“I don’t want to live in fear…” is a red flag. People can be manipulated by making them afraid (ironically) of looking scared in public. It’s using public shame as a weapon. That’s how power manipulates people. /1

Pandemics are not really about fear. Fear is natural. It’s really about social responsibility to your community. Layered mitigations are about being an adult and doing the right things so others don’t get hurt. /2

What the “you are being scared” mongers are doing is shaming and essentially infantilizing people so that they get in line and abdicate their responsibility to one another. /3

This is an oversimplified view, but shines a light on how power is manipulating people (men) during a pandemic to get the population-level behavior they want. It’s easy to manipulate men. Just say “if you do X, it means you have a small dick.” They stop doing X. Easy. /4

Some people, of course, use “I don’t want to live in fear…” as a rationale for their actions. That’s someone who knows better, and decides to bullshit their way out of saying they are done pretending to care about others. /5

The point is some are movable. They are not moved by logic or science. They are moved by social pressure and how they will be perceived. /6

This is what the twitter trolls are good at. They go right for the vulnerability of people who are insecure and need to fit in or look cool more than anything else. /7

Many are trapped by careerism and the fear of being called a wimp in front of their peeps. /8

This is why mean people, covid minimizers have an advantage. They prey on people’s vulnerability while having dark money support. Meanwhile scientists are linking articles from the Lancet, which is necessary but not sufficient. /9

It might help to point out to people that they are being fooled. No one likes being a fool. Some of them might wake up. In the meantime, sue your govt. Only the courts can change things anytime soon. All other strategies require the long game, trench warfare. /10