There’s a lot of talk about “fear” as well. “Don’t let fear rule your life,” etc. Florida’s new surgeon general, who’s against vaccine mandates and masks and so forth, said he was going to “reject fear as a way of making policies.” As if trying to avoid contracting a deadly disease is somehow cowardly. There seems to be a desperate need among certain people to not look like they’re afraid, even though I suspect that on some level they are.
As I’ve said before, if I put up smoke detectors in my house because I’m afraid of fire, or I give up smoking because I’m afraid of cancer, or I wear a seatbelt because I’m afraid of debilitating injuries, am I “living in fear?” Or am I taking sensible precautions?
Even worse, by their “logic” it’s “living in fear” to obey traffic regulations rather than just driving on whatever side of the street you feel like and busting through red lights.
Their version of not “living in fear” is to needlessly increase risk for everybody else as well as themselves.
I’m afraid of Covid. They’re afraid of the vaccine. Which is more reasonable?
Of course, nearly all of conservative ideology is driven by fear. Fear of brown and black people. Fear of LBGT+ people. Fear of strong women (who enjoy sex). They’re afraid to leave the house unarmed…
My local Tractor Supply has no ivermectin on the shelf in the horse supplies section, just a prominent sign warning against human ingestion of the stuff. I don’t know if they still have any for sale if you ask for it; I’ve heard some feed stores will sell it only if you can provide proof of horse ownership. I’m a bit surprised not to have heard of antivaxxers moving on to other dewormer products (yet).
Reminds me of when Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a riding accident, and another boarder at the barn where I kept my horse went on an angry rant about how it was his own fault, his poor horsemanship that caused it. Anyone who spends much time around horses knows (or should know) you can get badly hurt, even killed in equestrian pursuits, no matter what your level of skill, and it seemed to me this boarder was trying desperately to convince herself it couldn’t happen to her.
I confidently await the deluge of screaming protestors besieging that feed store to denounce its infringement of their “right” to purchase and consume hazardous medications in ways strongly deprecated by all public health authorities.
WTF are these loons going to do in the event that their once-beloved “War on Drugs” ever regains a prominent place in public awareness again? How can any of them declare with a straight face that the government is entitled to forbid people from ingesting substances that are demonstrably bad for them?
