Are we going off the rails on a coronavirus crazy train?
Are we going off the rails on a coronavirus crazy train?
Consider the following:
Two women recently shot teenaged McDonald employees in Oklahoma after being told that, because of coronavirus restrictions, they couldn’t sit in the dining room.
A security guard at a California Target store had his arm broken after he told two men to wear a mask in the store and a fight broke out.
In Michigan, a Family Dollar store security guard was gunned down after turning a customer away who tried to enter the store without a mask.
The apparent murder of a black man jogging in Georgia could have (sadly) happened at any time, but was it more likely to happen now? I'm not sure.
In any event, the last time I remember a similar string of weird events was during the lead-up to the 2013 government shutdown, when I documented the following:
A man with “the delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves” went on a killing spree at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC.
A woman was shot and killed after attempting to ram a White House barricade.
A stenographer in the U.S. House of Representatives freaked out and started yelling: “This is not, one nation under God. It never was. Had it been... the Constitution would not have been written by Free Masons. They go against God. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ.”
Around the same time, Dr. Drew Pinsky (who would infamously downplay the danger of the coronavirus) suggested that “[T]his dysfunction—this lack of leadership—is affecting people...I think the reason mentally ill people are driving their cars into the White House and getting shot and stuff is because they’re freaked out,” he continued. “It’s like having parents fighting, and of course, the most sensitive among us act out.”
I always thought he was on to something. Could we be experiencing a similar phenomenon now?
Maybe (as Dr. Drew suggested), part of the problem is a lack of leadership. People are afraid, and that fear manifests in weird ways. Or maybe we’ve become too selfish and individualistic to sacrifice our precious haircuts, Target merchandise, and McNuggets?
Or maybe, just maybe, the warnings about the psychological dangers of social distancing are real.
Yes, mitigation is a vital strategy for managing the spread of this deadly virus. But there are also a lot of trade-offs, both economic and psychological.
So, call a friend or a loved one. Don’t spend too much time on Twitter (or the news, for that matter). Take care of yourself. Don’t let your sanity be a COVID casualty.
We’re gonna get through this, eventually!
Listen to the latest podcast episodes ...
Fordham professor Charles Camosy on Nursing Home Abuse and COVID
> Click here to listen online
Andrew Roberts on Winston Churchill (Rebroadcast)
> Click here to listen online
Josh Kraushaar's 2020 Election Preview
> Click here to listen online
Want to get new "Matt Lewis & the News" podcast episodes as soon as I post them? Subscribe to my iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher feeds.
Please consider supporting my work on Patreon
Your support helps me produce "Matt Lewis & the News" and expand the content that I offer to subscribers like you. In addition, you'll get some awesome swag and exclusive access to special content, like mini-podcast episodes.
Yes, I want to support "Matt Lewis & the News" on Patreon