Journalist advises against regretting the harmful and destructive pandemic policies he and his readers have supported, because they were well-intentioned and viruses are scary

Holiday thoughts on the growing liberal extremism of the West.

I want to wish all of my readers readers – and my subscribers in particular – a happy Easter.

It’s colder than I would’ve hoped here in the foothills around the Schliersee, and as you can see the mountains still have plenty of snow. Nevertheless, the early morning songbirds have returned, and it is good to have the old holidays back again, after three years of their senseless suppression.

Writing for you every day requires a lot of reading, and one thing I’ve noticed in the journalistic output of the months since Christmas, as virus hysteria has subsided, is what you might call the gradual resocialisation of the chattering classes. Crazed journos who spent most of the time since 2020 cloistered at home, consuming microwavable meals and boxed wine away from friends and family, are now back in circulation. An important effect of ordinary social interaction, is that its gives you a sense of perspective on what is appropriate, what is worth worrying about, and what kinds of things it is acceptable to do and to demand of others.

This means that many of the arch-Covidians are now feeling more than slightly embarrassed for their unbalanced conduct and rhetoric in the Corona era. Ingo Arzt, a health editor for Zeit, has written a typical piece acknowledging this growing sense of regret, in which he assures his fellow hystericists (and himself above all) that nobody should apologise for all the insanity they demanded and helped orchestrate: