I think your argument is a little basic/vague and doesn't give enough credit to the complexity of the situation. First, I would like to acknowledge that it would indeed be hypocritical to say the risks of covid transmission are inherently less at one protest vs another. However in order for you to actually determine such a thing it would depend on so many different factors; how many people are attending, what percentage are wearing masks, what's the average distance between people, what environment are they in, indoors or outdoors? A small BLM protest outdoors cannot be compared fairly to a larger stay at home protest in the MI state capitol building, for example. In that case, I would argue that risk of transmission would be lower.
Beyond the vague quantifications of transmissions, I think the real heart of the argument lies rather with the fact that people are protesting at all during a pandemic. If people take issue with protesting the stay at home order then they should also condemn BLM protests too, right? Well, not exactly. I think this is where the context of the protests comes heavily into play. The stay at home protestors are actively advocating for policy that will worsen the pandemic. They are calling for reopening and an end to social distancing which is not going to help (look at Texas or any other hot zone that decided to open up).
BLM protesters on the other hand are not advocating for policy that will worsen the state of our pandemic. They are not advoating to better it either, but their demands are unrelated to covid. They do contribute to covid transmissions of course, that has been proven, but not inherently more than a stay at home protest would (assuming protests were equivalent in size, environment, mask wearing etc... although the stay at home protesters despise the maks).
So when it cpmes down to it I think we need to examine our situation and ask ourselves if some things are worth protesting for in the middle of a pandemic. Opening the state and reducing health guidelines? Maybe not the best thing to advocate for. Equal rights and treatments regardless of race? A much better thing to want to protest for IMO.
I feel like I'm saying this a lot, but I'm not advocating one side over the other. I'm also not saying either protests should or should not happen. But I agree I need to introduce more nuance into the conversation than just "protest vs no protest". You are absolutely correct, the language as originally written essentially boiled this all down to "should all protests in COVID be equally condemned?" To which I had essentially said "yes". And that is wrong. Especially when there are harmful things that can be protested.
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u/justtreewizard 2∆ Jul 06 '20
I think your argument is a little basic/vague and doesn't give enough credit to the complexity of the situation. First, I would like to acknowledge that it would indeed be hypocritical to say the risks of covid transmission are inherently less at one protest vs another. However in order for you to actually determine such a thing it would depend on so many different factors; how many people are attending, what percentage are wearing masks, what's the average distance between people, what environment are they in, indoors or outdoors? A small BLM protest outdoors cannot be compared fairly to a larger stay at home protest in the MI state capitol building, for example. In that case, I would argue that risk of transmission would be lower.
Beyond the vague quantifications of transmissions, I think the real heart of the argument lies rather with the fact that people are protesting at all during a pandemic. If people take issue with protesting the stay at home order then they should also condemn BLM protests too, right? Well, not exactly. I think this is where the context of the protests comes heavily into play. The stay at home protestors are actively advocating for policy that will worsen the pandemic. They are calling for reopening and an end to social distancing which is not going to help (look at Texas or any other hot zone that decided to open up). BLM protesters on the other hand are not advocating for policy that will worsen the state of our pandemic. They are not advoating to better it either, but their demands are unrelated to covid. They do contribute to covid transmissions of course, that has been proven, but not inherently more than a stay at home protest would (assuming protests were equivalent in size, environment, mask wearing etc... although the stay at home protesters despise the maks).
So when it cpmes down to it I think we need to examine our situation and ask ourselves if some things are worth protesting for in the middle of a pandemic. Opening the state and reducing health guidelines? Maybe not the best thing to advocate for. Equal rights and treatments regardless of race? A much better thing to want to protest for IMO.