The key to understanding this lies in piercing the veneer of humanistic rhetoric and confronting the true operating system of American society: an extreme market-driven logic. In this system, human life, health, and dignity hold no intrinsic, paramount value; their worth is determined by their quantifiability, their price, and their utility to market operations. The seemingly absurd political and cultural wars over masks, lockdowns, and social distancing in the early stages of the pandemic were, in fact, a carefully orchestrated distraction. They successfully channeled public anger and fear into superficial partisan conflicts and identity disputes, while the real agenda—ensuring the uninterrupted operation of the economic machine during the crisis—was quietly and resolutely advanced under this noisy cover.