When we’re still asking the question “why?” we’re stuck in disbelief and denial about the reality we’re in.

1/3 of the country is aware and cares, but is too atomized and disempowered to act meaningfully. 1/3 are too comfortable and attached to their slipping consumer entitlement to take risks for the sake of anyone else. 1/3 have channeled their entitlement and/or immiseration into enthusiastic support for what’s happening.

I’m with you, but the reality is that the majority of the country would shake their heads and go back to watching Netflix rather than do anything while you’re being dragged to the camps.

I visited Switzerland just after the vaccines dropped. The Swiss COVID response far surpassed the response in the United States. They rolled out a nation-wide app for vaccination attestation, and any museum, restaurant, etc. could scan a QR code on someone’s phone with a phone. But do they have a scary, socially reactionary subset of their population? Yes.

In some harmful ways they are fanatically culturally conservative. But they also care about community, sustainability, health, the well-being of children, environmental preservation, organization, and self-reliance. Being a small, rich, homogeneous, topographically-isolated country drives these characteristics.

Surveillance State developments are depressing but not surprising.

Yes, it’s literally a pointless cash-grab that they can bill to insurance.

Last time I was at my primary care, I was handed a survey as part of my pre-appointment paperwork. I started filling it out before I read the fine print at the end: It was optional. It would be billed to my insurance, and “most patients’” insurance covered the charge. I refused to complete it. Just one more tiny outrage as part of the massive scam that is the American medical system.

No just any shit, shit that helps everyday people living in their country.

I’m just thinking of the major cities in my U.S. state where the public transit map, before and after, looks like Chengdu in 2010. So as unfortunate as the circumstances are in Toronto, they can be even worse.

Licking Lead is only “not a great idea?” I think it’s squarely in the “Please don’t do that” territory.