Two things got me through Covid: Jimmy Dore and Abba

Sanity, hope, and truth were in short supply during that dark time

Jimmy Dore interviews Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2023.

“I have learned to cope, and love and hope is why I am here now.” – Abba’s Don’t Shut Me Down.

By Craig McKee

I had a tough time during the Covid “pandemic.” Not because I got sick or because I lost anyone, but because I watched helplessly as some of my worst fears about the future of the world came true.

The fact that it was so easy to predict where things were going made it even more soul crushing when they went exactly that way.

Throughout the Covid period, I was no barrel of laughs (I might have been more fun than Mussolini but just barely). As I vented my bitterness on social media, I took large helpings of abuse from friends and acquaintances alike. This caused me to become alienated from many who had bought the narrative. (I did learn that once you become comfortable using the term “virtue signaling,” you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.)

One formerly close friend I went to university with about 45 years ago called me “entitled” and “selfish” for opposing vaccine passports and mandates. She said she was ashamed of me and scolded me about how rights come with responsibilities. “Collectivism” was mentioned. I countered with “authoritarianism.”

Responding to my anger at being kept out of public spaces like restaurants because I was unvaccinated, my friend accused me of putting my “entertainment privileges” ahead of the lives of others. I pointed out that if anyone thought my presence was putting their life at risk, they could voluntarily curtail their own entertainment privileges.

But the logic of this was lost on her, and she never acknowledged that the Covid “vaccine” has no effect at all on transmission and therefore segregating people like me did not reduce anyone’s chances of getting sick. (Excuse me, I must pause to check my inbox in case any new apologies have come in…)

Through this period, there were two things that kept me going – one Swedish and one not. Let’s start with not.

With little else than the internet for contact with the world, I came to depend on, and to really appreciate, political comedian Jimmy Dore. He is well known to independent thinkers, including my fellow 9/11 truthers. I had watched Jimmy’s show before Covid, but it was in 2020 that I started watching every day. He was saying the things I was thinking. I was saying some of them, too, but they weren’t funny when I said them.

In making Jimmy’s videos a part of my daily routine, I came to see him as the best pot-smoking, truth-telling, jag-off comedian INNA WORLD! (If you don’t get the reference, you need to watch more of his videos.)

I related enormously when he talked about how his comedian friends had shunned and attacked him when he dared to depart from the authorized Covid narrative. Dore described being injured by the vaccine and how this caused him to begin asking questions. I wanted to ask the same questions, so watching his show was (dare I say…) educational.

In terms of my own ostracization, you can substitute “journalists” for “stand-up comedians,” and the story would be pretty much the same.

I also came to enjoy the work of the great team that works with Jimmy, which includes his wife, Stef Zamorano, whose delivery makes every funny line funnier; Kurt Metzger, who can back up his sharp jokes with loads of knowledge; and Mischa Paullin, who works behind the scenes for Jimmy along with making her own hilarious videos. (My favorite is “Who’s Your Party?” which addresses the need for a “tiny little bitty government, just a small little itty bitty, tiny puny little tiny government…”)

I felt a degree of vindication as the word “smugnorant” was added to my vocabulary after I heard it on Jimmy’s show. It has become my favorite word, narrowly edging out “hockey.” I also learned that “force the vote” doesn’t mean big guys with clubs coming to collect reluctant voters and escort them to the polls… if they know what’s good for them.

And I connected with the idea that I could be “progressive” in the old sense of the word without supporting where the left has gone in recent years. Where I was once seen by friends as being too far left, now the wokesters think I’ve turned into a crazy conservative. But I don’t think I’ve changed at all. (Picture Martin Short as Nathan Thurm on SNL, nervously smoking as he explains: “It’s them, right? It’s not me.”)

No, I didn’t forget the Swedish angle…

While Jimmy was helping me to keep my grip on reality, there was something else that came out of nowhere during Covid that caused me to look back over my life and wonder what the hell happened. In the fall of 2021, I was stunned to hear that one of my all-time favorite groups, Abba, was putting out new music almost four decades after splitting up.

Abba back together: I was even happier about it than they were.

For me, this represented much more than some new songs to enjoy; it meant the reappearance of something wonderful from a time when the world made a lot more sense. And it came just when I needed it most. (Sorry young folks, but today’s music largely sucks.)

The first two singles from the brand-new Voyage album – I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down – touched me in a way that no others have in this millennium. It was like some of the good that I used to see in the world might actually still be there (cue the strings...)

For me, Jimmy’s show and Abba’s music meant hope. And I’m thrilled that he is looking at 9/11 these days. In doing so, he has made it easier for others to do likewise. (For those who are coming across me for the first time, I’ve been writing about 9/11 and other “conspiracy-type” topics here and on my other blog, Truth and Shadows, since 2010, as well as writing for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.)

It seems like the world changed in 2020, and I don’t know that it’ll ever change back. But Jimmy and Abba allowed me to keep a better world in sight even if some of the time I have to use a rearview mirror to see it.

***

While I’ll never get to see Abba live, I am delighted to report that I will be at Jimmy Dore’s show in Ottawa on June 1 (I hope I get the chance to meet him). If you’re in Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal, get out and support him! Or anywhere else he’s performing.