McDonald: Fantasy vs reality
I began the year 2021 in a state of despondency. We had already suffered nearly nine months of abject misery—political, economic, psychological—ostensibly to keep us safe from an illness that was medically irrelevant to all but a fraction of one percent of the population. Despite the heavy price paid, we had still failed to protect the vulnerable, denying them real treatment that might have saved their lives. We were looking ahead to yet another year of school and business closures, mask mandates, and draconian travel restrictions. Worse, most Americans still believed the nonsense force-fed them by politicians, media, and large corporations. Foolishly, they had promised obeisance to an abusive guru who was molesting their bodies and robbing their wallets, yet they refused to break their oath of unquestioning loyalty to their new god, even if it killed them. The future looked bleak.
This year I feel optimistic, and rationally so. Since publishing my book United States of Fear in November, I can clearly see how we hit rock bottom and what a recovery will look like. It will not happen right away. California state governor Gavin Newsom has reinstituted a state-wide indoor mask mandate, the Los Angeles Unified School District has ordered all its students to wear an N95 mask indoors and outdoors, and hospitals throughout the country are denying organ transplants to otherwise healthy adults who refuse to take an injection that could kill them, one that provides no protection from a virus that is as dangerous as the common cold. The present looks bleak.
I continue to feel optimistic, though, for two reasons. First, the Brandon administration is moribund. Joe Biden’s approval ratings are lower than the current rate of inflation. Only the efficacy of the “vaccine” boasts a lower percentage. He promised protection from a deadly virus, yet he delivered a reality so lacking in safety that parents now fear the very real danger of their daughter being stabbed to death by a homeless drug addict in the middle of the day while working alone in an upscale furniture store in the trendy Fairfax District of Los Angeles. Even CNN, the official propaganda arm of the Democrat party, has turned against the President. No one is listening to him anymore. Second, as the entire White House executive office circles the drain, a growing number of Americans are realizing they have been had. Despite dutiful and consistent anti-social distancing, regular testing, close-contact tracing, double (and triple) masking, quarantining, injecting and boostering, they were still left with a Chinese virus under their Christmas tree on December 25. And they all recovered by New Year. They are now immune to any new infection. And they are done. A 21-year-old patient of mine is in just that situation, only she suffered a serious injury from her first shot. Now she is being told by her university that she cannot begin spring semester without a booster. She voted for Joe Biden, and she faithfully complied with all his edicts. She is now requesting a medical exemption from me. She recognizes that the chasm between the fantasy she was sold and the reality she is living is growing—rapidly. Much of America now sees this as well.
Two masked white women (Karens) recently attacked a black man in an elevator in New York City for not wearing a mask. As they flailed their arms at him, displaying the psychotic eyes of Sandy Cortez, they screamed, “Black lives matter!” They are clearly disconnected from reality, yet they appear to believe that reciting a woke mantra while engaged in an anti-social act will absolve them of all accountability. It isn’t working. They have been pilloried on social media, and not only by conservatives. Doe-eyed liberals are over these destructive displays of insanity, too. Few Americans were prepared for the intensity of the attacks on basic liberty when the fear pandemic began in early 2020. Now there is a backlash brewing, one fomented by righteous anger, one that is long overdue. Fear paralyzes thinking while anger energizes action. It took nearly two full years, but Americans are now coming to appreciate the freedoms they relinquished, and they are starting to fight to see them returned.
Fantasy has been battling reality since day 16 of 15 days to flatten the curve. Reality is finally winning. The fear addict has looked into the mirror and acknowledged that it is time lose the fear and return to reality. It is time to begin the process of recovery. Recovery, though, is not easy. It requires work. For far too long, America as a whole has been living in a state of decadence, where no major needs have gone unmet. A 15-minute delay in a Postmates smoothie delivery provokes a panic attack in the typical urban dweller. Embracing reality and confronting one’s addiction to fear requires far more resoluteness than switching to home-made protein shakes. What other option is there once you’ve hit rock bottom? That is where we are. When white women invoke BLM while attacking a black man in an elevator, the descent is complete. All that is left is to acknowledge that truth, and the need to move forward.
The fantasy now looks bleak.
Mark McDonald, M.D.
Psychiatrist and author of United States of Fear: How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis
