Paul Krugman takes on the unfolding disaster in Florida. He points out that while Florida is roughly at the national level of vaccine uptake, senior citizens in Florida are overwhelmingly vaccinated, leaving the bulk of the population unvaccinated. He then moves on to Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis is likely the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2024, if Trump doesn't run. His conduct during the pandemic is perfectly Trumpian, with the caveat that Trump is an idiot who suggested injecting bleach and DeSantis is a cynical shithead who simply wants to latch on to whatever Trump started.
Since the beginning, DeSantis has embraced this messed up idea of "freedom." It's something I've encountered with a cousin on Facebook. The idea that masking and mandatory vaccinations are an assault on our precious freedoms.
Krugman lays it:
My answer is that when people on the right talk about “freedom” what they actually mean is closer to “defense of privilege” — specifically the right of certain people (generally white male Christians) to do whatever they want.
If you can explain to me the difference between a toddler's understanding of autonomy and this bullshit "Freedumb" movement, I'm willing to listen. Do masks suck? I mean, a little bit. But as someone who is suffering through a breakthrough infection, I can tell you it definitely does not suck nearly as much as having Covid, even fully vaccinated.
Krugman continues:
Once you understand that the rhetoric of freedom is actually about privilege, things that look on the surface like gross inconsistency and hypocrisy start to make sense.
Why, for example, are conservatives so insistent on the right of businesses to make their own decisions, free from regulation — but quick to stop them from denying service to customers who refuse to wear masks or show proof of vaccination? Why is the autonomy of local school districts a fundamental principle — unless they want to require masks or teach America’s racial history? It’s all about whose privilege is being protected.
This is part and parcel of the freakout by certain segments of White America to a changing country. They see their impending marginalization, but they are erecting these false structures to shield themselves from it. They respond to cognitive dissonance with abject denial and a retreat to fantasy.
Trump won 46 and 47% of the vote in his two elections. Rather than see that the majority of Americans rejected him, they simply create a fact-free narrative that he actually won.
Masks work, and despite our personal experience, vaccines work. My wife and I feel like shit, but we aren't going to die. But if you've been conditioned to see "gubmint" as "crazy socialists after your freedom to make a joke about your Black co-worker," then you reject common sense calls to return to mitigation and you reject calls for mandatory vaccination.
One of the clearest examples of this is the term "pro-life." Republicans have been clinging to this term, even as they support the death penalty and invading Iraq. If we properly understand anti-abortion sentiment among many conservatives as about preserving the privilege of men to have children without the necessary consent of women - the "forced birth" position - then there's no longer any hypocrisy. This is why they can scream about "bodily autonomy" when it comes to vaccines and not abortion (or even birth control). It is why the GOP has moved forcefully away from supporting basic ideas of democratic rule.
There are always limits on freedom. In fact, we know the GOP supports efforts to limit the freedom of teachers to teach, people of color to protest and on and on.
They do not care about freedom.
They want autonomy. Freedom exists within the confines of a well-run society. Autonomy is simply divorcing yourself from everyone else.
As the pandemic has shown, that's deadly.
No comments:
Post a Comment