I started this on Saturday night, scrolling around watching what people are sharing these days. About the only thing I'm not mad about right now is Sam Cooke.
I am paying these all some mind because I figure people have reasons for topics that they feel strongly about, even if they're wrong sometimes. Here's my top three today:
1. The meat industry; how we treat animals; being carnivorous. I'm going to start this with how many people are outraged at the Wuhan wet market (and I'll get to that later) and (Chinese) people eating bats and pangolins. Well fuckerama people, we sure do have a lot of judgment about what other people do, as we sit here gnawing on a pig's rib bone.
I saw an intelligent video posted by a FB friend on this one. My eyeballs usually roll up in my head when people post their preachy shit on this topic, but this woman isn't preachy. She made a conscious decision to stop eating animal products and it was a journey. I respect her this way, and find she conducts reasonable discourse on the topic. In case you want to watch it, here is the Facebook video from Earthling Ed. I warn you that it lulls you into feeling all your humanity for humans, then drops some sad and disturbing images of mass-farming animal abuse. If it doesn't make you stop and consider why you are eating that BBQ rib, then you have no heart.
Disclaimer is that I am a meat-eater, so I'm not trying to convince you of anything. It would just make me feel I've accomplished something if even one person took the time to think about this. I try to be socially conscious of where my meat comes from, and I am deeply conflicted. I am conflicted because I am selfish and entitled and would feel deprived if I stopped eating the flesh of another animal. I will likely never be vegan, but I can choose to source the animals products I do consume with some sense of responsibility. Mass farming, mass dairy, mass anything that comes from animals ensures the misery of other living beings. I don't want to get all preachy, but it's hard not to. Eggs can come from happy chickens. Milk and cheese can come from happy cows. Honey can come from bees who are humanely kept and whose honey is taken with responsibility and care for the bees who made it. Meat can, in fact, come from an animal that is relatively humanely killed. I won't go into details since most people I know can't even eat meat that doesn't come in plastic wrap, let alone acknowledge it came from an actual live animal. I am willing to have a conversation about a more humane way to be carnivorous. The truth is, though -- it still requires that an animal die for us to eat them.
We eat too much meat in this country. We mass-produce living, breathing creatures to produce far more than they were ever designed to so that we can have the luxury of their meat and products. Everyone would be healthier and happier if we at least reduce our consumption. That brings me to entitlement, #2 on the moral outrage list.
2. People in various states, including my home state of California, protesting that their rights have been taken from them because of the stay at home and social distancing orders.
These are the same people who haven't said shit about the increased mortality among black people, who probably don't even know that the Navajo nation is being ravaged by this disease, or that the people who pick their produce are risking their lives to gather our food. These protesters are the same people who carry signs saying "My body, my choice" and well, I don't think I need to explain that one. If I do, leave me a comment and I will explain it to you.
With so much entitlement they seem incapable of seeing that they are the root of so many problems, including this one, apparently. I am sincerely angered by the shiny white faces with their signs, marching around demanding they get their God-given rights back.
You know that during the last 40 days or so, there hasn't been one school shooting? In a country that has had so many of this particular atrocity it has become practically normalized, I'm here to say: If the way we stop our children from being terrorized at their schools is by keeping people on Stay at Home orders, then by all means -- let's keep it up. We all know school shootings have been entirely perpetrated by white people and those are the people protesting. Keep 'em on lockdown, I don't give a shit.
On a more local level, I see some people calling themselves having quarantine parties. They have a special occasion and blur the lines enough that they figure having a few people over to celebrate is okay. The plausible deniability clause is that everyone has been in solitary confinement for two weeks, so it must be okay. Isn't that just a reset, because after the little party isn't everyone a potential carrier again? It's not okay to have moral outrage for a group of protestors if you're stepping over the line yourself. That's being just as selfish as the protestors are.
That said, these protestors seem to think us libtards are enjoying this. Let me assure we are not, but I'd like to believe we are generally behaving ourselves for the betterment of the community. The idea that we must never go without, be uncomfortable or otherwise sacrifice something for everyone else is just so.... American.
3. Chinese wet markets. Look, everyone in this country eating whatever animals parts we believe are more okay than others seems to have something to say about this. I admit that the idea of eating bats or pangolins or other exotic animals is appalling to me because I have a cultural bias. Let me further assure you that there are very few Chinese people eating those animals. Yeah, I don't want to hear about certain ethnic groups eating rats, cats, dogs and horses. Unless you tell me you're not eating meat, you don't get to judge. I have my limits, and bats, pangolins and seriously, octopus, are on my list of no-gos, but I cannot judge an entire group of people for one market. It would behoove the Chinese government to ban sales of these animals, I think, but then, it would behoove the U.S. to retighten our own restrictions and perhaps we shouldn't revere those disgusting trophy hunters who wantonly kill endangered animals in Africa either. Who is this pot calling the kettle black?
Wet markets are, quite simply, farmer's markets -- see this Youtube for a reality check (and don't be scared off by the FOX news opener). Wet markets not only have animals and meat, they have eggs, dairy, fresh produce and things like fresh noodles and pickles, as well as fresh flowers. There are also dry markets, which as you may intelligently surmise, sell non-fresh products like spices, canned foods, and dried goods.
The Wuhan wet market is a bit unique, apparently, in that it is known for offering wild animals as well as the domestic meats that are more frequently seen on the kitchen table. This is not the norm.
While it is widely accepted that COVID19 originated from the Wuhan wet market, it is erroneous, dangerous and racist to condemn Chinese wet markets because of this. Americans are way too quick to make dangerous, sweeping generalities about other cultures when we usually don't even look at our own practices (see #1). We are a racist, individualistic society who too easily judge others. Our bloated, selfish, unbridled capitalism is as much at fault for the spread of this disease as anything else.
As my friend Piero wrote the other day, "Unregulated capitalism is the reason we are in this pandemic" and none of us are exempt from culpability to some extent or another.
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