Tyranny Storms In

(Don Boudreaux)

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Here’s a letter to the New York Times:

Editor:

So it has come to this: a contributing opinion writer – Dr. Richard Friedman – for the New York Times now advocates suppressing the speech of those who dissent from the current consensus of “experts.” It’s terrifying… and predictable.

The historian of political thought David Hart calls governments’ responses to Covid-19 “hygiene socialism.” This description is apt. All genuinely socialist regimes, which require for their ‘success’ everyone’s obedience to The Plan, stamp out freedom of expression and dissent. After all, because The Plan is said to offer the only hope of saving the masses from the chaos and depredations that allegedly would persist if individuals are left free, all opponents of The Plan are enemies of The People. And so in the name of The People, dissenters must be silenced – just as Dr. Friedman demands.

And thus does tyranny descend upon us all.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

Professor of Economics

and

Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA 22030