When I lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, those many moons ago, I noticed there were too many car accidents for the few properly functioning cars that existed there, especially considering the complete lack of paved roads where motor vehicles could travel at any actual speed. These weren’t fender benders, either. The car accidents in Dar es Salaam were, more often than not, horrendous fatal crashes; the mangled wrecks blocking the mostly dirt roads for hours.
What the hell was going on?
I asked Ali, the embassy secretary, if he knew anything about that mystery. A usually jovial sweet young man, Ali’s face retained its sunny demeanor as he said “Because nobody gives up their right of way.” Huh? “Oh sure,” he went on “if someone has the right of way, they won’t stop for anything or anyone.” Even if they know they’ll crash?!? “Sure. They refuse to give up their right. It might have something to do with our colonial past… I don’t know really.”
What is going on here in our country is just as baffling to me. In the middle of a global pandemic, so many people refuse to wear face masks, citing their “constitutional right” as the reason for not doing, quite literally, the least they can do to keep Covid-19 from spreading further and killing even more people than the hundreds of thousands it already has. Many even go as far as make huge scenes of their acts of ‘defiance’, throwing things and screaming at those who point out their stupidity.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
This of course has a lot to do with Trump and the moronic way he has and does deal with issues to do with the virus. It is no coincidence that many of his base exhibit the aforementioned behavior; even the ‘Karens’ and ‘Kens’ whose videos continue to go viral often spurt random anti liberal gibberish. The rest of it is just…
Stupidity. I honestly have no other explanation for it. Anyone who sees all the scientific evidence the world over and still believes COVID-19 to be a “hoax” can only be described as utterly stupid. I mean how hard can it possibly be to wear a piece of cloth over your mouth and nose when you’re out in public? Okay, it can be a bit annoying; it muffles the voice and can be a bit sweaty, but it saves lives.
Yours and mine.
That’s right. You can scream all you want, falsely, that you have the constitutional right to not wear a mask, but what about my constitutional right to keep alive? You know, to pursue life and liberty, so on and so forth. I can’t do all that if I’m dead, can I?
Assholes.