JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE SELFISH ATTITUDES OF THOSE WHO OPPOSE MASKS AND SOCIAL-DISTANCING MEASURES – ATTITUDES THAT SEEM CONCENTRATED IN THE RIGHT-WING – HOW CAN YOU SENSIBLY ARGUE AGAINST MEASURES DESIGNED TO PROTECT EVERYONE? - SOCIETIES ALWAYS ASK SACRIFICE IN TIMES OF CRISIS – WHAT IS REVEALED IS A CLEAR LACK OF HUMAN EMPATHY – USING THE VIETNAM WALL AS A MEASURING STANDARD FOR THE SIZE OF A CRISIS SOME STILL CALL A “HOAX” – IT HAS KILLED ABOUT ELEVEN TIMES THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHOSE NAMES ARE ENGRAVED ON WASHINGTON’S VIETNAM MEMORIAL, AND IT HAS DONE SO IN FAR LESS THAN A TENTH OF THE TIME

John Chuckman


COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN FORT RUSS


“The Ultimate Divide and Conquer”

 ‘The whole concept of self-isolation and anti-social “distancing” is radically anti-human.’


Sorry, I regard that as totally incorrect.

These practices have to do with treating everyone equally at a time of great stress. They also have to do with overcoming the clear lack of human empathy some exhibit by insisting on their own way despite risking the health of others.

In great emergencies of all kinds - wars, natural disasters, riots, etc. - people are always expected to make sacrifices, and they generally do.

But somehow, in this terrible crisis – 650,000 dead worldwide, a figure which equals the toll of nearly eleven Vietnam War Memorials and achieved in far less than a tenth of the time – some believe they are entitled to ignore sacrifice. And they are the same people, generally, who early on called the pandemic a “hoax” – that’s some hoax, 650,000 dead and the toll climbing rapidly in many locations.

This selfish attitude seems to be found mostly on the extreme political Right and among the often-strange and genuinely anti-social Alt-right.

It is not what nationhood or patriotism or humanity or even common decency are about.