"The American Right Is Pushing 'Freedom Over Fear,' It Won't Stop The Virus'
'The American right is pushing 'freedom over fear'. It won't stop the virus.' By Jan Werner. The Guardian, July 16, 2020. America needs to recognize that freedom isnt just maximal self-assertion. We have to be considerate in how we act. The Guardian, July 16, 2020. - Excerpts, Ed.:
Covid-19 cases are exploding. The European Union has banned most American residents from entering the bloc. By doing so, it is basically treating the US as a failing state unable to get the pandemic under control. Some are blaming young people who are mingling with each other for the surge. But greater harm has been done by rightwing elites, who are pushing the narrative that protective measures like social distancing and masks impinge on their freedom. Unlike with any crisis in living American memory, there has been absolutely no national leadership or comprehensive planning..
The resulting vacuum has been filled by the most extreme voices in the Republican party and the hard business right: they have pushed the idea that we are in an epic battle between fear and freedom.. this rhetoric is echoed on posters by the seemingly libertarian Michigan protesters proclaiming: My freedom does not end where your fear begins.
In many ways, the right has simply hit repeat for a political strategy that has apparently worked for it in the past: relentlessly stoke culture wars to distract everyone from growing inequalities and a rapidly deteriorating natural environment. Masks have been designated as inherently leftwing or signs of enslavement to the government; evil foreigners are being blamed for the virus..the pandemic is instrumentalized to push the all-out deregulation agenda Trump and his backers have pursued from day one of his presidency. This is a playbook Republicans have been perfecting with regard to global warming: pretend that an impersonal and for many people invisible threat doesnt really exist, and, on top of that, claim that its a plot hatched by a global geopolitical rival.
The truth is that in many ways we are less free than four months ago; we have fewer options and some liberties are being restricted. Yet we should not forget that liberties are always both backed up and limited by the state even the most ardent libertarian calls the police when their right to dispose of their property freely is threatened by thieves... The reason liberties have been restricted in the past months is not only that states had a clear democratic mandate by a reasonably fearful majority to do so (polls showed consistent support for lockdowns). It is also that in a situation in which we, as individuals, cannot properly judge whether our conduct will cause major harms to others. It is therefore right for states to put proper regulations in place..
If safety is not insured, the supposed economic freedom that the hard right is promoting is in fact unfreedom. Many blue-collar workers dont have a choice about whether to stay at home and have every reason to be fearful about returning to an unsafe environment. By contrast, the privileged as they can work from home or dont need the money can choose to keep sheltering. The latter might even benefit indirectly from others getting infected and thus moving us all closer to herd immunity, a classic form of what economists call free riding: getting the benefit without incurring the cost...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-american-right-freedom-over-fear
riversedge
(70,442 posts)the virus loves the trumpy freedom
live love laugh
(13,204 posts)no_hypocrisy
(46,300 posts)Pulling the entire country back into The Dark Ages and now the epitome is our era's version of The Black Death which they are in awe of and find it as proof of God's Will. Science, medicine, and critical thinking are anathema to their mindset.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,430 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)pwb
(11,308 posts)but we could kick their asses in a fight. Big mouth blowhards like trump.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)Too many Americans are willful idiots, specifically those who may be right-leaning. This sentence hit me as a former union employee:
"The latter might even benefit indirectly from others getting infected and thus moving us all closer to herd immunity, a classic form of what economists call free riding: getting the benefit without incurring the cost..."
Just like fair share union dues that the Repukes hate with a passion. Gee, they're being hypocrites, never would have guessed.
certainot
(9,090 posts)american progressive orgs let the right corporate think tanks dominate the radio waves with a few hundred racist lying bozos who are entitled by the fact that they know there are no radio stations with liberals on them within 500 miles. and their call screeners make sure no one will ever call them racist lying bozos on air and instead only accept calls from racist lying bozos, maybe from other countries.
suicidal lying limbaugh calls BLM protestors and dems maggot infested marxist communists all day for long after the protestors go home and calls COVID a hoax on 600 radio stations licensed to operate in the public interest and no chance of being challenged or corrected, or consequences for the businesses and universities and pro sports teams that endorse them.
then democrats and liberals wonder where it comes from, blaming symptoms and analyzing fish without water