As far as I'm aware, Covid was the first time mitigating an infectious disease was made legible as a polarised political schema
Prior to this, mitigations were delineated conscientious/non-conscientious or superstitious/scientific
1/11
tying it to political tribes was an unmitigated disaster
in Australia, the majority went along with mitigations in a rational manner
in other places, masks and the like became a *political indicator*
this was a disaster
2/11
because to control disease, you need the majority of people to participate in mitigations
unfortunately the nobleleft (tm) adopted it as a cause celebre and virtue signifier for two minutes before they all stampeded off to the the next noblecause (tm)
3/11
You can tell they were never really committed at an intellectual level because the vast majority of them have now abandoned mitigations, any real sense of concern, or an ongoing interest in the science
4/11
Meanwhile in the tribal schismogenic fashion, the polarised right rejected all signs of mitigation, and even the requisite foundational beliefs like 'covid is dangerous', 'vaccines are fine', and 'not getting sick is good'
5/11
and revolted furiously against any such measures, as we all saw in Australia - and as happened almost from the start in the US
the coercive control tactics of the state and its moral enforcers on the ground didn't help
6/11
the worst thing is due to that lack of attention span and intellectual commitment, the polar Right and the cookers actually won - thats why they're so quiet now - there's nothing left to fight for in this arena
7/11
their beliefs;
'it's just a flu'
'you don't need vaccines'
'it's all an overreaction'
'you need to get sick to be healthy'
'masks don't work'
'it only kills old people, who cares'
are all mainstream now
8/11
and it is *notable* when you see someone wearing a mask around, or notice that a certain area is more vaccinated, or you someone cheekily (sensibly) putting a mask on on the sidelines of group life in certain settings
these are all outliers
9/11
and this is a disaster
prior to this, controlling disease (maybe with the exception of HIV in the early days) was not party political
it was just public health, good science, sensible boring stuff that needed to be done
10/11
only fringe kooks advocated against controlling syphilis, malaria, measles and other run of the mill diseases and pathogens
we live in their world now
11/11
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century old progress associations, 75 yo bowling clubs, 20 yo beloved community cafes, university sports clubs.. things that require in person socialisation, and also continuity
handover from one generation to the next
2/8
I noticed a similar trend in a book about ghost towns from another era defining disruption a century ago
Small towns that died in the decades following world war one, that had previously been thriving, full of dreams and ideas