English poet, William Blake, once said, “Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain.”

Unfortunately for those who have suffered in recent years, it can feel like most people not only lack the ability to think ahead, but they also lack the ability to reflect on the past. As a result, the course is almost never corrected, and wrongs are seldom made right.

One of the reasons this is so hard to come by is that it requires humility when humility is in rare supply. People don’t want to look back and learn, because that would first necessitate an admission that they were not looking forward. At least, not in any critical, sensible, or meaningful sense.

Consequently, over the past few years, we’ve watched as people shunned their friends, families disowned loved ones, churches barred their own congregants, and businesses mistreated their customers. Not because they believed it was the right or sensible approach, but because they were told it was the right and sensible approach. After all, everybody else was doing it.

None were more instrumental in perpetuating that damning narrative than the government and their loyal mouthpieces in the mainstream media. They had their villain, and they were instructed to demonise that villain relentlessly. And many were more than willing to comply.

But as time goes on, it becomes more evident just how absurd and over-the-top people behaved, either due to fear of the virus or fear of what they might be labelled if they were to question the established narrative.

Although many would like to pretend it never happened, unless we confront it honestly, we risk history repeating itself the next time the elites turn friend against friend and family against family.

While the pessimist in me says the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history, I do hope that the following compilations might remind folks of what people are capable of when it’s socially acceptable to viciously demonise a segment of society.

We must never forget.

Bonus montages: