I realize that some people think they’re being helpful or consoling somehow when they say “the country survived the first Trump term”, but it’s unthinkingly insulting to all the people who lost their lives, and the people who lost loved ones the first time around. And also everyone who’s been affected by preventable covid infections, because of Trump and the elite business class pushing infection from the start, poisoning the well on mitigation, and even blocking reasonable policies, which not only rigged the system against attempts at public health, but also set the tone for all that followed.
Of course many people who say this are being deliberately obtuse, and poisoning the well right now. Perhaps some of them are paid propagandists, paid by elites, who want, above all else, to quell panic. Their priority is not to not preserve life, humanity, and community, or to help people prepare for disasters. When elites panic, they act in their own interest, to preserve the status quo and reduce unrest which inconveniences them.
We don’t know for sure exactly who will perish and who will survive in a regime where public health is treated as the enemy and the intent is to dismantle society. But we have a pretty good idea about who’s more likely or less likely.
It’s still legal right now to tell someone to shove off if they’re being rude for whatever reason. And we don’t have to pretend awful things are mild. And we don’t have to obey in advance.