{"id":2127,"date":"2020-05-02T10:28:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T14:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2020-05-02T10:30:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T14:30:49","slug":"resistance-to-operation-cosmic-confinement-and-big-conservatism-the-big-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/05\/resistance-to-operation-cosmic-confinement-and-big-conservatism-the-big-con.html","title":{"rendered":"Big Conservatism: NO Resistance to OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Big Conservatism, i.e. the Big Con, has only recently and quite late in this game began to realize that perhaps OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (OCC) was never such a very good idea in the first place. Yet the modus operandi of the men and women of the Big Con is now what it has always been: Object to the left\u2026<em>but only so much<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Cons, if readers recall, were, in many instances\u2014like at Fox News, in the pages of the Murdoch-owned <em>New York Post, <\/em>at <em>National Review, <\/em>and in much of \u201cconservative\u201d talk radio\u2014every bit as sensationalistic and hysterical as were their leftist counterparts.\u00a0 Now that OCC is starting to tire among an increasing number of Americans, particularly those who are likely to be consumers of the products regularly distributed by the Big Con, the latter is beginning to whistle another tune:<\/p>\n<p>There are now calls on the part of the Big Cons to end \u201cthe lockdown\u201d and \u201creopen the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, even as they begin to change tact, the Big Cons still reinforce the paralyzing fear among the masses of\u2026<em>The Virus.\u00a0 <\/em>They do this by endorsing such idiotic and socially-destructive Big Government decrees as those mandating the wearing of masks, remaining six feet apart from others, and other \u201csocial distancing\u201d protocols. <em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After all, if OCC needs to end and if, as more of the Big Cons are beginning to acknowledge, it consists of Constitutionally-dubious measures on the part of opportunistic politicians, then why are they willing to continue observing these measures even as they call for the country to reopen?<\/p>\n<p>Even now the Big Cons still reinforce fear by refusing to acknowledge that The Virus was <em>never <\/em>remotely as deadly as their self-styled enemies on the left in Big Media and Big Government made it out to be.<\/p>\n<p>Even now the Big Cons continue to reinforce fear by refusing to concede that not so much as a lemonade stand should have been closed down because of this virus, and that even had it been as dangerous as the Medical Establishment\u2019s premier political arm, the WHO, dishonestly claimed it would be, <em>nothing should have been closed down, <\/em>much less <em>ordered by government to close down. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even now the Big Cons reinforce fear by insisting that while the rest of the country reopens, the elderly and the immunocompromised should remain (be <em>forced <\/em>to remain) isolated.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Cons never tire of assuring their followers that what distinguishes <em>them<\/em> from their enemies on the left is that <em>they<\/em> value \u201climited government,\u201d \u201cpersonal responsibility,\u201d \u201cindividual liberty,\u201d the Constitution, the Founders, the Framers, etc. Yet if this was truly the case, then not for a millisecond could they have countenanced OCC, for as America\u2019s Founders essentially told us through the Constitution with its Bill of Rights, liberty-loving, self-governing adults don\u2019t accept the loss of their liberty, the loss of their moral agency as persons and citizens, in exchange for the promise of protection\u2014of <em>the State\u2019s <\/em>protection\u2014from a virus.<\/p>\n<p>Only a slave or a child would find anything but abhorrent what America\u2019s governments have imposed upon its citizens (and imposed upon them for the sake of them contracting a virus that, in the vast majority of instances, doesn\u2019t even make its hosts sick!)<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, the same Big Con celebrities in Big Conservative Media who are now complaining about Big Tech\u2019s censoring of the analyzes of dissident medical specialists; the dictatorial decrees of Democrat governors and mayors; and the consistently, often wildly, inaccurate prognoses supplied by such Experts as Drs. Fauci and Birx, at least implicitly legitimized such things earlier on when they accepted hook, line, and sinker the official narrative concerning \u201cthe Pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was, after all, Big Con celebrities at places like Fox News, with \u201cCORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC\u201d against a blood-red backdrop flashing across the screen 24 hours each and every day for the longest time, that dignified <em>The Lie<\/em>\u2014the biggest lie of our generation and perhaps of any generation\u2014that there was a plague rapidly sweeping over the land that promised nothing less than death for any and all upon whom it inflicted.<\/p>\n<p>It was the Big Con that failed to scrutinize the reporting of The Virus supplied by Big Government and Big (Leftist) Media.<\/p>\n<p>It was the Big Con that failed to search out, from the outset of the Great UnReason, the ever-increasing numbers of real scientists who have repeatedly and convincingly demonstrated that while this virus, like all viruses and illnesses, should be treated with due seriousness, it doesn\u2019t remotely warrant the alarm, much less the socially, mentally, and economically disastrous measures implemented by power-hungry politicians and promoted by their Big Media propagandists, that it has occasioned.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, what exactly have Big Con media personalities done in the way of supporting those of us who, with not so much as a fraction of their resources in influence and money, <em>have <\/em>resisted this Tyranny of Irrationality in our own ways?<\/p>\n<p>The Big Cons could mobilize armies of resisters to descend upon state capitols.<\/p>\n<p>They could galvanize Constitutional lawyers to file lawsuits against oppressive state governors who continue to violate the Constitutional liberties of their residents.<\/p>\n<p>They could bring pressure upon President Trump to use his influence to starve of all federal monies those states whose governors persist in forcing their own residents to endure economic and other social hardships, along with all of the incalculable pain and suffering in mental well-being that they entail.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Con has done none of this.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, at the cost the anguish of untold numbers of Americans, including those upon whom their own circulation and ratings rely, the Big Cons prefer to augment their own influence and wealth by doing nothing more or less than complaining about these gross injustices\u2014rather than lift a finger to help those who have been subjected to them.<\/p>\n<p>As the country, right before our eyes and seemingly with each passing day, is fundamentally transformed, and all for the worst, the Big Con has not only done nothing to conserve the institutions of family, friendships, church, community, and the Constitution itself against the sustained, explosive attacks that they have suffered in the name of \u201c<em>the War<\/em> on <em>the Coronavirus<\/em>;\u201d it has aided and abetted this process.<\/p>\n<p>For those of us who do plan upon resisting tyranny, of all forms, we should now know, if we didn\u2019t\u2019 know it before, that from the Big Con, we should never expect so much as an iota of assistance.<\/p>\n<p>We should also know that resistance to tyranny necessarily includes resistance to the Big Con, for unless we are willing to expose these fake defenders of liberty for what they are, tyranny will prevail.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big Conservatism, i.e. the Big Con, has only recently and quite late in this game began to realize that perhaps OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (OCC) was never such a very good idea in the first place. Yet the modus operandi of the men and women of the Big Con is now what it has always been:&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Big Conservatism: NO Resistance to OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/05\/resistance-to-operation-cosmic-confinement-and-big-conservatism-the-big-con.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Conservatism: NO Resistance to OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Big Conservatism, i.e. the Big Con, has only recently and quite late in this game began to realize that perhaps OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (OCC) was never such a very good idea in the first place. Yet the modus operandi of the men and women of the Big Con is now what it has always been:&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/05\/resistance-to-operation-cosmic-confinement-and-big-conservatism-the-big-con.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-02T14:28:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-02T14:30:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Big Conservatism: NO Resistance to OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/05\/resistance-to-operation-cosmic-confinement-and-big-conservatism-the-big-con.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Big Conservatism: NO Resistance to OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT","og_description":"Big Conservatism, i.e. the Big Con, has only recently and quite late in this game began to realize that perhaps OPERATION COSMIC CONFINEMENT (OCC) was never such a very good idea in the first place. 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I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2133,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions\/2133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}