Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/03/americans-party-like-theres-no-pandemic.html
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The American partiers, religious fundies and conservatives who hold these mass events in the midst of a pandemic are just the extreme exemplars of a selfish and entitled attitude prevalent especially in the U.S.
Without having to read too much between the lines in the news over the past week, it’s clear that public health officials and responsible politicians are justifiably terrified about what’s going to happen in the U.S. in the coming weeks. After that it might be a whole other cycle with Xmas and New Years, with a vaccination not in the cards for most of us until the spring at the earliest.
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Homo sapiens clearly is not cut out for adapting to these times.
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I guess not everybody had the good fortune to move out to ‘the country’ and shack up with the love of their life before Splendid Isolation became the world’s theme song? Pity, that. All these superspreader parties I keep reading about suggests that some people did not take Hunter S. Thompson’s most profound words to heart, and thus haven’t the inherent professionalism to hold private raves like civilized adults.
Lest you think I’m joking in the slightest, we’ve finally found a good use for open floor plans: the wheels on her derby skates roll well enough on carpet, and we’re already planning the transition to wood floors. I’m not even sure how many watts the whole-house system pulls/delivers at full tilt boogie, but it is very, very adequate. (Shit, no point being modest, it’s damn near sufficient!) And she has recently expressed interest in purchasing a disco ball. (That I guess maybe would go above the pot rack? Troubling decor decisions await…)
So I guess you could say that we party like there is a pandemic, which makes us rather… un-American? Yep, that’s news to exactly nobody.
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Whether or not to get bit by zombies is an individual choice, and the government shouldn’t restrict people’s freedoms!
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Pompeo invites hundreds to indoor holiday parties after subordinates are warned against hosting ‘non-mission critical events’. Today’s NYT, WaPo, CNN, et al.
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THIS.
This is what has grown to be the norm over the past half century in the US. The Repub mindset of late stage Capitalism is at the heart of this, though the Dems have done nothing to stop it for fear of being deemed Socialist. The selfish and entitled attitude has also seeped into many other G20 countries beginning a generation after WW2.
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Oh, don’t feel alone. Canada has its share too.
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Christ, what an arsehole. I hope the fines bankrupt him.
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I hope the fines bankrupt him and then he gets a bad case of COVID. I’m tired of being decent and empathetic.
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That’s just the start. This rugged individualist was operating without a business licence for years – which probably means that he was sliding on health inspections too.
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Nothing like a slab of ribs with a side of white privilege.
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One of his other restaurants failed multiple health inspections in August. He’s a grifter who is collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from fools via GoFundMe.
(edited for a spelling error)
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Ain’t no party like a pandemic party because the COVID virus don’t stop.
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I’m sure he’s one of those wannabe American AynCaps who thinks that restaurant health inspections, like all public health efforts, put us on the ol’ Road to Serfdom. But if someone from the Ford family is calling him out he must be regarded by most Canadians as a dangerous nut.
Libertarianism is so embedded in such a large proportion of the U.S. population (and thus in heavily-exported American popular culture) that it’s bound to ooze out into the mentality of right-wingers in other countries even without the network of conservative think tanks and media outlets pushing it actively.
Yeah, that makes sense. He’s not competent enough or is too cheap to run clean restaurants, the pandemic was hurting the industry in general, so he’s pivoting to the usual right-winger fallback of scamming people by playing the victim.
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I don’t see how he’d pass any health inspections. One of the first boxes to fill on the form is going to be Business Licence #.
What he needs is a business partner to take care of the stuff that he’s incapable of dealing with, but then he’d be incapable of dealing with the partner.
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I call it “toxic individualism.”
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That may have been the case at some point, but I think that created an evolutionary niche where now the only entrenched Dems left aren’t those “afraid” to say it, they actively don’t want it. There are plenty, both old and new school who are loud and proud now. I just doubt the “secretly into taxation and social programs” Dem actually exists.
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Yes, not just Chicago. In one corner of the US:
Some truly choice quotes in this one:
“It’s about supporting our local businesses, because we are going to die of starvation and communism if we don’t stay open,” said Naomi Leukuma, an organizer of the protest.
and:
Asked how she would respond to people criticizing the decision to hold a large gathering during the pandemic and against state orders, Leukuma said “Communism is the pandemic, COVID is the means of spreading it.” Leukuma said she had spoken with emigrants from several Communist countries who also joined her at a large protest in support of Trump in Washington, D.C. last week.
You can’t make this stuff up. Because you are not stupid enough to.
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This is why I am not a democrat
