What the Pandemic of 2020 Has Taught Me

The COVID-19 pandemic and our fellow members of society's response to it has taught me a lot about the human condition. As a species, we are not well.

  1. You only need a high school diploma to be a greater expert on epidemiological matters than actual epidemiologists, complete with their education and degrees. Those socially promoted to a diploma are apparently acceptable as well.
  2. Wearing a mask to protect others is a violation of our constitutional rights while apparently, being forced to wear a shirt and shoes into a restaurant is not.
  3. It's not only OK to get others sick, whether it's COVID-19, the flu, or the common cold, it's apparently, our God-given right to do so.
  4. The inconvenience of being kept from your weekly consumption of 3,000 calories inside Applebee's is a violation of our Constitutional rights and no manner of human suffering, death, or overwhelmed hospitals can justify it.
  5. Data presented by experts must be not only questioned, but disbelieved. Data presented by TV & radio talking heads and bloggers/vloggers can be trusted without question.
  6. In spite of the CDC and the Surgeon General explaining from the very day they recommended face masks that the primary purpose and benefit is to protect others from us, the wearer, we must make this about ourselves. We must keep framing our arguments around its benefit or lack there-of to us, the wearer. Altruism is for suckers.
  7. High school sports must go on, no matter how many people end up in the hospital and/or die. It's our dream that our kids grow up to be like Al Bundy.
  8. There is a direct correlation between loudmouths driving over-sized penis compensators and emotional fragility experienced when having to wear a piece of cloth over the nose and mouth.

With the exception of #8, all the above is bullshit. However, it's what American society seems to hold as its values today. We are not well.

Facemask hanging on a door knob