Reject the New Normal

The old way of life is dangerously close to becoming a phantom memory, lurking in the ether between nostalgia and myth; the elites want it that way.

I worked through the height of the pandemic, having been designated an “essential worker.” I was an assistant manager at a small pet supplies store and witnessed firsthand wave after wave of panic and paranoia, fear, and anger. I considered myself fortunate to still be employed knowing a few of our regular customers who weren’t so lucky. I believe that sense of consistency, of having a place outside my house, of maintaining a regular schedule probably spared my sanity. But it did something else that I am just now beginning to understand: that being moored to reality and reason made it so much harder to comply with those rules that I was told were put in place for my “safety.” I am keenly aware how these rules were just veiled attempts first at control, then as a marker for disdain and identifying problematic people in society – a bright line between the working class and the leisure class. Normal is now a phantom memory, lurking in the ether between nostalgia and myth.

The final evolution is a radicalization of the “new normal.” I hate it. I hate everything this phrase stands for and everything it has done to detach people from the responsibility for their own lives, handing it over to a government that snatches it up like a jewel-starved thief but without regard to its preciousness. It reflects this moment of altered reality in a world not confident in its perception of truth. Legitimate concerns of average Americans are met with labels of bigotry and hate.

Progressives and elites have for years worn away the meaning of words, decoupling them from historic norms. For example, the very concept of differences between the sexes has evolved from the feminist ideology of Gloria Steinem – weaponizing oppression to create perpetual victims instead of empowerment, to erasing what it fundamentally means to be a Woman. The University of Pennsylvania trans swimmer “Lia Thomas” embodies this evolution, and in the process managed to make a mockery out of the NCAA, a governing body supposedly charged with keeping collegiate sports fair and ensuring their legitimacy. It’s not enough to eradicate women, but the concept of sexuality itself is under attack as radical trans activists are attacking lesbians along with anyone else who dares to declare the inviolability of the sexes. You will be acquainted with the term TERF if you haven’t been properly “educated.”

Manipulating society’s concept of normal and accepted ideology into acceptable worldviews for gender can be applied to crime, but in this case, tolerance is swapped with equally emotionally charged compassion. After George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, crime has risen exponentially in cities across the country. Residents in these cities were clapped at that the riots giving impetus to the violence were justified (even necessary!) and the ensuing quality of life crimes all the way up to record-breaking homicides and hate crimes against Jews are figments of right-wing imaginations. Even worse, progressive leaders in blue states and the corporate media double-down, insisting this is behavior is just a part of a compassionate society. Criminals are no longer responsible for their degenerate behavior; the solution isn’t to defend the victims who are mostly poor, urban minorities, by cracking down on offenders but to…get used to it. Left unscathed are the wealthy, mostly white liberals who implement these policies behind the gates of their tree-lined, well-patrolled streets.

And much like rising crime isn’t a perceptible threat to elites, inflation isn’t a problem for the well-heeled rulers and the lever-pullers behind the curtain. Both should be looked upon, if at all, as the consequence of our endemic COVID pandemic. In fact, it should be considered a blessing – don’t the hoi polloi recognize a thriving economy when they see it? And who drinks that much milk, anyway? No, the elites don’t understand the working class any more than a baby understands calculus. We speak in different languages, enjoy different activities, and honor different gods. The religious left express their faith by lighting Fauci candles and punishing people who want to attend in-person church services. If you can’t get cow’s milk buy soy, oat, or cashew milk. Cows are antiquated symbols anyway - little methane factories destroying Mother Earth with every chew of their cud.

This is the new normal the elites envision. It isn’t about COVID; it never was. It is about those who accumulate power and wield it against the middle and working classes, who control the levers of government, industry, and the media, using it to silence dissent, shun contrarians, and punish the skeptic. It is a war waged to recreate politics and class as a moral bellwether. The more the fearful compliant try to grasp stability by marching lock-step with the likes of Dr. Fauci and hysteric-vomiting media, the more chaos grows, like feeding a horror movie Blob.

Dr. Suess’ “The Sneeches”

Society resembles the Dr. Suess story, The Sneeches. Everything is a badge to separate the divine from the unwashed. Everything from education, job, masks, vaccines, the products you buy, the brands you wear, masks, vaccines, votes, kids, patriotism…everything signals to which tribe you belong, AND YOU MUST PICK A SIDE.

It's becoming so frustrated at what is happening, being told to not believe your eyes, and having no voice and control over your life. It's screaming into the void and choking on your words. The media and politicians defy their rules while we suffer and deny our suffering. They didn't listen after 2016, instead punishing us for "disobeying,” branding nonbelievers of the progressive left as bigots, grandma killers, and Nazis - to what end? They want silence and compliance.

The ease with which they now condemn every opposing viewpoint as an act of bigotry, of fake news, of equating dissent with Nazi propaganda The Big Lie – reveals insecurity around their own beliefs that they cannot bear to confront debate. This new normal is a final push to silence dissent – from Joe Rogan to Canadian truckers, to Hollywood movie stars and best-selling authors.

Average Americans were asked to indulge and accommodate the leisure class irrationality in the hopes society would someday return to the old normal. But the goalposts shifted, and it became apparent a return to life as we knew it wasn’t the goal. Many objected, yet the elites used government mandates and social pressure as punishment, expecting people to crawl back and beg for mercy when they didn't agree with the rules. L-O-L.

The luxury of the elites comes from working-class sacrifice. Most are hardworking, dedicated people who just want to have a fulfilling job and provide for their families. But when class comes down to a moral divide in which a servant class is there for the comfort of the well-heeled, it shouldn’t be a surprise when the wheels come off and the damage done to kids, the economy, and our once-great cities are finally realized and are met with the shrugs of the working class who are fed up with being treated as expendable. It is understood, now, the boundaries for someone without pedigree; the limits of the working class; the reach of someone without agency and influence; the closed-mindedness of the most tolerant; the silence of the most compassionate.

The new normal demands compliance and obedience. The elites didn’t achieve their status in a vacuum: they convinced the rest to first give up their power, then that it is out of their benevolence to ration it back, finally that it isn’t deserved. Lies. They’re scared the people will take it back. They’re scared of you. Do not let them have their new normal. Stand up for reality and for truth, because freedom should never be traded for comfort, safety, and a new, powerless, voiceless “normal.”