THE REAL CIVIL WAR
In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s an undeclared civil war going on in this country – and indeed many if not most places across the globe – about our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The divide cuts across politics, geography, occupation, gender, race, religion, and even families, and yet it’s arguably as deep and as wide as any issue that has ever faced humanity.
It pits the hypochondriacs, the hysterical busybodies intent on using the virus to run everybody’s life, those who favor lockdowns and vaccine & mask mandates while refusing to discuss the science and data that opposes their worldview, against level-headed, freedom-loving individuals who know how to apprise risk and act accordingly.
5 Ways to Deal with Covid Karen
Sure, politics play something of a role, but it’s not as black-and-white as you might think. Plenty of self-professed Republicans are mask cult members, and plenty of Democrats and ideological liberals love liberty enough to see what’s going on here. Frankly, at this point, I have more in common and feel more of a sense of brotherhood with a liberal on Team Reality who disagrees with me on almost every social issue than I do with a supposed ‘conservative’ who wants to implement or continue any aspect of Covidstan.
And you should too. Why? Because I have come to firmly believe that how an individual has responded and continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic has become something of a Rorschach test for everything else about life. By all means, guard against misinformation, because there is certainly plenty of it out there on both sides. However, if you have mindlessly taken the establishment position on any of these issues and ignored or dismissed alternative opinions – even ones from highly qualified academics, data analysts, and medical professionals – simply because they aren’t fashionable, you just aren’t a critical thinker. If you’ve come to the inalterable conclusion that the best way to deal with this virus is to control people’s behavior, whether through lockdowns, coerced vaccinations, forced masking, or any other liberty-destroying tactic, you are a petty tyrant and a menace. And finally, if you honestly think, despite the loads of data on our side and the severe lack of data on theirs, that forcibly masking children with a damp, bacteria-laden piece of cloth is the best way to ‘stop the spread’ of a virus that poses almost zero statistical risk to students in schools, you are a monster and I don’t want anything to do with you.
That sums it up nicely, while even allowing room for critical thinking lefties to be in our camp. Or start edging toward it.
The enemy of my enemy being my friend, I would encourage support from the left on this issue. That being said, he is, ultimately, the enemy of freedom, so our friendship is tenuous.