"America was founded on the principle of “me first”."
OMG, that is SO true. Rugged individualism. The belief that "I made it on my own." Except that NO ONE makes it on their own (cue impassioned Elizabeth Warren speech....). Everyone who's made something of themselves has a string of people behind them who made it possible. Without these people, nothing resembling success would be possible.
Vaccination is not a "personal medical decision," nor is it about "personal freedom." It's the price of living in a free society. It's what each of us owe to the society that makes all that we have possible. If you refuse to participate in that, you shouldn't be allowed to take part in public activities of any sort. If that sounds like discrimination, it is. No one who refuses to meet their responsibility to society should be allowed to participate in it.
No one's asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy. It's a fucking shot. Stop your whining and do the right thing.
Yes, yes, YES to the power of a million. I love what you said here, and I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. "No one's asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy. It's a fucking shot. Stop your whining and do the right thing." BOOM.
Wonderfully written piece! I have no patience with anti-vaxxers and early in the pandemic, I tattled on everyone I thought was violatingthe protocols, but particular those who didn't wear masks in grocery stores when the sign said masks were required. I even yelled at alleged police officers who would not enforce the mask requirement (it was required thru the governor's executive order here in Ohio) I saw a great cartoon fairly recently where the words "I did my research" were written on the person's tombstone. What BS that faux research is! Thanks to Gary below for calling it out.
For folks who don't know, the 900,000 number (which is old; it is closer to 1,000,000 now) is based upon "excess deaths." There are fairly stable statistical trends, and among those trends is the number of people expected to die in the US in any given period of time. When that number goes straight over the falls in a barrel, you start looking for clues (especially when there weren't supposed to be any falls or barrels there.) COVID-19 is the only explanation.
As someone who has actually done research (the Ph.D. they tack on at the end of my name is not there for decoration) nothing is likelier to get me thrown out of a restaurant for screaming at people than someone telling me, "I've done my own research." People who've done *ACTUAL* research know that the research to which they've contributed (however little) is never just "their own." You're a worker bee in a hive of other researchers, what Peirce called a "community of inquiry." And speaking of community ...
The "individualism" of the West, which has achieved such toxic levels in the US, was not always the case. It is, in fact, fairly recent -- less than 1,000 years. In Plato's Socratic dialog, 'The Crito,' Socrates is in prison awaiting his execution. His student and friend Crito comes to him to tell Socrates that his escape has been arranged; he can then travel to Thessaly and live with a cousin (or some such.) (The thing I emphasize to my students is that prisons in the day were bloody sieves, nothing like contemporary jails.) Socrates refuses, because even though he knows himself to be innocent of the crimes for which he has been sentenced, he was sentenced by his community and he will abide by their judgment. His very existence is, was, and always would be predicated upon that community. How can he now spit in its face?
EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID. Like you, I tend to go apoplectic when someone insists they've "done their own research", and the vaguer they are about their sources, the redder of complexion I become. Thank you for the correction of the number of probable Covid dead. Erring as I do on the side of conservative numbers does not make me closer to the objective truth. And Socrates was supra-human.
"America was founded on the principle of “me first”."
OMG, that is SO true. Rugged individualism. The belief that "I made it on my own." Except that NO ONE makes it on their own (cue impassioned Elizabeth Warren speech....). Everyone who's made something of themselves has a string of people behind them who made it possible. Without these people, nothing resembling success would be possible.
Vaccination is not a "personal medical decision," nor is it about "personal freedom." It's the price of living in a free society. It's what each of us owe to the society that makes all that we have possible. If you refuse to participate in that, you shouldn't be allowed to take part in public activities of any sort. If that sounds like discrimination, it is. No one who refuses to meet their responsibility to society should be allowed to participate in it.
No one's asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy. It's a fucking shot. Stop your whining and do the right thing.
Yes, yes, YES to the power of a million. I love what you said here, and I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. "No one's asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy. It's a fucking shot. Stop your whining and do the right thing." BOOM.
Wonderfully written piece! I have no patience with anti-vaxxers and early in the pandemic, I tattled on everyone I thought was violatingthe protocols, but particular those who didn't wear masks in grocery stores when the sign said masks were required. I even yelled at alleged police officers who would not enforce the mask requirement (it was required thru the governor's executive order here in Ohio) I saw a great cartoon fairly recently where the words "I did my research" were written on the person's tombstone. What BS that faux research is! Thanks to Gary below for calling it out.
You were wise to call them out. This nonsense has GOT TO STOP.
For folks who don't know, the 900,000 number (which is old; it is closer to 1,000,000 now) is based upon "excess deaths." There are fairly stable statistical trends, and among those trends is the number of people expected to die in the US in any given period of time. When that number goes straight over the falls in a barrel, you start looking for clues (especially when there weren't supposed to be any falls or barrels there.) COVID-19 is the only explanation.
As someone who has actually done research (the Ph.D. they tack on at the end of my name is not there for decoration) nothing is likelier to get me thrown out of a restaurant for screaming at people than someone telling me, "I've done my own research." People who've done *ACTUAL* research know that the research to which they've contributed (however little) is never just "their own." You're a worker bee in a hive of other researchers, what Peirce called a "community of inquiry." And speaking of community ...
The "individualism" of the West, which has achieved such toxic levels in the US, was not always the case. It is, in fact, fairly recent -- less than 1,000 years. In Plato's Socratic dialog, 'The Crito,' Socrates is in prison awaiting his execution. His student and friend Crito comes to him to tell Socrates that his escape has been arranged; he can then travel to Thessaly and live with a cousin (or some such.) (The thing I emphasize to my students is that prisons in the day were bloody sieves, nothing like contemporary jails.) Socrates refuses, because even though he knows himself to be innocent of the crimes for which he has been sentenced, he was sentenced by his community and he will abide by their judgment. His very existence is, was, and always would be predicated upon that community. How can he now spit in its face?
EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID. Like you, I tend to go apoplectic when someone insists they've "done their own research", and the vaguer they are about their sources, the redder of complexion I become. Thank you for the correction of the number of probable Covid dead. Erring as I do on the side of conservative numbers does not make me closer to the objective truth. And Socrates was supra-human.