For starters, my apologies for not seeing your reply earlier.
I’m going to use a word which was, and is, largely verboten around here, at least until recently.
What I understand of morality, Octopus, is pretty much your typical Western Civ suburbanite layman’s understanding of ethics: Just do as the 10 commandments and the Golden Rule tell you, and you’ll be fine. To act otherwise is a ‘sin’, and, if you accept the eschatological implications of Christianity… as, again, most typical West Civ suburbanites are taught, and many do… you go through your life with a sense of being judged by the measure of how you lived your life, the foundational rules of this judgement being those 10 commandments and the Golden Rule.
And if Western Civ’s religious basis of ethics didn’t catch on to you as an individual, well we also generated legal theories of ethics, atheist theories of ethics, utilitarian theories of ethics, more. But they all pretty much revolve around that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (paraphrased) guideline, creating vast systems of processes, punishments, and codes of behavior for those times when we don’t do unto others as instructed.
Then there is the lucky break of also being raised in the civilization which figured out Science, thereby proving that existence exists, reality is real, it can be measured, classified, and manipulated for the betterment of all mankind.
Couple these two things together, Octopus, and we have:
- The universe exists and can be controlled
- Don’t be a dick
So… when a crisis like COVID occurs, what is the rational, moral response based upon the Western tradition of civilization? Is it:
-
To wear a mask, practice social distancing, and take the vaccine, when made available, understanding that this will come at a potential great personal and societal cost, but the reality of the situation as given us by the scientific method, and our understanding of ethics via the Golden Rule makes clear: the best thing to do is to make individual sacrifices as to completely eradicate COVID as soon as possible using the tools of science developed over the past 300 years, or…
-
Deny the virus exists or is a danger even while you are moving assets to take advantage of the coming storm, convince… hell, Octopus, using the force of law to force people to NOT protect themselves by requiring masks be worn in their presence, openly state making money is more important than the lives of millions, lie about the efficacy of non-approved treatments… and then, vaccine available, refuse to take it for a plethora of reasons, none of them worthwhile in the aggregate, allowing the virus… which should have been done by June, 2020… to mutate into its third variant.
And all for the sake of remaining true to a twisted variant of an ideology which states that specific interpretations of secular documents produced in the 1770s and 1780s shall govern all behavior, even to the point of violating the two rules above. If the conservative interpretation of reality brought more suffering and death… than so what?
This was the conservative attitude on display for the entire world to see in 2020.
(Hell, Octo, these are the same tired arguments of “freedom” and “choice” conservatives use to excuse yet another school full of murdered 9 year-olds. Just writ large, with the entire nation as your targets.)
The word mentioned above?
Evil.
Today’s conservative movement is evil.
It is evil which allows 74,000,000 people to feel morally justified in their denial of the universe. It is evil which supplies the dopamine addiction they have developed from being a dick at Walgreens. Conservatives are forcing their belief systems upon the rest of the world, purposely knowing they are ignoring the reality of our universe, and they do this knowing their actions are causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands here in America, millions worldwide. And the result of this evil is a disease which is needlessly overwhelming our cities today, a medical crisis solely caused by conservatives and their adherence to their literal Godforsaken and reality-denying ideology.
… There is no Christ in today’s conservative movement. It is anti-christian.
… There is no utility in today’s conservative movement. It brings no value or worth to society.
… There is no science in today’s conservative movement. It denies reality and data.
God, or evolution, gave us rationality and a sense of ethics. Today’s conservatives have thrown this away to the tune of 600,000 excess American deaths and an impending global climate change disaster, all to remain true to an ideology of economic exploitation and personal freedom from societal responsibility. I cannot think of a more fitting description than “evil” for such actions.
And, Gentle Reader, if the above describes you, or your actions… if you spent this global crisis arguing against masks, spreading lies on Facebook, making the point that individual freedom is more important than the lives of your fellow human beings… well, you are evil. You may have a chance to come back from this – post death, the call isn’t mine (hell, there probably won’t be a post-mortem call at all) – but for now, I have no problem calling evil, evil.
And todays conservatives are evil.
Hyperbole? No. Not after watching conservative behavior since January 2020.