Thursday, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson opened his program with an examination of the drastic actions being taken in the name of COVID-19, the latest being limitations on holiday celebrations, including Christmas.
Carlson argued Christmas was seen as something that was “bigger” than politics and elected figures. For that reason, there seems to be an effort underway to cancel it.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Christmas is almost here, the best week on the American calendar, the happiest time that we have. This year, of all years, Christmas has a deeper resonance, maybe closer to its original meaning.
In a time of crisis, you inevitably start thinking about those things you otherwise might ignore if you were busier and more content. Things like, what’s the purpose of all of this? What matters most in my life? And what happens when it ends?
In general, people tend to become more spiritual, more openly religious when they are suffering. It’s not an accident. In fact, it may be the upside. You get to think beyond the next Amazon delivery for a minute.
Of course, not everyone is in favor of that. All of the focus on the big, enduring things: the focus on our families, the focus on what’s true and what’s not true. The focus on eternity itself, all of that tends to diminish the power of the people in charge of our temporal world, for obvious reasons.
We take our leaders less seriously when we’re reminded that they’re just people; slightly ludicrous, just like we are. When we’re reminded that they too will pass, all of us will.
If death is inevitable, that would be the one thing you’re not allowed to say in this country, but it’s still true, then maybe we should pause before we destroy the living in the name of trying to eliminate it.
Politicians understand this threat, they figured out that Christmas is bigger than they are and therefore it’s a threat to them. Better cancel it, and in fact, they’re trying hard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: … of minimizing travel to the extent possible, sometimes, it’s absolutely necessary, but to the extent possible, don’t travel, don’t congregate together. I know how difficult that is.
Right now, that just should not be done. To the best of our capabilities, we should avoid travel and avoid congregate settings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Avoid congregate settings. So say what you will about Tony Fauci, he has mastered, after many decades, the weird euphemisms of Washington, D.C. What Fauci is saying here in English is that you need to avoid going to church. You need to avoid your own family. Those are the congregate settings he just mentioned. You’ll need to spend Christmas alone. It’s important. All the experts agree with that.
The Centers for Disease Control sent that very message this week. The CDC’s incident manager, a man called Dr. Henry Walke declared that, quote, “The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming Holiday Season is to stay at home and not travel.”
So skipping Christmas is the best thing says Dr. Walke. You should know that Dr. Walke is a product of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And those you may remember are the people who just this summer, were publicly encouraging BLM to riot in our cities on medical grounds, needless to say.
When senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, someone identified as Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, who by the way does not appear to be an actual physician, but does boast that she is a climate activist, tweeted this memorable piece of epidemiological guidance back in early June.
Here it is, quote, “In this moment, the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.” In other words, in her studied expert medical opinion, not looting Macy’s, failing to burn down businesses you don’t own is actually more dangerous than getting the coronavirus.
Now you’re a civilian and that might sound crazy to you. But again, you’re not an epidemiologist. They know better. The former head of the CDC himself, Dr. Tom Frieden endorsed that guidance.
So there’s a consensus here. All the experts agree. The things that they like are perfectly safe, indeed encouraged; but the things they don’t like are deadly, catastrophic, in fact.
Listen to Joe Biden explain how many Americans will die if we don’t cancel Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We’re likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January. You hear me? Because people aren’t paying attention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: You hear me? Two hundred and fifty thousand Americans dead, do you hear me? A quarter-million people. That’s a lot of people. In fact, it’s more than the total number of combat deaths over the entire American Civil War, which by the way, lasted four years condensed into a single month.
Imagine a Gettysburg every day of the week. You can’t imagine that. It’s too horrible.
In the first 30 days, we would lose the equivalent Reno. The next month, Scottsdale, then Lubbock, then Buffalo. Pretty soon there’ll be nobody left in America. You hear me? Come on, man. Do what you’re told. Cancel Christmas.
Or at least stop walking. Walking is now an unpatriotic act. So is bicycling and any contact with wheeled vehicles. That’s the word from Los Angeles. Los Angeles, our second-largest city has just issued a new corona law. It bans quote, “all travel,” including, quote, “travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile or public transit,” all of it.
In Los Angeles, movement itself is now illegal. Sorry, kids, public health emergency. Internal passports are on the way. In the meantime, though, you’ve got Netflix and weed, so stop complaining.
In case you’re confused by this guidance, Eric Garcetti would like to make it very simple for you. Eric Garcetti is the mayor of Los Angeles. That’s his title, anyway.
But over his years in office, Garcetti’s role has grown. He now wields powers we once associated with Enver Hoxha of Albania and certain ancient Phoenician gods.
Eric Garcetti may seem like a garden variety elected official: oily, incompetent, not yet 50 years old, but that’s an illusion. In fact, Eric Garcetti is omnipotent. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D-CA), LOS ANGELES: My message couldn’t be simpler. It’s time to hunker down. It’s time to cancel everything.
And if it isn’t essential, don’t do it. Don’t meet up with others outside your household. Don’t host a gathering, don’t attend a gathering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: It’s time to cancel everything, commands Lord Garcetti. And when he says everything, he means everything, up to and including your most sacred holiday, time with your family, the illusion of freewill itself. You were a citizen, now you are a supplicant. And all it took was a single sentence from Eric Michael Garcetti.
A pandemic like this confers such powers.
London Breed understood that very early. Breed is the mayor of San Francisco, elected apparently on the strength of her fascinating name. She has no other obvious qualifications.
On October 30 this year, London Breed declared that the holidays are super spreader events. She delivered the sad news that we can’t celebrate anything this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR LONDON BREED (D-CA), SAN FRANCISCO: What we’ve seen during holidays, sadly, is an uptick in the number of cases because people are choosing to come together, and sometimes these parties and these events and these gatherings, they could become super spreaders.
It just takes one person who is infected to infect, you know, all of the people who attended a party.
Even though this year will be a sacrifice, the sacrifice is worth it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “The sacrifice is worth it,” says London Breed. Now, it is your sacrifice to be more specific, not her sacrifice.
Just eight days after making the declaration you just saw. London Breed was shoveling down some of the world’s most expensive food at the French Laundry restaurant up in Napa.
Like Governor Gavin Newsom, Breed is terrified of the dire public health implications of this pandemic we’re living through, sacrificing for, but she is not so concerned that she’s willing to endure any personal inconvenience no matter how small it might be.
No Christmas for you, but London Breed has got to eat. And right now, London Breed is in the mood for some celery root manicotti followed perhaps by the all-day braised Snake River Farms beef cheek $310 a piece on the tasting menu. The sacrifice is worth it.
Steve Adler understands sacrifice. Steve Adler is the mayor of Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas is a pretty great place. Lots of people are moving there. It’s one of the most charming cities that we have.
If you’ve been to Austin recently, you may have noticed huge numbers of mentally ill drug addicts crapping on the sidewalks and stealing things and mugging people.
Steve Adler did that. Steve Adler wants to make Austin, Texas most welcoming to the people who contribute least and he’s done that. He has also, needless to say, been extraordinarily worried about the coronavirus, so worried that Steve Adler has commanded his constituents to stay home for the duration.
He informed them this from a timeshare in a Mexican beach resort. He had flown there secretly on a private plane with a large number of people he is not related to. It sounds fun, but don’t try it yourself. Steve Adler might punish you. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-TX), AUSTIN: And then we need to, you know, stay home if you can. Do everything you can to try to keep the numbers down. This is not the time to relax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, unless you happen to have a private plane headed to Cabo. Otherwise, stay home. That was Mayor Steve Adler’s message to his people delivered from a Mexican beach resort.
So, what do we take from all of this? Well, it’s hypocrisy, of course. We point that out a lot, but it’s deeper than that.
The people giving us these highly specific orders don’t believe the orders. They don’t believe what they are saying, obviously. They don’t really think that COVID-19 is very dangerous.
If they thought it was very dangerous, they would be following their own orders, of course. But they’re not following their own orders.
Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein, for example, are both over 80 years old. They’re in the target demo. They’re at risk. And yet we know because it’s on video that neither one is so worried about COVID-19 that she wears masks in private.
So, what does that tell you? It tells you everything. And even slow people like us are starting to figure it out.
Last night, there was a demonstration outside a bar in New York called Mac’s Public House. No cases of coronavirus had been traced to Mac’s Public House. It’s not a proven vector of transmission, as the epidemiologists say.
So, the owner of the bar refused to shut down. He wanted to live like Gavin Newsome and London Breed and Nancy Pelosi. He wanted to live like an adult in America.
Unfortunately for him, he expressed these views out loud on television, in fact, and that is definitely not allowed. So, they arrested him immediately. And when they did, a crowd of people decided they’d had enough.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
CARLSON: You should know that no one from the CDC or the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health endorsed the protest you just saw. It was the wrong party of politics and therefore it was a serious health risk to the nation. Not enough vandalism, apparently. But we can expect more protest like it.
Yesterday, a small business owner in the State of Michigan called Dave Morris interrupted a live shot on local television to make an increasingly obvious observation about what we’re seeing. And it’s this. The effects of these lockdowns, the sacrifices we’re being asked to make are not evenly distributed across the country.
Certain people, a small group of people seem happier than ever. You notice a certain self-satisfied jauntiness behind their masks as they bark orders at you. But everyone else is dying a slow death.
Dave Morris joins us in a minute, and he can elaborate on his point. But until then, one more question about all of this. And again, it’s an obvious one because that’s what we do: obvious questions.
If lockdowns work, why haven’t they worked so far? We’ve been following increasingly specific orders all year. Don’t travel. Wear masks. Some people haven’t obeyed, but an awful lot of people have. Most people, because it’s America and people want to do the right thing.
And yet, after almost a year of this, the numbers keep rising. So, is the lesson really that we need a whole lot more of what hasn’t been working so far? How does that work exactly?
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor