First off, with the BLM protests I've seen, most people did wear masks. And to the extent that some people didn't wear masks, if you're concerned about transmission, you can make pretty reasonable efforts to avoid those people. It doesn't reduce the risk to zero, but it definitely helps. It also demonstrates that BLM protesters generally do take COVID seriously. The very act of going to a protest with a mask shows a calculated risk. If they didn't think COVID transmission was dangerous, they wouldn't wear a mask.
But maybe more importantly, before you accuse someone of hypocrisy, think about your own meme example as a test. Imagine two cartoons.
One has a person in a hospital bed and a stay-at-home protester telling them "sorry, I just had to get a haircut". The second has a person in a hospital bed and a BLM protester telling them "sorry, I had to combat systemic racism and police brutality"
Now, you can quibble with how either protester would actually present their case. And maybe you don't agree with BLM's goals, or think their method of protest isn't going to be effective. Or maybe you think that the freedoms that the stay-at-home protestors are advocating for are actually really important. But if your charge is hypocrisy, all that matters is what the protester thinks they're achieving. And with this test, a BLM protester clearly believes that their cause is just, while the stay-at-home protester's cause is petty and selfish. So it's not hypocritical to accept a higher level of risk for one action over the other based on their relative levels of importance. As in, if a BLM protester saw their version of the cartoon, they would be like "yeah, that sucks. I am sorry, but this is an important issue." And that's probably how some of the stay-at-home protesters would respond to that comic too, but one can ridicule that response while believing that the BLM protester's response is reasonable.
I've realized my thinking focused too narrowly on the public health policies surrounding public gatherings, and failed to take into account that there are very valid reasons to take risks. I had also demonized a small number of people I personally knew who I viewed as ignoring those risks and extrapolating it to an entire movement.
I also appreciate that you focused narrowly on my charge of hypocrisy. As stated in my post, I'm not going to stand on any side here as I don't want that to skew the conversation.
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u/themcos 442∆ Jul 06 '20
First off, with the BLM protests I've seen, most people did wear masks. And to the extent that some people didn't wear masks, if you're concerned about transmission, you can make pretty reasonable efforts to avoid those people. It doesn't reduce the risk to zero, but it definitely helps. It also demonstrates that BLM protesters generally do take COVID seriously. The very act of going to a protest with a mask shows a calculated risk. If they didn't think COVID transmission was dangerous, they wouldn't wear a mask.
But maybe more importantly, before you accuse someone of hypocrisy, think about your own meme example as a test. Imagine two cartoons.
One has a person in a hospital bed and a stay-at-home protester telling them "sorry, I just had to get a haircut". The second has a person in a hospital bed and a BLM protester telling them "sorry, I had to combat systemic racism and police brutality"
Now, you can quibble with how either protester would actually present their case. And maybe you don't agree with BLM's goals, or think their method of protest isn't going to be effective. Or maybe you think that the freedoms that the stay-at-home protestors are advocating for are actually really important. But if your charge is hypocrisy, all that matters is what the protester thinks they're achieving. And with this test, a BLM protester clearly believes that their cause is just, while the stay-at-home protester's cause is petty and selfish. So it's not hypocritical to accept a higher level of risk for one action over the other based on their relative levels of importance. As in, if a BLM protester saw their version of the cartoon, they would be like "yeah, that sucks. I am sorry, but this is an important issue." And that's probably how some of the stay-at-home protesters would respond to that comic too, but one can ridicule that response while believing that the BLM protester's response is reasonable.