The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “Whatever the individual motives of the censors may be, censorship is a form of social control. It is a means of holding a society together, of arresting the flux which censors fear. And since the fear cannot be appeased, the demands for censorship mount in volume and intensity. And one form of censorship can easily lead to other forms.” —author Carey McWilliams (1905-1980)

Food for thought: “For most of us, the ‘self-quarantine’ being observed across the country (including in my house) involves spending more time with our families, cooking meals in our kitchens rather than eating fast food, making fewer unnecessary purchases, and teaching our kids at home instead of shipping them off to government buildings for the majority of the day. … These practices are also objectively good and healthy.” —Matt Walsh

Upright: “The ChiComs are the problem. If the Chinese government spent as much time working on educating its people and regulating dangerous markets as it does on secrecy and propaganda efforts, maybe it wouldn’t have to worry as much about diseases being named after it.” —David Harsanyi

Village idiot, part I: “Trump’s been tooting his dog whistle pretty hard by calling it ‘Chinese virus.’ … It’s a very racist term. If you care so much about naming things where they came from, then call it ‘bat-bite fever.’” —Stephen Colbert

Village idiot, part II: “Look, I understand postponing elections right now. It protects voters and poll workers. But we’ve gotta be careful, because we’ve been socially distancing from American democracy for years. Someone should really check on her. She’s 244 years old.” —Stephen Colbert

And last… “Once this is all over, it’s far past time for Americans to have a serious discussion about the extent to which openness to China ought to be curbed. The Trump administration should consider a travel ban on China until China has verifiably shut down its exotic animals markets, at the very least. The current crisis will cost millions of American jobs, millions more of Americans’ savings and thousands of American lives. To trust the Chinese government after a global betrayal of this magnitude would not only be foolish; it would be immoral.” —Ben Shapiro