Why Freedom Became Free-Dumb in America
By now, you might have heard North Dakota is the worlds worst Covid hotspot. The worlds worst, with South Dakota not far behind. Things arent just desperate there theyre bizarre, at least to the rest of the world. Nurses talk about patients in the Covid ICU lashing out at them because
they dont believe Covid exists
while theyre dying of it. Meanwhile, the governor refuses to make mask-wearing mandatory, because she thinks that masks and lockdowns dont work. You might think all that would infuriate Dakotans, but quite the opposite is true: theyre firmly behind her, as they are Donald Trump, the President who let Covid spin out of control, and make North Dakota the worlds worst Covid hotspot.
What the?
The rest of the world is staggered by all that, because it is staggering. How many twisted levels of illogic are even in there? Too many to count. People in the worlds worst Covid hotspot dying of Covid who dont believe Covid exists so they wont fight Covid and back a President and Governor whove just let it explode. Its so awesomely weird that you cant really find this level of backwardness and folly anywhere else in the world, which is exactly why Dakota is the worlds worst Covid hotspot. But its not just North Dakota. Nine of the ten worlds worst Covid hotspots are American states.
And that is because something went badly, badly wrong in America.
In these states, which are mostly red states, Americans have become effectively martyrs for a certain idea of freedom. They are willing to sacrifice anything and I mean anything including themselves, their families, their health and wealth, their futures, their towns and cities, and their democracy. But what good is freedom if its just the right to
self-destruct?
America became obsessed with free-dumb: the idea of freedom as the removal of all restraint, the right to harm others, the ability to do anything you please, no matter how destructive, toxic, foolish, or inane. Covids a jaw-dropping example of it. Think about the example above: it involves at least three levels of free-dumb. The right to believe Covid doesnt exist, the right not to have to wear a mask, the right not to have to lock down. All these effectively add up to the idea that Americans should be free to infect anyone they please with a lethal disease. What on earth?
https://eand.co/why-freedom-became-free-dumb-in-america-4947e39663f2
grumpyduck
(6,234 posts)Not quite applicable here, but that's the general idea: I'll do this regardless of what it does to me.
I live in a liberal area, but I've known so many people over the years who have this mentality. It's like they're wearing blinders.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)in individual freedoms or equal protection under the laws.
What they believe is individual freedumb for society's betters. The betters of course being themselves.
The libertarians play this scam up the most.
ret5hd
(20,491 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,691 posts)Our hyper-individualism, mistaken as freedom, has made us less free. Deprivation does make people dumb and mean; so now too many Americans, lacking decent access to the basics of existence, are competing with each like scorpions in a bottle in order to have enough for themselves - which means depriving those who are "lesser." It's a sad situation and I don't know how we get out of it.
Faux pas
(14,675 posts)love_katz
(2,579 posts)chriscan64
(1,789 posts)They will pull out in front of you from a stop sign with no regard of whether you have to slam on the brakes or change lanes. If you let someone merge onto the freeway, the person behind them rides two feet off of their back bumper feeling like they too are entitled to get on in front of you.
I see it with the covid restrictions also. The "law and order" part of their reptile brains makes them comply with the mask mandate, but they gripe about it incessantly, regurgitating stuff they heard on Fox all the while. I believe some of it stems from fundamentalist religion. The core tenet of this religion is not only that you go to Hell for having the wrong religion, you also go to Hell for not correcting the wrong religion of the people around you.
Skittles
(153,160 posts)I ALWAYS look left and right when a light turns green, because running red lights is a way of life here. And many of them think wearing a mask is tyranny while supporting efforts to overturn and election. INSANE!