Death and the Other: Towards Civil War
Over the last two years, have you heard somebody you know say they are glad somebody died from COVID? I don’t mean the cult leaders. Those you hear it often. After all, a lot of the right has become a death cult. I don’t begrudge this with people who have, by their actions and words, inspired millions of their fellow citizens to avoid a vaccine that could keep them out of the hospital.
There is anger at the unvaccinated. Especially at religious, political and media influencers that have done this. They are playing with the lives of those that listen to them. So when some of them inevitably die, the scorn is to a point understandable. These are the people who are responsible for the continuation of the pandemic.
But this scorn now transfers to anybody who died from COVID who refused the shot. Perhaps to the rare person who cannot take the shot.
Patience is short. But now we are doing something else. We have crossed into othering people. They are no longer part of the tribe. Don’t worry, it’s mutual. We are not part of their tribe either. The disdain across tribal lines is clear. So is the sense of Schadenfreude that they are suffering.
It’s not healthy.
In the current circumstances, when red states are engaging in nullification, it points to a civil war. Examples of this…