“UK’s Boris Johnson in leadership crisis, accused of lying about ‘industrial scale partying’ during Covid lockdowns,” reads the CNBC headline, one of many articles describing how politicians or “leaders” didn’t seem to follow the rules they expected regular citizens to follow.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of partying in government buildings, including in his official office in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns and restrictions.
What is frustrating about these kinds of stories is not so much that the politicians and “leaders” are having a good time, but that they are hypocritical about it. They expect the “commoners” to never go out and have fun with friends, but they can do it.
This applies whether it’s New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand going to a restaurant without a mask, California Gov. Gavin Newsome attending a party without a mask when Californians aren’t allowed to, or Dr. Anthony Fauci lowering his mask at a baseball game. (This last one is a bit more extreme, since it seems he was merely lowering his mask to drink some water.)
Look, we need to admit that we all want to: 1. See other people’s faces, 2. Take the masks off at some time because it’s hard to breathe long term, 3. Get together with friends, 4. Hug friends and family members. (And I’m not much of a hugger, but I understand the needs.)
5. Give a friendly handshake, 6. Have parties or get together sometime. (Orgies and drunken parties are completely unnecessary and harmful. I am not talking about those.)
If you want to go out & forget a mask at some point, that should be OK. If you want to go out & visit w/ friends at some point, that should be OK. Don’t pretend you can never get together with friends, never have fun, never take a mask off. You just make life harder on yourself.
Give yourself and others grace about these kinds of things. It’s not the doing or not doing things that matters.
It’s the hypocrisy. In short, don’t be legalistic about these kinds of things.
Spreadsheets and Overalls 