With COVID roaring back, I’m hearing a lot of “why won’t you people listen to the experts?” Usually there are some expletives and/or pejoratives thrown in. I can think of two big reasons.

  1. You fucking lied to us to save your own skin on masks. Instead of telling us the truth that you knew masks helped, you lied. You lied because you didn’t trust us to refrain from purchasing masks or donating masks to help the frontline staff. You didn’t trust us.
  2. You lied again to save your own skin from the mob. When people were protesting against the lockdowns because they were losing their livelihoods, you told us how bad they were. You could do that because even when the protestors were armed, you knew deep down they weren’t going to really harm you. Then the mob came. The spark of Floyd ignited months of pent-up fury. You could have said the same things to these protesters. You could have said “we understand your anger, we sympathize, but this is a bad course of action.” Instead, you capitulated. Because the mob would hurt you. Not just physically, but in your precious professional careers.

It doesn’t help we have a president who’s more interested in self-aggrandizement than leading. It doesn’t help we have a media and media agitators who demand every choice we make be based on the political. It doesn’t help we have a mob ready to pull down any among the professional class that somehow draws their ire.

None of that helps. Neither does the cowardice of our experts.