From: slider@anashram.com

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 – Trump’s plan has been to have no plan, as the critic Jay Rosen put it. 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. The likes of “Freedom Works” and the “Job Creators Network” have called for flatting the fear curve; this rhetoric is echoed on posters by the seemingly libertarian Michigan
protesters proclaiming: “My freedom does not end where your fear begins.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-american-right-freedom-over-fear

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. Instead of mobilizing state resources to protect both businesses and workers in the way countries like Denmark have done, 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 doesn’t really exist, and, on top of that, claim that it’s 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. And basic political rights are also always reasonably qualified: Mike Pence’s
specious defense of Trump’s failed Tulsa rally invoked the constitutional right of freedom of assembly, but forgot to mention that assemblies can be regulated with regard to timing, place and manner.

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.

Our inability individually to calculate the risks we pose to others will
not change any time soon, especially as asymptomatic Covid-19 cases are
more common than assumed initially. Hence states should err on the side of imposing detailed regulations. They must sanction those businesses who
fail to keep workers safe instead of declaring them “essential” and shielding them from proper responsibility, in the way Trump did with the
meat industry. That will help allay the fears of those who are wary of returning to work.

If safety is not insured, the supposed economic freedom that the hard
right is promoting is in fact unfreedom. Many blue-collar workers don’t
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 don’t 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.

America needs to recognize that freedom isn’t simply maximal individual self-assertion. It’s also, following the political theorist Hannah
Arendt’s famous account, a collective capacity to coordinate and act in concert. That might require forbearance and proper attention to the spaces
we share. Many people have been adopting such an attitude – putting on
masks voluntarily as well as being considerate in how they move and talk.
Such self-restraint – combined with temporary regulations – would lessen fear and increase everyone’s freedom in the long-term.

### - the right-wing aren't at all interested in increasing anyone's
'freedom' except their own? their whole 'concept' of freedom being merely
the freedom to oppress others and to bend them to their will in an: you're either with us or against us policy of division...

something lol that apparently now includes the whole of the left-wing too??

disagree with them (the right-wing) in any way and you now become the
enemy of the state!? (shades of nazi germany!)

the equivalent of the right-wing putting their fingers in their ears and yelling la la la to anything that even questions their behaviour??

get it straight people! the right-wing do not believe in democracy! they
are totally against such a thing ever existing! all such
thinking/reasoning even 'regarding' such an extraordinary idea (of
freedom) coming only from the left where it originates from!

and because ya see, once upon a time there WAS only the right wing! (the
owners of everything however they'd acquired it; usually by force...) that
is until they were opposed by the workers themselves demanding better
working conditions! they didn't want to stop working they just wanted
fairly sensible & reasonable things, such as: children not having to go
work down the mines until they were at least 13 years of age for example,
and adults being allowed to retire at age 75 instead of working till they instead dropped dead, AND with a small pension provided so they didn't
just immediately starve to death either! (a totally revolutionary idea at
the time!), and with the likes of safety features added to all these new industrial machines to cut down on injuries etc... none of their demands
being at all unreasonable? a fair wage for a fair day's work not being unreasonable!

thus the left-wing was born to represent those workers! and then unions
too as those workers banded together to have their demands voiced & heard,
the right-wing fighting them every inch of the way! even today!

to thus demonise & even outlaw such a movement is a blow to the whole of
the civilised & developing world??

so wtf don't they teach us these things in school then?

because they're not allowed to until one reaches a certain, fairly high
level, of education that's why! the vast majority leaving education to go
and work long before they're ever even introduced to such ideas!

easy-meat then for the predators all literally hanging around outside the school-yard gates just waiting to prey upon the newly uneducated; come and
work for us and we'll look after you! and if you don't fancy that you can always join the army!

basically: the left-wing are thus the instigators + originators of the
search for freedom, the right-wing being totally opposed to it + if
'everyone' understood this i don't then doubt it would be reflected in the numbers each side then receives come election time: a steady 80/20 split in-favour of the left every single time because those in fact are the
numbers!

and which one day soon may even become the case when people wake the fuck
up to what's been going on for the longest time right under their very
noses ;)

it's the only hope we have!

unless ya 'like' hitler that is lol (some do! :)))

alright then, back under ya's all go heh...

perhaps with something more to chew-on now than just another shit-sandwich
hah!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)