I could have added this as an update to an earlier post today, but it deserves its own entry. Well-written, thoughtful piece by Mary Harrington:
The penultimate paragraph:
We all knew every pandemic policy would come with trade-offs. The lawn-sign priesthood forbade any discussion of those trade-offs. I don’t blame the class that so piously dressed their own material interests as the common good, for wanting to dodge the baleful looks now coming their way. But no “amnesty” will be possible that doesn’t acknowledge the class politics, the corruption of scientific process, the self-dealing, and the self-righteousness that went to enforcing those grim years of lawn-sign tyranny.
P.S. That may be the first time I’ve ever used the word “penultimate.” Did I do it right? 🙂
UPDATE: Francis Turner has a point:
I’m willing to forgive people but has to be a quid pro quo that is an acknowledgement that there is something to forgive.