It is year 5, friends, and I will be honest: I am not doing great! My wife and I have been hit once again this evening with the startling shift in decorum when we asked the organizers of an event we would have liked to attend about their Covid policies (spoiler: there aren’t any, there won’t be any, and fuck you for asking, thanks).
Navigating a shrinking world that used to be so full is jarring. I am genuinely not sure how I am supposed to continue existing in society as a person with an autoimmune condition, the highest risk category beside the elderly as it stands- at least, until they change that, too. If by some miracle Covid were eradicated in an instant, if the world “went back to normal” tomorrow, I don’t know how I could after seeing the last four years of this. Four years of my world getting smaller and smaller and smaller until it is only me left to wither and blow away, a tickle of an afterthought to tease the damaged brains of all my peers, drifting; huh, wonder whatever happened to her. Who needs enemies when all and sundry are happy to abandon you- no, endanger you- for the mild inconvenience of wearing a piece of cloth? I talk to my old friends and they speak as if I already died; you did this! I want to scream, this is your fault!
but instead I nod and say how I’m doing well, thanks, hope you’re hanging in there too (no I don’t, not really. I hope you get exactly what you deserve). Everyone has gone mad and by the time they feel the effects of it all it will be too late- and a small wonder if I live to see it through, thanks to them.
I try to stay optimistic. It’s a big world, I guess. Perpetual house arrest at the hands of an effectively zombified populace is not exactly fuel for hope, though. I am not happy, but I don’t have sadness in my heart anymore. I barely have love left in me. All I have is anger, and hate. So, so much hate. A brand of hate which will never go away- and I hate that. Hate. HATE.
Self-described leftists avoiding masking is a perfect example of, "you are not immune to propaganda". It's just pure (hyper)normalization. A worldwide pandemic was downplayed by capital and rather than congeal around opposing this and organizing to include and defend those most harmed, most of these folks just individually shut down or gave up or, now, even think they should be anti-mask.
You can know all the classics front to back, be Dr. Lenin Expert, PhD, and still carry and adopt poor positions simply because they've been normalized.
It is frustrating to see the lack of thoughtfulness and care among so many of those who call us comrades, OP. The main solace is that all of our comrades are full of contradiction, so this doesn't mean they're all lost causes, even though it is a signifier of how unserious many of them are. Hell, there are entire left orgs that are anti-mask because they, incorrectly, think it will help them talk to proles (as if they aren't of the proletariat already!). Really they're just making excuses for adopting something being normalized by liberalism, making the classic mistake of ceding ground to left libs on this shit and making themselves appear reactionary.
Anyways shit sucks comrade and if you were around me or my orgs we mask up and do things outside and run circles around these left triangulators that tell themselves a little piece of cloth is why they can't organize.