If Mr Zimmermann will apologize for inflicting incompetent harmonica blowing on an unsuspecting musical audience, Your Friendly Neighborhood Amoeba will apologize for ripping off his tune.
They’ll hate on you for coughing in their face,
They’ll hate on you for not knowing your place,
They’ll hate on you for going to a bar,
They’ll hate you for not staying in your car,
But I would not feel so persecuted,
Everybody must get COVID!
They’ll hate on you for doubting evolution,
‘Cause science can’t be trusted for solutions,
They’ll hate on you for knowing what to do,
For doing only what God told you to,
But I would not feel so persecuted,
Everybody must get COVID!
They’ll hate on you for opening the schools,
They’ll hate you for not following their rules,
They’ll hate on you because there’s no vaccine,
Which we would hate, you know just what I mean,
But I would not feel so persecuted,
Everybody must get COVID!
They’ll hate on you ’cause you can’t work on Zoom,
They’ll hate on you ’cause retail’s gone kaboom,
They’ll hate on you for needing to make a buck,
They’ll hate on you and fling you in the muck,
But I would not feel so persecuted,
Everybody must get COVID!
They’ll hate on you for letting freedom ring,
They’ll hate on you ’cause liberty’s your thing,
They’ll hate on you because you are white,
They’ll hate on you and then they’ll say “Good night”,
But I would not feel so persecuted,
Everybody must get COVID!
=======
In all seriousness, though. The way (it says here) to deal with the anti-mask mobs is to insist, stringently and consistently, on evidence-based best anti-COVID practices throughout society – and to give no publicity whatsoever to the antics of those who reject the evidence on principle due to their religious beliefs because they’re spoiled brats.
Do not blame the media, mass, social, or otherwise. The media exist to make money. They make their money from what we choose to watch, and they will give us more of whatever it is we watch and profit accordingly. What we say means exactly nothing, what we do is all-important. Each of us, in acceptance of personal responsibility for the fate of our communities (without which our destruction is assured), must agree not to watch, and ensure that those in our networks do likewise, driving those networks to encompass all of society. Anything else, including ridicule, declares us to be liars in the most comprehensive, and destructive, way possible.
Once pro sports and the associated mass media got that message, the streaking pandemic of the 1970s ended abruptly. Heavy consequences, no bennies. The same must apply to those who, through their selfishness, put themselves, their neighbors, and the very nation at risk, from COVID-19, racism, sexism, disastrous economic stratification, anthropogenic climate change, or any of the host of other things that we profess to be concerned about. Data and humility must rule, not myth and hubris.
“Freedom” and “liberty” are not universal, absolute blessings, they are expressions of ‘self’ that must be balanced against the needs of society. Individuals can agree among themselves what the limits to personal freedom and liberty are, under the circumstances of the moment. Or they can fail to achieve a consensus, and get the necessary limits imposed from without, lest the social structure unravel and all suffer.
The world is watching, and is learning that imposing limits from without, as in China, is the way to go – and wanton selfishness, as in the USA, is not.
Feeling noble about all this? Be careful. Your taxes just doubled (or maybe tripled, especially if you’ve worked your donkey off to gain that extra 50 grand the last few years), and your charity burden likewise, so that the hospitals may actually have the gear and staff they need to cope with the pandemic, and the up to 30% of us who have been thrown out of work by the virus don’t have to dig through dumpsters. And your salary – oh goody, you still have one! – has probably just been cut by that 50 grand. Not that you could get the gas for that climate-destroying car you used to have, at any price. Now how do you feel? And that’s probably not even close to the extent of the givebacks that are going to be expected of the ‘prosperous’ henceforth.