Give her a break. Its mating season for the manatee community.
She HAD to swim upriver.
#InstinctualImperative
Posted on 05/16/2020 6:15:27 PM PDT by sickoflibs
Earlier today on Facebook (where all good ideas go to die) I read three separate posts from friends telling people to “stay home, stay safe.” Every single one of them was dripping in self-righteousness and condescension. You must be an idiot if you’re clamoring to go eat in a restaurant or swim at the beach – that was the tone and continues to be the tone of quite literally every single person who is proudly and publicly toeing the “stay home, stay safe” (SHSS) line right now. I’m using “literally” literally. I’ve yet to see one SHSS post that isn’t bathed in Karenism.
Three weeks ago Georgia and Florida began opening up their economies and the SHSS crowd went crazy. They weren’t just annoyed, they were enraged. Many spit out hateful wishes that those going to the beach or stores would contract the virus themselves…it would serve them right. Some posted mock “contracts” for the “morons” to sign to give up their right to medical treatment or publicly funded services should they contract the virus. Many others expressed genuine fear at the possible consequences, making desperate posts predicting tragically surging infection rates and deaths if the toothless rednecks in the South didn’t come to their senses soon.
Fast forward to today and not only have the worst of the predictions not come true, both Georgia and Florida continue to post declining infection rates and fatality rates due to COVID-19. The consequences have been exactly the opposite of what the SHSS crowd had feared.
This is good news…right?
Not according to my social media timelines. The reactions from my SHSS friends and followers has ranged from begrudging recognition – “Fine but what happens when it gets cold/the kids go back to school/the second or third wave hits”– to utter silence. I have literally (and again, I use that word genuinely) not seen one post congratulating those states for surviving the reopening in tact or expressing relief and gratitude that the worst (and even the moderate) predictions of doom did not come true. These people actually seem disappointed that people aren’t dying in droves.
It is a bizarre phenomenon to watch. I’m sure smarter op ed writers than I have analyzed exactly why so many people are digging in like this but it’s my opinion that the COVID-19 panic has become nearly completely politicized. We’re no longer looking at data; we’ve stopped reading the articles and instead are stopping at headlines; we are no longer sharing information about the science of it all. Instead, our positions on the virus and our response to it have come to represent our partisan political positions. You want to go back to work? You must be a Trump voter and thusly, a moron. Want to stay in quarantine until there’s a vaccine? You must be zombie Brown Shirt and probably a trust fund baby or welfare recipient who isn’t worrying about working to eat.
Somehow the fears most of us originally shared have now devolved into sanctimonious bludgeons. “Stay Home, Stay Safe” in particular has come be synonymous with “You blithering idiots in red states gave us Trump so whatever you say about this virus is wrong, simply by virtue of how I think you voted.”
Where are the cheers? Where are the mea culpas? At the very least, where are expressions of excitement that the models were wrong? Don’t we want them to be wrong? Don’t we want to have grossly overestimated the death count in those states that opened? We’ve had weeks of tedious lectures about “science” and “data” and when the science and data finally shows that people can get back to their lives the SHSS crowd suddenly has no interest in such things. Worse, they have no interest in celebrating lives saved alongside jobs saved.
“Stay home, stay safe” has now become a virtue signal. Like #MeToo, it began in earnest. Also like #MeToo the goalposts supporting the movement keep shifting and people started politicizing it and now it’s just a hashtag instead of an expression that provokes thought and self-reflection.
I am shocked and so very disappointed to see so many people actively wishing death upon their fellow citizens just to prove themselves right. We should be happy that every day evidence is mounting that we can all go back to work and life and feel relatively safe about it. We should be happy that people are reopening their businesses and rehiring their workers. We should be happy that Georgia and Florida have been so successful in their handling of this situation.
The SHSS crowd has spent three weeks saying all they care about is saving lives. I can think of no earthly reason why these things wouldn’t fill all of us with joy and relief.
Unless, of course, you never really meant it in the first place and secretly hoped to see devastating fatality spikes among those people you’ve already been hating for quite a while.
Kira ✔ @RealKiraDavis I can't believe how many people out there are actually sad that that the south didn't get crushed by COVID deaths like they predicted. You'd think they'd be sharing the good news after being oh-so-concerned with saving lives. We live in bizarre times. #everythingispolitical
538 1:10 PM - May 16, 2020
Our guy Ducey in AZ did the same thing. He mollified the commies by issuing a lockdown order that wasn’t very draconian. People complained because that’s what they do. but I think he looks pretty good in retrospect.
For the left, everything is political. #Covidsharia.
This is the attitude that got this country where we (sadly) are today. Everything was always happening "somewhere else.". Until it wasn't.
Perhaps the naysayers should sign a form saying they agree to give up their civil rights.
Good for you TGC
I appreciate your comment.
Hopefully GA will be a happy story .
But we can't be blind to what we see or worry about comments from trolls.
:)
I can get some peaches up in my neck of the woods that I adore, they are brandied peaches in a sweet syrup that has a whole clove in each jar. They are from Pennsylvania, but...I’ll bet you guys get some great ones down there!
Man. I can’t break that jar open, either. My wife would have my ass!
I’m from Allegany County.
“Our guy Ducey in AZ did the same thing”
Good on Ducey! It couldn’t have been easy for him to “thread the needle”.
Have been thinking of visiting parts of AZ next year. Everyone I know says “Go to Sedona”. What say you?
Give her a break. Its mating season for the manatee community.
She HAD to swim upriver.
#InstinctualImperative
What will Danny moan about when his pet virus dies in the warm Summer sun.
Better , TGKC
Don’t let trolls get you down :)
Corona “#metoo” needs to become “#f*&kyou”.
Sure was.
Waiting for bulk Hogan to get off his ample arse and let things open up!!!!!
Oh. That was funny.
Howard
A nice place to live but the libs in Columbia installed a progressive a$$hole as county executive, he's not even going along with Hogan's phase 1.
But Carroll county isn't that far from me to spend my $$$.
It’s crazy over there. A lot of wiccan and crystals. One time I was walking through town and a woman was climbing a traffic light howling like a coyote.
Holy crap! That sounds like my sister. :-) (Seriously, she’s kind of nutty sometimes)
Yeah, and for some reason old Awful Jawn McCain was up there a lot. His entourage shut down the whole freeway after the bastard finally died.
Not a enthusiastic Hogan fan but I remember the 8 year Martin O Malley era. Imagine if MOM was governor now.
Consider that Hogan allowed MD to go to stage 1, and only 2 counties took it, and mine was NOT one of them.
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