I was disgusted, still am, by the reaction to an approach by medical authorities that emphasized a one for all, all for one approach. That both masks and vaccines protected oneself, and protected others. I was shocked, not that people distrusted medical authority, as I noted elsewhere, distrust of many authority figures is common. No, I was shocked at the reaction by many, usually from the right, that governments asking it’s citizens to act in concert for the good of one and all, to combat a grave threat to one and all, was treated as an inexcusable effort by the government to simply ask way too much of them. How dare the government not only push masks mandates and vaccines, but how dare this government expect me to think of my fellow citizens in an unselfish manner? It’s as if the concept of social contract was foreign, and maybe it is, I don’t know. Thinking of others is asking too much of Americans, not just asking them to wear a mask to protect themselves, but helping others is too much.
And that reaction did not arise because people immediately pointed out medical advice that somehow exposed Fauci. That INITIAL reaction, by so many Americans, arose out of pure selfishness, and anti-civic duty, on the part of those Americans, who reacted with their “No, the government will not ask anything of me!”, out of pure “I will do whatever the eff I want to do, screw the CDC, screw the pandemic, screw my fellow Americans”. That was what was behind the reaction, NOT medical criticism of Fauci. That is what disgusted me, history shows me other times when Americans were less self involved, less into mindless conspiracies, less inclined to not care for anyone but themselves. That is where my disappointment originated, I mistakenly thought we were better than that…