To Hell With Freedom

Alright, I've been stewing a little bit... off to the races.

To all the people protesting, without masks, on top of one another, holding signs about the Land of the Free, bitching about the economy and whining about having to stay home:

FUCK YOU.

I know that as Americans, everyone loves to rant on and on and on about "muh freedom", and how "free" we are, and "don't mess with my freedom." So this isn't going to be popular:

FUCK YOUR FREEDOM.

Now let me be clear: If you've lost your job, and you're trying to figure out how you're going to keep the lights on, the rent paid and food on the table, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the people comparing stay-at-home orders to communism.

Believe it or not, freedom isn't the only thing in the world worth protecting. We're in the middle of a global pandemic that's killing people all over the world. And the United States has suffered more deaths from it than the next four countries COMBINED. But people are so brainwashed by the idea of freedom and the altar of capitalism that they've convinced themselves that those ideas are somehow an acceptable substitute for basic human kindness, compassion, and simple common sense.

There are a whole bunch of other free countries in the world. Stop acting like we're the only free place on the planet. And most of those countries, despite their "freedom" have enacted many of the measures that have been put in place here. Because they're not fucking morons. Other people around the world are smart enough to recognize that there are actually circumstances when extreme measures need to be taken. A highly contagious virus that kills a shitload of people certainly qualifies.

Don't like what's happening to the economy? Me neither. It sucks. But we're not doing it for giggles. You know what else? If the damn Republicans weren't so obsessed with cutting taxes for the rich at every turn, maybe we'd have some more money lying around to deal with some of the problems we're experiencing. We'd be able to mass-produce testing materials. We'd be able to cover people's health care (which is kind of important at the moment). People who are being forced to stay home and not work would be able to receive more in benefits. But, hey -- a few billionaires have more cash in their pockets to run companies that aren't even running. Screw everyone else.

All the people jumping up and down at these rallies, screaming about how much they hate this -- they're also too stupid to recognize that gatherings like this are what makes it likely that the shutdown will go on LONGER THAN IT ALREADY HAS. These freakin' guys holding up signs saying "My Body, My Risk, My Choice" (oh, how fucking cute... Republican men are suddenly pro-choice, now) don't seem to understand that when you're talking about a communicable disease, it isn't just YOUR body; it's the body of everyone you come into contact with.

Don't give me the counterarguments about car accidents, either. Or whatever other cause of death you choose to spew out. Yes, every time you get into a car, you could die of a car accident. True. If you die in a car accident on your way home, your spouse and two kids don't therefore die in a car accident. And your kids' classmates or sports teammates don't therefore die in car accidents. And their parents. And your spouse's co-workers. And their families. Car accidents don't spread. Not so with Coronavirus.

You know how many people died in the 9/11 attacks? 2,977. (That's Wikipedia.)
You know how many Americans have died from COVID-19, as of the time I type this? 45,525.

This virus is more than 15 times deadlier than 9/11 was. And after 9/11, we invaded two countries that didn't attack us, spent trillions of dollars on the wars, tanked the economy, lost tons of soldiers in conflicts that have gone on seemingly forever (including my nephew), and enacted the PATRIOT Act, which expanded the power of the government when it comes to surveillance of pretty much anybody and everybody.

So we did a lot of things that hurt us physically, financially, and reduced our precious freeeeeeeeedom. But everyone was just expected to roll with it, because a bunch of people died. In fact, a lot of people who voiced objection to some of the measures were branded as anti-American or unpatriotic. We suffered a massive tragedy, so in the interest of protecting ourselves, we had to go all-in. Not to mention, that was also a reaction to an event that had already concluded, not one that was a continuous situation. I didn't hear any of the "hey, this was less than 3,000 people, and 34,000 people die of the flu every year" bullshit back then.

Alright. So what's the fucking difference? We have something happening that's 15 times worse SO FAR, and we're not anywhere close to being done. If protecting American lives is so goddamned important, why is everyone itching to pull the plug? Yeah, I know the economy is bad. But if we go back to "normal" too quickly, and this thing gets completely out of hand AGAIN, we're back to square one, and the sacrifices we've already made are for nothing.

I think it's just because the average American is actually being PERSONALLY inconvenienced this time. After 9/11, unless you were in the military, you didn't really suffer that much. We had a week of profound mourning, and a period of anger and thirst for vengeance, but life went on. The stores were open and the bars were serving. But since Americans have a distinct lack of empathy for any situation that doesn't affect them at home, we got over that shit. Here, we're actually having to sacrifice, so out come the signs about freedom... while people are in our hospitals dying.

Grow up.