Here’s a funny story I heard:
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter once passed by a group of Jews eating Chazir, Rachmana Litzlan. So, he wished them “Bon Appétit”.
“But Rebbe, we’re eating Chazir!”
“Yes, and I hope you commit the sin from a good appetite (לתאבון), not out of a spirit of rebellion! (להכעיס)”
No idea if it’s true, but it isn’t מחזיק ידי עוברי עברה at all.
― Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays
It’s curious.
When Charedi establishment liars lie the rubes into following the Goyish establishment, they directly invoke, not the putative “experts“, but the supposedly-independent “Da’as Torah” and “Gedolim” aping the Goyish establishment.
And yet, when their wise counsel explodes in their faces, as usual, the obligatory retraction takes the form of attacking in hindsight only the Goyish establishment experts (the ones followed blindly by “Da’as Torah” and the “Gedolim”, too!), no mention of “Da’as Torah” and “Gedolim” who gave assent and support until the bitter end.
Corona is just one example.
Curious, no?
(Thanks to Chananya Weissman for the reference.)