The Blindness of Fanaticism

Fascist trolls on social media are often blindly in favor of lockdowns as a response to Covid. They make the argument that lockdowns save lives, but their statements show a complete fanatical ignorance of a concept called "opportunity costs." To paraphrase the great Frederic Bastiat, it is important, when analyzing some policy choice, to consider not only the direct effects of the policy on its stated target, but also its indirect effects on others, as well as things that are lost or forfeited as a result of those policy changes.

Even assuming arguendo that lockdowns prevented Covid deaths directly (which is hard to tease out of a fair and complete evaluation of the data--most statements to this effect cherry-pick a few useful examples and ignore counterexamples), there was a great deal lost. People's businesses, their relationships, their treatments for other medical issues, and their freedoms were all casualties of this horrible policy, and to ignore these losses is the sign of overly simplistic thought.

Understanding the indirect effects of policy choices is absolutely crucial. If you ignore negative effects and observe only positive effects, it is easy to get mired in a series of choices with much larger downsides than upsides.

Further, the subjugation of liberty to the promise of safety is known historically to be a losing proposition. Don't fall for it.