Mandates and exemptions

Despite the narrative, it is not authoritarian to oppose government mandates. Personally, I am pretty open that I viewed mandates as massive government overreach.

I live in a state that viewed government force as the solution to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine mandates were issued while the vaccine still only had emergency authorization. This was applied beyond just government-controlled institutions.

The government allowed a few exemptions, but they made it difficult to gain approval. You were expected to prove strongly held religious beliefs to gain a religious exemption. Even medical exemptions were difficult to obtain due to the heavy scrutiny of government officials.

What about philosophical exemptions? There was no such thing. If your beliefs weren't controlled by religion, you were required to allow the government to control your beliefs. In other words, we have no right whatsoever to a belief system uncontrolled by others.

Some mandates had testing alternatives. This at least makes some sense. Having some choice regarding what you are doing during the pandemic is a lot better than letting the government take total control over your body. Unfortunately, not every mandate came with this basic option.

The over-the-top government control in liberal states led to a prediction from conservatives. It was only a matter of time before we had to carry around vaccine passports just to live our lives. That was quickly pushed aside as an insane conspiracy theory. Then it happened. We were expected to carry around proof of vaccination status everywhere we went and show our papers to live our everyday lives.

A lot of people have defended these mandates by insisting that there was technically a choice. You could get vaccinated or lose the job that earns your living. You can get vaccinated or be prohibited from the stores that sell you what you need. I'm sorry, but this is not merely a choice. As far as I'm concerned, threatening people's livelihoods qualifies as a form of force.

I don't ever want to go through a pandemic like that again. I never struggled with the pandemic itself, but Democrats aggressively exploited the pandemic. Their expansion of authoritarian overreach was unbearable. For the sake of survival, I honestly don't think I can handle another period of elevated oppression. By the way, I'm not anti-vax. I got the vaccine prior to the mandate.