I'm looking at posts on a hobby forum I also post on and there's some serious furor being caused by the news of the vaccine mandate. Someone referred to Biden as a "Feckless Fuck of a leader" and another person advocated for balkanization for the 20% of the country that doesn't approve of vaccine mandates.
I get that some people have concerns about authoritarianism and expansion of state powers (I mean they kinda don't because if they really did we'd have been done with this government a long time ago) but I'm really, genuinely struggling to understand why this is making so many people irrationally mad. These aren't even open fascists either, it's like liberals and Hank Hill type conservatives. What is it about this sort of governance that so frustrates them? They won't be materially affected in any way, and a lot of them have expressed the desire to be "left alone".
I have to wonder if there is some sort of deeper meaning to "left alone", because throughout a lot of the pandemic it seems that most people have been trying to pretend it's not happening. Is it the fact that the USA is facing a humiliation on it's own soil that it can't shoot at or nuke? I'm really confused by thought process behind this sort of rage.
They're old enough to remember when they weren't so alienated from their labor. They've seen their prosperity stagnate or fall. The only superstructural entity that gives them a personally satisfying answer as to why and doesn't require them to do any broader critique of their place in culture is right wing media. Right wing media tells them they are beset by government intrusion. I've heard them tell me with an absolutely straight face and earnest urgency that the federal government is constantly creating new ways to encroach on their lives.
They're sort of right, but for the wrong reasons. The right reasons require too much effort or also come along with all sorts of unpleasant questions about race, privilege, and whether capitalism works. They really do think the government sits around trying to come up with ways to limit their freedom.
Of course this all goes out the window when their people are in charge. In that case it's an insurgency of patriots. They don't see themselves or their politicians as truly part of the government. So when Republicans do big government things, it's not the government doing it. Only the Democrats and deep state are the government. That's why they don't care about vaccines being mandated before today. This has to be a new line crossed because Biden has to be an unprecedented threat to America.
That's how Republicans spin since Obama, at least. They're still doing the Obama years. Joe Biden is a communist and helping terrorists. Just like Obama. They can't have the same racial animosity towards Biden, because he's another mayo ass cracker. So the other parts of their strategy (communism, weak on the military, soft on crime) kick up to compensate.
To circle back it's not that this particular action is seen on its own as a violation. It's that they have to oppose Democrats on everything. Any state intervention that's not completely on their terms. They will do it for any madate from a Democrat. They were calling the last round of checks communism even though we got more from Trump. The issue isn't the issue, it's about being as obstinate.