It has grown increasingly clear that many of the people yelling that "we" have got to get back to work are really saying "y...
It has grown increasingly clear that many of the people yelling that "we" have got to get back to work are really saying "you" have to get back to work. Many of the attendees at the various astroturf Reopen Protests—the ones that are not militia members holding long guns—cite their desire to go to a hair salon, not their desire to return to their own job, which probably isn't a restaurant or other service job that would put them in harm’s way during a pandemic. Certainly, there are millions of people in this country who have been furloughed or laid off or otherwise hurt by the necessary economic lockdowns, and they're desperate to get back to work. But they seem underrepresented among these loudest voices. Maybe they realize that most people are not going to instantly resume their pre-COVID lives, hitting up restaurants and movie theaters, just because the governor said we're all good.
This also extends to various figures in our political ecosystem. This week, the Wisconsin supreme court weighed whether to overturn Governor Tony Evers' stay-at-home order via video conference from the safe confines of their own homes. Chief Justice Patience Roggensack even said the quiet part out loud, suggesting the people who work at meatpacking plants—where there have been flareups of the disease—are not "regular folks." Gee, wonder what she means. And where would we be without a contribution from The Fox News Channel, where Mr. Pete Hegseth offered his take today on the prospect of reopening. This might be the same Hegseth who once proudly announced, on national television, that he doesn't wash his hands—it was pre-pandemic, in fairness, and he later tried to claim it was a joke—but he had some stirring words for Americans all the same.
Fox News' Pete Hegseth calls for people to go out and get infected by coronavirus: "Now that we are learning more, herd immunity is our friend. Healthy people getting out there -- they are going to have to have some courage."
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You may notice that Pete, like the Wisconsin judges, was offering this stirring call-to-arms via video chat from home. Having dispatched those pesky "experts" with a mocking tone and air quotes, Hegseth went on to encourage people to "put freedom over fear" and go out to risk their lives. All it takes is a little courage. Of course, he's not going to go out and work a 10-hour shift at a restaurant. That's a you thing.
Note that he's not even saying people should risk getting the virus—he's straight-up advocating for as many people as possible to contract it so we can achieve "herd immunity," wherein enough of the population is immune that the pathogen will struggle to spread. Except that involves around 70 percent of the population contracting the virus. In New York, the epicenter where 20,000 people have already died, the state's antibody test program suggests less than 15 percent of the population has been exposed. The "experts" Hegseth dismissed estimate that his strategy would not bear fruit until 2021, and half a million Americans would die along the way.
In summary: You first, chief.
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