Those staying stuck in denial trying to force normal, longing for a gone pre-pandemic time, that’s who is being left behind, morally sabotaged to endure and inflict unnecessary suffering.
Nobody could take any of these statements seriously:
“We can’t wear seatbelts in cars forever.”
“We can’t wear steel toe boots at the factory forever.”
“We can’t use child car seats forever.”
“We can’t keep brushing our teeth every night forever.”
“We can’t stop people smoking indoors in public forever.”
“We can’t filter water at the sewage treatment plants forever.”
And no sensible person would take these types of comments seriously when it comes to mitigations for a dangerous pandemic. Masks, air filtration, regular testing, monitoring ventilation, isolating when sick, quarantining after exposure or before gatherings – all reasonable measures which should be standard practice all over the place by now. Many of these things are already standard in some places. Places that have moved forward and are moving with the times. The arrow of time points in one direction, like it or not.
If anyone is using the word “forever” as a pathetic attempt at a pejorative reductio ad absurdum, it’s complete nonsense. Meaningless. If someone is saying we should go backwards and stop using innovative strategies and proven technologies to deal with modern and emerging threats, they’re talking gibberish. It’s as ridiculous as saying throw away your clocks and go back to sundials. People refusing to move with the times are the ones being “left behind” in an upside down propaganda haze of pluralistic ignorance.
We got the airbags in our car replaced when they were recalled because they might fail. We put on clothes, brush our teeth, wear seatbelts, and drink filtered water – every day. We don’t stigmatize talking about drunk driving anymore – there are billboards encouraging everyone to take the keys from inebriated friends. Wanting to “go back to normal” is NOT “getting on with your life” – it’s the opposite of going forward. Some people say: “But how long can we keep this up?” What are they even talking about? If you’re being bombed do you leave the bomb shelter because hey it’s been a few days?… but if the bombs are still being dropped? We didn’t stop using child car seats once fatalities from infants being ejected from cars dipped a bit. We didn’t go back to drinking potentially poo laden water once cholera was under control – we prevent it now.
Those wearing N95 masks in public places, and especially healthcare settings, have moved on to adapt to the times and new realities of living with the existence of a dangerous infectious disease currently circulating. Those trying to live in the past and pretend it’s not happening with fingers stuck in their ears humming – they are the “holdouts” – hanging onto the past forcing normal with an angry id.
But how is this happening? Elite panic, ad campaigns, tricky influence, warped science, and repetition. This garbage is of course being pushed by big money – funded by fossil fuel, and far right-wing movements in general – for the usual reasons – profit and power. We’re being hammered by a well funded hard sell promoting dubious cures and moral disengagement that works against our natural desire for fairness and the pursuit of ethical community care, and promotes pluralistic ignorance – when most of us do want to cooperate by masking.
We need to reject moral sabotage and actively restore the spirit of public health, saving lives by collective salubrious acts of kindness to others and self-care.
Absurd “Forever” Statements
Let’s not be shy about lambasting remarks about what we can’t do forever.
- “We can’t wear seatbelts in cars forever.”
- “We can’t have speed limits forever.”
- “We can’t use child car seats forever.”
- “We can’t stop people smoking indoors in public forever.”
- “We can’t have a weekly garbage collection day forever.”
- “We can’t keep brushing our teeth every night forever.”
- “We can’t wear steel toe boots at the factory forever.”
- “We can’t wear visors while welding forever.”
- “You can’t keep trying to stop drunk driving forever.”
- “We can’t keep treating cancer forever.”
- “We can’t have a fire department fighting fires forever.”
- “You can’t fully cook chicken forever.”
- “We can’t filter water at the sewage treatment plants forever.”
- “You can’t refrain from pooping in the swimming pool forever”
- “You can’t fully douse your campfire forever”
- “You can’t wear oven mitts to grab hot cookware forever”
- “You can’t refrain from running with scissors forever”
- “You can’t remove used contact lenses from your eyes every night forever”
- “You can’t apply sunscreen at the beach forever”
- “You can’t bundle up in cold weather forever”
- “You can’t refrain from wiping back to front forever”
- “We can’t keep putting kids through school forever.”
- “We can’t keep screening for cancers forever.”
- “We can’t use life preservers on boats forever.”
- “We can’t use mosquito nets every night forever.”
- “We can’t wear life jackets on kayaks forever.”
- “We can’t replace the batteries in the smoke detector forever.”
- “We can’t use a carbon monoxide detector forever.”
- “We can’t pasteurize milk forever.”
- “Nurses can’t just put syringes in a sharps box forever.”
- “You can’t administer a correct dosage of Tylenol for your kids forever”
- “You can’t wash your hands before dinner forever”
Linked References:
People’s CDC COVID-19 Weather Report Week of December 25, 2022
The Weather: Transmission levels are even higher than last week’s (98.5 percent), with 98.8 percent of the population living in areas with substantial or higher transmission.
Teams Human – Forcing Normal in the Roaring 2020s
Elite panic kayfabe is timeless but not permanent.
Teams Human – Alarm is appropriate, the volcano is erupting
People respond to crisis with alarm — which leads people to take appropriate actions. Humans are generally actually good about reacting appropriately to disasters — it’s the elites who succumb to what disaster researchers call “elite panic” and behave counter-productively, putting a higher priority on controlling people over controlling the problem.
Twitter from @theSGLF: State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) Feb 9, 2022
Our latest ad is making an impact and liberals are now agreeing with what conservatives have been saying all along: mask mandates do more harm than good.
Teams Human – Repeat the truth, don’t lead with a lie
The “truth sandwich” means leading with the facts and repeating the correct information. It’s probably the only way to debunk lies without helping to promote them.
Teams Human – The Economy demands full participation, herd debt paid on an altar of lies
“Public health” is operating, but with the wrong information and the wrong solutions to solve the wrong problems, because those calling the shots have the wrong goals.
Teams Human – Mere Exposure Effect, leads to Exposure
After repeated exposure to something it becomes familiar, and even if it’s false or bad, it can come to be viewed as true or acceptable – even favorable, simply because it feels familiar.
The Lever: How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID – Dec 22, 2021 by Walker Bragman & Alex Kotch
One sector in particular that took a big hit was the fossil fuel industry. Oil demand fell sharply in 2020, placing the global economy on uncertain footing. Before long, business-aligned groups — particularly those connected to fossil fuels — began targeting the public health measures threatening their bottom lines. Chief among them were groups tied to billionaire Charles Koch, owner of Koch Industries, the largest privately held fossil fuel company in the world. The war on public health measures began on March 20, 2020, when Americans For Prosperity (AFP), the right-wing nonprofit founded by Charles and David Koch, issued a press release calling on states to remain open.
Byline Times: The Radical Right Interests Behind The School Boards Race Row by Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda – 15 November 2021
Those school boards have now become a target for far-right groups such as the Proud Boys, with the Republican Party and its base turning education – and particularly education on race – into its latest front of the culture war. That war is inflaming real-life violence at schools across the country. The violence has included deposits of dead rodents on school board members’ doorsteps and the unfurling of Nazi flags at meetings. Last week, members of the neo-Nazi group showed up at a New Hanover County school board meeting. They covered their faces, which was ironic considering the meeting was to discuss mask mandates.
Mashable: 12 people are behind most of the anti-vaxxer disinformation you see on social media. The “Disinformation Dozen” are spreading anti-vaccination content throughout the internet. By Matt Binder on March 24, 2021
The largest anti-vaxxer influencer on social media, according to the report, is Joseph Mercola. Mercola is an alternative medicine promoter who runs a multimillion dollar online business selling treatments and dietary supplements. The FDA recently sent Mercola a warning over his sham treatments for COVID-19.
Teams Human – Moral Sabotage & Community Care Disengaged
Public health has been under attack. Community care and cooperation is natural and desirable. Moral disengagement is anything but normal.
Science Daily: Human sense of fairness evolved to favor long-term cooperation, primate study suggests Date: September 18, 2014 Source: Georgia State University
“Giving up an outcome that benefits you in order to gain long-term benefits from the relationship requires not only an ability to think about the future, but also the self-control to turn down a reward,” Brosnan said. “These both require a lot of cognitive control. Therefore, we hypothesize that lots of species respond negatively to getting less than a partner, which is the first step in the evolution of fairness, but only a few species are able to make the leap to this second step, which leads to a true sense of fairness.”
Pluralistic ignorance From Wikipedia
In social psychology, pluralistic ignorance refers to a situation in which the minority position on a given topic is wrongly perceived to be the majority position or where the majority position is wrongly perceived to be the minority position.
Bar chart of polling data from Data For Progress. Title: Voters Support Masks in Indoor Public Spaces. Posted by Matthew Cortland on twitter
