Prompted by a post by Tom Radcliffe, which Sharon Astyk shared on her feed. He talks about enculturation, and how not everybody gets to opt out of pushing back. Specifically in regard to what we have normalized regarding the acceptability of transmission of airborne disease. Totally needlessly.
Here’s the post. Go read it and check out the comments. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Please read the entire comment section under his post as well, as he and other people offer a wealth of easy and commonsense fixes.
Or you can read my reaction commentary below, and then go back and read the OP on Facebook if you’d prefer.
I’m going to quote one extra superbly evocative paragraph from Tom Radcliffe’s post here, because it so hits my righteous disgust snarky-bone. He’s describing an old friend who has an obviously prestigious high-profile role in a global health organization.
“… He works for an organisation that for years actively and aggressively shouted down the idea that covid was airborne. But it’s not just his country and his work. It’s all the details of both. The wine club and dinner parties, the conferences and international flights, the wider family skiing holiday and the yacht club. He can’t leave them or change the way he does them. …”
(News flash, can’t means won’t).
My thoughts:
And in the category of change… Open air spaces exist! Zoom exists!!!
It’s a financial-privilege and caste-privilege issue in addition to the concern for public-health & people with disabilities, people with immune system issues, people who need to protect household members with same, etc.
I’m sick of people saying but wahhhhh wahhhhh zoom is not the saaaaaame.
Most of the people saying that are people with Perdiem’s, or just plain more money for travel & hotels, or just plain people who are not willing to give up the prestige of jetsetting all over the planet for meetings.
And people who aren’t willing to recognize that people with disabilities and immune system issues etc. have something to contribute. And that we are at a great loss without those voices.
It’s no accident that the quality of ecological / climate / social-justice conferences flourished during the shutdown. From an activist standpoint, a lot more voices were included because people didn’t have to travel so we got to hear from a lot more people from all over the planet.
If I sound at all angry, well … Yes. Yes, I am. Because all of this destruction is needless. Destruction of the planet and destruction of people’s lives and everything.