When vehement anti-vax and anti-mask types proudly proclaim to be great champions of free speech and civil rights, I want to barf.
But I must admit that their purported “struggle for freedom” does indeed exhibit some of the key characteristics of a civil rights movement. For instance, they claim their own equivalents of “Rosa Parks.”
If there really was any such thing as a Rosa Parks of this bunch, I imagine her story would go like this:
Let’s call her Mary, as in “Typhoid Mary.” Legend has it that in Mary’s hometown, she was known as a vocal advocate for the oppressed and downtrodden, as illustrated by the fact that she always wore a T-shirt that said “I AM NOT VACCINATED.” And she never wore a mask.
After a long, hard day at work, Mary boarded a city bus to return home. But the driver told her that unless she put on a mask, she had to get off of the bus. Mary was tired and fed up and refused to comply. So the police came and removed Mary from the bus.
Word of Mary’s story spread like wildfire over social media and ignited a sort of reverse bus boycott. Scores of unvaccinated and unmasked people who would never previously have taken public transportation started riding the buses in her town. And, in open defiance of the city’s mask mandate, they breathed all over the other passengers. The political pressure generated by this mass act of “righteous civil disobedience” was so intense that an emergency city council meeting was called to repeal the mask mandate.
Mary’s tale of triumph through perseverance would be put forth as a strategic blueprint for successfully fighting to return to the glory days of liberty, when public health rule scofflaws reigned supreme.
Another characteristic that this crusade has in common with other civil rights movements is that it is bound to create some martyrs. It’s inevitable that people will die for the cause. But this will be martyrdom with a nifty new twist—because, usually, those who die for a cause are those who believe in it the most. But the people who are likely to die for this cause are not the anti-vaxxers but the people they are likely to infect. like you and me That’s very shrewd. No sense in sacrificing yourself for the cause if you can make someone else do it, especially if they’re in the opposition.
It sure seems like these “freedom fighters” have their eyes on the prize, whatever it is.