"The American Right Is Pushing 'Freedom Over Fear,' It Won't Stop The Virus'
'The American right is pushing 'freedom over fear'. It won't stop the virus.' By Jan Werner. The Guardian, July 16, 2020. America needs to recognize that freedom isn’t just maximal self-assertion. We have to be considerate in how we act. The Guardian, July 16, 2020. - Excerpts, Ed.:
Covid-19 cases are exploding. The European Union has banned most American residents from entering the bloc. By doing so, it is basically treating the US as a failing state unable to get the pandemic under control. Some are blaming young people who are mingling with each other for the surge. But greater harm has been done by rightwing elites, who are pushing the narrative that protective measures like social distancing and masks impinge on their “freedom”. Unlike with any crisis in living American memory, there has been absolutely no national leadership or comprehensive planning..
The resulting vacuum has been filled by the most extreme voices in the Republican party and the hard business right: they have pushed the idea that we are in an epic battle between fear and freedom.. this rhetoric is echoed on posters by the seemingly libertarian Michigan protesters proclaiming: “My freedom does not end where your fear begins.”
In many ways, the right has simply hit “repeat” for a political strategy that has apparently worked for it in the past: relentlessly stoke culture wars to distract everyone from growing inequalities and a rapidly deteriorating natural environment. Masks have been designated as inherently “leftwing” or signs of enslavement to the government; evil foreigners are being blamed for the virus..the pandemic is instrumentalized to push the all-out deregulation agenda Trump and his backers have pursued from day one of his presidency. This is a playbook Republicans have been perfecting with regard to global warming: pretend that an impersonal and for many people invisible threat doesn’t really exist, and, on top of that, claim that it’s a plot hatched by a global geopolitical rival.
The truth is that in many ways we are less free than four months ago; we have fewer options and some liberties are being restricted. Yet we should not forget that liberties are always both backed up and limited by the state – even the most ardent libertarian calls the police when their right to dispose of their property freely is threatened by thieves... The reason liberties have been restricted in the past months is not only that states had a clear democratic mandate by a reasonably fearful majority to do so (polls showed consistent support for lockdowns). It is also that in a situation in which we, as individuals, cannot properly judge whether our conduct will cause major harms to others. It is therefore right for states to put proper regulations in place..
If safety is not insured, the supposed economic freedom that the hard right is promoting is in fact unfreedom. Many blue-collar workers don’t have a choice about whether to stay at home and have every reason to be fearful about returning to an unsafe environment. By contrast, the privileged – as they can work from home or don’t need the money – can choose to keep sheltering. The latter might even benefit indirectly from others getting infected and thus moving us all closer to herd immunity, a classic form of what economists call free riding: getting the benefit without incurring the cost...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-american-right-freedom-over-fear
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