The COVID era was a surreal time for all the usual reasons.

However, a slightly less surreal reason is that I never thought the day would come when I’d give up on a bunch of awesome bands from my childhood for becoming establishment hacks. I mean, The Offspring were one of my favourite rock groups of all time, and they ended up firing their drummer, Pete Parada, because he refused the jab. (Check out my podcast with him.) Clearly, Dexter and Noodles were determined to keep ’em separated vaccinated.

In many ways, the whole thing was terrible—lockdowns, vaccine passports, travel restrictions, everyone masked and fearing healthy people, an unprecedented spike in loyalty to the government and media, and the acceleration of mass surveillance and degeneracy.

But in many ways, it was great. I lost a few friends due to their cult-like adherence to the Branch Covidians, but I gained new ones. Which is a good thing because, in hindsight, I don’t want to be friends with mask-wearing beta males who think shaking hands is scary.