What’s the Matter with New York?

There’s a well-known book, often cited in Progressive circles, called WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? by Thomas Frank that tries to explain why rural folks vote for the GOP, without coming right out and calling them stupid for doing so. I’m simplifying a bit, but the crux of the argument the book makes is that by voting for Republican policies, rural voters are actually voting against their self-interest.

The counter-argument is simple… the fact is that no one, certainly not Progressive writers in coastal cities, can ever know what specific ideas or policies are in the best interests of individual voters, nor can they know how individual voters place value on any given policy outcome.

But that’s not the point I want to make.

It seems to me that, especially in Progressive circles, there’s this strange belief that it’s only rural Republicans who behave politically in a way that appears to be contrary to their best interests. But that’s clearly not true, and I think we’re watching a perfect example of that fact unfold right now… though I seriously doubt anyone on the Political Left is self-aware enough to recognize it, much less report on it…

Because Cognitive Dissonance is a helluva drug.

I’m talking about the Wuhan Lab Leak theory. Here we have what could have been the biggest journalistic scoop of the 21st Century, maybe even bigger than Watergate. The Journalist who followed the evidence and proved conclusively that the COVID virus originated in a Chinese Lab would have become rich and famous. They would have won all the Pulitzers. Their name would have been mentioned in the same breath as the greats… Woodward, Bernstein, Cronkite, Murrow, Burgundy…

And yet no one in the Mainstream Media seemed to want to chase down that fortune and glory.

Why not?

Well it seems pretty simple to me. If someone had proved the Lab Leak theory in 2020, then we would have had a rally ’round the flag moment that would have redounded to Donald Trump’s benefit and probably secured his re-election. And that just couldn’t be allowed to happen.

And so an entire industry, journalism, not only chose a specific political outcome (the ouster of Donald Trump) over their own best interests (becoming a journalistic legend), they actively colluded with Government and Big Tech to keep ANYONE from even discussing the possibility that the COVID virus leaked out of a Chinese lab.

So, I gotta ask… what’s the matter with New York?

The answer is nothing… these New York journalists simply found something they valued more than their own narrow career self-interest… which is fine. I can’t say I agree with the choice, because knowing how COVID was unleashed on the world as early as the Spring of 2020 might have saved millions of lives, but at least I can say I understand. I understand how badly they wanted Trump gone, and I understand that desire crowded out all other considerations.

So a better question would be “What’s the matter with New York (and D.C.) that they think they should be allowed to run our lives when they can’t even prioritize tracking the source of a pandemic over their own narrow short-term political goals?”

But I guess it’s not a very catchy title for a book.