In the early weeks of the pandemic, I wrote about what then seemed like a strange new phenomenon: Conservatives turning COVID restrictions into a new front in the culture war. 1/ theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Today, with millions of Americans getting vaccinated daily, @emmaogreen expertly captures another phenomenon: Liberals signaling their own political identities with extreme COVID caution—in many cases going well beyond public health recommendations. 2/ theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
“I spent four years fighting Trump because he was so anti-science. I spent the last year fighting people who I normally would agree with … desperately trying to inject science into school reopening, and completely failed.” 3/
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
In Somerville, MA, one child psychiatrist says, “everyone wants to be actively anti-racist. Everyone believes Black lives matter. Everyone wants the Green New Deal. No one wants to talk about…how to actually get kindergartners" into classrooms. 4/ theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
"a community member accused the group of mothers advocating for schools to reopen of being motivated by white supremacy." 5/ theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
After Emily Ostler wrote in The Atlantic that parents should plan to take their kids on vacations and allow them to see relatives this summer, a reader emailed her supervisors at Brown suggesting she belonged in the field of “genocide encouragement.” theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
One last thing: @emmaogreen makes a distinction in her piece that I wish would feature more prominently into debates over COVID restrictions: There's a difference between individual choices (continuing to wear masks outside) and policies that affect others (outdoor mask mandates)
So much of the conversation about overly cautious/unscientific reactions to COVID focuses on individual actions that have no bearing on anyone else. It's been a traumatic year for a lot of people! Everyone is working through it their own way. The debate should focus on policies.
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