No, not you, not any specific person, really, but people in general.

People, in the aggregate, are generally awful. If the current state of things is any indication, huge swaths of the population can’t be counted on to be good, responsible citizens, acting for the good of the community. It feels like the majority of people around me can’t behave non-selfishly; demanding their individual rights without regard to their responsibilities to the larger community, even if, long term, it is in their self-interest to do so. Even if they should know better. I was disappointed today to see the words of an acquaintance whose family has been impacted directly by this damned virus, to the point of hospitalization, persist in talking about how it’s an individual choice whether someone wears a mask or not. It doesn’t make sense, this kind of behavior. You say “rugged individualism”, but all I see is “selfish asshole-ism”.

Especially, here in this particular corner of the world, where the government took steps early to attempt to limit the spread, and has done a pretty good job of it, though honestly, if my experience out there is any indication, I hate to see what the behavior in some of the places doing a bad job. We’ve had the mask order for months now, and it’s worked. Except where it hasn’t, because people are selfish and obstinate. To talk to those cases, our Governor today indicated that actually start enforcing things; making sure businesses are actually complying with social distancing and face covering procedures, and actually turning away people who aren’t masking up or staying out of melee range, which is how it should have been from the very beginning, but to our detriment, those of us on the leftward side of the spectrum really want to believe the best of folks, and we’re constantly finding ourselves let down.

Just wear your damned mask.

Oh, I’m also not fond of people who routinely come to meetings unprepared, then attempt to wield condescending authority in their ignorance*, over and over again. That’s not being a team player, a model citizen, or a good neighbor.

We can do better.

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* – Okay, maybe this statement is a little bit more specific than some of the others.