through observation and experiment.

We see this post-truth definition of science play out in the handling of COVID-19 policy. The fact that mask mandates are not particularly effective, especially against the highly transmissible Delta variant, is of little concern to policymakers. They aren’t following the science, they’re following fallible scientists, exalting the "experts" in blind faith.

Consequently, the public messaging and policy positions impact the way Americans think, what we believe to be true, and how we make decisions. Thus, “objective” truth has become whatever the “experts” say rather than what science actually says, resulting in a technocracy rather than a meritocratic democracy. These “experts” are taking advantage of Americans, who are looking for something objective to hold on to, by advising performative policy rather than good, effective policy.

Unfortunately, performative policymaking is not a new phenomenon but is becoming increasingly pervasive as the culture of confusion persists and as policymakers ignore truth to chase what they desire, namely, adoration from the “experts.”

The new mask guidelines and mandates for both the unvaccinated and vaccinated is an obvious example. Policymakers’ reasoning for such guidelines: “the science!” with no additional explanation.

San Francisco, for instance, reinstated its mask mandate for all indoor public settings, despite boasting a 7-day rolling average death count of zero.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy went as far as to say that people should be “wearing that mask even if you are fully vaccinated, wearing it outside…” in an interview with MSNBC.

Apparently shutdowns are not off the table either. In a press conference on Monday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that while the Biden Administration does not want more shutdowns, “we are going to be guided by the science, guided by our public health experts, and we’re not going to take options off the table, what they may recommend.”

So, the Biden Administration is giving authority to unelected government bureaucrats (with agendas) to make potentially detrimental decisions that impact everyone’s lives because of “science,” whatever that means.

Mask mandates and lockdown measures at this point are patently unscientific, void of reason and inconsistent with the data. When lockdown measures and mask mandates were originally implemented in March 2020, New York and California were among the worst states in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths, despite having some of the most restrictive mask and lockdown policies in the country.

When several counties in each state locked down again in November, and continued to maintain mask mandates, daily cases increased by 555 percent in New York and 1090 percent in California while Florida, which did not lockdown nor have a mask mandate, saw increases of 537 percent. In Texas – when the state removed its mask mandate on March 2 – daily cases continued to decline, dropping 84.94 percent through June 15. This is significant because June 15 is the day that New York and California removed their mask mandates for vaccinated people.

Between March 2 and June 15, New York and California daily cases fell by 95 percent and 74 percent, respectively, with a mask mandate in place and Texas and Florida cases declined by 85 percent and 86 percent, respectively, despite the absence of a mask mandate, further evidence that mask mandates are unnecessary and ineffective.

Continuing to push masks does little except undermine peoples’ perceptions of vaccine efficacy and annoy people who are already protected by the vaccine.

Vaccines are remarkably effective in reducing the probability of infection and the severity of illness if infection occurs. They are also robust to variants of COVID-19, including the Delta variant.

What’s more, vaccines are widely available and over 50 percent of the population (and roughly 75 percent of those above the age of 65) are fully vaccinated. And according to Dr. Marty Makary from Johns Hopkins, more than half of those who haven’t been vaccinated have natural immunity, a truth largely ignored by the “experts” and policymakers. Thus, it is clear that implementing new mask mandates and guidelines is absurd.

It shows that politicians have bent a knee to a group of experts armed with post-truth ideologies who feed the culture of confusion to influence politicians’ beliefs and, consequently, their policy.

We need to return to using reason in the way we form beliefs and make decisions.

Americans ought to constantly evaluate what is true to check if our policymakers are acting in our best interest, which more often than not requires an acceptance of the truth. Otherwise, we too will be sucked into the culture of confusion with no hope of return to reason.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: civilliberties; civilrights; covid19; covidrestrictions; covidtheater; lockdowns; mandate; maskmandate; masks; passports; policestate; reason; science; vaccine; wuhancoronavirus

1 posted on 08/18/2021 6:54:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

We haven’t even reached peak stupidity yet.


2 posted on 08/18/2021 7:00:18 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Kaslin

Very simply, the communists are unmasked and showing us their true totalitarian core & agenda.


3 posted on 08/18/2021 7:03:47 AM PDT by newfreep (“Leftism, under all of its brand names, is a severe, violent & evil mental disorder.”)
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To: Kaslin

End of reaso?

We?

No

You steal a presidential election with a foreign agent aNd you get the foreign entity’s priorities.

Obtueythese media people are


4 posted on 08/18/2021 7:05:16 AM PDT by stanne
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To: stanne

Democrat left-wing fantasy land is shown up for the farce it is, so we’ve reached the end of reason.


5 posted on 08/18/2021 7:14:03 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Kaslin

I’ve been saying for years that we are witnessing the Tower of Babel version 2.0 unfolding before our very eyes.


6 posted on 08/18/2021 7:23:10 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: Kaslin
Re: Science


7 posted on 08/18/2021 7:32:45 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Sicon

“We haven’t even reached peak stupidity yet.”

Let’s hope the stupid ones, as you put it, and who I consider to be voters, are having some sense being whacked into them two by four style.


8 posted on 08/18/2021 7:36:00 AM PDT by cymbeline
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To: Kaslin

The American Communist Revolution was 11/03/20

The consequence is an absence of functional Federal American government. We the People create the government by means of our votes through the elections process. When both the elections process is corrupted, as well as the voting process, ONLY WE THE PEOPLE can correct that. There IS NO government entity that can possibly do so.

Essentially there is no functioning Federal government in place in the USA today-hence the dysfunction that characterizes Washington DC presently.


9 posted on 08/18/2021 8:23:53 AM PDT by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you don't understand, no explanation is possible)
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To: Kaslin

“ In our culture of confusion, elected policymakers, influenced by unelected government bureaucrats, have abandoned their duty to institute policies that actually help Americans, choosing instead to make policy performatively — that is, to impress (or appease) a small minority.”

Libtards have corrupted nearly everything with this psychotic and abusive thinking. I don’t even recognize them as rational thinking people because they simply aren’t.


10 posted on 08/18/2021 8:53:14 AM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say )
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To: Kaslin

“ We need to return to using reason in the way we form beliefs and make decisions.”

We need to do a lot of things in America. And we will do none of them. We are imploding, and nothing is going to stop it until we are just a pile of rubble on the ground.


11 posted on 08/18/2021 8:56:10 AM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast (Make Orwell Fiction Again)
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To: Kaslin

There is no policy making. There are judges and democrat lawsuits.


12 posted on 08/18/2021 9:03:26 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: Sicon

When people accept that believing extremely stupid things — such as genderism or being Woke — are somehow enlightened how can there even be a peak stupidity?


13 posted on 08/18/2021 10:19:22 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Kaslin

They must have been asleep because that took place two administrations ago.


14 posted on 08/18/2021 5:15:20 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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