It is a reddit link and there are some pretty bad comments so beware, but I came upon this and appreciated the eloquence.
I’ve been seeing some discussion about being peer pressured into not taking precautions and throwing in the towel and I think it’s really, REALLY important for folks to understand that it is actually a privilege to find yourself genuinely weighing the option to quit.
Many of our ranks do not have this choice because they are disabled and/or immunocompromised, and I think that gets ignored too often in this sub. Many have Long Covid and have had their lives completely destroyed. They’ve lost far more than just social interaction, restaurants, etc., (and that’s not to diminish those losses, but to illustrate how much worse it can be.)
Now we are ALL facing immense societal pressure to conform (that’s just the base state of existence for a covid informed individual) but the stakes for the disabled members of our community are so high that they don’t even get to consider the option of buckling to peer pressure. Sadly that position has been made 100x worse by people who had more of a choice and chose the easy way out. It’s incredibly difficult to do the right thing in these times just as it’s always hard to stand against historical atrocities that have been adopted by the masses. When having these discussions it’s crucial to remember that if you find yourself with the luxury to just abandon precautions to fit in with the crowd, that is not the choice of society but a choice of your own.
EDIT: I want to make it clear I’m not referring to people who physically cannot mask, cannot access masks, or find themselves in some kind of genuine peril for masking. I’m talking about people caving to peer pressure. And yes, I’m aware there are some disabled/immunocompromised folks who also minimize covid and don’t take precautions. I’m aware in that sense that it’s technically still a choice for them to do that, but it is not a practical choice for a great many vulnerable people who value their lives.
This is not a game. This is not virtue signalling - a real-ass comment about wearing a mask I saw on another comm here! It is life or death and should be treated as such.
enter at ye own peril
Unchecked ableism is a huge blind spot everywhere I look, even here. There are rules for negligence about neurodivergence, physical disability et al, but a collective dismissal when it comes to Covid is a-ok pretty much site-wide as long as you don’t explicitly talk about it like a conspiracy rag. The trans mega talks about pride marches and conventions. The general mega talks about bars, movies. The news mega talks about direct action and protests. There ain’t no fucking precautions happening here, babes. I know there aren’t, I see the fuckin photos. I go outside. I’ll go back to my silo and talk about the elephant in the room slowly and not-so-slowly killing us where no one has to see it if they don’t want to - another choice I do not get to make. It is all so un-serious. I am so tired.
Oh, yeah Facebook is a boomer dumpster fire. About the only reason I keep my account is for the marketplace. Though I do see my memories pretty regularly and it’s funny seeing all the likes on 2020 memes like ‘i get to hide my face, why would I ever unmask?’ liked by libs who stopped masking as soon as it wasn’t socially acceptable.
I’ve been thinking about doing more agitprop on ZCC, maybe cutting up clips of Death Panel or something that focuses more on the plights of the disabled and immunocompromised before Covid. Try and get them to start thinking about solidarity rather than selfishness.
My masking posts from 2020 were getting 100+ likes from just friends. Ya they’re all flying to Bali now and posting maskless selfies from the air cabin.
When I do post something about COVID, it gets very little traction outside of the COVID conscious community. Give it a try, but it was too much of a time suck for me. The ads on mobile are beyond excessive.
Lol, yeah, I’m definitely not expecting miracles.