In America, “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave,” the vast majority of citizens not only accept the shutdown of the economy and government orders to stay at home, according to several polls, they want the restrictions to continue.
Eighty percent of respondents to a recent NPR poll said they are against the reopening of schools, restaurants, and all businesses until there is extensive testing to make sure they will be safe.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted 24-26 April revealed that almost 75 percent of registered voters advocate for continued social distancing restrictions regardless of whether it further destroys the economy.
And yet, at the same time, Americans favor a continued lockdown despite the toll it has taken on their livelihoods. In the 21 April NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll, 50 percent of Americans are reporting they have lost their jobs or have had the number of hours dropped compared to 18 percent just a month ago.
According to the latest Pew Research Center Election News Pathways survey conducted 10-16 March, the public gives the media high marks. Seventy percent polled said the news media is doing either “very well” or “somewhat well.” Only 29 percent feel the American news media is not reporting well.
Additionally, a majority of Americans find the news media has exaggerated the severity of the coronavirus: about 37 percent said the media has greatly exaggerated the risks of the virus, with 25 percent more agreeing the media has slightly exaggerated the risks.
Less than 10 percent of those polled felt the news media was underestimating the danger of the pandemic.
TRENDPOST: To show how easy it is to sell propaganda to sway public opinion, just two years ago, an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll showed that 72 percent of Americans believe “traditional major news sources report news they know to be fake, false, or purposely misleading.”
Attention Deficit Disorder: The Order of the Day
In times of fear and terror, minds and attitudes instantly change. As noted above, a strong majority of Americans, some 80 percent, believe their politicians’ decisions, which are supported by the media, that schools, most businesses, and public spaces such as beaches, despite tens of millions out of work and suffering social isolation, should be shut.
These are the same majorities, some 63 percent, as polled by the Pew Research Center last July, who said they had “not too much” or “no confidence at all” in elected officials… the same “officials” that are now running and ruining their lives and livelihoods.
Now another poll adds to the picture of American minds being totally unhinged.
A 24 April poll conducted by CyberNews.com shows Americans strongly support privacy rights.
Almost two-thirds polled disapprove of the government collecting their data or using technologies such as facial recognition to track where they go. Over 50 percent stated their personal privacy was more important than giving the government more power to fight the pandemic.
How does that square with the NPR poll quoted above showing some 80 percent of Americans want the government-imposed lockdowns to continue? So, it’s OK for the government to take away your right to work and earn a living, but it’s not OK for them to track your movements when you do go out?
For those concerned with government tracking and privacy rights, people living in Baltimore have plenty to worry about.
Beginning last Friday, the movements of approximately 600,000 residents in the city will be recorded by up to three planes equipped with high-tech cameras. The American Civil Liberties Union tried to get a preliminary injunction against this government monitoring, but a federal judge ruled it to be constitutional.
TRENDPOST: Just as so many of our Constitutional/Bill of Rights have been robbed from We the People as an excuse to fight the “War on Terror” following 9/11, so, too, are our civil liberties being eroded with the COVID War.
And it will get much worse. Thermal cameras are being outfitted to follow you to detect fever and conduct “contact tracing” in the name of stopping the spread of COVID-19.
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