The pandemic of the self-righteous

Two more weeks to flatten the curve, a phrase we all heard so much when this all began. Yet, two more weeks have turned into forever now. Those of us who are somewhat impartial or not completely partial to one side have seen how the pandemic has transformed beyond just a virus and physical illness.

One thing that has caught me off guard is how defensive, emotional and passionate one side has become during this pandemic. I’ll acknowledge that both sides on the extreme are a bit off. One side thinks that there are microchips in the vaccines so Bill Gates can track you but thankfully, most of society can joke about these people and consider them extreme. The word they use, broadly, is “conspiracy theorists”. What I want to bring my attention to are the extremists on the other side who are actually celebrated by mainstream western society.

The pro-vaxxers, pro-maskers, the people celebrating mandates, those looking to take rights away from the unvaccinated, and everyone taking this hero mindset in their heads. We all know these people in our lives, if you live in a big city, they are the majority. If you go on sites like reddit, they are the most prominent and celebrated. Yet, one thing has caught me off guard, which is just how emotional these people get over COVID. I just had to know why and I wasn’t buying it because of them being “good people” or even them being scared.

While I will acknowledge the dangers of the pandemic and the virus itself along with the damage it has done, we do have to keep the facts in mind. People who are usually older or have other health problems are the ones most at risk. We can blame the way media has portrayed it in pushing the fear behind it but even the CDC says that those at highest risk are 50 and older. Yet, a large sizable number of younger people (college aged, 20s, and 30s) have become the COVID police to the world.

You see them, condemning the unvaccinated at every turn. You read from them on reddit, trying to act self-righteous because they are on their booster shots now. You see them telling the world to mask up and dissing the unvaccinated. You see them celebrating mandates and being so happy when people are denied service due to not having a card. Best part yet? You see them cheering when the original heroes of COVID (you know, the nurses who were on the frontline of this whole thing) are fired due to not being vaccinated. Isn’t it hilarious? The same people who sat at home and could work from home somehow get the guts to feel more like heroes than, well, the actual heroes.

But why, why are these people so emotional and passionate all of a sudden?

As a Millennial, usually my generation would get passionate about racial injustice, women’s rights, equality, and stopping animal cruelty. Yet, somehow, the pandemic has thrown all of that out of the window and changed the social justice game for who knows how long. Now, it’s more forgivable to be a hateful bigot than to be unvaccinated. As you have seen in NYC, even as racial tensions get worse, incidents which would have gathered sympathy for a group heavily discriminated against now prioritize vaccination status over race.

How did this happen? How did the same group of people who were marching for there being Justice for George Floyd somehow put aside their worries for racism and now prioritizing vaccination status? Could it be because of wanting to get back to normal? What is going on here exactly?

I won’t get into the political aspect of it too much as that is not my focus. The reality is, those years in Manhattan and occasionally spending weekends in Brooklyn put me in their world. A lot of these people preach about being accepting, tolerant, worldly, and act morally superior only to be around everyone exactly like them and look down on anyone different. Majority of them grow up in nice suburban environments and live a relatively easy life. Most go off to your typical top tier universities (not exactly Ivies), party their asses off, treat college like a high school popularity contest, and bring that mindset into the big cities. I also throw in the older Karens into this mix as well and most groups who have been militantly pro-vaxx, cheering for military servicemen and people losing their jobs over this.

Obviously, they will listen to most mainstream news stories and look at what is the most self-righteous and morally superior stance they can take in accordance to that. If someone has been discriminated against? Time to protest! If some country has gone through a tough time? Time to show my awareness on social media and to show everyone I care. I call it the self-righteous clout, it is currency in the world of these people. We all know these types, you won’t just find them in Williamsburg. You just have to go on reddit and you can see them on full display in most mainstream subs.

Now these people have never been held accountable for their claims, they could just shift the blame on the redneck in Alabama.

Here is the problem, others were catching on and these people knew it.

Talking about how prejudice towards someone who is of a discriminated against group is one thing, actually going to a neighborhood where that group is the majority is something else. The morally self-righteous don’t do that unless they are going to gentrify those neighborhoods. Overtime, it is tough to convince the world that you give a fuck about discrimination, prejudice, and racism when your clique is mostly people who are very similar to you. In speaking to a number of black and Hispanic Americans from inner city neighborhoods, a lot of them saw through this. The Amy Cooper incident showed how it was starting to crack.

In other words, this self-righteous mask of theirs was living on borrowed time. The facade of moral superiority was starting to fade away and it was tough to keep up that act. Moral superiority and clout are what their entire lifeline runs on, it is the most important thing to them along with the perception of being seen as the caring good guys of society while the other side are inconsiderate heroes.

Then came the vaccines.

The vaccine which is supposed to cure COVID-19 or at least minimize its symptoms cured more than just a physical virus for the self-righteous. What the vaccine did was throw these people a lifeline and allowed them to play a new game of moral superiority that was easier, for the time being, than other games of self-righteousness. All you have to do is take the jab and it is like having your cake and eating it too.

Hang out with your friends who are exactly like you, preach about how morally superior you are, find a side to vilify (the unvaccinated for now), and make yourself the hero of American society. Never mind the fact the nurses who were on the front lines of this when it was at its peak while you were “working from home” are losing their jobs, you’re way more of a hero than them. It’s all about labels, you got the label of being a bigger hero than a Navy SEAL, firefighter, policeman, or a nurse just because you took the vaccine and they didn’t.

In the old days, sure you could talk about being racially accepting and tolerant but you were holding your breath over the fact that no one called you out on your friend group being exactly like you for the most part. Now, you could just take that jab and that would supersede everything. Whether someone is vaccinated took precedent over their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and you name it. Sure, Black Lives Matter called the mandates racist but that didn’t matter anymore.

If you are to ever bring up how wrong the mandates are to these people, get ready to be attacked even more aggressively than having a genuinely racist opinion. Why? Because these mandates have given the morally self-righteous virtue signalers a lifeline of the ages. Can you imagine if these people were to try and make themselves out to be bigger heroes than nurses saving lives before the pandemic? We would have laughed at them. Now? These narcissists are legitimately convinced that getting vaccinated has made them bigger heroes than nurses and police officers who refused the jab for personal reasons.

Why would someone with this kind of a mindset want the pandemic to ever end? You have a group of people whose entire existence runs on a morally self-righteous social clout of sorts which was starting to somewhat crack for them before the pandemic. Now, there is a game of social clout they know they can easily win by taking the jab, that’s all the practicing of whatever they preach that they have to do. It’s a lot easier than walking into a neighborhood where everyone is different than you and trying to get to know them better or actually being an accepting person.

These people have been thrown a lifeline for the ages, this is why they cry like children whenever someone is “unvaccinated”. This is why they are pushing for mandate after mandate, the fact that someone with a card can get into a restaurant and eat means that they are a “better person” than you. You have given the morally self-righteous virtue signaling game of theirs a structure and created a situation where they can easily win that game for ages.

Some people have religious and personal beliefs that stop them from taking a vaccine. For these people, the only personal belief they run on is trying to be morally superior to everyone else. This is their golden moment they have been hoping for their entire life, they don’t ever want it to end. While some with other values will think twice about what they put into their body, for these people, they will put damn near anything in themselves to keep winning their self-righteous game of theirs.

What will come of this?

I don’t know what will really come of this as police officers and nurses quit in droves. Places with relaxed restrictions are welcoming police officers and nurses as well. When quality of healthcare degrades, cities become less safe, and quality of life goes down; some may get optimistic and think that these self-righteous types will wake up. No, I think that they will now invade states without mandates like the locusts they are.