Editorials & Other Articles

appalachiablue

(41,127 posts) Tue Aug 3, 2021, 05:55 PM Aug 2021

Krugman: "Freedom" Equals White Male Privilege

Krugman: "Freedom" = White Male Privilege. Daily Kos, August 03, 2021.

I always enjoy Paul Krugman even- sometimes especially- at his wonkiest. This morning’s column is one of the best: ‘Freedom,’ Florida and the Delta Variant Disaster. In case you’ve been puzzled by the Ridiculous Right’s cries of “Freedom!” whenever they’re told they need to wear a mask or get vaccinated, Krugman has a cogent explanation.
My answer is that when people on the right talk about “freedom” what they actually mean is closer to “defense of privilege” — specifically the right of certain people (generally white male Christians) to do whatever they want.

White male Christian privilege means “incels” are entitled to have sex, that women aren’t equal, that Blacks should know their place and “Jews will not replace us,” that the LGBTQ+ belong in the closet, in jail, or in the cemetery. And it means no one can tell them to get protection from a disease that doesn’t care what race, gender, or religion they are.

Why, for example, are conservatives so insistent on the right of businesses to make their own decisions, free from regulation — but quick to stop them from denying service to customers who refuse to wear masks or show proof of vaccination? Why is the autonomy of local school districts a fundamental principle — unless they want to require masks or teach America’s racial history? It’s all about whose privilege is being protected. [emphasis added].

I’ll go a bit further than Krugman went. Masks are a visible symbol of the concept that the individual has a responsibility to the community and that freedom is not absolute. No wonder some people find them offensive — they remind them that freedom comes with responsibilities attached. ~

- Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/3/2043571/-Krugman-Freedom-White-Male-Privilege
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- NYT, 'Freedom,' Florida, and the Delta Variant Disaster,' Aug. 2, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/Covid-Florida-vaccines.html

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, isn’t stupid. He is, however, ambitious and supremely cynical. So when he says things that sound stupid it’s worth asking why. And his recent statements on Covid-19 help us understand why so many Americans are still dying or getting severely ill from the disease.

The background here is Florida’s unfolding public health catastrophe.

We now have highly effective vaccines freely available to every American who is at least 12 years old. There has been a lot of hype about “breakthrough” infections associated with the Delta variant, but they remain rare, and serious illness among the vaccinated is rarer still. There is no good reason we should still be suffering severely from this pandemic.

But Florida is in the grip of a Covid surge worse than it experienced before the vaccines. More than 10,000 Floridians are hospitalized, around 10 times the number in New York, which has about as many residents; an average of 58 Florida residents are dying each day, compared with six in New York. And the Florida hospital system is under extreme stress.

There’s no mystery about why this has happened. At every stage of the pandemic DeSantis has effectively acted as an ally of the coronavirus, for example by issuing orders blocking businesses from requiring that their patrons show proof of vaccination and schools from requiring masks. More generally, he has helped create a state of mind in which vaccine skepticism flourishes and refusal to take precautions is normalized...