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say about the welfare state is still pertinent – or even more so. Thanks for the article on the riots in D.C. P.J. was right on target, as usual. There’s one other aspect of the riots that I’ve not heard any commentator mention: there’s a “monkey see, monkey do” element. For months, the D.C. rioters saw non-peaceful protests across the country accompanied by weird tacit acceptance from authorities and resulting in few consequences for the protestors. Perhaps the D.C. crowd concluded that this was the new normal. – David S. P.J. O’Rourke Response: True that, David! Although you’re being a bit unfair to monkeys whose mimicry usually stops short of the self-destructive. But in the matter of humans – and while I’m making book recommendations – let me point you toward Scottish journalist Charles Mackay’s 1841 masterpiece Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds . In his Preface Mackay writes, “The object of the Author in the following pages has been... to show how easily the masses have been led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are, even in their infatuations and crimes.” Re: Yes! You Should Get the COVID-19 Vaccine You are not aware of the danger that this experimental vaccine called MRNA and has never been used before, and lacking the proper animal testing and the deaths that have been under-reported by everyone and that the Drug Companies cannot be sued for any after effects of the current experimental
workers. If the BLM and other demonstrators and rioters looked at the facts, it seems like the conclusion that the government they elected isn’t working for them would be obvious. If racism is systemic and the government has developed and been in charge of many of the public systems, then it seems like asking for more government is heading us in the wrong direction. It would be great to see a more in-depth report that digs further into these issues, especially highlighting the similarities behind the rage behind both movements. – DonW. P.J. O’Rourke Response: Don, to give you a short answer to a long (and wise and thoughtful) letter... You’re right! (Or, as I would have said when I was an antifa-type hippie twerp half a century ago, “Right on!”) We at American Consequences are raging to go with an article about “the rage behind both movements.” Although we can’t say exactly when that article will be written. We’re still waiting to see how the dust (or perhaps I should say muck) settles. Will Trumpian populism fade or thrive in the Biden era? Will the radicals of the Democratic Party turn on Biden or will Biden turn into a radical? Time will tell... maybe quite quickly. As for your perceptive insights on the War on Poverty turning into a War on the Poor, I have a couple of books to suggest – though you may have read them already: Losing Ground and In Pursuit of Happiness by the sociologist, scholar, and brilliant policy analyst Charles Murray. They were published in 1984 and 1988 respectively, but everything they have to
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February 2021
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