Fear, Safety and Lies in the Age of Covid

A used N-95 mask.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

— Ben Franklin, who was not talking about Covid-19

Militant conservatives are re-defining the effort to fight COVID-19 as a matter of personal fear: If you’re afraid, go ahead and stay home, but the rest of us want to work. And we don’t want to wear any stinking masks, either.

In other words, if you’re a weak little baby, cower away in your home or hide behind a mask. We fearless folk are going to take care of business in spite of you.

Of course, this is not a spontaneous movement; there’s considerable evidence of bots and astroturfing here. Early on, I was struck by the sudden widespread use of the word “fear” in the anti-lockdown and anti-mask messaging. That wasn’t a coincidence.

There are those whose personal interests depend on the general public getting back to work right away. How do you get people to disregard their personal safety and the well-being of the public at large? It’s easy. You convince them that freedom is more important than safety. Anybody who disagrees is a coward. It’s a page straight out of the gun lobby’s book.

Real freedom and liberty matter. The freedom to carry an assault rifle as a fashion accessory or the freedom to spew the coronavirus all over Walmart? Not so much.

It’s impossible to miss the “fear” talking point. Each time a statement is made in support of making sacrifices for the public good, it is immediately re-stated as a matter of some people being afraid. It is apparently inconceivable to some people on the far right that anyone could be more concerned about the lives of others than they are about being able to go out to eat or get their hair cut.

It’s inconceivable to most of us on the left that so many people are eager to sacrifice themselves for the profit of others — even though in war after war, young people have rushed to sign up to fight, convinced they’re serving freedom. In many cases, they’re actually serving entities like the wealthy oil industry.

It’s ironic that the battle cry “my body, my choice” has been taken up by conservatives now. Conservatives accuse women seeking abortions of caring more about their own convenience than about the lives of their unborn babies. Now, liberals can accuse people who refuse to wear a mask in public or to stay home of caring more about their own convenience than about the lives of other people.

I’m disheartened that a few million bucks (no way to know the exact amount) spent on messaging has so effectively won people over. Pictures of nightmarish hospital emergency rooms, articles by respected researchers, death statistics from around the world and the personal stories of doctors and nurses are all being derided as false, while fraudulent, unscientific claims are swallowed whole.

But such messaging is far cheaper than the lockdowns that would save lives. We are told we cannot afford to close down the country. Nonsense. The workers of this country have produced staggering wealth, much of which has been retained by a handful of the wealthiest people. We certainly have enough money for non-essential workers to stay home for a few months, just as we’ve had enough money for endless wars and enough money to bail out the financial behemoths whose actions helped bring us to the brink of ruin in the last recession.

And masks are cheap. Even a bandanna tied around one’s lower face is more effective than nothing, yet we’ve seen several tragic shootings by militant anti-maskers. The disregard for others’ lives is shocking, although our years of acceptance of dead school children should have made it clear just how little we actually value human life in this society.

Franklin wasn’t talking about Covid-19, guns, or anything like that. He was talking about a specific instance, and it’s been taken out of context ever since. (See NPR’s explanation.)

But does it matter? What need is there for truth when falsehoods are so much more profitable?