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What If Politicising A Pandemic Is A Bad Idea?
Sometimes you know you’re being unreasonable, but it’s too late.
It might start with an argument with a 3-year-old about the name of a cookie. Or a disagreement about what “being on a break" means. It might be a factual dispute about how big your, ahem, inauguration crowd is. Or it could be the kind of fight that changes everything that comes afterwards.
None of that matters anymore.
After a certain point, an argument isn’t about solving problems or considering new perspectives. It’s not about compromise or empathy or evidence. Heck, it’s not even about who’s right.
It’s about winning.
It’s fair to say that the conversation around COVID-19 has become unreasonable. And after 2 miserable years of death, loneliness and financial ruin, I don’t think anybody feels as if they’re “winning.”
Yet during these unprecedented times, we’ve showcased the depth of our compassion and the strength of our communities. We’ve sacrificed and volunteered and looked out for those less fortunate than ourselves. And of course, because it’s the way we do everything now, we’ve indulged our limitless capacity for turning complex, nuanced problems into highly politicised binaries.
Either you’re willing to be boosted every 3–6 months in perpetuity or you’re an anti-vaxxer. Therapeutics are either perfect miracle drugs or horse de-wormer. Anthony Fauci is either a sleeper agent for the “deep-state” or a literal saint.
Politicians describe unvaccinated citizens as “racist, misogynistic extremists", while others compare common sense mask mandates to the Holocaust. The White House COVID-19 response coordinator tells unvaccinated Americans they’re “looking at a winter of severe illness and death,” while intellectual titans like Candace Owens claim they‘d refuse the vaccine even if they were on their deathbed. Celebrities cut unvaccinated friends out of their lives and the LA Times wonders out loud whether the death of unvaccinated people is cause for “glib, ironic satisfaction".
But what if — and stay with me here — we need a more sophisticated approach to this crisis than this kind of…
