Lockdown Senator Chris Murphy Calls for a Department of Introducing People to Other People and Agency of Arranging Adult Play-Dates

As Chris Murphy was a vigorous proponent of locking everyone in their homes and making them watch Netflix and porn instead of engaging with friends and family, David Strom calls this a case of the arsonist pretending to be the firefighter.

Chris Murphy has a reason to hire more government bureaucrats sucking money from the taxpayers like vampires: acting as Playdate Chaperones for Adults or something.

Is there any social issue that elected officials don't think they can solve? Loneliness is a highly complex phenomenon, produced by an interplay of cultural components and personal psychological attributes. One senator thinks he can fix it with bureaucracy and "public awareness."

On Tuesday, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy announced the introduction of his "National Strategy for Social Connection," a bill that would create "a federal office to combat the growing epidemic of American loneliness, develops anti-loneliness strategies, and fosters best practices to promote social connection," as Murphy put it.

I think there's little doubt that this is a problem. However, I'd like Chris Murphy to point to a single social ill that government intervention has cured.

...

Murphy's bill would create an "Office of Social Connection Policy to advise the president on loneliness and isolation," order federal agencies to implement a "national strategy on social connection," and start a public awareness campaign to educate people about fostering connections.

"Similar to existing national guidelines on nutrition, sleep, and physical activity, the Office would issue research-based best practices on how to better engage and connect with our local communicates," Murphy's summary of the bill states.

U.S. nutrition guidelines, of course, have a long history of being ridiculously unscientific and plagued by cronyism. And whatever one thinks about nutrition and physical activity guidelines today, there's no denying that Americans are massively overweight and way too sedentary. So, I'd hardly call these things models of efficacy.

In fact, national guidelines on how to be less lonely are bound to work about as well as nutrition and physical fitness guidelines have: not at all.

The whole project seems designed to create work for people at federal agencies (and ostensibly good press for Murphy.

He also proposes to give money to the CDC to study the causes of loneliness.

Do you imagine that the CDC will study how its own lockdowns caused isolation and social disconnection?

Or do you think they'll conclude this is all due to Global Warming, Gun Ownership, and a Lack of Diversity?

And that maybe we can all better connect with each other if we bring our children to Drag Queen Story Hours?

posted by Ace at 02:15 PM

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