By Erin K. Costello ![]() It has been about 2 months since I last typed up a MAM related blog post. This has due to both choice and circumstance. I haven’t read anything particularly rage inducing posted by MAM, but I have also made an effort to avoid posts from MAM. Too much MAM exposure is dangerous to one’s mental health and stability. I’ve quite enjoyed the break, to be honest. However, like most things in life sadly, all breaks from idiocy must come to an end. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with the Hypocrisy Known as MAM. ![]() For those reading who aren't familiar with MAM, I would like to suggest checking our our first ever blog post here. I’m going to start this blog post with addressing a Facebook post she made on her profile page this morning. She starts the post with, "Many people feel paralyzed by unjust laws. Like they have no choice but to follow them or risk some sort of punishment. Many even think it is authority's right to make and enforce laws." The thing is though, is that it IS the right of authority to make and enforce laws. We all remember learning about the three branches of government, right? The legislative branch (congress) has the power to write the laws. The executive branch (president) has the power to enforce the laws. And the judicial branch (courts/Supreme Court) has the power and responsibility to interpret the laws. This is the governing system in place for our country because the majority voted for this system. I understand if some people take issue with the type of government they inherited through the time and location of their birth. Once they become adults, If they wish to live according to a different set of rules they can choose to move to an area with a more accommodating set of societal rules. In the US though, society is a contract. We as members of a civilized society agree to follow laws, to work, to contribute to the economy, to educate ourselves and/or our children, to vote in the best interest of citizens and the State, and to pay taxes to help fund all the conveniences our way of life have come to expect and depend upon. I understand that our elected officials have dropped the ball on their part of this agreement in many areas of our nation, but, this doesn’t mean that we can simply drop our part of this arrangement in response. We, as a societal whole, do not have the right to help self destruct our life and our communities. We have the responsibility to rectify the problem of corrupt politicians since we largely outnumber those in authority, and we are the ones that grant them any authority in the first place by voting for them to represent us. In a representative democracy the people vote for a person among them to represent the populace when voting on issues. In a direct democracy the people themselves vote on the issues. In both of these examples it is the voting majority that decides who or what is chosen. In either type of democracy, MAM would still be expected to follow laws or face punishment, regardless of how unjust she believed them to be. And, judging by how the majority of the population support vaccinations, she would face the same laws in a direct democracy that she now faces in our representative democracy. Next MAM says, "We are all equal human beings. None of us are better than another. Which means non have the right to force anything on anyone else." In the previous paragraph she says people have no choice but to follow laws or risk a punishment, even though she clearly lists a choice when making this point. Now though, she says things are being forced upon people by other people. The only thing being forced upon her is to simply make a choice, vaccinate or not vaccinate, and if not then accept the consequences. These consequences are not necessarily a punishment though. For MAM the consequences are the exclusion of her kids participating in public school or possibly public daycare and team sports, all things she intended to opt her kids out of experiencing to begin with. For MAM, there really aren’t any consequences for her choice. The effects of her choice will also not affect her down the road, at least not like they will affect her children. It will be her children who end up exposed to a vaccine preventable disease, or face entering the job market without the necessary basic skills one needs in either areas or both areas of education and the ability to interact with society. MAM has already experienced the outside world and benefited from all the ways these exposures can expand one’s thinking and problem solving skills. Her kids will become adults faced with the same tackles of life only their ability to overcome them will likely be much more limited than MAM’s. I worry this is going to be the case with my own children because they don’t seem to spend nearly as much time out of the house with friends as I did at their age, and they attend public school and clearly have friends judging by how they are constantly talking with on the phone with friends or while gaming. I can’t imagine how much more scared I would be for my kids if I sheltered them the same way MAM shelters her own children. It would feel like I was disabling them, or causing my kids to face life feeling handicapped in their abilities. How does she make peace with this as their mother? ![]() I also want to point out how she says "None have a right to force anything on anyone else." What makes her saying this so weird is because of what she posted only just last night. In that post she says, "We must take matter into our own hands and simply do what we know is best...for ourselves, and each other." Wouldn't doing "what we know is best for ourselves....AND EACH OTHER [capital emphasis mine]" be forcing things on to other people? It is only acceptable when she is the one doing the "deciding what is best" and the forcing? ![]() This next part of the original post I actually largely agree with her, but I think she and I differ on what we consider benign laws, essential laws, and ridiculous laws. She goes on to say, "It's one thing to make benign laws that bring order to society. We all agree to drive on the right side of the road to keep traffic flowing and prevent accidents. Or, to create basic laws to protect people from one another. Murder and stealing are wrong, harmful, and justifiably illegal. We all pretty well agree on these things and see the value in having these guidelines. But beyond this. We have a million overly specific, ridiculous laws that essentially give small groups of people the right to control others." I am a firm believer that laws should be created to protect the public from you (you as in each individual person) and you from the public. Choosing to drive on the wrong side of the road would put putting others at risk. Murder also puts others at risk. However, those put at risk are directly at risk due to the action. Only the car in front of the misplaced car is at risk whereas society as a whole is not at risk. The murder victim is at risk whereas society as a whole is not at risk. When it comes to refusing vaccinations though, it is society as a whole that is put at risk. One person being murdered by another person does not then spread to others being murdered as a result. One car being damaged by another car due to driving incorrectly does not then cause other cars to become damaged. One person opting out of vaccinations though not only puts those in the direct vicinity at risk, but can also spread the risk to others. Its kind of like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon concept; there are additional degrees of people you are affecting by choosing not to vaccinate. Also, when it comes to refusing vaccinations for yourself you are only victimizing yourself in the regard of potential consequences. You and you alone will face the consequences of your decision. When you make this same choice on behalf of your children you are also deciding they should face the consequences of your actions, or in-actions rather. This is when it can be argued that a law preventing you from denying kids these vaccinations is in fact a law that protects “the public” (your kids) from YOU. She then asks, "They can't come after all of us. What are they going to do, put millions more in an overburdened prison system? Go for abject tyranny to better control us?" This is a dangerous question to ask, or to dare to be shown the answer to. History has shown us what a tyrannical government is capable of doing to its citizens. Don’t get me wrong here, OF COURSE the people should rise up and fight a government attempting to impost tyranny on its people! However, this should be a last resort and a resort reserved only for instances of ACTUAL TYRANNY against the populace as a whole. Not getting your way when the majority of a democratic society decided you shouldn’t have your way because your way is dangerous to society as a whole is not reason enough to rise up and fight the powers that be and push those in authority to enact tyrannical measures to keep a civilized society just that, CIVILIZED. She ends this post with a call to action for her readers to resist these alleged “unjust laws” and to take matters into their own hands. She says,
"They eventually will, if they continue to see resistance as hostility, instead of intelligent, free thinking adults who thoughtfully disagree. Are you ready to go down that path because you didn't speak soon enough? Resist and ignore unjust laws. Take matters into your own hands. We, the people, have the power and can be the change." Hey man, I say let’s give them what they want! They want to opt out of their contract with society then let them. Tell them they are free to go someplace and govern themselves as they see fit. In addition to turning in their citizenship cards before leaving though, they must also acknowledge they forfeit their right to use or call upon emergency services, our economy, public road and water ways, bridges, social services, our health care system, the right to vote, some of the rights protected to us by our constitution (the Bill of Rights should always apply to everyone, regardless of sovereignty), our public transportation systems, our courts, garbage removal, and any and all privileges that exist because our society deems they should exist. It also isn’t resistance that is seen as hostile. It’s the blatant hostility MAM and some of her readers proudly display to those in official positions that are seen as hostile. Intelligent free thinking adults who “thoughtfully disagree” do not behave like pestilent children. They continue to make their case and participate in the debate until one side prevails and the other side accepts defeat. Well, in this never-ending debate, one side has prevailed time and time again while the other side refuses to accept defeat. This refusal makes it clear that one side is not acting like intelligent free thinking adults who thoughtfully disagree. If the tables were turned and our side was wrong, losing, and this was proven time and time again but we refused to accept this defeat, MAM would be saying the same exact shit I am saying right now. This is why she is nothing more than a hypocrite. What makes her selfish, self involved, and narcissistic is the fact that she is encouraging readers to do her bidding of "resistance" as she is safe and sound in the protection of her home and privileged life. When was MAM last at a protest like we have seen recently in California when fighting vaccination mandate laws? Has she ever been at any type of protest? When did MAM last tell the school district or the state “NO” to vaccine mandate laws applying to her children before attending school? When did MAM ever risk her safety, her comfort, her convenience, or her income while fighting or standing up for what she believes in? In fact, when has she NOT PROFITED of this movement of ant-vaccine advocates? When has she not profited off of the spread of anti-vaccine beliefs? When has she even last asked her readers or group members to share posts by her, or anyone else for that matter, that didn’t benefit her in some way, especially financially? So, for her readers, I say go ahead and heed her request! Stand up to those in power. Ignore and resist the laws that the majority of this democratic society agree upon. Put yourselves and your freedom at risk to do what you believe is right. Put your children and their health or future at risk to do what you think is right, despite being the minority in society who think this way. Do all this and accept the consequences as MAM risks absolutely nothing, but in fact gains off your efforts and even off the price you all are expected to pay for your actions. Just remember though, as you are ready and willing to exercise your second amendment rights that you all regularly threaten everyone with, MAM has never even been arrested before in her life. She has never taken half the risk that you all are willing and eager to take. She has never been faced with the choice to fight for her basic human rights promised to every person by our Bill of Rights, or to succumb to subjugation. She is not willing to give up or risk her comfort, her privilege, her freedom, her convenience, her sense of self, her family, and especially her income. But she has no problem asking and expecting YOU to risk all these things, and she's eager to make money off of your sacrifices. Just remember that THIS is who you are following. THIS is the person whose bidding you are expected to carry out. THIS is who you are fighting for.
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