How did the lockdown become a religion?

Maybe it's due to the vacuum left in American society with the dwindling number of people who practice religion, but some social causes have become religion. The authoritarian government response to the novel coronavirus has people believing with religious fervor that would be the envy of any evangelical pastor. It could be along political lines, "if those people are against it, then I'm sure as hell for it." Perhaps it's a form of virtue signaling, the fastest growing hobby in America.

From social media posts, to proudly wearing their masks in public that do not really affect anything, to lecturing or reporting strangers that don't do what they think is the "right thing to do." Some people feel like it's their way of helping the world. It's not. Much like the Aztecs thought they were pleasing the "gods" by sacrificing virgins by plunging them off a cliff. It's pointless, destructive and will cost lives.

People who've completely bought into the long quarantine and lockdown, with disastrous results, socially, medically and economically, will not concede now or ever that it was a gross over-reaction. It was a panicked response to a very scary, unknown virus, that was treated incorrectly medically in many cases, politicized and propagandized.

At first the caution was warranted, but certain experiences and research were ignored, discarded or vilified. Then it became an emotional pandemic, that I'm afraid will last far longer than the virus. It's been said, but dismissed or ignored many times already, that the cure was far worse than the disease. That will be proven in time to be a fact. But denial is a far more difficult thing to combat than any novel virus.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis' own.