I have heard it said that there are some people in the world who believe that if you don't respect their authority, they don't have to respect you as a person. That tends to be most accurate when dealing with university professors & govt employees.

Govts are in the business of manufacturing large external bogeymen because doing so creates demand for more govt. For decades it has been "terrorism" to manipulate the right & "climate change" to manipulate the left. These narratives are failing. The stories will change, but its the whole game that we really need to end.

The people who refuse to see what is going on in the world today generally do not lack the intelligence to see reality; they lack the courage. They are afraid of social rejection. They are afraid of seeing the true nature of the things they have supported & of just how trapped they really are.

The govt is the tool that the politically connected use to enslave everyone else by force & fraud & authoritarian controls. Pharma corps don't have an army of thugs to lock everyone in their homes, or to steal subsidies for themselves. Without govt enforcers, their power over people is almost zero. The left seems to (in some ways) hate the conditions associated with being enslaved, but they do not want the govt to be weakened or eliminated because they dream of enslaving "the rich" to serve them. They don't want to eliminate domination & subjugation, they just imagine themselves in the role of imposing such things.