September 28, 2024
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
When I travel, Buddy often sends me pictures from his morning that he considers throwaway, but I loved this one, not least because he stopped in the middle of hauling a trap to catch it.
I particularly like the juxtaposition of hard work and the sunrise.
Taking the night off. Will be back at it tomorrow.
[Photo by Buddy Poland.]
May this beautiful sunrise foretell our collective future.
You and Buddy give us so much hope, thank you.
Reminds me of sunsets I contemplated in an old metal rowboat on the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina, with a bottle of wine and steamed crabs with Old Bay awaiting my return to shore!
Anyone up for an open mic/thread? Figure I’ll post something here about the mask bans in places like North Carolina, since they are yet another fascist tendency that uniquely impacts my world as a doctor with vulnerable patients.
Mask bans are very un-American.
America aspires to be the land of the free, where government does not claim dominion over our bodies, our family privacies, and our freedoms to protect and express ourselves.
And yet we teeter on the brink of fascism in many ways. Women’s bodies. Disenfranchisement. Propaganda. Anti-intellectualism. Division. Xenophobia.
Here’s a small example among the many: a bipartisan groupthink that scorns the mask as an inconvenient reminder of this truth - Covid is still a problem. And now we have a radical partisan attack upon the right to wear one, in flagrant conflict with science and public health.
An excellent primer on this subject was published by The Sick Times:
Mainstream media coverage of mask bans has given space for politicians’ false claims that masks are associated with wrong-doing, like crime and antisemitism, while overlooking that bans are, in many ways, an effort to suppress the reality of Covid-19. There are 21 states and numerous municipalities with laws against masks or disguises on the books. Both Republicans and Democrats are pushing more severe mask bans than ever before in history. Democrats are more likely to give lip service to health needs without offering meaningful protections. Masks can and will be criminalized by police regardless of the language of the law, as arrest trends follow social trends. Police are also permitted by the Supreme Court to make mistakes in enforcing laws.
Even in New Jersey (where I practice) a Republican state senator recently introduced a bill to ban masks. Of course it’s a bad idea, with lots of potential for cruelty. The Star-Ledger then published a good editorial calling such bans dumb and dangerous. A few choice quotes: “ …this is a superficial policy that quickly falls apart on the details, and presents a clear danger to civil liberties. Start with this basic question: What if a troublemaker simply decides to disguise his face with large sunglasses and a hat, instead? Are we going to criminalize sunglasses and hats, too? …this “overbroad and vague” bill “also gives law enforcement the ability to target people based on their political beliefs.” If Republicans are trying to send a message, a more sensible way to do it would be to increase the penalties for anyone committing a crime in disguise. Criminalizing masks won’t help.”
As the Washington Post reported: “The day after the North Carolina House of Representatives passed its anti-masking bill in June in response to pro-Palestinian protests at the University of North Carolina, Shari Stuart said a man confronted her for wearing a surgical mask when she walked into an auto service center in the Raleigh area to get an oil change. After she tried to explain that she has Stage 4 breast cancer and a weakened immune system, Stuart said, the man called her a ‘f---ing liberal’ and insisted masks were now illegal. He later coughed on her and said he hoped the cancer would kill her.”
That guy and his ilk are not only un-American, but something much worse.
Several underpinnings of mask bans are built upon fascist principles. From Jason Stanley’s How Fascism Works, we can see how these core elements of fascism underpin the arguments in favor of mask bans: delegitimize any source of resistance by characterizing it as an “other” or an “out group” to be scorned; offer new “truths” to supplant “facts”; divide people while undermining unity and notions of diversity; emphasize law and order to protect citizens from “undesirable” elements, violently if needed.
If you don’t want to wear a mask now, fine. I usually don’t except in higher risk situations like my work, or flying in planes during surges.
But anyone who would take that personal and public health tool away from those who choose to deploy it, here in the land of the free, should know they are marching in step with a fascist agenda.
Recall that it’s less about banning the actual mask than it is about forcing an ideology - that Covid is all good now. That scientists and intellectuals and vulnerable people present an uncomfortable reality, so let's turn on them.
He later coughed on her and said he hoped the cancer would kill her.
The red pill is the one that uncovers the unsettling, actual truth.
Keep taking it.