“I want my life back” is a hell of a thing to say much less publish when 5.5 million people have actually lost their actual lives.
We still insist on prevention measures because there are still at risk people who are very much in danger and for whom vaccination is not an option, who can’t simply opt out of caring.
So tired of these articles that frame it as if we’ve chosen this because we like it somehow.
Yes! I also want life to return to normal! We all do! Everyone wants this!
It’s hasn’t, because our leaders have refused to do what is necessary to make it happen, I guess in the hopes that those of us who can afford the risk of just shrugging and moving on will do so.
I can't believe we're forced into arguing over whether or not preventing a potentially crippling or deadly disease is good with the same people with whom we argued over whether or not a terminally ignorant fascist rodeo clown should be president.
"Preventing disease is good, actually."
"Oh? I'm sure you have proof. Be detailed. I'll wait."
"Ok, one second. Here."
"What you haven't considered is that preventing disease is inconvenient."
"Not to people who might die."
"No I mean inconvenient to me. Slightly."
"I see, OK. Well have you considered this:"
Right now I'm thinking about a certain type of journalist/media figure who scolds: "twitter isn't real life" meaning "the thing of vital importance that you all are aware of is not something most people are aware of or care about."
As if there is some moral fault in being aware.
Right now I'm thinking about a certain type of journalist who looks at a critical mass of the population that doesn't care about something of vital importance, and decides that collective nonchalance is "real life," and not a failure of journalism's mandate to inform the public.
I mean, sure, "Twitter isn't real life" when it comes to Green Glewald's latest snippy beef with whatever other social media personality, or Jorts the cat, or whatever.
But when it comes to matters of public health, environment, social justice?
I'll start "learning to live with Covid" when "learning to live with Covid" means "doing the things that allow us to live with Covid" and not "acting as if the way to end a pandemic is to pretend the pandemic isn't real."
You want to live with Covid? Great. Support:
1) Vaccine mandates; 2) Worldwide coordinated manufacture/distribution of free vaccines/boosters; 3) Masking and shutdowns during outbreaks; 4) Universal safety nets for rent, child care, healthcare, wages.
OR
1) Shut the fuck up.
You want to just go back to normal without doing any of the things that allow normalcy—things we have yet to actually try in any coordinated way?
You don't want to "live with Covid." You want to make other people die with it, and you feel personally safe.
Yes, the boat hit the iceberg, but putting the children in lifeboats is the most destructive thing imaginable to their psyche. It's time for us to stop all this evacuation talk and just complete the voyage.
Yes, the first 7 watertight compartments are now flooded with frigid North Sea water, but it's time for us to stop being ruled by our fears and get back to our normally scheduled travel. We MUST open the shuffleboard courts on the lido deck.
Look at children's faces when they're in lifeboats. They're frightened. They're confused. They don't want to be there. Their parents don't want them there. We need to put them back on the boat, whose deck is now pitched at 90 degrees.