I had an unhappy exchange on social media the other day. An old friend of mine sent me a reference to check out. (How old a friend, you may ask? Well, her mother was my father’s best friend in elementary school.) Now, this woman tends to access some pretty weird stuff, and she sometimes sends me these items, which I always debunk.
As it happened, this was an anti-vaxxer rant espoused by no higher a scientific authority than Robert Kennedy, Jr. The premise of it was that the COVID vaccines weren’t really vaccines. It then went on to state flatly that these vaccines kill people, and yadda, yadda, yadda. I was less than impressed, and told her so. I believe I included the word “crap.” She was not happy, but there comes a time when polite conversation is useless. When someone uses fake logic and faulty science to propose an action that is so counter to the good of humanity, it goes beyond a simple difference of opinion.
The Key Issue.
There are a lot of unknowns in this new epidemic, but I can state clearly what is well known to the vast majority of us. COVID is a pandemic like few that humanity has survived. The traditional responses of social distancing and mask wearing that might have been effective against the original virus are not sufficient against the new mutations. Unless we do something else, we’re going to have a lot of dead people on our hands. The only “something else” we have is vaccination.
If you can’t agree with me on such a basic issue, please close this window and go away. We are never going to be able to discuss it and never going to come to any agreement.
I mean it. Just give it up. What I say is only going to make you upset, and that is not my intention.
And now, for those of you who are still with us, we come to the point of this essay. If we are ever going to deal with the people who hold these strange viewpoints, we have to figure out what makes them so illogical. So here goes:
Life is a Gamble
We take chances every time we take air or food into our bodies. Yes, a certain number of people die from the COVID vaccine. Also from ingrown toenail operations, plane crashes, lightning strikes and untied shoelaces. The key to a relatively stress-free life is to assess the odds of harm, make a choice, and put it aside. For some reason, some people cannot do this.
Let’s look at the kind of things they say. For this exercise, I took a very unscientific sample from the Facebook feed of another long-time friend, Bruce Strachan, whose readers encompass a large cross-section of the B. C. political spectrum. Here is what I found.
- “Covid is just another flu.”
- “Why would you trust the media who is being paid by the government liars?”
- “Infections are decreasing – kinda like they do every year at this time?”
- “Anyone can create statistics, put them on a website and fools will believe them.”
I’m not going to dignify any of these with an argument, except the last, with which I wholeheartedly agree.
And one I really want to handle separately because it involves some of the worst examples that come from these twisted minds.
5. “Dr. Bonnie Henry has done a terrible job and has caused many deaths and illness with her malfeasance.”
It bears repeating; Dr. Henry’s job over the last year has involved taking a stand on shifting ground. She made the choices she had to make based on the science available. You can be sure that those who are using present-day knowledge to prove that her choices were wrong would have been the first ones to condemn her had she made the opposite move.
Do I agree with her 100%? As it happens, no. I think testing is more important than she does. But hers is the choice to make, and I trust she has the data to back it up. The only difference between me and the nutters in this regard is that I’m willing to disagree quietly and allow her to do her job. I certainly wouldn’t want to pay the price she has paid for the power she wields.
What Gives?
So we come to the question. Why are these people doing this? And here we have to divide our opponents into two groups: the victims and the perpetrators.
The Victims
These are people who, for whatever reason, cannot assess the odds and accept the consequences. It’s easy to create this sort of person. If you make a choice based on the odds and come out with the short end of the stick, that doesn’t mean the odds are wrong. It means you had bad luck. But if this happens too often, after a while it’s very hard to believe that the system isn’t rigged. And when we live in a system that we know darn well is rigged…
The Perpetrators
Mr. Strachan’s readers are not all off their rockers. The most revealing comment lately: “Remember there are people in this world who are not happy unless they’re mad at something.” When you reach that stage, you have stepped over the line from victim to perpetrator. Hate, jealousy, and fear create these people. They are no longer victims. They are looking to boost their self-images by destroying the lives of others. They are bullies, harassers and manipulators. They look around for a weak spot in society, then attack. They refuse to wear masks because it makes people afraid of them. Worst of all are the ones that want to deny the epidemic because it gets in the way of making money.
The Bottom Line
I have a limited amount of sympathy for a terrorist in Afghanistan or Gaza. As I mentioned last week, we have all tossed our stones on the pile that created that avalanche. I have much less sympathy for everyday Canadians who play on the fears of the weak in order to feel powerful. Perhaps we could use a new definition of the word evil: “The misuse of power for personal gain.”
If you’re willing to let other people die so you can feel good about yourself, what else should we call it?