What Would Jesus Do?
When I was a kid, I remember hearing conversations about eroding religious values. Many in my life said that as atheism grew, so too would our complacency towards morals. The prediction was that eventually we’d end up in a dystopian future filled with selfish choices and disregard for others.
COVID-19, as a pandemic, is almost behind us but if the last year and half have shown me anything it’s that the dystopian future my parent’s friends spoke of is here. However, it’s not because religion isn’t guiding the way anymore.
In 2020 and 2021, it’s the religious that have often forgotten the simple principle of love thy neighbour.
Countless religious ceremonies became super spreader events and the heads of many churches seem to forget that Jesus himself never mentioned church at all. He spoke of His Kingdom, which was a state of mind or a way of being. Jesus spoke to his followers sitting on rocks in the middle of nowhere, 2 or 3 at a time. So, why then did so many churches defy public health orders, only to make people sick or even dead, just to have a brick and mortar ceremony? All this tech, from phones to video calls and yet, we need to be together to celebrate Jesus. That’s not very Jesus-like of you but I guess it’s hard to collect for the offering plate in a virtual environment.
Our Selfish Response to COVID-19
Let’s step away from religion and look at the problems of the past year and a half as a whole. We were asked to do a few things during the early days of the pandemic:
- Wash your hands.
- Mask up (once supply was adequate).
- Social distance.
- Stay healthy.
- Stay home if sick.
Then the virus started killing too many people so we were locked down. Immediately, the hardcore anti-reality folk called 1st world countries like Canada, German-esque. As enforcement continued, they drew further parallels between Hitler and today’s governments. As time dragged on, more people became detached from reality.
Then the vaccine debate started. They said, soon we’ll need vaccine passports; to which we said, fine. They said, we will be tracked through chips in the vaccines; to which we said, have you seen a cell phone before? They said, the virus and the vaccine are all apart of a mass extinction event; to which we said, I thought the virus wasn’t real but now we all die in 2 years from the vaccine? They said, that those who understand science are sheep; to which we said, show me your diploma, clinical trials and peer reviewed studies.
Out of all of this came the discussion of my body, my choice vs love thy neighbour. The anti-reality folk and those who are hesitant about vaccines (because of extremely profitable anti-vaccine and anti-reality campaigns) believe that no one should tell them what to put in their bodies even if it’s good for the whole. They shouldn’t be told to wear a mask, and they sure as shit shouldn’t be told to wash their hands.
You entitled little bitches.
Love thy neighbour is a simple concept; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Essentially, live your life without ego or at the expense of others.
Us, in the pro-reality camp … we don’t care what you do with your body. Get tattoos, piercings, dye your eye colour, stick bananas up your butt, go out and perform dangerous stunts all in the name of thrill seeking. Anything that only affects you is a-ok with us. It’s why we’re often pro-choice, pro-equality in terms of marriage, and pro-sit on your ass and eat McDonald’s all day if that makes you truly happy.
But, taking public health orders seriously and getting a vaccine that saves millions of lives and stops long-hauler syndrome in its tracks is not about you. There are very clear differences.
If you get tattoos you may regret them later but it’s on you. Same with piercings dying your eyes, and sticking bananas up your but. If you thrill seek and die, you (in most cases) are the lone death. If you have an abortion before 21 weeks you are not killing a baby, you are splitting cells. If you’re gay, we’re happy you found happiness, love and identity in a world lacking in all of those areas. If you actually just like to watch TV and eat shit food all day, sure, we think you’re missing out, but you do you.
These SARS CoV-2 related issues are about the whole. And let’s think on this; besides now, when have you been ASKED to do something to your body you don’t want to do? I’m, of course, excluding women that live in places where abortion has been deemed illegal. That aside, when has the government come to your door and said “we need you do to this to help us get past X problem”?
My dad was a big risk taker when he was younger, but then like most dads he started a family and dialled back to the risk. This was because if he died doing dumb shit he would be leaving behind a son and wife. That would have been incredibly selfish. He made a good decision for the whole. That’s all that was being asked of us.
If one person had SARS CoV-2 pre-vaccine and they didn’t follow the guidelines, they could potentially harm or kill hundreds of people. Think about it. A virus starts with one host and its entire existence is predicated around finding more hosts. Anyone that didn’t listen was a selfish asshole.
Now, did the world governments largely fumble the football repeatedly? Absolutely. Did they overstep? 100%. Should they have been prepared for a pandemic? Definitely, that’s why we elect them into office. But, if we all had just minded the basic fundamentals, we would have been fine.
The same goes for the vaccine.
SPOILER ALERT: You and I are not smarter that the scientific consensus.
It’s simply impossible for us to be smarter. We all have our strengths and unless we dedicate our lives to sciences, medicine, research, trials, and development of vaccines then we have no business pretending we know better.
Imagine you at your workplace. You’ve been there for a decade, giving your all to a job. Then some guy who watched some YouTube videos is hired parallel to you and now you must pander to his lack of understanding. What would you do? Flip the desk? Go to your boss? Quit?
Yet, here we are with a bunch of folks who can’t accept reality pretending they know what antigenic drift, bacteriophage, reverse transcriptase, host tropism, and many other virological terms mean. Don’t even pretend you know, because you don’t and if you DM me that you do, I know you Googled them. Sure, now you know, but you know less than 1% of what a virologist knows and I bet there are a lot of zeros behind that decimal.
Through the first year of the pandemic, Canadians mocked Americans for their handling of the pandemic and vaccines only for it to be revealed that we too have a large crop of entitled, uneducated, anti-reality douchebags as well.
It’s not cool or hot to be anti-reality; it’s dangerous. But hey, you keep ignoring the fact that since SARS CoV-2 vaccines have been largely distributed the global case count has gone down by as much as 80%, the hospitals are seeing a glimmer of hope, and there is less death around us; really smart.
Pandemic response and vaccines are not about personal choice, they’re about being a good human and doing your part, like my dad. So, next time you laugh on social media about all the friends you lost because you post anti-reality garbage all the time, just know that everyone that dropped you knows you’re a bad fucking human.
Throughout this whole thing we’ve seen other examples of extremely selfish behaviour. White people screaming that all lives matter. Trump voters and their Nationalistic ways despite us living on a common planet. Who remembers toilet paper hoarding? Get a damn bidet already North America.
All of this, because people don’t take the time to learn.
Can’t wait to see what you complain about next.
