Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

“The world as we know it is ending.”

The immense popularity of overstating one’s personal risk from Covid, and of structuring one’s whole life around that exaggerated risk, can’t be explained in logical terms. It can only be understood with the animal logic of the force that dictates the living conditions of our entire elite class: their competition against each other.

Bogost’s piece is an absolute classic, maybe the classic, in a particularly strange form of worry porn that progressives have become addicted to in the past half-decade. It’s this thing where they insist that they don’t want something to happen, but they describe it so lustily, imagine it so vividly, fixate on it so relentlessly, that it’s abundantly clear that a deep part of them wants it to happen. This was a constant experience in the Trump era – liberals would imagine that Trump was about to dissolve Congress and declare himself emperor, they’d ostensibly be opposed to such a thing, but they were so immensely invested in the seriousness and accuracy of such predictions that they’d clearly prefer for it to happen. I wrote about Chris Hayes and his bitter yearning for Trump last week, and he’s a good example, someone who ruminates on Trump and the dystopian future he might bring about with such palpable emotional pathology that it’s clear that, on some level, he needs it to happen, so that he can say “I was right.” And so with Bogost here; that level of anxious catastrophizing always carries with it the quiet, throbbing need for the bad dream to come true. Covid is already bad, very bad. I am always so confused that so many people seem desperately to want it to be worse.

71 Replies to “Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors”

    1. This is the Covid we’ve all been waiting for. As with Climate Change, the panic is media-driven, not science driven.

      1. Covid proves the argument imho. By switching to cases with unreal references to overwhelmed hospitals and none to deaths, they have created a self-perpetuating partisan power machine. Science tells us cases will rise with each new variant. but when that happens their alarm is more shrill than ever, despite lower than ever societal risk, they resort to top down one fits all edicts.

        Watching the World Juniors get cancelled this year embarrassed me as a Canadian. As the rest of the world finally wakes up to the fact covid is forever so we’d better learn to live with it instead of dying from it, we retrench back to day one, with horrible cost.

        That is the only reason they fixate on cases, the commanding heights as they see them, always surging; their scary scenarios never transpiring. Yet they remain in power, even through hypocritical pandemic elections. They don’t see failure as poor results.

        They see success in their growing power and influence over societal thought, their authoritarian default on full display with covid.
        As they let thousands die in care homes, wave after wave, their failure and negligence on full display. But reality is not their gig.

    2. Excellent video. Puts Omicron in perspective. Compared to the previous variants, incredibly more virulent, far less serious symptoms, and looking like it ultimately offers greater (and natural) immunity going forward than vaccines. Feeling like you can see the end from here.

  1. That was an interesting essay, it helped me understand what he refers to as the “strivers”. Educated but brutally childish, all the disciplines he mentions to which they aspire carry one essential ingredient, they are non-productive employment equivalents to navel gazing. I think he is, on at least one level beginning to question aspects of the paradigms in which they and he exist, but immediately retreats to the safety of the crowd when his musings lead him near objective reality.

    1. This is a distinction of sorts.

      Anyone can be educated, as in get into the right schools, memorise information, have a piece of paper from the right schools, but how many are truly capable of processing information and looking at the bigger picture?

      The self-important, sanctimonious paranoid class cannot (or at least will not).

      Their bleatings for self-security (and the children!) are so hollow. They are easily afraid and care only about themselves. If entire economies get shut down and people ruined, it is no matter for them. They don’t care or get that these little cogs are the reason why they can hide in their apartments and offer pronouncements.

  2. It would be idiotic to take seriously anyone so ill-informed as to have a 7-year-old child immunized for Covid; and, FYI, the CDC’s admission that the PCR test cannot differentiate between influenza and Covid makes a total, complete, anti-science meme of the “800,000.”

    1. VOWG

      …was Covid even here..?? EVER.?

      Seems to me the Fact that Influenza A/B, Seasonal Flu and the common Cold are in FACT ALL Corona Viruses…added to the fact that RT PCR is a Colossal FRAUD….?? Add this to the supposed disappearance of the above winter ailments…

      Well, I may not be an “intellectual”, but I ain’t stupid either…..math was and remains a strong suit.

      I keep going back to the Diamond Princess/USN CVN71.
      Both Fully Quarantined – 9850 passengers – 15 died….of..? the goddamned FLU.
      14 of whom were Elderly with at least 2 Co-morbidities – who else goes on a cruise in Feb.?

      Govt – Health Authorities – MSM should all just STFU.

      I remain a FREE person. Unencumbered with the possiblity I may experience any side effect…other than being beyond fed up with the herd of Bleating IMBECILES I am forced to live among.

      1. +++Stilgar. The covid bastards and their insanity have robbed this old man of two years on the back end of his life and it looks like they want to go for three. I would beat them all into the ground if I could. They are evil selfish assholes.
        At the start of the insanity I said that covid did not exist and it was a flu. I was right then and I am still right. Sadly Canadians are no longer capable of rational, logical, critical thought. They spill millions of words on pages and do not have a clue what they are talking about.
        People are so dumb they are taking experimental gene therapy and calling it a vaccine. I have no idea how many people will be killed by the vaxxes but it is already in the tens of thousands. The people are lost, irrational fear has gripped an intellectually stunted populace, and they will not see what is happening right in front of their eyes. Death will come and they will still not acknowledge from where and why it has come.

  3. Conformity and competition do seem to be the defining characteristics of the majority of people in modern society. To see competitive conformity in the striving class (formerly called yuppies) isn’t the least bit surprising. Competitive conformity has become a fashion accessory.

    In fashion, influencers and yuppies are always early adopters of the top designer’s trends no matter how odd or ugly the style. They also choose the most exaggerated and expensive versions of the new style once the normies start buying the trend.

    Competitive conformity to government covid policies are basically the newest designer purse or luxury wrist watch for yuppies. Conspicuous display is important. Dressed to kill….

    1. If you’ve ever been to a coffee shop in Palo Alto, and seen the soy boys (and soy girls) order the most convoluted, personalized, caffeine drink, that literally takes a long paragraph of words to order … standing in their skinny jeans … with European carryall on a cross-body strap … you shake your head at the hipster-class of self-superior twits. I literally LOL when I see these competitive hipsters preening and posturing.

      1. …and very few men look good in skinny pants or skinny denim jeans. I’m betting the skinny pants crowd are the same guys ordering the fancy coffee.

  4. The person who wrote this seems somewhat reasonable although butt-plug ignorant about the Ohmegod variant.
    The problem with a lot of people is that they have ZERO risk in their day to day work & lives.
    As someone who does have multiple risks when working in “the field”, I can’t relate to pussies and their overblown fears.

    If you’re afraid of the virus (or other almost semi-abstract things) just remove your spirit from the earth and with haste so the rest of us can eat, drink and be merry all the more.

    1. Buddy.

      Perfect…in the Field indeed. Yet go into the field and there (at least in the Alberta Oil industry), they too have gone full on NAZI.

    2. Self-absorbed naval gazers, anyone?
      Maybe civilization and advanced technology does lead to increasing neurosis, feminization and infantilization. Many seem cocooned from reality and lack any sense of historical perspective. News flash, before electricity railroads, and mass production, everyone’s life pretty much sucked. Before vaccines, antibiotics, and clean water everyone, regardless of status, lived with pain, suffering, tragedy, and loss.
      The cocooned generations have no concept of real-life threats and can’t conceive of a world where real bad things happen to anyone. They are risk averse and innumerate about risk. Anyway, I’m not sure that it is their fault, since routine tragedy and suffering is something outside their experience. They seem to overcompensate by over dramatizing and exaggerating mundane risks.

  5. The left, whose lives are largely meaningless, boring and completely devoid of creativity and joy, welcome disaster and outrage. It’s the only thing that breaks up the monotony of their useless, wasted existence.

    The left remain angry, unfulfilled in a nasty jejune world. They also seem to revel in their misery and urge others to join the misery train. It’s more or less a way of life for them … whist we try to make a success of our lives, the left works on destroying opportunities for a successful life … in the name of equity. A world of losers is what they would have … everyone a mindless NPC.

    1. The left, whose lives are largely meaningless, boring and completely devoid of creativity and joy, welcome disaster and outrage.

      That’s why many of them are enforcers of whatever draconian measures are being imposed on us. They use their misery and self-loathing as an excuse to inflict the same on everyone else.

      I saw it just about every time I flew to and from my house in B. C. Some of the agents appeared to take pride in rummaging through my stuff, while justifying it in the name of “safety” or “security”. It was their way that, legally, they had power and I didn’t. But they also took umbrage that I wasn’t cowed into submission, which seemed to encourage them to become even nosier.

    2. Their empty lives will always make them miserable, and misery loves company.

      They also simply hate anyone who won’t go along with the charade, cognitive dissonance is painful and must be avoided at all costs.

  6. A very in-depth analysis of people I normally call assholes.
    Considering he agreed to three shots after he already had a cold, he falls into that category.

  7. Companies like Pfizer have made billions and started acquiring other companies. If they can keep this going just a bit longer they will supply 90% of all drugs bought for any reason. At least that’s their goal

  8. The guy satisfies himself with using completely random numbers without any reference to reality.
    This is the major part of the massive propaganda.

  9. The most amusing part of this is the linked article spends the first several paragraphs explaining he really is a Covidian before going on to complain about Covidian Fundamentalists.

    1. The comments are good. People who want to be progressive, but have too much real world experience not to smell the BS.

      We used to call this “perspective.”

    2. Right you are, Bill. I read as far as the part about how he, at only 40 years old, caught the virus and had a mild case, yet got double jabbed anyway and then the booster too, and stopped reading. I figured this was a guy whose opinion would be worthless.

  10. Regarding “progressive“ policies, what’s most important is that morally vain, politically self-indulgent leftist voters feel good about themselves. The policy results matter not.

    For them its the policy intent that provides the righteous frission of pleasure, and moral and intellectual superiority (as well as indignation towards those who disagree) for them.

    And by God if that means mandating boosters for life and destroying civil liberties while laying waste to Canada economically (also via climate change), culturally and foundationally – well that’s a small price to pay to bolster the political vanities of the average self-righteous low information liberal.

  11. I closed the link before the end of the first paragraph when I hit, “The vaccines work”.

    I don’t care what else the author has to say.

    1. The vaccines do work if you understand what “work” they are intended to do. (They don’t work perfectly, of course, not everyone has swallowed it.)

      1. Well, the evolution of that narrative has been an interesting, if not revealing, little side trip down the road of Outright Lies & CYA, hasn’t it? Beginning at, “The jabs will stop the spread”, it’s currently at, “Well, OK, it won’t actually stop the spread but, but, it will lessen the effects of the infection if you go licking door knobs”. I’ve seen little evidence to support that conjecture, but OK. There has also been zero acknowledgement from Fraudci of the fact that being leaky “vaxxes” they have played a large hand in all the extra mutations, along with the additional infections, sickness, deaths, costs, etc. To date none of these “experts” has said anything about the immune system damage these purported “vaxxes” are causing, either.

        So, yeah, if you’re the type of person who, upon waking up every morning, takes their brain out of their skull, places it in a glass jar, puts it in the fridge, goes to work, updates the narrative, returns home, takes your brain out of the fridge & the jar & puts it back in your skull just prior to watching the effects of your updated narrative on the evening MSM, you bet! The “vaxxes” work!

        1. Yes, that’s it. The vaccines have placated the majority, made money for the drug companies, and given cover to the politicians and bureaucracy.

    2. Dumb Biker:

      Well he got scared into taking 3 jabs. He’s a good and very VERY nice man. He could not imagine, possessing these qualities and being skeptical of the motives of gubmint helpers, so the vaccine must work. And he has simply declared this to be true and indisputable.

      Oh, and he would most assuredly praise your SDA handle.

      1. Well, while’s he’s genuflecting to my handle, I may just do a quick 180 & he could KMHUA. Like in the flick, Hot Dog, The Movie: “Not on the left side. Not on the right side. But right in the meedle…” 🙂

  12. Very revealing that the left secretly wishes for the worst so that they can claim that they were right. Would it shock you if I were to admit that I am the same way? The difference between them and myself though, is that I AM SELF-AWARE of those feelings of desiring vindication, and I admit to you that those feelings are wrong, and should be resisted. The left, OTOH, would gleefully welcome our destruction just so that they can prove to themselves how right they were.

    Now how many of you have had those same feelings? How many comments have I seen here predicting the deaths of the vaccinated? And be honest… how many of you really REALLY want the worst to happen so that you could claim that you were right?

    I may have that deeply-rooted desire of vindication, but I recognize that desire for what it is… and I resist it. In fact, I pray for the opposite… that my predictions of demise are wrong, so that many people would not die.

    1. We all die. I wish people may to the greatest possible extent live as they each choose and if they die of the choices they make, I wish they are allowed to make those choices freely. IF people want to choose to force or coerce me to live as they do so they can feel better about their choices, I wish those individuals die of their own choices, sooner than later and in either case, before their choices kill me.

      1. That is so right. And if one of those choices involves forcing my choice, that will be the choice that they die of.

    2. fc, I just want the bullshit, lies, harassment, etc., etc., etc., to f’ing STOP. I want my life to return to some sense of normal, whatever the hell that would mean in a post-Covid world. This, what we have now, is not normal nor acceptable. And, if it takes the “vaccine”-induced side effect death of 1/2 the “vaxxed” population for the Branch Covidians to come to their senses, so be it. Being right is not my end game. It will, however, be icing on the cake.

      1. Of that, we are in somewhat of an agreement. It’s not important to be right. It’s important to get the truth out regardless of who is right. If the truth comes out and proves us to be on the right, then we should bring justice to those who would be willing to lie to our faces and commit genocide in the process.

        The only difference between our respective opinions is that I would hope that people would come to their senses without having to lose their lives.

        1. Ya know, fc, after the last two years I’m not entirely sure there’s enough sanity left on this planet for them to come to their senses. It’s like it’s headed to outer space, never to return.

    3. fc..

      “…how many of you really REALLY want the worst to happen so that you could claim that you were right…?

      Both my 30 something girls got the vax…2 shots ea. But at this stage are refusing any booster. Do you really think I would want the Worst to happen.?? Give yer fkn head a shake.

      I don’t think I’m alone here either buddy…

      I have no wish for Govt/Politicians – AHS – MSM to die from a Vax….Good Lord NO..!!
      I want the MotherFuckers HUNG….in PUBLIC and BROADCAST LIVE – all Channels

      1. I don’t want your daughters to die either. That’s precisely my point! But there are a great many of us that would like to see the demise (of strangers) to prove that they were right!

        I also have four brothers who are not only vaxed, but triple-vaxed. We’re not as far off as you might think.

        And although I wouldn’t put it as crudely as you did, I ALSO want the perpetrators of this evil to face justice.

        There IS a difference!

        btw… My head’s shaken, not stirred.

        1. my entire family is vaxxed, i certainly don’t want har to them or any other vaxxed person. i want more than harm to the perpetrators, I want charges of genocide and the ultimate penalty, no hoods, and I want them publically broken, I wnat them to have to contemplate their death with their head in the noose, or up against a wall for awhile. I want so much suffering it sickens me about myself, but this must be a “never again” moment. I want a record of the begging, the crying, the terror, and it should be taught in school.

    4. There certainly are those who hope for the death and disability of vaccinated people and I understand that pride and ego makes people become the worst version of themselves. OTOH, there’s those who are worried that their vaccinated friends and family will end up with vaccine induced death and disabilities but hope they’re wrong. I like to think there’s more of the worried latter than the angry former.

      You’re right though that ego and the need to be right shows up on both sides. I want to be right about the vaccines *and* not have people I care about have life changing vaccine injuries. I hope the resilience of the human body and it’s ability to repair itself plus human ingenuity in medicine will fix any vaccine damage. I somewhat idealistically think you can hold true to your principles and keep your humanity**.

      **I am avoiding close contact with quite a few of my vaccinated friends and family with “strong personalities” until this shit blows over to prevent permanent bad blood.

      1. “**I am avoiding close contact with quite a few of my vaccinated friends and family with “strong personalities” until this shit blows over to prevent permanent bad blood.”

        I am avoiding no one and reserving no comment. I have a few close friends I’ve known for 4 or 5 decades who are “vaxxed”. They are adults & have made their choice. Like me. We haven’t been friends that long because we pussy-footed around the difficult topics & were afraid to talk.

        1. There’s an argument to be made for keeping the peace. Those in power are seeking to create divisions and anger. My anger is reserved for those people. One of the lessons in conflict management is knowing when to walk away until things cool down. I had uncles and cousins who lived in the same town but didn’t talk for years after Mulroney’s Meech Lake and Charlottetown. Vowed I’d never let the politics of division and idiot politicians get in the way of important relationships.

          1. I can’t talk to my brothers for precisely that reason… to “keep the peace.” Every time I bring up the subject, one brother would say “I won’t talk about that to avoid getting into an argument.” Two of my other brothers have actually accused me of propagating hate speech.

            I don’t know how to get a point across to people who absolutely refuse to stare at evil in the eye and recognize it for what it is.

          2. This too shall pass

            As I tell my kids: WW1 ended, WW2 ended, Spanish Flu ended, Great Depression ended. In the midst of chaos, tragedy and evil, it always feels eternal and hopeless.

          3. Addendum: The goal is to be one of the survivors. Always have a backup plan in case things get ugly. If a rabid grizzly bear is charging you and yours then you’ll want to have better preparations than hope and faith.

  13. ? A question for SDA commenters: ?

    In this thread, does Kate’s patented phrase “moral and intellectual superiors” refer to the writer, his liberal comrades whom he mildly chastises for engaging in luxury beliefs and competitive hysteria …. or BOTH.

    This end, his last sentence seems to tag me as abnormal.
    For you normal people out there? Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Be smart. Then live your life. Defy the virus. Defy it.

    1. The point is that he is seeing just how crazy his fellow travelers are. Makes it harder for them to scapegoat the rest of us. Even their own kind can see what’s really going on.

  14. Good article. What strikes me about the impeccable character sketches presented is their applicability to the covid trolls here. No matter how drily and pedantically delivered their bullshit is: they’re just scared pussies.

    1. “People with Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome are very good at coming across as wonderful, empathetic, involved caregivers.”…..
      ….”Perpetrators tend to be skilled at falsifying disorders (many have medical backgrounds).”

      This often describes nurses outside of their work.

      Don’t think they actually hurt anyone, tough they will relentlessly tell you how wrong you are and that they know absolutely everything about everything.

  15. I have a new term. TMs, Trans Marxists. In transition, they self identify as “liberals” and since the term is (mis)used so frequently in the media, even conservative media, most of us don’t question it but there is actually nothing liberal about them. Anymore than a trans person is actually the sex they claim to be, that is.

  16. I have a few friends who talk to me as if being non vaxxed is like climbing Mt Everest without oxygen or going over Niagara Falls in a beer keg.
    They wish me luck and hope that I will be safe.
    All of them still have cable news.
    I don’t think that is a coincidence.

    Regarding doctors, it’s probably a job requirement to be a bit arrogant and super confident.
    Meek people don’t perform brain surgery or open heart surgery.
    You probably can’t separate out that arrogance but that doesn’t mean that we can’t account for it when we analyze their behaviour.

    1. Scientists and doctors, whether pimping for climate change or vaccines, are not immune to cash, pressure and the need for funding. I don’t care about their credentials, if they’re wrong, they’re wrong. If they lie they are liars. Mengele was a doctor.

  17. All you have to do is watch some of their fear porn movies to understand what they want to happen. Look at the hunger games, blade runner, the matrix etc, etc. They crave disasters because it’s all they have in their life.

  18. Just a follow up on my comment yesterday about children hospitalizations in New York state.
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1476202025234968585
    Openly admitting “we are deliberately scaring you with misinformation so you will be pushed to make a decision to vaccinate your children.”
    We will never know the real extent of vaccine damage.

  19. OUTSTANDING article. The sentiment discussed in the article HEAVILY informs the Canadian response to Covid as it gives all the usual domestic suspects ample opportunity to engage in their favorite pastime – i.e., preeningly obnoxious moral exhibitionism vis-à-vis the (supposedly) less-caring, less-compassionate (read: grossly inferior in every conceivable capacity) nation immediately to the south of us.

Navigation