Leftwing Neurotic Wealthy Woke White Woman's Magazine The Atlantic Notices That Liberals Have Become Mentally Ill Over Covid

"The Liberals Who Can't Quit The Lockdown."

Lurking among the jubilant americans venturing back out to bars and planning their summer-wedding travel is a different group: liberals who aren't quite ready to let go of pandemic restrictions. For this subset, diligence against COVID-19 remains an expression of political identity--even when that means overestimating the disease's risks or setting limits far more strict than what public-health guidelines permit. In surveys, Democrats express more worry about the pandemic than Republicans do. People who describe themselves as "very liberal" are distinctly anxious. This spring, after the vaccine rollout had started, a third of very liberal people were "very concerned" about becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, compared with a quarter of both liberals and moderates, according to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina political scientist Marc Hetherington. And 43 percent of very liberal respondents believed that getting the coronavirus would have a "very bad" effect on their life, compared with a third of liberals and moderates.

Last year, when the pandemic was raging and scientists and public-health officials were still trying to understand how the virus spread, extreme care was warranted. People all over the country made enormous sacrifices--rescheduling weddings, missing funerals, canceling graduations, avoiding the family members they love--to protect others. Some conservatives refused to wear masks or stay home, because of skepticism about the severity of the disease or a refusal to give up their freedoms. But this is a different story, about progressives who stressed the scientific evidence, and then veered away from it.

For many progressives, extreme vigilance was in part about opposing Donald Trump. Some of this reaction was born of deeply felt frustration with how he handled the pandemic. It could also be knee-jerk. "If he said, 'Keep schools open,' then, well, we're going to do everything in our power to keep schools closed," Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told me. Gandhi describes herself as "left of left," but has alienated some of her ideological peers because she has advocated for policies such as reopening schools and establishing a clear timeline for the end of mask mandates.
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The spring of 2021 is different from the spring of 2020, though. Scientists know a lot more about how COVID-19 spreads--and how it doesn't. Public-health advice is shifting. But some progressives have not updated their behavior based on the new information. And in their eagerness to protect themselves and others, they may be underestimating other costs. Being extra careful about COVID-19 is (mostly) harmless when it's limited to wiping down your groceries with Lysol wipes and wearing a mask in places where you’re unlikely to spread the coronavirus, such as on a hiking trail. But vigilance can have unintended consequences when it imposes on other people's lives. Even as scientific knowledge of COVID-19 has increased, some progressives have continued to embrace policies and behaviors that aren't supported by evidence, such as banning access to playgrounds, closing beaches, and refusing to reopen schools for in-person learning.

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Even as the very effective covid-19 vaccines have become widely accessible, many progressives continue to listen to voices preaching caution over relaxation. Anthony Fauci recently said he wouldn’t travel or eat at restaurants even though he's fully vaccinated, despite CDC guidance that these activities can be safe for vaccinated people who take precautions. California Governor Gavin Newsom refused in April to guarantee that the state's schools would fully reopen in the fall, even though studies have demonstrated for months that modified in-person instruction is safe. Leaders in Brookline, Massachusetts, decided this week to keep a local outdoor mask mandate in place, even though the CDC recently relaxed its guidance for outdoor mask use. And scolding is still a popular pastime. "At least in San Francisco, a lot of people are glaring at each other if they don’t wear masks outside," Gandhi said, even though the risk of outdoor transmission is very low.

Scientists, academics, and writers who have argued that some very low-risk activities are worth doing as vaccination rates rise--even if the risk of exposure is not zero--have faced intense backlash. After Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, argued in The Atlantic in March that families should plan to take their kids on trips and see friends and relatives this summer, a reader sent an email to her supervisors at the university suggesting that Oster be promoted to a leadership role in the field of "genocide encouragement." "Far too many people are not dying in our current global pandemic, and far too many children are not yet infected," the reader wrote. "With the upcoming consequences of global warming about to be felt by a wholly unprepared worldwide community, I believe the time is right to get young scholars ready to follow in Dr. Oster’s footsteps and ensure the most comfortable place to be is white [and] upper-middle-class."

Leftists are especially hardcore Science Deniers when it comes to reopening schools, of course:

Months slipped by, and evidence mounted that schools could reopen safely. In Somerville, a local leader appeared to describe parents who wanted a faster return to in-person instruction as "fucking white parents" in a virtual public meeting; a community member accused the group of mothers advocating for schools to reopen of being motivated by white supremacy. "I spent four years fighting Trump because he was so anti-science," Daniele Lantagne, a Somerville mom and engineering professor who works to promote equitable access to clean water and sanitation during disease outbreaks, told me. "I spent the last year fighting people who I normally would agree with... desperately trying to inject science into school reopening, and completely failed."

On that point, check out this tweet from the president of, I think, the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingartner:

Someone pointed out that parents who are teaching their kids at home also have additional full-time jobs to contend with, while teachers just have the one six-hours-a-day job (with summers off).

And apparently being physically present for work is too tough for them.

But sure, Randi -- you're The Real Heroes Here.

Note well: No masks here, even though the Carters are in their nineties and this is indoors.

Seems like the need for a nice selfie trumped the need for Mask Theater.

Here are some of the suggestions:

Here are 10 easy ways to keep feeling morally superior once the pandemic is over:

Never stop wearing a mask as long as you live: This is probably the simplest solution. Wear your mask forever. Breathe in that sweet, sweet, moral superiority and CO2.

Start a podcast about your time wearing a mask: Bring in co-hosts who also wore masks, and talk about how you wore masks. As a bonus, do it while wearing a mask.

Get a tattoo of your mask on your face: There's no better way of reminding everyone how important masks used to be and how important you were for wearing one.

Start an HOA in your suburban neighborhood: Oh-- you already started one? Of course, you did!

Declare a climate emergency and switch to an all-bug diet: Bugs are the most morally superior thing to eat. Also, be rich and drive an electric car. Shame all people who do not do the same.

Punch a white male in the face every day: If you're not already doing this, what the heck is wrong with you? Go punch a white male in his dumb white face!

PS: Cry moar, bitch.

posted by Ace at 01:21 PM

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