We anti-lockdowners just got a new hero

Well, we have a rather unexpected and unlikely hero right now.

I've thought for a while that eventually performers would become realists about the virus, conclude that we obviously can't hide in our houses forever, that it's clearly manageable, that a life without the arts is itself a kind of death, and that in any case locking down causes lots of other kinds of deaths.

So far I've been disappointed. As with most things these days, performers have the same, predictable opinions about everything -- and by a shocking coincidence, these opinions just happen to be precisely the ones the establishment urges upon us.

Real mavericks, these people.

Ian Anderson (Tom Woods Show guest, episode #3, remember) of Jethro Tull at least went to the trouble to draw up a fairly detailed plan regarding how musical performances could safely begin again. I mentioned it in my recent episode with metal vocalist Phil Labonte of All That Remains.

Well, our unlikely hero is going even farther than that.

It's...Van Morrison.

You may have heard in the news that Van Morrison, who's been complaining about "pseudoscience" and gig restrictions for months, is set to release three anti-lockdown protest songs -- the first of which will come out just two days from now.

He is urging other performers to join him in demanding the return of live performance with no restrictions.

“I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up.”

Interestingly, just today the health editor at BBC News ran an article: "Is It Time We Learnt to Live With the Virus?"

Um, yes.

The consequences of any other approach are plainly horrific.

Oxford's Sunetra Gupta, who has been called the world's preeminent infectious disease epidemiologist, says it's a good thing for young and healthy people to be exposed. "This is how we have always managed viruses. Why is this so different? If we keep introducing restrictions and lockdowns while we wait for a vaccine it will be the young that suffer the most, particularly those from more deprived backgrounds. We can't keep doing this -- it would be an injustice."

The left-wing Jacobin magazine just ran an interview with two Harvard Medical School professors arguing that lockdowns are a terrible strategy that devastate the most vulnerable in society.

Perhaps the edifice is finally cracking.

On another happy note:

Tomorrow on the Tom Woods Show I'll be talking to the brains behind the brilliant Meme Policeman social media phenomenon. He takes ridiculous, fact-free memes (about everything from the minimum wage to the post office to Kyle Rittenhouse) and smashes them in with a dose of reality.

I might add that he got an initial traffic boost from me. You know my arrangement: get your web hosting through my link and I'll publicize your new site to my audience, plus give you other great goodies, all as free bonuses. That way, you won't be greeted by tumbleweeds when you launch your site. Details here: http://www.tomwoods.com/publicity

And by the way, don't let your website be a lazy bum. Make it carry its weight! We're capitalists around here. Here are half a dozen ways to monetize your site: http://www.tomwoods.com/monetize

Tom Woods