Nurse the Hate: Life Amongst The Goats

 

Europe is opening back up to American leisure travelers.  About half of their population is vaccinated, which is reducing infection rates to the point that the risk/reward of the traveler's economic impact has tilted the scales towards allowing new people to mix with their populations.  This is in spite of the wonderfully named "Delta Variant", which was likely named by someone within the Marvel franchise.  "It was then that Dan Danielson saved his ill grandmother, contracted the Delta Variant, causing a genetic mutation that created the superhero known today as Captain Sledge!".  This version of covid will probably sweep through here too, but hopefully we don't step backwards too far as the various dipshits that refuse to help themselves infect each other.  

The amazing thing to me is half of our populations still has chosen not to be vaccinated.  There is direct undeniable evidence that with a vaccinated population the disease transmission drastically reduces, lives are saved, serious illness is reduced, and everyone's day-to-day life reverts back to whatever "normal" is now.  Yet half of the people you see are of the mindset of "fuck that, I'm not doing it".  There is no logical reason not to be vaccinated except to avoid the infinitesimal risk of side effects/longer term impact as a trade off to letting everyone else carry the load.  One of the things that a career in sales has taught me is that the majority of people are selfish pricks that only care about themselves.  We can debate the percentages of people, but it is clearly a majority of +51%.  If most people are presented with an out clause of avoiding doing something that is a slight inconvenience to them but is a large benefit to others, they will choose avoidance.  Let someone else pick up that garbage or return the shopping cart.  "It's not my problem.  If everyone else gets a shot, I don't have to go three blocks to the drug store to get a free injection.  I heard I might feel kinda crappy for a couple of hours with side effects.  I'm busy watching Netflix anyway."

There is, of course, a bullshit excuse offered to this selfishness or laziness.  "They rushed this vaccine.  I don't know what is in it!  I'm not putting that into my body."  This line of reasoning will undoubtedly come from people that have no idea what they are talking about on almost any subject.  I am not sure why someone that has no experience in the timelines of pharmaceuticals is suddenly an expert on these protocols.  "Yeah, I was going to get an injection that makes me immune to the disease currently shutting down the planet and has killed over a half million in our country alone, but Diane that runs the cash register at the grocery store told me that "they" rushed this through.  My guess is that Diane is taking microbiology night classes Johns Hopkins and has been following the pharmaceutical trades for a couple decades.  She was probably listening in on a few investor Zoom calls and has some real questions about the data samples in the Moderna trials amongst certain blood types with a propensity for high white cell counts, so she knows her stuff.  Oh, and she also told me that that pizza place in Sheffield Lake is trafficking kids in a sex cult run by George Clooney!".  

Let's ignore the fact that the development of these vaccines are a result of an entire indistry responding to their once in a generation Gold Rush, a Trump Administration shower of money openly called "Operation Warp Speed".  The same people that are allegedly concerned about what "they" put in this injection, a clear variation of a normal flu shot, have no issue whatsoever with taking a deep drag on a vape pen, knocking back a Monster energy drink, grabbing an 18-piece Chicken McNugget, and then spraying their backyard weeds with a gallon of Round-Up.  "I heard "they" put a computer chip in it to track my whereabouts!", he said while walking around holding his phone with 17 open apps after updating his TikTok account.  While it is comforting to think that the cashier at a grocery store solved a conspiracy that Bill Gates used his mind numbingly large fortune to secretly develop a microscopic computer chip technology which doesn't exist to create the ability to track the whereabouts of a grocery store cashier in Avon Lake OH that is already voluntarily tracked with a device that she pays to do so each month is fabulous.  This scheme would enable one of the world's richest men to become?  One of the world's richest men?  Somehow?  It doesn't take much to see that the "They put something in it" folks are just looking for a flimsy reason not to do their part.

There is also much hang wringing about how to convince the other half of the people to do the logical thing that is good for all of us.  How can you trick selfish and stupid people to do the right thing?  It's not an easy problem to solve.  I think we go the other way on it.  Fuck 'em.  If you aren't vaccinated, it's not a problem.  I think you should be able to choose if you receive help.  However, you should also have to face the consequences if you ignore the facts in front of you.  If you are unvaccinated and get seriously ill with covid, you cannot receive medical care unless you are covered by your insurance or pay cash out of pocket.  My tax dollars should not pay for your laziness or fear of a few hours of slightly unpleasant side effects.  Can't pay for a ventilator?  Sorry buddy.  You knew the risks.  You rolled the dice and lost.  Good luck.  Maybe you sweat it out in bed.  Maybe not.  I'll check back with you in a week.  You don't want "socialized medicine", remember?

The biggest issue in the United States right now, in my humble opinion, is not race, divisive politics, or economic inequality.  It's lack of education and critical thinking.  A sizable portion of the county thinks the Bible is a history book, not a series of parables created by man with intention.  Established norms should not be questioned or discussed.  If science is indicating a conclusion that is inconvenient, then ignore it so it goes away.  Being willfully ignorant is now celebrated rather than being a badge of shame.  There are two dozen houses within a five minute drive of me that are still flying Trump flags, undeterred by the clear fact of his decisive election loss.  A staggering one third of all Conservative Christians believe the statement "Donald Trump has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites.".  If that is one of your core beliefs, no amount of fact presentation is going to convince you of anything.  You live in an alternate reality.  

As we continue to try to get back on track, about half of the people around us are depending on the rest of us to fix the problems for them.  It can be encouraging if viewed the right way.  Like it or not, life is a competition.  From the first step, half of your competitors have shown you that they aren't going to seriously compete.  They can't even get in the game.  If this was a biblical parable, the unvaccinated would be riddled by disease and petulance.  "And though thy unbelievers had been given thy cure from thy Lord, thy flock ignored this holy gift and felt the black hand of death.- A reading from Greg in The Book of Ohio".  This is the real world though and instead large groups of unvaccinated people will run up insane hospital bills that the rest of us will have to cover in tax increases.  

Life is a ticking clock.  I am tired of sitting on the bench because every other person is a stupid as a goat.  Let's move ahead and let the goats deal with their own problems.  Hope to see you soon Europe.