Athenae, COVID-19

It’s Not On Individuals

Guys, I’m about done with posts about individuals who aren’t social distancing properly, stories somebody heard from their cousin who said something to someone else about teenagers coughing on them, and just generally shaming people who are far less to blame for the current situation than literally anyone in power.

CALL THE COPS screams my neighborhood Facebook group (which was until 2 days ago an absolute respite from its usual nice-lady racism and lost-chicken-posting) every time there are four kids on a playground. Sure, call the police, who are equipped with lethal force and empowered to use it, and hope you get a cop who de-escalates a situation instead of making it worse. The virus is not spread by you having to see black kids on the slide, HEATHER.

If you want to congratulate yourself on doing this right, go ahead. If you want to encourage responsible behavior, go ahead. If you want to remind somebody of the rules, hey, you do you. But you can do that without relying on coronavirus clickbait about some one-toothed Cletus in a Wal-Mart licking the produce.

That half this crap isn’t true is beside the point. We are being primed with stories like this about individuals not doing their jobs so that we blame our neighbors and not our government and twas ever thus, loose lips and ships, etc. We are already too prone to turning on each other. Who benefits when we do that? Who do we forget to hold to account?

Stop screaming at stupid people on beaches. Start screaming at the governor of Florida. Start calling your senators. Your Republican senators, who have never missed an opportunity to be gigantic fucksticks and are counting on you continuing to hate Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden for not “fighting harder” after the GOP created the conditions that necessitate a fight they’ve taken away all the tools to win.

Call them, blame them, hold them to account with everything you have. And if you hear about your neighbor’s mom’s gardener’s assistant seeing somebody crowding in too close at the Trader Joe’s, think about if you really need to share that story with the internet in order to reassure yourself.

Maybe there’s some other way you could know you’re okay.

A.

4 thoughts on “It’s Not On Individuals”

  1. ‘One tooth Cletus’ Sounds like the name of a garage, no, carport, band. Keep up your good work, Girl.

  2. I respectfully disagree. To a point, but it’s a big point. Americans are willfully uncaring. Many with almost zero interest in doing something for the benefit of others. Something for the common good. In fact doing anything for the common good is anathema to conservatives. Except for the usual rhetorical tropes, The Nation!

    So to ask politicians to call for something they don’t understand from citizens who they have lauded for not understanding is a fools errand, to put it nicely.

    We can always be sure that other humans will let others down. Me and you too. Reforming the mass of humanity isn’t going to happen. Don’t gaze so much upon what one cannot influence.

  3. There are always people who have to be in charge of everyone else. We had one fool around here who started a Facebook page a while ago where people would post pictures of other people’s offensive parking. People would actually go out looking for some parking job to offend them. 😣

  4. This past Saturday night, I was lying in bed & I could hear sirens … not firetrucks, they have a distinct sound, but police cars. All night long, at various intervals. & I was thinking … the bars are closed, it can’t be drunk drivers … which it would be on a normal Saturday night. & it came to me … people are having house parties & their neighbors are calling the cops on them because they’re not practicing “social distancing” … & probably because they weren’t invited.

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