Deace: COVID madness has turned good men cruel

"That's how it starts, sir. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men ... cruel." — "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"

It was never really about protecting you and your health. That's what Glenn Beck laid out last week in his "Crimes or Cover-up?" prime-time special on BlazeTV, which served as an "Empire Strikes Back"-level sequel to my book "Faucian Bargain."

The so-called experts had plans going back nearly a decade in which you were pawns, not persons, in an insane game of power and profit. And while the main players in that game are limited based on access and authority, what we have clearly seen is that the desire to sit at the cool kids' table along with them by assisting in the roles of locking down, masking, and jabbing the public at large is legion.

The media has helped serve as the enforcer of this dynamic. Say the right things at a sufficiently cultish level and you get a parade. Say the things that actually need to be said to save both people and society and you are ignored at best — if not outright shamed or persecuted.

Case in point: Meet Dr. Devon Ballard of Baptist Health's Sherwood Family Medical Center in Arkansas. He's a 51-year-old man with more than 24 years of experience treating patients, who also makes regular appearances on a local television station talking about various health care issues. What motivates him, according to his website, is clear: "I try to do the best for all of my patients. I treat them like I would my own parents and family."

Hmmm. You don't say …

Because it was only recently that the good doctor told reporters off the air, according to a source, that he has a slightly different plumb line for treating those who don't bend the knee and slurp down the COVID vaccine.

"If you don't want to take it, that's fine, just don't seek treatment if you get it," Ballard said. "Don't come to the hospital, just die at home."

And: "I guarantee you if you raised insurance for the unvaccinated to $800 a month, most people would get the shot."

Family gatherings must be awesome at his house!

But I have follow-up questions. Are any of his family members diabetic? Smokers? Have AIDS? And if so, does he "treat them like family" or does he condemn them to die penniless at home because they made choices he disapproves of? Gotta check the fine print on that Hippocratic oath, I guess.

Given the opportunity to clear up this sticky wicket, Dr. Ballard declined to return multiple phone calls for clarification, and his clinic manager took a pass on commenting any further as well. I think we all know what happened here, though.

The cult of the cool kids' table sucked Ballard in, where reason is routinely traded for madness these last two years. Few are willing to rock the boat of comfort and complacency like Scott Atlas, Alex Berenson, Ryan Cole, Peter McCullough, Emerald Robinson, and others have. Most want to take the Fauci road, where the lie is the point.

That lie is more than just a grand tale involving federal bureaucrats, Big Pharma, and the Chinese in this case. Because more fundamentally, such toxic narratives ultimately rely on the approval of those among the masses who wish to applaud it rather than risk being the light in the darkness.

The lie is a warm blanket. The lie is a promise of relevance and approval. The lie is your virtue signal to the cult that you are down to be their clown. The lie simply IS. Full stop.

And so it is that good men turn cruel. Their cravings are little different from a common drug addict's, and they deserve our pity. After we expose them and hold them accountable for their cruelty, of course.