Gil Sanders

I am a classical conservative. This is a view of the world that stands on the shoulders of intellectual giants like Socrates, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus, and Suarez. Most importantly, I stand on Christ who is truth. He and the Apostles affirm total depravity, traditional views of sexuality (contra LGBTQ), modesty, limited government*, personal responsibility, and many other traditional virtues. Great church fathers like Justin Martry, Athanasius, Tertullian, and Polycarp all agree. The great traditions of Judaism, RCC, Orthodox, and Protestantism affirm it as well. Not only that, but we have Scholasticism, which is a system of thought that dominated philosophy for ages. It defends common sense and refutes secular thought. This general tradition remains defended by great minds like Pruss, Feser, Oderberg, Haldane, Kerr, Fine, and Klima to name just a few. Secularism is but a mere disastrous blip in the grand scheme of thought.Classical conservatism by contrast is built off of this great tradition of great minds and their powerful arguments that spanned across many ages. Essentialism, teleology, and natural law are essential components of this view that affects EVERYTHING else. Kingdoms built upon its wisdom flourished, but those that abandoned or rejected it came to a desolate end. Contra Scruton, Oakshott, and Burke, conservatism is not just a temperament based on experience, it is a lived ideology. Their anti-ideology and borderline anti-reason approach really frustrates me sometimes, despite the fact that I agree with them in many areas. Classical conservatism IS an ideology of sorts, based on experience and tradition. That doesn’t mean it was always perceived or known *as* an ideology because roughly its just common sense, but it sure can and should be extrapolated into one. What is classical conservatism then? First, it takes a realist view of theism, metaphysics, essences, final causes, perception, language, knowledge, science, and natural law. We take the substance view of equality: everyone is equal in value regardless of sex, race, and other contingencies. Second, it takes a fallen view of human nature. It’s not systems that ultimately cause corruption, it’s human nature itself. There’s no human solution to evil or “oppression,” there are only trade-offs. Religion becomes quite important as a result. Third, if our view could be summarized, it would be subsidiarity, solidarity, religion, and family, and patriotism. This is in contrast to the depraved abuses of liberty, equality, and fraternity in America today. Feser explains this well (link below). We’re also not radical individualists but hold to an organic understanding of the society in which the common good and virtue is the goal. Fourth, we believe that the government should be explicitly conservative and built upon natural law. We reject neutrality, Leftist notions of tolerance, and libertarianism. I could say a lot more, but I’ll stop here. Read Chad McIntosh’s paper and Feser for a fuller explanation

Lots of fear, shaming others as “murderers”, fake news, and lots of government overreaches going on. While I want to be cautious, love my neighbor, wear a mask when asked, and not cause another to stumble, I also think the entire premise that this is built on is dubious and it enrages me to see the vitriol against churches and others who disagree. Here are some reasons to reject this fearmongry and tyranny: • Only 1% of the US population are confirmed to have gotten the virus and only 0.04% have died from it (https://bit.ly/3asmtzx). However, there are probably 10x more COVID-19 cases (https://bit.ly/2DQ8kjS). Young adults overestimate the risks of the virus by tenfold (https://bit.ly/3iBFm67), which shows they’re misinformed and guided by fear. • The best research thus far indicates that the lethality rate is in the 0.2-0.3% range, which is roughly double your typical flu. (https://bit.ly/3iFVwLH). • Death in babies to college students is almost non-existent. More than 80% of the deaths that occur are in those aged 65 and over (https://bit.ly/2XXqZ3W). • The vasty majority that do contract COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms or no symptoms (https://bit.ly/3iDIdeH). In one study, 88% of those who contracted were asymptomatic (https://bit.ly/2DYhDy2). • About 40% of COVID-19 deaths have been in nursing homes (https://nyti.ms/3gWEl8e). No doubt in part because of Cuomo, who foolishly sent 4,500 COVID-19 patients to nursing homes, and then blew off their deaths as “people die.” (https://bit.ly/2XU8pKf). • It’s a known fact that the death count is inflated (https://bit.ly/3iEi4wf). Even the CDC Director admits this (https://bit.ly/3gRaWfA). Those who died with COVID-19 are not distinguished from those who died because of COVID-19. Dismiss the media’s death count. There’s no context to them. We’ve never counted deaths in the way we’re counting them now.• Herd immunity is a real (https://bit.ly/2XXLhdI). Once a disease is rooted in a population, quarantine or lockdowns will not help the general public health. • There’s increasingly more evidence that HCQ, when combined with zinc and other drugs, is effective in reducing COVID-19 deaths (https://c19study.com/, https://bit.ly/30RI69o, https://bit.ly/31NGoVT). • Evidence suggests that the lockdown was a bad idea (https://bit.ly/2PREMVn & https://bit.ly/2Y0QkKy). By CDC’s own standards, this is a category 2 pandemic, which only recommending “consider[ing] school closures of less than four weeks, along with moderate efforts to reduce contacts among adults.” (https://bit.ly/3gVAisX). • The idea of locking down the entire country indefinitely, as opposed to quarantining just the vulnerable / sick and doing a partial lockdown, is an unproven ivory tower idea that’s only 14 years old (https://bit.ly/2PTbcid). • The Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968-69 killed 100,000 in the U.S. alone, and yet “there was no drama queen hysteria, no confinement of the whole country to house arrest, no massive infringement on the natural right of citizens to earn a livelihood.” (https://bit.ly/31OrjTX)• The scientific evidence for the effectiveness of masks is dubious (https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/), some pro-mask evidence is bad (https://bit.ly/2DQWKoD), assumes ideal usage, and is challenged by evidence that it’s transmitted via aerosol as well (https://bit.ly/3gWFv3A). Even WHO said there’s no direct evidence of the effectiveness of masks in healthy individuals (https://bit.ly/30SBlEm). • Sweden didn’t mandate masks or issue a lockdown. Their death count has plummeted to roughly one per day (https://bit.ly/3gXP02j). Their top virus expert said they see no point in wearing a mask (https://bit.ly/2E6zAdu). Initially, they did see a high death count but this is because their nursing facilities were not protected fast enough (https://bit.ly/2CvRSVq). Japan, South Korea, and others did not have nation-wide lockdowns either (https://bit.ly/3alwb6W).• This isn’t just about COVID-19 deaths. Suicides and drug overdoses have greatly increased during the lockdown (https://bit.ly/3ap4VEt). Domestic violence has greatly increased (https://bit.ly/33XKKfH). Tens of millions of jobs were lost (https://bit.ly/3kICINA). 1.4 million more deaths from tuberculosis because of shutdowns (https://bit.ly/2DUeorF). There’s been a spike in depression and anxiety (https://bit.ly/2PT1M6k). You can’t just demand a lockdown for a virus without weighing the consequences. • There’s plenty of reason to distrust the “experts” and media (https://bit.ly/3gZdXug & https://bit.ly/30VAQJv). Fauci admits to lying to us about masks (https://bit.ly/31TsnWH). The health establishment has been wrong on 10 different things (https://bit.ly/3kEVQwd). And it’s been heavily politicized. Fauci can condemn church gatherings, but can’t condemn BLM protests (https://bit.ly/33WJV6L). The hypocrisy is ridiculous. • There’s good reason to think that COVID-19 “is essentially a political campaign based on the pretense of health.” Aptly called the 2020 COVID coup (https://bit.ly/30W2Ooy). • Lastly, for more data, I would highly recommend https://bit.ly/3gVK8en and https://bit.ly/3kFEzCW. For a philosophical analysis of the lockdown, see Feser (https://bit.ly/2DR2sXB & https://bit.ly/2DYxUmD). ––––––––––––––––––––––Anyone who reads this and still disagrees but is not *at least* sympathetic and aware that this absolves the opposing side of most culpability (or moral wrongdoing) has their head up their butts. These people need to look up the word “charitable” in the dictionary and stop calling others “murderers” or “selfish” for disagreeing, all the while trying to force others to comply. They look like fools. No serious person denies that this virus is real, that every death it produces is tragic, or that the life of others is not worth protecting. A partial lockdown, isolating vulnerable individuals, and practicing good hygiene go a long way. But going beyond this to government mandates? That’s what the evidence does not justify, or if it does, then we have no reason to trust the experts because they’ve done a terrible job. 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: Keep calm, wash your hands, self-isolate (if sick or vulnerable), be a lot more cautious around the vulnerable, be wise, and pray. What measures are “wise” is a choice that should be left up to you and private organizations, not the government. My view is that social distancing and mask wearing is a wise precaution, but not necessary. But if you disagree, I will respect you, as we all should