Thread by @BartenderHemry

A guest at the bar tonight asked, "so how long have you been in this lockdown" and confused I was like "what lockdown?" to which she responded "you know, the masks [gesturing that I was wearing a mask]" and something really clicked for me in that moment

I've been confused by the rightwing rhetoric about "NO MORE LOCKDOWNS" and misinterpreting it as cynical demagoguery, since we never had a real "lockdown" and the most stringent pandemic measures ended over a year ago. But they're just coding every health measure as "lockdown"

It seems obvious now in retrospect but it really is just purely binary to these people; taking the barest minimum precautions (e.g. an "indoor mask mandate" where guests can remove their masks to eat and drink") is tantamount to unfettered totalitarianism in their minds

The upshot is I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding when we say people are "living in two different realities" or victims of misinformation because therein is an assumption that if they had better information they would make a better choice. I don't think that's true

I think, and again this seems obvious now, that these are people who have constructed a value system that is almost completely withdrawn from the social compact as we generally understand. I.e. better information doesn't alter their ethical framework.

I remember being in freshman orientation in college and there was a student who was homeschooled until college who said he couldn't understand being taught by someone who didn't have unconditional love for their students. That's what this reminds me of

That is to say, the assumption that people are making decisions based on different value systems that still have important common features is sometimes just disastrously wrong. Sometimes there's a key piece missing and the assumption that it's there just violently alienates them.

Anyway it seemed quite bleak to me in the moment and does still more to me now after further thought because I don't think there is anything you can do to help these people that isn't going to further anger them. They just can't be allowed to hold power.

Oops receiving word now that they hold a lot of power and are poised to take more, hope that changes