Quite often common sense is the most sincere form of truth. Unfortunately, the real pandemic in the U.S. and in other places around the globe is a complete lack of common sense, reason and logic. And whether you believe most of the things you hear about the current pandemic we’re all forced to suffer through or not, it exists in our society whether you like it or not.
So what do you do during this ultimately confusing time in our history. If you ask Barstool Sports Founder Dave “El Presidente” Portnoy, common sense is precisely what is needed right now.
Portnoy was a guest on Wednesday evening’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News to specifically to speak about the common sense approach to dealing with the Chinese coronavirus during the holidays and his thoughts on the unearthed pictures of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) enjoying a free-from-his-own-restrictions dinner party with friends and California Medical Association executives last week.
“The most amazing thing, what you wanna question why he’s doing it, it’s like, if you’re gonna quite obviously break your own rules that everyone’s suffering with, how do you let people take pictures of you?” Portnoy asked. “How dumb do you have to be to let people have cameras? You need henchmen if you’re gonna be that, you know, obnoxious about it.”
He’s not wrong.
On the topic of how to deal with what we’re all dealing with, Portnoy pointed out the importance of allowing small businesses to operate in order to remain solvent.
“My whole rant, my passion is small business — the backbone of this country,” Portnoy said. “They’ve gone through this whole corona pandemic, theoretically to see the light at the end of tunnel only to be shut down again.”
Portnoy spoke of how he won’t be attending Thanksgiving dinner with his family this year as a precaution for his elderly parents, of which his father — according to Portnoy — has “the worst immune system.”
That makes sense to be careful in a situation like that, but Portnoy’s point was that he made the decision himself. No government official made the decision for him.
“That’s my choice. That’s our choice as a family, and that’s what you have to let people do,” Portnoy continued. “We know what corona is. And you can believe the science, you can not believe the science, you can think it’s dangerous, you can not. But it’s out there, and now you have to let each person, each business owner make the decision.”
Portnoy finished by conveying his displeasure and confusion with the politicians who put restrictions on everyone else, but don’t follow their own rules.
“What is going to be left,” Portnoy said of the small businesses already affected by the restrictions put on them in big cities. “It did not have the right to choose your own fate as a business owner and whether you want to go out to dinner or not is crazy! And the government officials don’t do it themselves!”
In a video post to his Instagram account very early Thursday morning, Portnoy also said that it shouldn't be considered "political" to say that people and small businesses "Should be allowed to control their fate when deciding on how to deal with corona."
For video of the segment, watch below: