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The two big Covid arcs we saw were an immediate rejection of Covid precautions by the right, followed by a re-alignment of Democrats in 2022 after the Biden administration pushed hard to downplay the impact of Covid and the need for precautions.
Both of these strains of thought should be anathema to the left. Yet we see largely the same attitudes from leftist politicians and organizations:
- “You shouldn’t be guilting your comrades over their refusal to mask”
- “People with disabilities do not automatically die when a coronavirus particle enters their airway”
- “If everyone in a room is asymptomatic and IMMUNIZED, then risk of spread is low. Immunization >> masking”
- “If you guys want to get really sad, check out r/ZeroCovidCommunity. It’s filled with people who are shut ins who lost their family, friends, and jobs because of their fear of catching COVID.”
- “It’s 2025, not 2021. If you’re worried about your health you can wear an N95.”
- “There’s solidarity and then there’s indulging. If you are immunocompromised to the point you require to be in a room where everyone is masked then maybe you need to sit this one out until you are feeling better. You cannot force a majority to the will of a very small minority.”
- “Choosing to wear a mask to protest a genocide to protect your identity is one thing. Forcing everyone to wear a mask to protect one or two individuals that if they are so sick they should be at home [is different.]”
These are all comments from DSA members today, but I’m not cherry-picking. They’re representative of the US left (and the left in other countries) on the whole.
I don’t understand how this became leftist dogma. Covid minimization was clearly driven by the needs of capital, and the left should reflexively reject it. Accepting it means workplace and public space health and safety is gone, a whole host of people are essentially banned from participating in society, vulnerable minorities are no longer protected, and you no longer have the personal right to not be infected with a biohazard. This is all anti-labor and discriminatory.
I’ve seen people try to spin masking as a mark of white privilege and a restriction of the freedoms of non-white people. As if throughout the pandemic, non-white people haven’t been at the highest risk of getting Covid and having long-term health problems as a result.
Outrage over the genocide in Gaza is righteous; but somehow the Covid genocide is irrelevant.
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I saw someone on social media post something like “don’t make perfect the enemy of the good” in regards to masking. You can do a lot for your health and safety by wearing masks in crowded public places such as mass transit and shops. And those who have chronic health issues would be super grateful. Maybe you’d still unmask in a lot of places, increase your masking by 5%, but improve your situation by a lot by masking in just the scariest places.
KN95s offer good protection and are pretty inexpensive. It’s also gonna help prevent long term issues like strokes and heart attacks. Also you’d avoid breathing in a lot of pm2.5 particles and microplastics. I’m sorry that they’re part of the modern world, but they’re here.
There’s a very good chance that you’ll get it with this current wave, sadly.
Edit
Where you wearing just surgical masks?
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Massive covid waves are largely dependant on variant shifts and waning immunity. But it’s always around now. We’re now at the point that Covid levels don’t really drop below about 3/4 of the peak during the Delta surge.
unless you’re testing regularly and correctly then you’re probably wrong here. a huge majority of cases are asymptomatic. you may not notice the damage being done, but it’s still happening.
also i’m sorry but statements like these
really drive home how pathetic most western leftists are on covid specifically. you can’t imagine doing something hard for the benefit of yourself and those most impacted by [bad thing]? why even be a communist at that point? overthrowing capitalism is going to be infinitely more difficult than throwing on an n95 before you go to the store.
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let me preface this by saying i’m not an intellectual sort and i have no science background to speak of. let me also preface by saying i’m not sure why i’m bothering with this since you are plainly unwilling to better yourself on the matter but here we go i guess
covid is not just a “respiratory thing”, it damages every organ in the body. heart, brain, even the lining of your blood vessels.
a slap in the face to those of us who have been and will continue to care about covid. it “just becomes” a permanent aspect of your working and social life when you make a commitment to not being a plague rat. there’s no magic here. if you don’t care about “faceless online leftists” i don’t really blame you, but those aren’t the people you’re hurting by refusing to respond appropriately to the pandemic.
what exactly are you basing this assertion on? without hard data this is just crass minimization of a deadly pandemic. but let’s generously assume you’re correct here: have you considered that covid is “less lethal” now because the most vulnerable already fucking died to it?
not yet. you will. and i’ll tell you for free as a disabled person that being disabled fucking sucks. doubly so when your poor decisions are the primary cause of your own disability (again, i am speaking from personal experience here).
of course you do. that’s the most comfortable explanation for you to glom on to. if you believed otherwise you’d be forced to reckon with the fact that you are very literally tailing the masses on covid.
and sadly, that’s your choice. personally, i’m never going to trust someone who can’t live with a smattering of inconvenience in order to help blunt the spread of a still-deadly disease.
because you are ignorant. unfortunately for you and those around you, your ignorance (or theirs, to jump ahead a bit) will not protect anyone from the consequences of your selfish, gutless decisions.
and rather than educating the people close to you, as some sort of, idk, communist might do, you instead choose the easy path. ignorance, tailism, minimization. let’s take a quick peak at the sidebar, shall we?
you’re 3/5. why you are allowed to be here i don’t know, but you absolutely should not be. the mods of this comm are entirely too kind and far too tolerant of this bullshit. you can go be a plague rat anywhere else on this site. but you are emphatically not welcome to do so here.
for the record, this is what it looks like when i’m dunking on you.
almost every c/covid post about masking lately has had people trying to resolve their cognitive dissonance around not masking and i’m completely fed up with it. the community rules don’t feel like they’re being fully enforced.
edit: they were banned o7
i’m glad they were banned (alongside the other minimizer) but damn do i wish the mods here were a little less tolerant of that kind of shit. i understand i’m not the most pleasant person but i really do feel they are entirely too willing to let frankly revolting behavior slide.
tbh i have been feeling the same way and am glad you brought it up. plague rats should not be welcome in c/covid. literally the same energy as a carnist waltzing into c/vegan to me. they have the rest of the world to make them feel better about not masking but they always come in here wanting us to agree with them or pat them on the back like i just can’t stand it.
i have to deal with that shit from liberals irl constantly but on a leftist website? you’re telling me they can’t critically think about their actions/inaction and what they’re contributing to? ridiculous and such a display of weak principles. sorry for the rant i just agree with all that you said and it’s been bothering me too
unlimited vitriol on minimizers
Unbothered. Moisturized. Participating in at least one COVID kill chain that murdered or immiserated at least one disabled person. In My Lane.
GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY