The double standard for coronavirus restrictions - dancing in the streets for Biden is fine but you can't have a funeral for your mom, the elite can get haircuts and attend speeches - is an important expression of the totalitarian ideal that even strict rules are not universal. https://twitter.com/SegravesNBC4/status/1325899794146058242

Universally-applied rules are a severe impediment to centralized power. The elite CANNOT be made to live under the rules they force the rest of us to follow. If they were, they would be less eager to write elaborate rules. Exemptions and favors are key elements of REAL power.

It's important for the general public to accept and internalize the idea that the elites are special and "deserve" exemptions from the rules - even the rules that are supposedly matters of life and death. The elites are too important and virtuous to follow the rules they write.

This is one of the many reasons collectivists despise capitalism. Capitalism allows people who are not political elites with proper Party credentials to buy access to privileges that should be reserved for the elite. This gives people funny ideas about rejecting double standards.

It's also important for totalitarians to make the public accept the notion of two-tiered "justice" - one set of rules for Good People with the right Party cards, and a different set for Bad People who have Bad Politics. The pandemic supplied spectacular examples of this thinking.

"Justice" must be subjective in all respects. The people can never be allowed to think that justice means one set of rules followed by everyone. There must be copious exceptions, granted and rescinded at the pleasure of the elite in accordance with their ideology.

This extends to "virus justice" too. People who have Good Politics and the right Party cards are granted generous exemptions from the virus rules, even as the rest of us are told we're selfish monsters just for wanting to hold a funeral, go to church, or go to work.

In all ways, in every situation - even a pandemic - the idea of universal rules must be energetically attacked, so it never takes root in the public mind. It's important for the public to see, and accept, these big "Virus? What Virus?" riots and demonstrations.