What Did We Learn in 2020?

Pandemics are like margin calls, exposing in a moment the pre-existing weakness of various positions and institutions.

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What Did We Learn in 2020?

So what did Peter Suderman, Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Nick Gillespie learn about over these godawful last 12 months? Among the lessons confessed on today's Reason Roundtable podcast: that there's nothing noble about a "noble lie," that "personal responsibility" has more meanings than are evident upon first glance, that we have given teachers unions enough power for them to derail their own gravy trains, and that (more thankfully!) humans are resilient and resourceful creatures.

Other topics gnawed on in today's discussion: President Donald Trump's about-face on corona-stimulus, the yin and yang of Soul/Wonder Woman 1984, and whether we should abort baby L. Ron Hubbard in the woods.

Audio production by Ian Keyser and Regan Taylor.

Music: "Nowadays" by Teo Laza.

Relevant links from the show:

"2020: An Awful Year With a Legacy We Won't Soon Escape," by J.D. Tuccille

"Trump Gets None of His Demands in the Spending Bill but Signs It Into Law Anyway," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Employed, Middle Class Americans Don't Need More 'Free' Stimulus Money," by Eric Boehm

"Trump Threatens to Sink COVID-19 Relief Bill Unless Congress Cuts Wasteful Spending, Spends More on $2,000 Stimulus Checks," by Christian Britschgi

"COVID Relief Bill Includes $25 Billion in Rental Assistance, 1-Month Extension of the CDC's Eviction Moratorium," by Christian Britschgi

"Congress Legalizes Smokey Bear Impersonations," by Billy Binion

"Congress Blocks School Choice in New Stimulus Package," by Eric Boehm

"Giant New Spending and COVID-19 Relief Bill Also Creates 2 New Museums and a Library, References Dalai Lama Controversy," by Robby Soave

"The FDA Could Double COVID-19 Vaccine Availability Immediately," by Ronald Bailey

"Trump Administration Should Immediately Launch an Operation Warp Speed for COVID-19 Testing," by Ronald Bailey

"Americans Are Sick of Arbitrary COVID-19 Restrictions," by Jacob Sullum

What are we consuming this week?

Matt Welch

• Soul

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Christmas movie trailers

Peter Suderman

• Love and Other Thought Experiments, by Sophie Ward

Nick Gillespie

• Wonder Woman 1984

---

Comments

[RabbiHarveyWeinstein]

Totalitarianism is acceptable if it comes with a kindly old man and a smile.

[Don't look at me!]

With a touch of senility, makes him more human.

[MJaneKelly]

A touch? There's air whistling through the holes in his brain. I feel as if I am living in a movie called "Being There," but the guy is waaaaaaaaaaaaay more stupid and waaaaaaaaaay more powerful. And Big Tech, Big Media, Big Law, Big Pharma, and Hollywood are all salivating at the idea that finally they can go back to mocking the average American while shipping their jobs overseas and making China the most powerful nation in the world. BEST PART: They cheated their asses off to get Dementia Joe in power, and yet those facts are getting told as often as Xi Jinping gets called a clown in China. Pro tip: You get tortured and sentenced to jail for that.

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[Bereft-the-Left 2]

You can break voting laws with zero repercussions.

Wearing a mask can be a religion.

What poll watches say, doesn't really matter, therefore they are just for looks (they can be ignored with zero repercussions).

Affidavits don't matter when it comes to voting or election fraud. With other crimes? Yes. Voting or election fraud? Nope.

[jacobsham]

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[Chipper Morning Wood--------------------------------------------------------------------------]

I've never heard Trump described as "kindly" before. I don't think anyone has.

[Don't look at me!]

Psst. He wasn’t talking about Trump, mr. one track mind.

[Mother's Lament]

Chipper's hands were trembling with rage as he typed that.

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[Enlightened Atheist]

Melania probably calls him kindly on the nights he chooses not to brutally rape her.

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[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Oh bugger -- I flagged your comment instead of the nested spam. For posterity, here is what RabbiHarveyWeinstein said at December.28.2020 at 4:47 pm:

Totalitarianism is acceptable if it comes with a kindly old man and a smile.

[Rat on a train]

I can still see his post. Flags probably go to the same purgatory as double link posts.

[Sometimes Bad Is Bad]

Talk about the half breed non African who pretended she celebrates Kwanzaa.

[RabbiHarveyWeinstein]

I think they prefer the term "oreo".

[MJaneKelly]

Kwanzaa first became well-known in 1997 when Kamala was 23. I doubt her Indian mother was busy celebrating a made up holiday with her knowing that some day 25 years later she could use it for racial clout.

[R Mac]

She got it (and by it I mean the willingness to perform...karaoke) from somewhere. Who says it wasn’t from her momma?

[Chipper Morning Wood--------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Yeah, you are not racist in the slightest.

[Don't look at me!]

That’s right, half breed is a terrible term.
Quadroon is correct.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Not "maroon"? Or "macaroon"?

[Rat on a train]

macacaroon?

[Enlightened Atheist]

This is the most racist website I've ever been on. There are nights I can't even fall asleep because of the things I've read here.

[Rat on a train]

:left-facing-swastika-with-dots:

[Mother's Lament]

It's horrific.
Poor Tony has found he has to use a six-inch pacifier.

[R Mac]

Double sided no less. And I assume when he’s mumbling “father” he’s talking about the rev? It’s all making sense now.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Try the BLM website.

[Mother's Lament]

When Lord Indra arrived on the Ganges in his chariot to slaughter six million Dasyu aboriginals, the first word he said was 'Namaste', but Chipper still thinks 2700 years of Brahmin privilege qualify her as an honorary black.
That riding herd on the Dalits was exactly the same thing as living the plantation life and Jim Crow.

[Enlightened Atheist]

As a half black man, I find this so ridiculously offensive. You are one sick individual.

[H. Farnham]

"As a half black man"

Amputee or dwarfism?

Either way, tough break, guy.

[Enlightened Atheist]

Haha wise guy, so funny... not.
I know actual dwarfs and have several friends with limb difference, to them it's not a f**king joke.
And just so we're clear, I am a half black man who was born with female genitalia, and I could care less about the names you call me or the hate you spew at me and my brothers and my sisters. You will not keep us from rising up and taking over this white cis-gendered world.

[H. Farnham]

Ha, I laughed. And really, isn't that the most important thing here?

Don't worry; I try not to hate anybody, including made-up internet characters.

[Muzzled Woodchipper]

Especially not made up internet characters.

[R Mac]

Speaking of which, can I see your birth certificate, Mr. Woodchipper?

[R Mac]

Lol.

[Mother's Lament]

Me too, but only the lower half.

[Enlightened Atheist]

... wow.

[H. Farnham]

Welsh... I appreciated the rant about the ridiculousness shaming people for getting sick. Righteous stuff, man.

[Don't look at me!]

It’s their own fault for not wearing a mask. Or so says tony.

[H. Farnham]

"Teacher's unions have pivoted to blaming parents..."

Like a rose in a bed of thorns, a libertarian thought can exist in a bed of socialist ideology.

[Dillinger]

>>.there's nothing noble about a "noble lie,"

obviated by the avalanche of election fraud articles.

[Don't look at me!]

We have learned that we are not worthy of anything different in DC. We can only prosper with old school , longtime civil servants in charge.
All hail SleepyJoe! Bring back stale thinking and old ways of doing things!

[Earth Skeptic]

That the universe has a twisted sense of humor.

[Don't look at me!]

It will be funny, but nobody will be laughing.

[RabbiHarveyWeinstein]

Too bad the CDC didn't go through with their plan to hold off vaccinating the elderly for social justice.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/cdc-elderly-social-justice-covid-vaccine-yascha-mounk/

[Chipper Morning Wood--------------------------------------------------------------------------]

That this virus does not like being mocked or taunted.

[Wearenotperfect]

We learned that the last four years were filled to the rim with ignoholic dipshittery!

[Sometimes Bad Is Bad]

Starting with you dipshit.

[Enlightened Atheist]

Your foul language doesn't make you look as tough and cool as you think it does. I love how everything is a penis-measuring contest between you people. Who can deny the most abortions. Who can beat their wives the hardest. Who can hunt down and hang the most unarmed black men from trees. Who can swear the most and look tough in front of their 'homeboys'.
Toxic masculinity is a plague on this Earth, men like you are living pollution instead of choosing love and becoming the solution.

[Nardz]

"you people"

You people?
What the fuck you mean, YOU PEOPLE???

[Mother's Lament]

The Dutch.

[Rat on a train]

Relax and have some Booty Sweat.

[Enlightened Atheist]

So true.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

1. The pandemic revealed that a lot of the bullshit restrictions and regulations on medicines are, well, bullshit. There is very little reason now not to have "fast track", "emergency" authorization for all sorts of medicines and vaccines.

2. The pandemic revealed that while the state can try to impose tyrannical orders to shut down businesses to stop the spread of the disease, in the end, there is very little that the state can realistically do in the face of widespread public opposition to those orders, short of going so far as to incite outright rebellion. The public on some level has to want to stop the spread of the virus. If they don't, then it's just going to tear through the population, killing and injuring people, and there is little that the state can do about it short of China-style tyranny.

[Sometimes Bad Is Bad]

Wow thanks for civil liberties 101.

[Enlightened Atheist]

He's mostly right you know. This is the most dangerous pandemic the world has seen in over 900 some odd years, it's time we got serious about this thing. If people aren't going to wake up and smell the coffee, maybe it's time we make them smell the coffee. It's only getting worse and left unchecked, this thing will have devastating effects like the world has never seen. Wear the darn mask, stay 6 ft away from people and stay home, it's not like we're asking you people to cut your precious penises off.

[Nardz]

...yet

[Commenter_XY]

This is the most dangerous pandemic the world has seen in over 900 some odd years, it’s time we got serious about this thing.

I am calling bullshit. No virus with a mortality rate less than 1% is the most dangerous pandemic the world has seen in 900 years.

[Rat on a train]

Well, this year it has killed more than the black plague, cholera, smallpox and yellow fever combined. Consumption is still giving it a run. I'm not sure how the great pox is going.

[Muzzled Woodchipper]

Considering that not 700 years ago the Black Plague killed somewhere between 25 and 50 million people worldwide, and about 50% OF ALL EUROPE, imma call some serious bullshit.

When 165 million Americans are dead from Covid, then we can start talking about tEh WuRsT pAnDeMiC iN 900 yearzzzz!

[R Mac]

3. A lot of commentators were discussing this 9 months ago while lefty shits like Lying Jeffy were busy Orange Man Badding, and then celebrating the victory of a president that will take as many of these horrible state policies as possible and make them federal policies.

#butnomeantweets

[lap83]

I learned that I am not fit to lick the boots of my betters and I should be grateful that they are wise enough to know that I must be sealed in my cell and never see another human because I could hurt them. They also benevolent give us a few minutes of outside time every day, if we are good. Of course, they go on vacations but they need it to relax from the hard work of figuring out whether we really deserve to have as much as they give us. I really am scum and they only want what us best for me.

[goneGalt]

I learned that I am not fit to lick the boots of my betters...
...I really am scum and they only want what us best for me.

[gG Stands and applauds]

[Nardz]

U-S-S-A!

U-S-S-A!

[Rat on a train]

All hail Chairman Biden!

[Sometimes Bad Is Bad]

I went into this year thinking that maybe there was one libertarian with a fucking clue. I learned I was wrong.

[Mother's Lament]

What about ENB? Gillespie and Robby assured us she was the epitome of libertarianisming and totally not a woke flake.

[R Mac]

I’ve got a clue. Lots of them, in fact. It’s a matter of wanting to really put them all together.

BTW, here’s one clue: Reason isn’t libertarian.

[Ben_]

Not to trust public health authorities. If anything, they’re worse than other government authorities.

Anyone with powers who only cares about one set of numbers and completely disregards everything else is your enemy. Even if your concerns match theirs for a while, eventually you will have different concerns.

[Nardz]

Kill or be killed.

The global socialist caste/cabal that fills government, corporate bureaucracy, big tech, "public health", media, academia (to what extent these categories, and the units within, can even be distinguished is unclear) have greater power than has ever before been wielded in human history.

It's now or never, fellow serfs.

[Commenter_XY]

You know what I learned? I learned that Reason has transmogrified into Unreason, a rudderless and valueless publication.

We are all looking at you, Katherine Mangu-Ward.

[John el Galto]

"What did we learn in 2020?"

* Election laws are optional (according to the courts).
* Democrats are OK with fraud (we already knew that pre-2020, so not sure if that counts)
* Dr. Fauci lied.
* (the one positive) Working from home is better

[Rat on a train]

The first three fall under the general rule "the ends justify the means".

[Raghuvir]

I have been in educational field since last 2 years. And in 2020, i started blogging on education updates and information

[Liberty Lover]

"What Did We Learn in 2020?"
Insanity is more infectious than any virus!

[TangoDelta]

I was going to go with "fuck all" but I think you're closer to the mark.

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