a fallback position per se. It’s really just a strategic fall-back position.
Basically, Leftists almost universally backed a position that turned out to be nothing but crap and that materially harmed virtually everyone (especially young children).
And now they are fleeing from that history. So they hope that either a) people won’t remember, or b) they can baldly lie their way out of this cul-de-sac.
Here is the defensive latest Lefty position:
The narrative now goes something like this: Lockdowns never really happened, because governments never actually locked people in their homes; but if there were lockdowns, then they saved millions of lives and would have saved even more if only they’d been stricter; but if there were any collateral damage, then that damage was an inevitable consequence of the fear from the virus independent of the lockdowns; and even when things were shut down, the rules weren’t very strict; but even when the rules were strict, we didn’t really support them.
But they are frantically running from the “stink” of their former positions.
… By pretending that all of these horrors were attributable to public panic, apologists for the response to Covid are attempting to shift blame away from the political machines that imposed lockdowns and mandates onto individuals and their families. This is, of course, despicable and bunk. People did not voluntarily go hungry, or stand in the freezing cold to get food, or remove themselves from hospitals while they were still sick, or bankrupt their own businesses, or force their own kids to sit outside in the cold, [or fill in skate parks with sand] or march hundreds of miles in exodus after losing their jobs in factories.
Don’t fall for it!