Monday, January 10, 2022

Reversing Our Infantilization

My apologies for calling many Americans “wussies” on Twitter the other day. I was Omicron-delirious. I should have called them babies instead. I mean that, however, merely as a descriptive term, not as an ad hominem attack. America’s adult-age babies are victims of governments, especially the national one, which have been working hard for decades to infantilize the citizenry. As explained below, their efforts clearly are paying off. 


Reversing Americans’ infantilization will not be easy, but biological adults will have to grow up emotionally and intellectually before they can become truly free.


What do I mean by infantilization? Infants have unique attributes now shared widely among the working age adult population. (In other words, this is not a rehash of the well-worn diapers-to-diapers life cycle observation that the aged begin to resemble babies.) Eleven major similarities between babies and (too) many working age Americans spring to mind.


Babies, real ones and adult-aged ones:


  1. defecate in public. Have you heard about the street poo in San Francisco, New York, and other cities in California and elsewhere? Most is adult-age baby feces, not diaper detritus.

  2. throw temper tantrums for no apparent reason. Have you seen that video of a woman screaming maniacally for no reason? I am kidding, there are dozens of them, including this one at a gas pump, and this one at a Victoria’s Secret. Maybe some of the perps are on drugs but the ones who curl up in the fetal position and cry really make the baby angle pop.

  3. lash out in anger over nothing. There are lots of those videos, too, but the recent one of a maskless semi-famous celebrity berating and then slapping an old man for not wearing his mask while eating on an airplane is perhaps the most recent of the ugly genre.

  4. beg for food and other stuff. If baby gets hungry, cold, or tired, baby cries, which is its way of asking for help. If adult baby gets hungry, cold, or tied, adult baby goes on Twitter and begs for help from Uncle Sam, or a paternalistic local government. [Error! References too numerous to link.]

  5. cannot be told the truth. Parents tell their babies all kinds of sweet lies. Everything will be okay. Some fat dude is going to give you stuff. Some rabbit is going to give you stuff. Adult babies prefer putrid lies. Nothing is right with the Constitution. The world will end soon unless everyone submits and suffers. The country is tainted by slavery. Some people are “white” and they are privileged and yet fragile.

  6. are easy to abuse. Despite several articles by AIER writers detailing abusive government policies, most Americans continued to allow it to happen, with only a few stirrings of protest, mostly at the polls in Virginia and southern New Jersey in November.

  7. wear diapers. Babies wear them on their bottoms and adult babies on their chins, leading to the environmental crisis exposed in this photo essay.

  8. have untrustworthy immune systems. We love our babies so we start working on their immune systems right off, with momma’s milk. Unfortunately, scientists and public health officials tricked some mothers into believing that manufactured “formula” is better when in fact it leads to diabetes and allergies. Most of us also get our precious little ones vaccinated, after the shots have been thoroughly tested for years, of course. Adults have long been left to decide for themselves if they want annual flu shots or the shingles vaccine. But adult babies cannot be trusted to take their medicine and their immune systems cannot possibly handle SARS-CoV-2, so everybody has to get as many experimental vaccine shots as possible as soon as possible, possibly forever, which may not be that long.

  9. like to play peekaboo. If you ever want to see a real baby laugh – and who doesn’t? – cover your face with your hands while saying peekaboo and then open them quickly while saying the magic phrase, “I see you.” They will bust out laughing as they learn object permanence. Adult babies like to play peekaboo policies. They get infatuated with some silly policy idea, like DC statehood, then forget about its inanity once it leaves the news cycle, only to express baby-like delight at its eventual reemergence.

  10. are easily distracted by shiny objects. If you want to distract a baby, jingle some keys nearby and it will soon be fixated, even as its screaming mother is carted off to jail. America’s adult babies are also easily distracted. In fact, crazy Covid policies may have simply been a big set of shiny keys meant to distract Americans from The Great Reset (which is a thing!). It has certainly muted public discourse over the problems with the 5G rollout, which some claim will exacerbate recent air travel disruptions by interfering with aviation safety systems. The BBC and the WSJ reported on it before Christmas, when Fauci the Grinch was still stealing headlines. Boeing and Airbus warned Mayor Pete that the 5G rollout on 5 January could have “an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry,” including passenger safety. Most Americans talk about Covid passports for air travel while airline executives hint that planes could fall from the sky. Jingle, jingle!

  11. cannot think rationally. For all their cuteness, babies are a total mess upstairs. They can’t even walk or talk right. Adult babies are not quite that bad but many fall short of achieving what educational psychologist Jean Piaget called the “formal operational stage” of cognitive development. Most people do not achieve that stage until early adolescence at the youngest. More to the point here, most people achieve it in only one area of specialization and these days many never get there at all. Even many college students do poorly on formal operations assessment tests. These days, many public pronouncements sound crazy because they are essentially irrational as the thought processes leading to them do not follow the fundamental rules of logic but rather are riddled with logical fallacies. Goo goo, gah gah, photo id is racist/transphobic etc. in voting but just fine for vaccine passports.


I could go on, but think you get the point given the way the phrase “adults in the room” has been used in the mass media over the last few years. 


The important question is: how can Americans learn to grow up, into adulthood and, ultimately, freedom? Unfortunately, there is no magical red pill. All we have are incentives. Americans need to grow up, emotionally and intellectually, before they wake up one morning in a paternalist, centrally-planned hellhole.


A collective action problem, however, means that liberty loving adults have to do more than educate their fellow Americans about the horrors of paternalism and statism. It is costly to become an adult. Imagine the internal dialogue of an adult baby: “Why should I work hard to grow up and live free if that allows others to live free, as free as an adult baby can live anyway, without bearing any of the cost? Worse yet, what if I bear the costs of growing up but too few others do as well to save the country from authoritarian subjugation, be it under the Left or the Right? If I stay an adult baby sheeple, I might barely notice the change as I just follow orders anyway. And once you go adult, Jack, there is no going back. Adult pacifier, please!”


Here is a way out of that collective action problem. Being a free, rational adult in a land of adult babies is really, really cool once you come to see it in the right way. It’s like the saying about the one-eyed guy being the king of the land of the blind. You shouldn’t take their candy any more than you should steal some from a real baby. But you can ethically have fun with them. Make them laugh. (With your words or actions but don’t try tickling their feet or motorboarding their bellies, without permission anyway.) Induce them to donate to a cause that is the exact opposite of what they purport to believe, like I did one lucrative summer thirty years ago. Shame them into reading a real book. And note that it is legal to have sex with adult babies, again with what passes for their consent.


As more Americans decide to become actual adults to share in this booty, or at least avoid being taken advantage of, the marginal gain from adulthood will decrease. But so too will the risk that real adults will not be numerous enough to control public policy. So as the individual incentive declines, so too does the collective action problem.


Moreover, it is always better to be a free adult than an adult baby, which is better than being a slave in only one way. It remains in the power of the adult baby, at least for now, to break loose their swaddling blankets, rid themselves of chin diaper rash, save their adult pacifiers for special occasions, and develop policy permanence and formal operational thought.

Saturday, January 01, 2022

A Simple New Year's Resolution

Let lovers of liberty resolve this New Year to turn against collectivist groupthink and return to the basic principles of economics and common sense that made America’s first 245.5 years relatively happy and prosperous.


Readers sometimes complain that my words and sentences are too long. I believe them because often telling assertions go uncontested or ignored, as if readers did not understand the point. So this post is going to reit … go over several points that I made early in the pandemic. Again, very slowly, so that maybe even a few collectivists will start to get it.


  1. Americans are allowed to die if they want to. Suicide is not a crime, so I can eat a bullet or smallpox pie if I want, so long as I do not endanger others in the process. That also means that Americans can engage in risky behaviors that might kill them, like drinking alcohol in a crowded bar, even during a pandemic. They can skydive, bungee jump, base dive, free ski and free dive, and so on. Yeah, they might die but they might also live a fuller life than those who prefer cowering on the couch. Their bodies, their choice.

  2. Americans are presumed innocent until proven guilty. They must be accorded due process. That includes authorities collecting evidence of wrongdoing only if they can show “probable cause.” Sticking with the drinking analogy, Americans can’t lawfully drive until sobering up because drunk driving endangers others. But the crime is driving under the influence, not going to the bar or having drinks. If there are no symptoms of drunkenness, individual drivers cannot lawfully be stopped or tested for DUI. If symptoms appear, relatively objective tests ascertain the degree of impairment. Drinking during a pandemic might induce an infection that could be spread to others, but until there are symptoms and a test proving infection, there is no lawful cause to restrict individual freedom of movement, or even a visit to another bar. The NFL and other organizations are finally pushing back on the notion of asymptomatic spread of Covid, but science aside, punishing people on the mere possibility of illness was always morally and legally dubious.

  3. Americans are allowed to harm each other in minor ways. Right now, my neighbor is running his leaf blower. I could ask him to stop until I am done writing but I cannot legally compel him to do so until 11 pm. We might talk about leaf-blowing etiquette and such but if my neighbor incidentally infects me with a contagion in the process, that is on me, not him. He can block traffic on a narrow road to make a left turn, beat me to the good stuff when shopping for Christmas presents, and insist on keeping a tree that obstructs my view of fireworks, etc. But I can do the same to him. Creating minor harms for others is part of life, summed up by the credo of live and let live.

  4. American law generally follows the negative externality cost reduction principle laid out by economist Ronald Coase. In simpler terms, while I have a right not to be infected by others, they also have a right to go about their business. And vice versa. Generally, the party who can most cheaply reduce the harm is the one legally and morally bound to do so in a free country. If I have symptoms, like snot oozing from my nose, it is right that I stay home and rest up, and also the best thing for my health. So my harm mitigation cost is lower than that of keeping others locked away from my snot in their homes. If I have no symptoms, by contrast, others have the lowest cost of mitigation. That may mean that they stay healthy and boost their immune systems by eating a freaking vegetable or piece of fruit every now and again. Maybe hit the gym instead of the buffet. Or, if they face high risks, it may mean that they stay home while the asymptomatic masses roam the earth unimpeded.


Points 1 through 4 are not easily contested individually. Together, they constituted “common sense” until March 2020. Lockdowns violated them then, and mask and vaccine mandates do so now. 


Point 1 means that each American can decide for himself or herself if s/he wants to risk Covid infection without a “vaccine.” Not that such people are being suicidal, as many have strong natural immunity because they have already recovered from Covid. Others believe that the risk from the vaccine is greater than the risk from the disease. One need not be an anti-vaxxer to conclude that. Covid is still a mild illness for most. Top lawyers say that nobody has financial responsibility for harm created by the shots, records related to them are being sequestered for years and even decades, and media censorship of adverse reactions appears rampant. So the whole thing smells too fishy for many to stomach. Don’t blame the victims of the complete loss of trust in public health authorities.


Point 2 relates to the non-exemption of those who have acquired natural immunity. Vax mandates expose them to a positive risk, even if it is a low one, despite the fact that they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they cannot spread Covid. Doctors can test for immune resistance to Covid, so why do policymakers not take natural immunity into consideration? And why don’t policymakers give those without immunity organic options for acquiring it, like variolation? Omicron appears to be so weak that it may be less risky to be infected with it than to take one of those new-fangled shots that nobody wants to take financial responsibility for. At least give people the option of “boosting” via natural immunity instead of the synthetic stuff.


Point 3 is about the way the socioeconomic world functions. Americans constantly create minor inconveniences for others. If you don’t believe me, try driving on any part of the New Jersey Turnpike at just about any hour of any day. But authorities don’t shut the dangerous thing down, they fine those who drive way too fast and recklessly. The same principle should be/have been applied to Covid policies.


The point about Coase, Point 4, is key. When rights conflict, the party with the lowest cost of ending the conflict or reducing the harm should be the one to act. That varies with the context. Unvaxxed people can spread Covid to vaccinated and boosted people. But the latter can also infect the former. So we are really in the same situation as during the pre-vaccine stage: if you have symptoms or have tested positive, stay home and get well. If you don’t, it is up to other people to protect themselves by staying healthy, staying home, or taking the Fauci ouchie, as they see fit after consulting their personal physicians, not some talking head on TV or some distant government “official.”


Policymakers could be, and should be, teaching our children these basic lessons in economics and common sense so that nothing like the last 21 months ever happens again. Instead, they waste time on “call it what you will” collective victimization studies, creating a generation of people expecting direction from on high instead of following the internal moral gyroscope of what sociologist David Riesman called the inner-directed personality


America may not be at the end of the end, but it could well be at the beginning of its final act if lovers of liberty cannot find a way to clobber collectivist groupthink and foster understanding of the concepts that constituted the core of the nation’s long period of initial success. Let’s make achieving that goal a New Year's Resolution.