(Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash)

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. (J.Swift. 1667–1745)

Jessica, you are not wrong. However, all we can do is to take what personal precautions are possible for us that will maximise our own protection for ourselves and minimise our chance of passing a virus to others.

The behaviour of which you write is not new. It is simply human. History shows that we do not learn from our mistakes. Russia suffered 20 million deaths in WWII & now its ‘leader’ is acting almost exactly as did the German dictator who caused that loss of life and more.

I understand your point about voting but the reality is that the best anyone can do by voting is to vote for the party that is least likely to do harm or likely to do the least harm. For all political parties have an agenda and all will see themselves as having the ‘right’ agenda, just as most, if not all, individuals will have a particular view of what constitutes ‘right’. In many instances it will be a commonly held view but in others it will not. Either way, there will be some who see things differently. The reality is that there is no absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Such notions are always relative to time, context, culture, and more.

So, as much as I understand your frustration and often experience similar feelings myself, the reality is that in all probability those ‘fuckers’ will never listen.

Sometimes we will be fortunate enough to have people in positions of authority and power who will make rational, reasonable, inclusive and compassionate decisions & sometimes we will not. Most of the time we will have a mix of both for people are different.

Lincoln said it well from the side of those with the power and his words, slightly modified, are as readily true from the side of those without it: “All of the people may be pleased some of the time and some of the people may be pleased all of the time but all of the people will never be pleased all of the time.”