I think I have been relatively flexible on the issue of wearing masks in public during a worldwide pandemic, given the circumstances we all must endure. Although on a personal level I tend to think that someone who just can't be troubled to wear a mask for fifteen minutes while they're at the supermarket or whatever is, well, basically a selfish asshole, the fact is the world is full of those, overflowing even.
And as long as the assholes keep their distance, good luck with all that. I don't have the time or inclination to try to browbeat people or convince stubborn idjits. Life's just too short. So as long as they're over there, I'm minding mine over here.
(Now, the angry mow-rons who waddle into Wal-Mart or Trader Joe's and scream at the hapless staff about their fuckin' freedumbs, all's I can say about them is that I sincerely hope they get a dose of the freedom-virus with both barrels. But near as I can tell -- and I live in a pretty red area -- north of eighty percent of people are wearing their masks and minding their business. It's going to have to be close enough.)
But these jamokes? What, are we supposed to feel sorry for them or something? They made their choices, they get to live with the consequences. Isn't that the very essence of liberty and freedom? I'm not being snarkastic here, it's a genuine question. This is what they wanted, this is what they get.
I mean, I get the same sense from that story as I do when, say, a rodeo bull rider gets severely injured. They know what they're getting into; they understand that there's a very real risk of serious injury from teasing a twelve-hundred-pound farm animal.
You could say the same thing about "regular" athletes, but even base-paid NFL and NBA players make more in a year than a lot of the Gove County folks will see in a lifetime. Those fools were willing to risk their lives for free, for some incoherent idea of what "independence" is and should be.
Even today, mask-wearing remains controversial in Gove County, and friendships are being strained as authorities struggle to persuade their neighbors to follow basic public health guidelines, such as avoiding large gatherings.
It seems that too many of these schmucks sincerely believe that their performative "resistance" is going to make libturds cry or something. Another heh, showed yew moment, which is really all they have to look forward to in their weird little lives anymore.
Yup, you sure showed us all right. Boy, do we feel silly. Which is still better than feeling, you know, dead, or sick enough to wish you were dead. Let's not forget that there are plenty of people who survived the #TrumpPlague who now have heart problems, liver damage, cognitive difficulties, and other serious issues. Not everybody who gets it and survives comes out the other end unscathed.
It's really the opposite of hurting or offending anyone -- speaking only for myself, I can only say that the Gove County people might be surprised at how little some of us care. If you've been told for months that stoves are hot, and vending machines will crush you, but you insist on touching a burner and pulling a Coke machine on yourself, I just figure it's nature weeding out the stupid. It doesn't fill me with joy, but it doesn't sadden or anger me either. It's like seeing a dead raccoon on the side of the road, except that no one warned the raccoon about how roads and highways work.
They do owe some sort of apology to the frontline health-care workers who they endanger, though. Frankly, those people are saints -- I would have walked out months ago and said fuck it, especially in a small community where everyone's been told, but has collectively decided to be weird and stubbornly stupid about it. But then, for every person they see who put themselves in the ICU by being an asshole, there's probably two or six or ten that just had the bad fortune to be in proximity to the asshole at the wrong time.
Then you have these fuckers, people who insist on having big weddings with all the guests and parties and trappings, as if nothing else is going on. The sheer sociopathic indifference all of these people show to the wedding photographer they infected tells you everything you need to know about them.
Whenever you hear some West Wing idealist type trying to pitch the "appeal to their better angels" jabber, refer to folks like that Texas wedding party to remind them that some people simply don't have such a thing. They really don't, and there's not a goddamned thing you can do about it, except keep the hell away from them.
Look, it's true that we all gotta die of something someday. But you don't have to die of this, and not right now. The idea that some people just don't get that until the plague hits them directly, or someone they care about, is deeply repulsive, and says something about the people who think and act that way.
And you can't blame all that on Trump, either. Trump was a lying, buffoonish slapdick decades before this shit hit us. Anyone who was relying on Doctor Babyfingers for life-or-death medical advice was probably bound to pull a vending machine on themselves sooner or later anyway.
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